Hoebridge Member News - Aug/Sep 23

AN UPDATE FROM...

Sarah Blunden General Manager

Hi everyone, The summer season is now well underway (not that you’d know that from the recent weather). We’ve enjoyed some brilliant competitions and events so far this Summer, including the Club Championships, Charity Day and two Invitiation Days.

Congratulations to the 2023 Hoebridge Club Champion Rodney Gallagher who shot 155 gross across the 2 days to take the trophy.

For the first time, we had competitions running on both the Main Course and Shey Course, thereby allowing even more members to take part.

We had over 130 members taking part in the event and despite all of the fun, Charity Day is still a competition and so a winner needed to be announced! Well done to ‘The Ashleys’ who won the overall Main Course Competition.

Immediately after Charity Day the greenkeepers were out on the Main Course completing summer maintenance on the greens. This is an essential part of the greens maintenance programme to ensure we improve their health and playability all year round.

Thank you for inviting the Team and I to play in your Charity Day. It is one of our favourite days of the year. I hope you had as much fun playing the day, as we did running it.

My golf wasn’t the best, but I had the pleasure of joining the Marshall Team, who, with some brilliant guidance managed to get my putting bang on for most of the round.

We were very lucky with the weather, and the rain held off until late afternoon. A shotgun start meant that we could all head back in and eat together, as well as hold the presentation with many of us still present.

The greens were scarified and back filled with sand. The lines that you could see on the greens following the work, is where the thatch has been removed from the greens and sand has been backfilled in its place. We know that this distrupts your game, and so a huge thank you from all of us to you for your patience. This short-term disruption will mean long-term gain with healthier greens throughout the year.

Sustainability – Preparing for the Future

The extreme weather that we have seen -a hot, dry June and a cool, wet July shows the challenges that the greenkeeping team are now facing in predicting how they will need to manage our courses from one month to the next. These changes in weather patterns are only likely to continue and increase further.

A lot of our time and focus is now spent on increasing our understanding and knowledge of environmental legislation and practices so that we can run Hoebridge in as sustainable way as possible.

This involves us using the data already available to us at site, such as electric and water usage to understand our starting point and the effect that changes we are making are having.

This month we have focussed on our wastage. I recently met with our waste company to further understand where our rubbish goes, and how we can ensure we are effectively separating our general waste from our recycling and food waste. Furthermore, we are also in discussion with them as to how we might be able to reuse some of our wastage - for example the possibility of us buying our recycled waste produce back as fertilister to use on the golf courses.

We already have several good practices in place regarding our recycling, but following this audit, we have some further brilliant recommendations that we can easily implement to make the process even more efficient. Whilst most of these will be implemented by the Hoebridge team, we also need your help with separating your recycling items whilst around the site. You will have seen that our first order of recycling bins have now been delivered, and we are looking to gradually get more over the coming months.

Please help us in our efforts by putting your recycling waste in the ‘recycling’ compartment and you general waste in the other ‘general waste’ compartment.

Pace of Play – Help us to keep your Course Moving

In the last newsletter, Ian (Head Professional) wrote about the importance of Pace of Play and Ready Golf.

I want to again highlight the importance of maintaining good Pace of Play for the enjoyment of everyone.

I regularly have conversations where a member believes it is our visitors that are slowing the golf course down. Whilst yes, this is sometimes the case, we know from recording round times that unfortunately it is more often our own members slowing the course down for everyone else.

We monitor pace of play and round times very closely and record how long it takes each group to complete their rounds. As such, we have very clear information to hand that shows when we are running at around four hours and at which point a group has dropped back.

From this we can see that pace of play often drops back during the first few hours of the day when members are playing, especially during competitions.

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Our Marshals will speak with any group that has dropped back, and either encourage them to speed up or let the groups behind through. Should their pace of play continue to be significantly behind, or they refuse to let groups through then we will ask that group to leave the course.

Any member who is found to regularly be holding up the golf course will receive a phone call from myself or Ian (Head Professional) informing them that if we do not see an improvement then their booking rights will be suspended. The same process is followed for visitors.

A reminder also that often it is what is happening further ahead on the golf course rather than immediately in front that has caused the issue and so to be patient with those other groups around you. Our friendly and polite team of Marshals do their best to manage pace of play and get you all around the golf course as quickly as possible, but we need your help to ensure you’re managing your own round times wherever possible.

I want to say a huge thank you to the committee who have been brilliant in supporting us with managing pace of play within competitions. We have seen a big improvement in competition round times, which in turn helps improve pace of play for everyone following later in the day.

Whilst we have taken some big steps forwards, and we can see from our recorded times a significant improvement, there are still days where members are taking far longer than four hours.

