Member News
Wycombe Members Newsletter Chris Young (General Manager)
Just want to give a big thank you to everyone who has made me feel so welcome over the last couple of weeks. Wycombe Heights certainly lives up to its reputation of being the friendliest club in the area. I’m passionate about ensuring that every member or visitor to the club has a great experience both on and off the course and I’m really looking forward to supporting the team to move the club forward and build on the great work that has already been achieved. For those of you who I haven’t met yet then I look forward to meeting you soon. As I’ve previously said, my door is always open so please come and see me if you have any feedback or suggestions. There are some great proposals to help support the course as we move towards winter including some new pathways on the front nine and rejig the layout around the 2nd Tee. Bunkers appear to be the big topic of debate and we will continue to invest and upgrade them on an ongoing basis. In the interim there is some work we can do to improve the conditions currently found. A shout for help please to those early birds. To help support the greenkeeping staff, please can everyone ensure that we are not teeing off before the first available tee time. I know we’re blessed with this glorious weather and the light early hours, but we do need to give the greenkeeping team every opportunity to get the greens cut in advance of play. It’s a small window of opportunity for them to make the most of an empty course. Thank you. You will have noticed that we have a few new faces in the bar who have started over the last few weeks. I’d just like to give a big welcome to Liberty, Tanjia, Laura and Sian. Welcome to the Wycombe team. The weather is set for some glorious golf over the coming weeks. Hopefully I can catch up with some of you in one of the members evening roll ups. Please ensure you’re carrying plenty of water and a hat! It’s going to be scorching so please take care, have fun and see you out there. Finally I just want to say congratulations to Sophie Owen (Front of House Manager) who got married at the beginning of the month. From everyone at the club we wish you both all the best for the future. Look forward to catching up with you all soon. Chris Young
Chris Sharp (Course Manager)
I hope everyone has been enjoying the dry and warm conditions out on the courses. I have been asked this several times over the past month… ‘Are you going to water the fairways?’ To put it simply, no. Unfortunately, we do not have fairway irrigation or any other means to water the fairways. Personally, I think it presents a different challenge to all golfers, with people reaching greens in 2 where previously they haven’t been able to. Obviously, we do have irrigation on the Main Course and Short Course Greens, along with irrigation on all the tees. This allows us to keep quality turf through the driest of periods. I am currently altering the coverage of the sprinklers of the MC greens, to incorporate the approaches. This will help to improve definition and quality of turf around the greens. Areas of G.U.R have also been highlighted around the MC. We hope you have found these beneficial and to your advantage. We will keep monitoring any other areas that might need highlighting, with the thought of improving these towards the end of the year. Greens have been rolling well and remain healthy. Silver moss is present in many of the greens and although it does look unsightly, it will not influence ball roll. The plan is to address this in the autumn/winter with applications of lawn sand. This combined with the inclusion of regular (non-disruptive) aeration will help reduce the moss significantly. I am pleased to announce that we are waiting on the arrival of a new Toro Pro Core 648. For those of you who do not know what it is: It is a pedestrian aeration machine. This will allow us to conduct aeration when we need to and not have to wait to borrow one from another site. This is a great investment from BGL and a crucial step to improving the playing surfaces further. The only downside: there is a delay in production, so hopefully we can get it to site before the end of the year. Another fantastic investment and continued progression to becoming more sustainable is the purchase of a Toro 3370. An electric ride on greens mower. There are so many benefits to obtaining this mower:
No need for servicing, as there is no oil. No need for diesel, as it is fully electric. No need for ear defenders, as its completely quiet. No need to upset the neighbours, again as its completely quiet.
