August / September 2024
AN UPDATE FROM...
Sarah Blunden General Manager
Hi everyone!
It’s been a brilliant summer season so far. Despite a wet start to July (including Charity Day), we saw some glorious summer weather towards the end of the month and at the beginning of this month. Long may it continue!
On the 7th and 8th of June, our Men’s Club Championships started the competition season, followed by the Ladies on the 22nd and 23rd of June, and finally the Shey on the 17th and 19th of July.
We had 73 members playing in the Men’s Club Championship this year, which was played over two days. It was a super exciting finish to the competition, resulting in our first-ever playoff. James Lewis and Graham Braybrooke played back down the 1st, with a group of members following to cheer them on. The result was decided on the 2nd hole, with James Lewis taking the trophy.
Mens Club Championship Results
1st Place – James Lewis – Gross 156
2nd Place – Graham Braybrooke – Gross 156
3rd Place – Gavin Abbassi – Gross 158
The Ladies Club Championships were held a few weeks later, with some great results being seen across the weekend.
Ladies Club Championship Results
1st Place – Kim Price – Gross 162
2nd Place – Phim Elsing – Gross 165
3rd Place – Sarah Riddell – Gross 175
As we moved through into July, we saw the final of this year’s Championship Competitions taking place with the Shey Club Championship.
Shey Club Championship Results
1st Place – Ray Franklin – Gross 70
2nd Place – Chris Blake – Gross 73
3rd Place – Paul Clare – Gross 77
Well done to everyone who took part and a huge congratulations to our winners.
Alongside the Club Championships, July saw our flagship event of the year – Charity Day 2024. It was our biggest year yet, with a shotgun start for over 150 of you held across both the Main and Shey Courses.
I enjoyed heading out with my team of professionals including Head Pro, Ian, Assistant Continued On The Next Page
Retail Manager, James, and our Custom Fit Technician, Jonny. My game was mixed, but I’ll take a couple of great putts and a few decent drives to help my team score a respectable net 61.
The weather wasn’t in our favour with it raining for much of the day. A BBQ was planned for the afternoon, and thanks to the ingenious efforts of the bar team, it was able to successfully go ahead as planned with awnings covering the BBQ and food.
Throughout the day, events such as beat the pro, an auction, raffle (I won a bottle of Pimms!), and tombola helped to raise funds for this year’s Captain’s Charity, Silver Friends.
Silver Friends joined us on the day, to give us an understanding of how our efforts in fundraising would help hundreds of local elderly or isolated residents find support and companionship.
Thank you so much to each of you who worked so hard to organise this year’s Charity Day. Everyone’s efforts that day raised a staggering amount of money.
I am extremely proud of all your generosity in raising an amazing £12,580 from this one event.
In the last newsletter, I wrote that we had two exciting updates coming this summer; EV Charging Points and the Par 3 Course slope rating. I am pleased to say that both are now complete.
Par 3 Slope Rating
This year the World Handicapping System was updated to include “A lower minimum length for a golf course to obtain a Course Rating and Slope Rating”. This change in the system was introduced to ensure that their three key principles for introducing the system in 2020 remained; to be welcoming, provide a consistent measure of ability, and remain modern.
These three principles are something that we also very much believe in, and so we were keen to quickly take up this update and ensure our Par 3 course was rated. At the end of July, we were issued our official Course and Slope Rating Certificate from England Golf.
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Maybury Par 3 Slope Rating:
Men - 51.8 / 76
Women – 54.4 / 81
The committee have been informed, and these details have been uploaded onto the England Golf WHS Website and Club V1 so that the Par 3 course can now be used for handicapping.
Once our current batch of scorecards has been used, we will look to update them with the Par 3 Slope Rating details.
EV Charging Points
Our new EV charging points are also now in place and are located opposite the ‘Party & Meeting Room’. These charging points form part of our ongoing commitment towards sustainability and minimising our carbon footprint. For those of you who have already made the change to electric cars, we hope you are now able to take advantage of ‘plugging in’ and charging your car whilst you’re out on the course for a round of golf.
Kitchen
I have received many requests for the kitchen to open earlier in the morning. I am very sorry that I haven’t been able to action this sooner, but I am very pleased to let you know that we are now able to do so.
With immediate effect, our kitchen will be serving breakfast from 7am! (Excluding Tuesdays when first orders are at 8am). I look forward to seeing you enjoying a bite to eat before you head out for your rounds.