As a reminder below are a few simple steps you can follow to improve your round times:

• Be on the tee at least 10 minutes before your tee time

• Ensure you are always keeping up with the pace of the group in front

• Hitting a shot when safe to do so, if a player father away from the hole is assessing their options

• Hitting a tee shot if the player with the ‘honour’ is delayed in being ready to play

• Taking no more than two practice swings

• Reading and lining up putts whilst others are putting and leaving the green promptly

• Completing your scorecard on the next tee

Thank you all very much for your ongoing support. I look forward to seeing you all soon. Happy Golfing!

Sarah

Employee of the Quarter –Gionny Cala

Congratulations to our Employee of the Quarter: Gionny Cala! Gionny is one of our F&B Supervisors and has worked at Hoebridge for 15 months.

His energy and enthusiasm for providing excellent customer service is second to none. He consistently goes out of his way to ensure all our members and visitors feel welcomed and looked after. We always know when Gionny is working, as he can be heard singing away as he completes his daily jobs!

Thank you Gionny! We really appreciate everything that you do.

COURSE UPDATE

Barry Gardener Course Manager

Hello all, As we head into the second half of the summer and now my second summer here, I feel we are really starting to make a difference.

On the 12th and 13th July we carried out our annual greens renovation work - this consisted of using a machine which cut 3mm lines at 50mm spacings to a depth of 20-25mm, then kiln dried sand was dropped into these grooves.

This process not only removes 2-3 times more thatch in one pass than one hollow coring would but allows the important aspect of getting the sand where we need it most, in the upper profile.

The recovery from this work went well which bodes well for future years!

As we head into the autumn months, we will be dialling in our list of winter projects and one area I am hoping to focus on is some of the very worn areas near the greens.

Pathway renovation is high on the list too, with some new edging and re-surfacing required on many.

We will also be looking at repositioning some of the winter mats on the Shey Course, to allow easier lines of play, I know many don’t enjoy playing off mats but unfortunately they are necessary!

We have recently invested in some new tools to help us with water usage going forward, and we have updated our weather station, which allows us to record all sorts of data but most importantly rainfall and evapotranspiration, this will allow us to irrigate more efficiently and avoid over-watering.

These three factors; thatch removal, incorporating sand into the upper profile, and water management will help us improve the infiltration rates of the greens and in turn offer better putting surfaces all year round.

As you would have noticed we have invested in some new bins, with a recycling option, new divot boxes for the main course par 3 tees and a divot tree and bags for fairway divots.

We would appreciate your cooperation in using these items as it will help with our sustainability efforts and for improving the course.

Regards,

Barry and the greens team

GOLF UPDATE

James Dedman Retail Manager

We hope you have all managed to play some good golf during a very wet and chilly July!

Hopefully the summer reappears so you can take advantage of the great offers we have on all Oscar Jacobson and Stuburt polo shirts as well as the shirts in the ladies JRB range, or walk the fairways in style with our new ultracomfortable Skechers range!

Our custom-fit range of products continues to grow with the introduction of the new ladies PING GLe3 irons, woods, hybrids and putters. The new fitting system makes it even easier to dial in the exact specs you need to maximise your game and improve your scoring. We will also be getting the full range of the new Titleist T-Series irons in shortly. Be sure to give them a hit!

May I take this opportunity to congratulate Enrico Laurato on passing his third and final year of his PGA studies. Enrico is now a fully qualified coach.

Thank you to all the members who worked so hard in making the charity day such a success. I for one really enjoyed the day, played some good golf and most importantly raised lots of money for a good cause.

Here’s to an improved August where we can hopefully get a tan while playing. Happy golfing!

James Dedman Retail Manager

A Thank You from Connor

Whenever I plan for the year ahead, I always look forward to Charity Day with anticipation, the general feeling of goodwill, high spirits and collaboration between our staff, members and committee is a great thing to see.

It reminds me that Hoebridge is much more than just a golf club, but a community.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the charity committee for organising such a great day, along with making the multiple teams of staff feel very welcome and part of the day.

Both the team and I look forward to next year with much anticipation.

Connor Food & Beverage Manager

HEALTH & FITNESS UPDATE

Ryan Stonehouse Gym Manager

Hello from the Health Club!

Fitness for Golf

continued – Here are some more mobility exercises you can try at the gym with a dowel or even at home with your driver! Give them a go and let us know how your get on.

If you experience any restrictions or discomfort in the movements they are likely to be affecting your golf swing. Please come a speak to a member of the gym team if you would like some advice on how to address any issues and make improvements.

Shoulder up & Over – try and keep your arms straight as you take them overhead

Hip hinge - try and keep your back straight to keep the bar on your back

Allow us to introduce Ken Caesar.

An outstanding effort 16 weeks post knee replacement surgery. A reward for being super consistent with your rehab training and getting in at 6:30am on the dot most mornings! (And for doing it with a smile on your face��)

Hip tilt with rotation – try both ways

Overhead squat – try and keep the bar over head while squatting

Arabesque balance exercise - test your balance and posture, try to bend with your back straight so it is parallel to the floor.

Our member of the month – Ken Caesar

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