The continued investment can be seen as you drive in, with the resurfaced areas on the driveway and bottom car park. A much needed improvement. Unfortunately, there has been a delay in completing the construction of the new pathway and tee, on the SC 3rd hole. More materials have been required to raise the tee to an appropriate level. It has been difficult as we cannot cut into the reservoir’s bank, (for obvious reasons) so materials have had to be transported from around the site. I am hoping to dedicate more of my time to completing this construction next week. Thank you for your continued patience with this matter. I would like to take this opportunity to ask all members to put rakes back into bunkers when finished with them. Even if you are not playing from a bunker, if you see one out of place, please return it. I have received several complaints about Greenkeepers not returning rakes to bunkers, when in fact it is golfers. I really hope this improves going forward, thank you. On a final note, I would like to welcome our new GM Chris. Looking forward to working with you. Thanks must also go to Tom Blick for standing in, during the interim. Thanks for all the help, Tom. See you on the course. Chris Sharp
Jess Carter (Sales Executive)
Hi Everyone July already - how’d that happen? I’d like to start off by saying a huge thank you to all of you who attended the last driving range night, the night went exactly to plan (minus prepping in 33 degree heat). Great news is that we raised £874 for The Stroke Association & all of you who attended will make a massive difference to someone who needs support after a Stroke. Some more further good news is that as you know the event was for my final project for my Master’s Degree - There were 3 parts to my event; a 45 page document submitted 1 week prior, the event itself & a 1 hour debrief the week after the event – I am happy to report that my results have arrived back with 95-100% pass rate/Distinction. I couldn’t have done this without all of you who attended & I will be forever thankful. So, on to Wycombe Heights! It’s about to get very exciting – I am currently in the process of arranging a few events (from your survey ideas) organised for later in the year. I would like to thank everyone for filling in our survey, we really want to host some great social events and your input is vital for us to create a social hub for our members. If you didn’t get chance to fill it in before, you can still have your say here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/9VPDMGD. Myself & Jack McDonagh will also be hosting another members driving range night early August, so keep your eyes peeled and clubs ready! I am also going to be the person who mentions Christmas (I know I know – it’s only July), however in the last two weeks we have taken several bookings for Christmas. Christmas lunches, dinners, Party Nights & Breakfast with Santa will all be returning this year – also with Christmas Tribute Nights (Tina Turner & Michael Buble) NEW FOR 2022. If you are looking to attend a Christmas Event with us, please feel free to give me a call or email to check availability. Last but not least – Renewal Vouchers!! They have now been in the shop for a fair amount of time & we still have several to be collected. If you renewed before or on 31st March then you are entitled to these vouchers please pop in and grab them, any not collected by 16th July will be posted out. That’s all from me, thanks guys & look forward to seeing you all enjoying the nice weather in the upcoming months. Jess x
Duncan Purcell (Head Professional)
Good day to all So far, the weather has been extremely kind and has helped our members produce some great scores on both courses. This past month we held the Seniors Invitational to which I have to say was extremely well run by Captain Keith Sonley and Vice-Captain Mike Clarke. A reminder to all that there is a Senior Open (55+ age group) on September 21st. This is open to everyone and it would be fantastic to see more of our membership playing in these events. Also, last month we had the Robin Panter Cup, one of the "Majors" on the member's calendar. Congratulations to Alex Leung who just pipped Tommy Keeling on count-back. The scoring was exceptional this year, and a lot of that is down to the work Chris Sharp and his team have done since the Spring. In the Professional Shop we have two new members of the team, Matthew Hudson and Tom Keens. Both have settled in well and I'm delighted to have them join us here! At present we have a sale on men's Stuburt shirts and sweaters as well as ladies JRB shirts and sweaters. Also selected Footjoy shoes are on sale, so come in and grab a bargain this July. Don't forget that as a member you receive 10% on full priced clothing and shoes (unfortunately this does not apply to items already on sale) so please make sure you take advantage of this member benefit. Our latest custom fitting TrackMan Launch Monitor arrived in June to which is a fantastic addition to our custom fitting army. I have noticed quite a number of the tour pros using the TrackMan launch monitor on the range at St.Andrews this week. There are available slots for custom-fits so please contact the Professional Shop to enquire. As well as this, we have TaylorMade returning for a Custom Fit day on Monday, July 25th. This runs between 3-7pm and is available by pre-booking only through us here in the Professional Shop. I am also hoping to finalise another PING Custom Fit day for August so watch out for this as well. Lessons are back up and running with myself and Jamie Gordon-McBride with the slots open in the Professional Shop. We have the junior roll-up lessons running every Saturday between 11am - 12pm (these do not require any pre-booking). Jamie is running the Junior Summer Camps and these run Tuesday - Thursday each week of the holidays between 9am - 1pm. These are bookable through the Professional Shop with spaces limited each week. Hope to see many more of you here over the next few weeks. Duncan
Jack McDonagh (Driving Range Manager)
Firstly, I would like to thank all of the members for their extremely kind words following my promotion within the club. I know a lot of you personally now and it was touching the number of congratulations I received from you all. Thank you all again for your support! One of the main issues that has been raised over the past year or so is that the range opens too late at the weekends. Moving forwards, the driving range will NOW open at 7:00am at the weekends to allow for practice before your tee time. The team have sacrificed their maintenance time at the weekends so please make sure you make the most of the early starts! I will work with the different committees on a closer level, so that on special competition days, the range will be open as early as you need it to be! We have very exciting range competitions lined up for the coming weeks with some amazing prices up for grabs. Keep your eyes peeled around the club for promotional information regarding the competitions and prizes. I am looking forward to really getting my teeth into my new role over the next few months, should you have any questions or concerns regarding the range please don't hesitate to grab me when you see me around the centre or drop me an email. Please see below the new open/close times of the driving range: Monday: 11am - 9:30pm (last balls 8:30pm) Tuesday - Friday: 8am - 9:30pm (last balls 8:30pm). Saturday: 7am - 9:30pm (last balls 8:30pm) Sunday: 7am - 8:30pm (last balls 7:30pm) Kind regards, Jack
CONGRATULATIONS TO SOPHIE ON GETTING MARRIED