Leighton Kane Charity Bike Ride
Finally, our long-serving golf professional Leighton will once again be taking on the mammoth task of cycling across Britain from Land’s End to John O’Groats covering 1,035 miles with an ascent of over 16,000m (almost twice that of Mount Everest!).
Leighton last completed this challenge back in 2022, after which he said, ‘never again!’. However, two years later he is back on his bike raising money for Motor Neuron Disease Charity “My Name’5 Doddie”.
The My Name’5 Doddie Foundation is committed to funding research to find an effective treatment for Motor Neuron Disease. The foundation was set up by, and in memory of, Doddie Weir, and more recently the devastating impact of this disease has been seen with Rob Burrows.
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If you would like to support Leighton in his fundraising efforts, you can do so by scanning the below QR code. Leighton sets off on his challenge on 7th September, and we wish him all the best.
Employee of the Quarter
Congratulations to our employee of the 2nd quarter –Dan Ash!
Dan joined us as a Personal Trainer only four months ago. However, his positive energy and cando attitude have shone through and his enthusiasm for helping our members reach their fitness goals has been great to see.
Well done Dan – it is great having you with us!
Sarah
AN UPDATE FROM...
Barry Gardner Course Manager
Hello all!
I hope you are enjoying your summer and your time spent on the courses.
Greenkeeping, although working with Mother Nature, is often a numbers game! The removal of thatch from our greens is one such example.
I have had several questions over the past few months as to why we haven’t completed a large hollow core on our greens in the first six months of the year.
Instead, you will have seen that once a month we have carried out a mini hollow core and top-dress.
The overall result of these mini hollow cores is the same as one large one but with much shorter recovery times and less impact on the surface playability. In other words, there is less disruption to your game.
This is where the numbers come into things. The following table shows the difference between the smaller hollow tine and the larger one.
I regularly receive comments from golfers that this little and often approach doesn’t do anything.
However, as you can see from the above table if you multiply the amount of material removed each time by six, this once a month throughout the playing season approach, removes 30.18m3 per Ha. Compared to the 15.71m3 per Ha that we would have got with the larger hollow tine.
We would therefore have needed to have completed two large hollow tines this season to get the same impact that we are getting using this little and often approach.
Following this series of mini hollow cores, we will be finishing the season with a larger process. On September 2nd, we will be attacking the Main and Shey greens with a scarify and larger hollow tine and backfill with sand. The recovery time from this will be longer (around two to three weeks), but it will then finish the season with a larger thatch removal to take us through the winter.
As always, the work that we are completing on the greens is to ensure that we can give you excellent playing surfaces across the entire year.
On Course Sustainability
Improving the habitat on and around the courses to help encourage local wildlife is extremely important to me, Sarah and the whole Hoebridge team.
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But alongside this, I have also been busy looking at what is already here. Below is a summary of some of the things I have found so far.
Ragwort
You may have noticed an explosion of ragwort in the long rough areas. Ragwort gets a bad reputation due to the toxins it contains which if chopped into hay and fed to horses and cattle can make them very sick. But it is in the top ten of nectar producers which helps feed over 30 species of bees, butterflies and other insects! It is also a favourite of the Cinnabar moth; the caterpillars are one of only a few insects that will eat the plant. Cinnabar moths are described as “common and widespread but declining in numbers”.
Brambles
Where possible and in out-of-the-way areas we try and leave brambles as they provide essential nectar sources for bumblebees, honeybees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects. The thorny growth provides great habitat for hedgehogs, mice, grass snakes and birds.
Deer will also feed on soft new growth before the thorns harden.
Foxes, badgers, mice, shrews, birds and insects feast on the berries along with us humans!
Nettles
The humble nettle plays a big part as the food source for the caterpillars of the Peacock, Tortoiseshell and Red Admiral butterflies. Other insects will use the stems as winter shelter and seed-eating birds enjoy the autumn spoil.
Thistles
These are an important food source for many farmland birds, of which many are declining in numbers. For instance, the Goldfinch relies on the seeds of thistles for around one-third of its diet. The flower part feeds numerous pollinators too.
Reptiles
You may well come across some black corrugated sheets in the long rough areas, please do not disturb these as I am using them to survey what reptiles we may have on-site, and they should only be checked monthly. We have already had sightings of grass snakes around the 13th / 15th hole area on the Main Course. If you do happen to see one out in the open, which is quite rare, then please leave them alone to carry on their way, they won’t hurt you but may strike at you if you get too close.
