MEMBER NEWS
1 July 22 Members’ Newsletter Dear Redbourn Member, Welcoming to another edition of the Redbourn Newsletter. A lot going on at the moment, so I hope you all find time to read about it. Before going into the main newsletter, I would like to thank everyone who attended our divoting, pitch mark repairing and bunker sieving night last month. I think a good, yet back breaking, time was had by all and that I hope all golfers on a day-today basis, take it upon themselves to help us, in any which way possible to maintain the course. Whether if it is repairing a couple of pitch marks or picking a few stones out of the bunkers as you walk past.
Club Championship This year’s Club Championships will be held over the weekend of Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th August. All members with a WHS index are eligible to play, including Juniors and 5 day members. Senior Championship entrants must be over 55 years on the day of the competition. Championship Format – The Competition is played as a Strokeplay (medal) format, with Trophies awarded for the lowest Gross score and the lowest Nett score. The Men’s and Ladies Championship are played over 2 Rounds on Saturday and Sunday. For the Men’s competition a Halfway Cut will be calculated, comprising the 30 lowest Gross scores and 10 lowest Nett scores. The Senior Men’s and Ladies Championship are played over a single round of 18 holes. To be eligible for the Nett Trophy competitors must have registered a minimum of 8 qualifying scores on the WHS over the last 12 months from the date of the competition. An Entry Sheet will be posted on the Notice Board and those wishing to play must enter their name before Monday 1st August. A draw will then take place and start times published. For the final round on the Sunday players will go out in score order, highest to lowest. The entry fee is £3 which will be deducted from your Competition Account so all players must ensure their card has been topped up. August Medal Hopefully you all saw the email last week regarding the random draw for the August Medal. To help promote playing in the medals, myself and the members competitions committee have booked out 15 tee times on both Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th August from 07:08 in the morning. Sign up for the medal will be 3 weeks in advance on the PSI/your app, and you can choose 1 of 3 time bands to be randomly drawn in, the first 5, second 5 or last 5. This way hopefully you won’t be playing too far away from your usual times. Those 15 times will be reserved for those who want to enter the medal, but equally medal entry will also be available for those who want to play later in the day under the old format. I would also like to make a point of addressing a couple of statements I have heard recently. I have nothing against the syndicate bookings and by no means wish for them to stop. With so much feedback about integration and participation numbers falling in various competitions and events, I simply feel that we need to strike a balance between new members, more established members, and getting everyone to play together from time to time.
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Bunkers Hopefully a few of you have already started noticing the difference in a few of the bunkers. We now fully staffed with the Greenkeeping team and also have some additional hours dedicated to looking after the bunkers. They will be de-stoning, which a lot of you can appreciate how hard and laborious the job is from the members evening we had the other night, raking and topping up bunkers as they go around and we hope in a few weeks, we should have the majority of them done. Just like buying a waterproof top and hoping it never rains. I hope not many of you will have to go in the bunkers.
Matt Perry – Club Captains Update It has been a busy few weeks with Captains day and the Eric Russell Team Trophy. Thank you to everyone that took part in Captains Day this year. I hope you had a great day and it was nice to see the club house full again. Many thanks to all the helpers on the day as without them the day would not be able to take place. The course was in great condition and the speedy greens kept the scores respectable! The Eric Russell Team Trophy was a great success again and it was fantastic to see some new teams taking part this year. Well played to everyone who took part and congratulations to the RAMS who won the event. See below.
The men will be playing our next friendly home match against Welwyn Garden City on Saturday 9th July. Good luck to the team. The Club Championships are also rapidly approaching. These are scheduled for the 13th and 14th of August. The sign-up sheets for these will be going up very soon on the Captains notice board by the offices. I hope you have seen the Email regarding the changes to the weekend medal formats. I believe that these changes are important so that we can move the club forward to be more inclusive for everyone. It will give you the opportunity to play with different members and hopefully broaden your circle of playing opportunities.
