Redbourn GC Newsletter - April 23

GM UPDATE

Renewals & Photos

Robin Cheng General Manager

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Dear Redbourn Member,

Welcome to Spring at Redbourn. Hopefully while you are reading this, the sun is shining, the daffodils are out and I am back from paternity leave! I have mentioned this previously, but I am really looking forward to what we can deliver for the season in terms of quality of courses, general improvements, and club atmosphere. I think some tremendous work has been going on from both staff as well as members, and after being here now just over a year, I can really see the club moving in the right direction.

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On a personal note, my wife gave birth to a baby girl on Friday 10th March. Luna Cheng at 7lbs8oz. Both are doing well and her two big brothers are enjoying having a sister… most of the time.

We will be pushing the button shortly on renewals which are due by 31st May 2023. These will all be done via the App/online portal, so please come to us prior to the date if you believe you need help with either option. All early renewals as mentioned, will receive 3 complimentary guest passes to be used as part of a 4 ball with a member. Everyone will also be receiving a complimentary re-usable branded Redbourn mug which helps us in our sustainability quest and will reduce the amount of take away cups we use. When collecting your guest passes and mug, the second stipulation to receiving these is that we have your photo linked to your file. The reason we are asking for them is that we value your membership and to keep its integrity we would like to safeguard by ensuring nobody is using a lost card to gain access to the course, or using the levy in the bar without the members permission. If you can get this done in the shop prior to collecting, this would make the process much simpler.

Customer Feedback

February saw some of the best customer feedback Redbourn has ever had. While we still have plenty to work towards and improve on, it is great to hear that as a rule of thumb, all of you are finding value in your memberships and enthusiasm as to where we are taking Redbourn. March has also started off in a similar vein and with course conditions improving and issue areas on the radar, I am hopeful you will all continue to enjoy your membership.

Positive Feedback

• Positive work being carried out on the course and in the clubhouse

• Friendly, welcoming atmosphere

• Quality of food

• Improving standards

Constructive Feedback

• Tees and bunkers need work

• More social events for members

As mentioned, we will be working on all bunkers and tees in the coming years, starting this season. The forming of a club events and social committee will also help us provide a full complement of events throughout the year and will be communicated to all members to allow for an easy sign up.

Mens Captain’s Update

Ian Rice Club Captain

I would like to say I am honoured to be the Men’s Captain of Redbourn Golf Club for 20232024 and thank Matt for his service as Captain over the past year. I would also like to thank Neil Marcus for becoming my Vice Captain for the year.

Jim McNally from the Essex and Hertfordshire Air Ambulance Trust gave an informative presentation to introduce the new charity to the meeting. He mentioned that EHAAT missions, which are around 200 per month were increasing and that it costs the charity £750,000 per month to stay airborne with no financial support from Government or The National Lottery. Jim, on behalf of the charity, extended his appreciation to Redbourn Golf Club for everything they will be doing to raise the critical funds needed to help keep Essex & Herts Air Ambulance airborne.

CAPTAIN’S UPDATE

A clip of my first drive, courtesy of Graham Tomlin, and the clip that has been posted on social media can be seen by clicking on the links below.

https://clipchamp.com/watch/8BLBCctqm9i?utm_ source=share&utm_medium=social&utm_ campaign=watch

https://www.facebook.com/RedbournGolf/ videos/724843105860503

I would like to thank everyone who took part in my drive-in day and to Babs, Neil, Paula and her staff for all the work they put in before and on the day.

I must also thank Haydn and his team for keeping the course in great condition considering the weather we have had. Please help him by replacing your divots and repairing your pitch marks. The March medal, the first men’s medal of the year, took place and below are the results.

Saturday Division 1 winner – Ian Foster

Sunday Division 1 winner – Peter Emery

Tuesday Division 1 winner - Graham Walker

Division 2 winnerAndrew Griffin

Division 2 winner –Iain Heeps

Division 2 winner –Peter Whitlock

Congratulations to all the winners.