Birds
We had three members from the Guildford RSPB visit the site last month to give us an idea of what birds we have at Hoebridge.
With their help, my limited skills and a great bird song phone app we have compiled a list of what we have seen or heard so far. Over 47 species of Birds have been identified so far, and we will be adding to this list as and when we see more specifies.
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Blackbird Great tit Nuthatch
Blackcap
Greater Spotted Woodpecker Pied Wagtail
Blue tit Greater Whitethroat Red Kite
Canada Geese Green Woodpecker Robin
Carrion crow Greenfinch Rose-ringed Parakeet
Chaffinch Grey Heron Song Thrush
Coal tit Grey Wagtail Sparrowhawk
Common Buzzard Jackdaw Starling
Common Gull Jay Swallow
Cormorant Kestrel Swift
Cuckoo Long tailed tit Tawny Owl
Dunnock Magpie Treecreeper
Egyptian Geese Mallard Tufted Duck
Fieldfare Mistle Thrush Woodpigeon
Goldcrest Moorhen Wren
Goldfinch Mute Swan
Thank you
Barry and the Greens Team
GOLF OPERATIONS UPDATE
Ian Hayward Head Professional
Firstly, I would like to thank all the members who play early in the mornings for their understanding and cooperation in not teeing off before the first bookable time of the day (currently 6:04am).
At the start of the summer, we identified that an increasing number of golfers were teeing off before the first tee time of the day which led to a few near misses with the greenkeeping team as they were not expecting golfers on the course at that time. Furthermore, the team were finding that their morning tasks were being disrupted as they tried to set the course up for the day.
In response, we have been more strictly holding the rule of the first tee time being 6.04 am which, with hindsight is something we should have done a long time ago. Again, thanks for your cooperation in helping keep the team safe and enabling the course maintained to a high standard.
We are continuing to closely monitor the pace of play and work with the warden team and the membership to improve the speed of play and the experience of all who play at Hoebridge Golf Centre. Whilst it is great to see the pace of play is generally getting better, there is always room for improvement, and I would encourage every golfer to adopt ‘Ready Golf’.
Ready golf begins before you even start your round of golf by ensuring you are on the tee
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and ready to play at least 10 minutes before your tee time. Once on the course, some examples of ready golf include the following:
• Hitting a shot when safe to do so, if a player further away from the hole is assessing their options
• Shorter hitters play first from the tee or the fairway if longer hitters must wait
• Hitting a tee shot if the player with the ‘honour’ is delayed in being ready to play
Let’s continue the good work and try to eradicate slow play at Hoebridge for the benefit and enjoyment of the entire membership.
If you experience slow play out on the golf course, please do not hesitate to contact the Pro Shop at (01483) 722611 or the wardens during their regular course sweeps so that we can identify and deal with any issues.
New Product Launch
The highly anticipated Titleist GT Woods are due to launch imminently and the demo product has already started to arrive in store!! Be among the first to try this fantastic new product and see if it can make a difference to your game!! As a reminder, we offer our custom fit service completely free of charge to our members, so don’t delay, book a fitting today!
Summer Camps
The summer holidays are now upon us and the Junior summer camps are in full swing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 31st July – 30th August from 9am - 2pm.
These have been incredibly popular so far; however, we have some limited availability in the final two weeks of August if you know anybody who would like to join the fun!
The cost is £55 per day or £150 per week and is open to juniors of all abilities between the ages of 6 -12.
To book please speak to the Pro Shop team or call us on (01483) 722611.
HEALTH & FITNESS UPDATE
Ryan Stonehouse H&F Manager
Hello from the Health Club.
It has been great to see more and more golf members in the gym recently. Here are some mobility exercises for improving swing flexibility and helping injury prevention, ideal to add to a gym warm-up using a mobility stick or even a warmup before a round of golf using a club.
Perform 10 reps of each dynamic stretch using slow, controlled, and flowing movement.
If you experience any discomfort or restrictions performing these movements, then it is likely that your golf swing is also being negatively impacted.
For a video version of these exercises find them on our gym at Hoebridge Instagram.
To book a free 15-minute movement assessment session, so we can recommend a corrective exercise plan, please email the team fitness@hoebridgegc.co.uk.
Split rotation stretch