Thank you, Matt Perry - Club Captain
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Shirley Deudon – Lady Captains Update
It is great to see everyone enjoying the sunshine although we have had endure some showers too! Our ladies continue to post great scores and it’s good to see that many are keeping their handicaps accurate by submitting qualifying rounds when possible. I am very grateful for the dedication of the talented lady’s section volunteers who are working tirelessly with me to make our club a welcoming place to play golf. I am also mindful that many of our regular ladies are missing this season due to ill-health or injury. I send you my sincere best wishes. We are all looking forward to seeing you again soon. The Ladies Section have now adopted a new logo. This has been designed by one of Lady Members and is now available for embroidery on any garment. Please contact me for further details. Our competition programme continues and it’s great to see a variety of ladies winning the trophies. On 25th May, 20 ladies entered the 5 Day Charity Shield Competition with part of the entry fee donated to our charity. Congratulations to Sarah Hogben who won with a score of 39 points. Wendy Brownhill, Lorraine Hull and Di Ritson –Hall all had 35 points but on countback Wendy was second and Lorraine was third. Well done ladies!
10 Sunday Ladies joined in to compete for the Moores Cup, which is a Greensomes Pairs competition. Congratulation to Carol Eaton and Viv Charleton. In second place was Dee Tolman and Maggie Melville and in third was Paula Craddock and Lin Taylor. Well done ladies!
Congratulations to Annette Brooks who won the Robinson Putting Competition played on Wednesday 1st June. In second place was Di Ritson-Hall and Bernie Marcus was third. The June Medal Winner with a gross score of 100 was Sue Hickman-Jameson. Well done Sue!
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The PING Women’s Fourball Betterball tournament is a Stableford competition open to pairs of amateur golfers across the Country. The first stage of the event is a club qualifying round. The top 52 pairs from the club qualifiers will make it through to the national final. We held our qualifying rounds on Sunday 12th and Wednesday 15th June. 12 Pairs took part with the winners and second place pair going forward to be considered for the national final. The winners were Nicola Holmes and Denise Woodland with a score of 42 points. In second place, with a score of 41 points was Catherine Kay and Pip Lawrenson. Congratulation Ladies and good luck in reaching the finals. 10 Ladies participated in the Yellow Tee Competition on Sunday 19th June. For our newer ladies, this is where the ladies play off the yellow tees. This gives an additional but exciting challenge to the ladies. The winner was Lin Taylor with a score of 33. In second place was Dee Tolman with a score of 32. Well done Ladies.
Our friendly matches against other clubs is a great opportunity to meet new people and play on new courses. Any one is welcome, regardless of your experience…..give it a go!
Please contact Sheryl if you want to join in – sheryltye5@gmail.com
DATES FOR THE DIARY!
Wednesday 6th July –Janet Humphries Memorial Sunday 10th July – Charity Bowl Series Wednesday 13th July – Ladies v Friars Texas Scramble Sunday 17th July – Edith Brittan Salver Wednesday 20th July – Ladies Invitation Day Sunday 24th July – Princess Diana Memorial Cup Wednesday 27th July – Princess Diana Memorial Cup Sunday 31st July – Charity Team Trophy.
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WEDNESDAY 20TH JULY – LADIES INVITATION DAY!
STILL SPACES TO FILL SO GRAB A GOLFING FRIEND AND COME AND JOIN IN! The annual Invitation Day gives members the chance to share the delights of the club with your guests. The cost is £45 per pair and includes a two course summer buffet. There are lots of prizes to be won!
WEDNESDAY 3RD AUGUST – LADY CAPTAIN’S DAY • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Selected Teams of 3 or 4 Two Tee Start Stableford Fun Competition Best Individual Score Best Team Score Prosecco on the party Half-way houses and refreshments with Pimms Putting Competition Charity Sweep Stake Nearest the Pin Nearest the Line Best Dressed Team prize Summer Buffet
WEDNESDAY 24TH AUGUST – LADY CAPTAIN’S AWAY DAY The Lady Captain’s Away Day will be to Chesfield Downs. Although not confirmed, the likely cost will be around £40 which will include green fees, 1 course buffet followed by tea or coffee and prizes. First tee time will be 11.04. A sign-up sheet will be available nearer the time and early indication of numbers attending will be appreciated as we have to confirm numbers two weeks beforehand.
….finally We would be delighted to welcome new members to the Ladies Section. There is so much fun to be had and you will be given a very warm welcome. Please contact me for further information.
Very Best Wishes Shirley Deudon LADY CAPTAIN Shirley.deudon@yahoo.com.