Charity

Thank you to all those who have sponsored a hole for the EHAA charity. At the time of writing this we have a few left so if you are interested, please contact me at redbourncaptain@gmail.com

LADY CAPTAIN’S UPDATE SHERYL TYE

I am honoured to be taking over as the Ladies Captain for this year. My aim is to continue to achieve a balance of golf and social, fun games and qualifiers, so that over the year all our ladies get what they want from the ladies section.

Thank you all so much for the wonderful reception you gave at my drive-in on February 15th. I was overawed by the tremendous amount of effort you have put in on the displays and the costumes, and blown away by the cycling reception committee, the welcome and the badminton arch of honour.

Thank you to Sue Hickman-Jameson who stood in for me to do the drive, as I had just had an operation. The drive was 105 yards, and the winner of the prediction was Lionel Galiozzie from the Friars, who won a bottle of wine.

Congratulations to the winners of the drivein’s Friendship Quaiche Trophy: June White, Annette Brooks, Anne Williams and Diane Riddy.

And of course, thank you to Shirley Deudon for organising the drive in. As Captain, she is a hard act to follow.

these holes! In first place with a stunning 43 points were Sue Hickman-Jameson and Jean Large.

On Feb 26th and March 1st, 26 pairs battled it out playing 4BBB for the Deudon Crystal Charity Trophy. In first place with 38 points were Di Ritson-Hall and Sue HickmanJameson.

On March 7th our Pearson Ladies beat Harpenden Golf Club at home by 5 games to 2 under the new captaincy of Sue HickmanJameson. Fabulous result for the team consisting of Sam Daniels (in her first Pearson match), Anne Williams, Shirley Deudon, Annette Brooks, Lorraine Hull, Bernie Marcus, and Sue HJ.

This now makes Redbourn winning 5 games out of 5 this year!

Linda Hill has come forward to be Ladies Captain for next year, and hence will become Vice Captain for this coming year. I am sure you are all as delighted as I am to welcome Linda to her new role.

The first 18 hole competition of the year, on Feb 22nd, was Greensomes, so at least we had fewer shots to make round all

Please do take part in our monthly charity draw to support EHAAT. Entry is £10 for the year, to enter 10 monthly draws to win one of three monetary prizes. Please ask Paula at the bar or email your committee members for more details.

At the end of this month the Charity Hazard will move from the 13th bunker to the lake on the 9th.

In total the drive-in and your charitable donations came to £259 for the EHAAT charity. Well done, everyone!

Charity Fundraising

The Friars have donated £600 to the Rennie Grove Captain’s Charity fund. Most of which was raised during a raffle organised by Chris Dyble at the Friars Annual Presentation Dinner.

The Friars have also donated £700 to the Royal British Legion, raised during a ‘Remembrance Day’ golf event organised by Martin Prechner and assisted by Kevin Hamer.

The University College London Hospital Cancer Charity benefited in excess of £1,500 (£665 from Friars contributions) from the publication of a beautiful and poignant poetry book, illustrated by Friar, Dave Jacques and written by his daughter, Emily while attending her radiotherapy treatment.

Other Friars contributions to the Captain’s Charity included £340 to the monthly draw, and in excess of £200 to the Lady Captain’s Day raffle.

This photo shows Friars 2022 Captain, Peter Whitlock presenting a cheque for £600 to Ladies and Mens Captains, Shirley Deudon and Matt Perry.

FRIARS UPDATE

Competitions

Poor weather has disrupted and delayed competitions this year, but we’re starting to get through the backlog.

Duncan Green was the March Hare winner, making it to the 18th tee, followed by Peter Whitlock who finished on the 17th. Graham Walker and Jeff Carter finished joint third.

The Farr Trophy doubles competition was won by Jon Barber and David Hague, with a score of 68. Tied runners up were Pat Lynch and Nigel Thomas, and Dave Titcomb and Cliff Knott with scores of 70.

