In this Edition | GM, Course, and F&B Update | New arrivals in the Pro Shop! MEMBER NEWS March - April 2023
AN UPDATE FROM...
Stephen Norton General Manager
The winter of 2022/23 promised to be one of our busiest ever winter project periods and, as is often the way, the weather had a big impact in how quickly we could complete those projects.
Our focus remains on making sure we complete all outstanding work ready for the season ahead.
Dyna-Corers
We recently purchased some new units for the greenkeepers called Dyna-Corers.
These will help us complete more aeration work on the greens throughout the summer without the disruption of normal hollow coring.
This will really help us manage healthy playing surfaces throughout the year.
Thanks to our captains
Additionally, my thanks go out to Duncan, Vicky and Dick who I thought all did an exceptional job over the past year in their captaincy roles.
Thanks from Duncan
Our 2022 Club Captain, Duncan Anderson, would like to thank everyone for their support in helping the club raise £9,924.11 for his charity throughout the year.
The Freddie Farmer Foundation is a local charity based in Bromley and they are thrilled with the amount of money you have managed to raise.
Please find a link to the video here to see the great work they do.
BGL Awards
The team and I enjoyed a trip to Aldwickbury in February for the BGL Annual Awards evening. It was a fantastic event celebrating the achievements of the group.
We were pleased to pick up two awards, one for Health and Safety and also the Sustainability award.
Alex Ware also picked up her employee of the year award for Birchwood Park.
2
COURSE UPDATE
Neil Crittenden Course Manager
The greens have come through the winter very well this year with great grass coverage and they are pretty much disease free in a time of very high disease pressure and high volume of play.
Spring green maintenance this year took place in the first week of March, and we opted for something slightly different to the usual hollow tinning – this year we have chosen to solid tine for root development and water and air movement.
The reason we are not hollow tining this spring is because the club has purchased a new set of micro tinning units called DynaCorers which will be carried out once a month through the coming year.
The speed and manoeuvrability of the triplex power unit enables this task to be done in vastly reduced time, keeping disruption of play to an absolute minimum. Furthermore, the 11mm diameter micro-core holes at very close spacings leave a surface which is vastly less bumpy than after a typical tractor mounted corer.
The Dyna-Corer’s micro tines effectively remove thousands of tiny core plugs.
These units allow us to complete the maintenance work to our usual high standard quicker, and with minimal disruption both to the playing surfaces and to golfers on the course.
This enables us to get this important task done at our discretion throughout the season, leaving the more disruptive deep coring with full size tines until the traditional end of season maintenance in the autumn.
This winter was probably our most productive to-date with seven bunkers being filled, five bunkers refurbished, the hedge on the 1st taken down, 15th yellow tee rebuilt, and a lot of trees have had the canopies taken up.
One of the benefits of doing project work is that it’s great for in-house training. Niall Taylor, our Trainee Greenkeeper, is seen here learning how to prepare a seed bed and seed the newly filled in bunker.
We are looking forward to the coming season and getting the course in great shape!
3
CLUB UPDATE
Stephen Lee Head Pro
New Stock Arrivals
The New PING G430 range
We offer a FREE CUSTOM FITTING SERVICE, so get yourselves booked in and see how much these new clubs can improve your game.
We also have a demo day for PING on Monday 20th March from 2pm-6pm
J.LINDEBERG
We have an additional clothing supplier this year in J.LINDEBERG.
These are high quality garments and one of the most popular clothing brands in golf right now. Don’t forget as golf members you’ll get 10% off retail prices here in the Pro Shop.
UPCOMING DEMO DAYS
Friday 3rd March – YONEX 2pm-6pm
Monday 20th March – PING 2pm-6pm Bookings are taken on a first-come-first-served basis by calling the Pro Shop: 01322
4
TaylorMade - Stealth 2 New range now in stock for fittings!
662038
CLUBUPDATE cont.
Tee Time Intervals
When the clocks go forward and with the additional hours of light that come with it on Sunday 26th March, we will be reverting to 10-minute intervals between tee times.
Ladies Group Lessons - Thursdays
Every Thursday at 7pm one of our PGA Qualified Golf Professionals, Paul, runs Ladies Only Golf Sessions.
These run for five consecutive weeks at a time costing just £50 - Visit the Pro Shop for more details and to sign up.
Members Only Group LessonsMondays
Every Monday starting from 6th March Ryan will be running members only group sessions.
F&B UPDATE
From Jaspal Singh
It has been lovely to see our regulars welcoming our new members within the food and beverage department. Our chefs are working to refresh our specials menu, so keep a look out for that soon.
Additionally, keep a look out for upcoming offers in our bar area. We are restarting Friday fish & chips, and our smoothie menu is looking especially inviting at the moment!
Regarding upcoming club events, we have Mother’s Day and Easter Sunday coming up, so why not speak to our sales and events team to book your place today.
We recently added Guinness 0% and Old Mout Cider 0%, so if you’re looking for a low alcohol alternative whilst you’re at the club, give those a try.
Finally, a reminder to all our members to top up your levy card to receive your 10% off in the bar. See one of our bar team to do this or why not top up on our app?
We are all looking forward to seeing you soon!
5
Thank you for reading the latest Members News.
Please feel free to contact us on 01322 662038
BIRCHWOOD PARK GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB
Birchwood Rd, Dartford
DA2 7HJ