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BBQ Every Sunday afternoon, rather than the Carvery, we will now be running an open BBQ between 12:00-15:00. Please feel free to bring your families up or have a bite to eat after your game. Members will receive 10% off standard price.
New Staff We have had a few new members of the team who have either just started of will be starting soon. Ian, who has joined as a maintenance person who has been helping Martin with a lot of the day-to-day maintenance and repairs needed around site. We also have Andy, who has joined on the greenkeeping team to help on the range as well as Ben, who as I write, will be starting on Monday 11th (next week) as our new Golf Events & Membership Competitions Administrator. This is a new role within the site, as well as new throughout the whole of BGL. While we sometimes may spend a lot of time looking externally, I think a position who has more of an internal focus will go a long way. Ben will be trained up in all the back of house duties of membership as well as look forward in assisting the events & competitions committee set up various events for the members. This is a new and exciting role that I hope will help assist in offering more to the members. Irrigation So, the irrigation is getting there…slowly. As we speak, we can turn it on manually throughout the day, but it seems we still can’t get pressure to the system that will keep it on overnight. Parts of being replaced and holes dug to check connections. We are also about 3 weeks out from getting out 2nd pump back and installed for full pressure but until then we are confident we can water the course. Please bear with us as we are working with the contractors to solve the issue once and for all.
Chairty Walk Craig Saker, one of our new Greenkeeping team recently went on a charity walk for Great Ormand Street Hospital and so far has raised over £1,000 with those he did it with. I understand those most of us have our own charities we support, but if anyone would like to donate then it would be much appreciated.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/charity-walk-from-hemel-togos?member=18524993&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+sharesheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
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9th Hole & Paths As you may all have seen, the 9th hole is well under way. This is due for completion towards the end of the week commencing the 4th July. We have re-instated 12m of fairway/approach to allow for shots to run up to the green but kept a channel either side to allow for drainage and also add a nice feature to the hole. This should hopefully help with any flooding around there during the wetter months. We will also be adding a lot of soil and seed to that area where stones have comes up to make the area playable. We will be making a lot of that area GUR until we feel playing shots off it, doesn’t damage anyone’s clubs. The path systems are due to start the week commencing the 11th so you may find diversion signs around the course from one hole to another while this work is going on. Again, apologies for any inconvenience caused but we feel this needs to get done before the wetter months to make the course more playable.
Planting & Members Help Over the last few weeks you hopefully all have noticed a lot of planting going on around the clubhouse that has added and softened the clubhouse environment. We are dedicated to continuing this but with funds being re-directed elsewhere at Redbourn at the moment I am here to ask for a favour from those members who can. Having spoken to my counterpart at Aldwickbury, who have a fantastic array of plants and flowers, I would like to take a leaf (excuse the pun) out of there book and ask any member who is thinking of splitting any of their own floral decorations at home, and donate any offcuts or extra plants they feel like they can to our flowerbeds. We have a very large area, not only in the new flowerbed but in the existing ones as well that currently don’t have anything in. Any donations or help would be greatly appreciated. Please come see either myself or Paula if you can help.
Painting & Decorating Not only have we got contractors in digging holes, laying pipes and fixing things at the moment, but we are also well underway of a bit of a refurb in the ladies & men’s changing rooms as well as the offices and corridors. The ladies will hopefully be finished painting this week and then moving onto the men’s and then the offices. Due to our painter being female, we may have to switch over toilet usage for a few days and have the men use the ladies and the ladies use the men. Plenty of notice will go up about this as well as signs. We feel that a female decorator can’t be painting the gents while the gents use the facilities. Provisions will be made for access of changing rooms from the back door.
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After that we will be getting carpets down in both the men’s changing rooms as well as the office’s. The ladies changing room carpet will get down back end of the year/start of 2023 due to some building plans of changing the layouts and not wanting to put a carpet in that will get destroyed a few months later.
Please bear with us while this is going on.
Members notice boards With the push of getting more members playing in the events, I want to make everyone aware that they can find members competition details on the notice board in the hallway outside the offices, just past the PSI machine. We will also be changing these over at a point in the refurb and potentially looking to re-locate, but until then, all details can be found on these boards.
Once again, than you all for you continued support of Redbourn Golf Club.