The tightly fought Texas Scramble was won by Jeremy Tatham, Chris Halls, and Kevin Hamer with a nett 62.5, narrowly beating Mike Box and Jim Walker with a nett 63.

The monthly stableford was won yet again by Chris Halls with a score of 37 points. After countback, Pat Lynch finished in second place with 36 points, just pipping Andrew Edge.

COURSE UPDATE

Course Manager Update

Haydn Drinkwater Course Manager

All greens have now been hollow cored and topdressed with approximately 80 tons of sand, which will help reduce organic matter and produce level and firm playing surfaces. Greens will then receive regular verti-cutting alongside light and regular topdressing throughout the season to keep that organic matter content down. Solid tinning will also continue throughout the season as well with a wetting agent applied afterwards to help make watering more efficient.

A granular fertiliser will be applied after the coring to help with recovery, along with liquid fertiliser and seaweed throughout the season.

All tees will be overseeded, vertidrained and topdressed in April to help them recover from winter play. Regular liquid feeds will also be applied throughout the season to aid with recovery and produce good grass density. We will also be looking throughout the season to be levelling a number of tees as part of our bunker and tee programme.

Fairways have been slit, tined and verti-drained which will in-turn keep the surface drier and will help reduce worm casts. Any wear areas will be over seeded, and fertiliser applied. When post and rope are in place, if any, please avoid these areas to encourage growth, and make sure you take drops out of any GUR.

All bunkers will be edged and, where needed, topped up with sand - with every effort made to try and reduce the stones in the bunkers. This will run alongside our bunker plan of renovating and rebuilding all our bunkers over the next 5 years, which will start this year.

All staff are booked in for training over next couple of months, with some doing their spraying tickets and chainsaw tickets. Three of the team are doing level 2 greenkeeping apprenticeships and two on level 3 greenkeeping. This, along with in house training, will help develop staff but also improve standards on both courses.

Pace of Play

Our marshals will be controlling pace of play to the best of their ability as well as ensuring everyone is prompt onto the first tee. I would like to remind you that we aim for sub-4hr20 rounds at busy times but know things can run over on occasions.

While increasing marshal numbers and tree work on course will help with this, please see a few tips below that everyone should keep in mind to encourage a better pace:

• 3 minutes only while looking for a ball

• Clubs left to the side of the green that leads to the next tee

• Adopt ready golf where possible, play your next shot even if you aren’t the furthest away

• Teeing off on your tee time and leaving that 8 minute gap does help with pace of play as it avoids that initial squash of players that can easily turn into a backlog

COURSE UPDATE

Dear Redbourn Member,

Paul Geary River Ver

Hi folks, the next two months we will be relatively quiet on the river front.

Routine removal of windblown debris will be the order of the day and the occasional rake of the main channel to remove any hotspots of fool’s watercress and algae.

I will be looking at placing some fallen logs across the footbridge at the 13th hole in the near future to restrict the width and further increase flow.

The river is running at its highest level as I write this and the bankside vegetation in all its green glory is now beginning to add colour and shape to the riverside.

The ponds are full and looking superb, bull rushes are sprouting so you will see more vegetation in the ponds which will channel the water.

Two perches for Kingfishers have been placed at the 8th tee bridge and the confluence of the two streams by the 16th.

I am currently mulling over how we can restock the river with small fish and I want to thank The Friars Veterans and in particular Les Hull for kindly setting aside £150 of Friars funds to help purchase fish if necessary.

On a slightly negative note, I’m seeing damage to the bankside grass where the soil is saturated and soft by golfers’ shoes. I would ask that you refrain from navigating such areas to cross or retrieve balls as we could easily see a return to mud and weed if this gets out of hand.

Some quite severe damage has been done on the 7th where buggies or other wheeled vehicles have run along the riverside. Please show restraint in these areas as preventing damage means shorter recovery time.

All the best for some good golfing in superb surroundings.

Paul