Blacklion GC - Newsletter Nr 6 - June 2020

Blacklion Golf Club

Est. 1962

Newsletter #6 June 2020

www.blackliongolf.com

K E E P I N G O U R M E M B E R S U P TO DAT E C A P TA I N S ’ WO R D S - C O U R S E C O R N E R - M E M B E R C O R N E R - C O R O N A COMPETITIONS - HANDICAPS - JUNIORS - INFO

Captains’ Words - Q1 Review Where do we start on this one?

The moment our season was about to start, the Covid19 pandemic took its stranglehold on society in general which included our golf club. In light of what people across the world have had to endure, the fact we couldn’t play golf became insignificant and on behalf of ourselves, the committee and we can safely assume, all of our members, our eternal gratitude goes out to the front line workers on both sides of the border, for their dedication and sacrifice during these testing times.

Our course remained closed for 8 weeks and what it did allow us do was to ‘reset’ our club and really sit down and figure out things to make sure we continue to thrive. It took a pandemic to realise that our club had become stale and we kept doing the same things over and over expecting different results, the definition of :-) During these 8 weeks, a few volunteers helped out on the course with trimmers, chainsaws, hedge cutters and pure muscle power. Our new course convenor Kevin McPartland made sure all that manpower was directed correctly to improve the visual and playing aspect of the course … and all with great success and for all to see.

The regulations imposed by the government and the GUI/ILGU made us take stock of our administrative set up and we worked very hard on getting a correct members database together thanks again to another committee member that stepped up to the plate, Ciaran Maguire. We now have a complete database of members with all the necessary details to communicate with them We were also obliged to introduce a timesheet, something that has always been frowned upon in our club. We combined this with an online

booking facility and it would be very hard to go back on this. We thank Jo Maes for that and with his professional experience in the golf industry, made us move with the times very quickly. Having the online timesheet has significantly improved pace of play as tee times are spaced out correctly, members know they have space on the first tee and it gives new members the opportunity to pair up with existing members and others who might some peace and quiet, see the gaps in the timesheet to go out undisturbed. It’s been well received by all.

On membership! All the work we’ve done over the past number of months with the new website, social media and also via the draws has significantly increased our profile. There are obviously many other contributing factors but we are extremely pleased that we have added around 40 members, many new ones to our club.

We’re up to 160 and still increasing. What is also very encouraging is that we have added a good number of juniors.

Now that we started playing again, we will look very closely at the social aspect of our club as there are improvements to be made there too to make sure the new members stay engaged with us and become full members over time.

We had 6 draws and all sold out in days and the income kept us going. We have to keep the purse strings tight but were able to invest in a rough mower and a pump to water the greens, both were badly needed as we would have struggled with our greens with the dry weather.

Thank you all for the support and more news on specific issues further in this newsletter.

Darren Boyle & Shauna Fee - Club Captains

Club News and Information

CLUBv1 HUB

Prize Draws

Following the COVID19 guidelines, we have been obliged to introduce a timesheet for play and provide members and ultimately visitors, the opportunity to book their tee times online.

We are now into our 7th Prize Draw and they’ve all sold out quickly enough. Obviously we are a golf club and not a lottery company but this is proven a valuable financial resource for us. We will continue to use these restricted draws at 100 tickets to give people good chances to win but we will start spacing them out more and probably at a monthly frequency. Thank you all for your support and congratulations to the winners.

Having a time sheet was always a contentious issue but, from a committee perspective and from ‘word on the tees’ is that this has been quickly adopted by members. We can now track occupancy on the course and plan things better. Groups have been spaced out better which has prevented bottlenecks and improved pace of play. It allows members, new and old to slot in with each other.

It gives people the chance to plan their round when it’s calm for a bit of down time.

Occupancy during the first two and busy weeks remained around 36% average so plenty of space on our golf course. We’re afraid or delighted that it is here to stay.

We have seen a great influx of Junior golfers over the past few weeks and many will have seen them out on the course. Some of them are quite proficient and we are now putting together a Youth Council to organise some golf coaching and competitions to bring them through the ranks.

We will also try and get some of these youngsters to participate in our competitions.

You never know we might have a young Rory on our hands.

Course Corner ‌

By Kevin McPartland, Course Convenor.

Our greens and the work we need to do more of to keep them healthy ‌ Most golfers know the importance or aerating greens.

Even if they don't understand why, they know it's necessary. Still, no one likes to putt on greens that have been recently aerated, especially a deep-tine aeration with core removal and top dressing. Trying to putt over holes is frustrating at best.

What irritates golfers more than anything, of course, is when they show up for their tee time, only to find out then that the greens were recently aerated, or worst yet, don't discover it until they get to the first green.

The latter is certainly rare, and the former is becoming less common, too, as courses know this doesn't exactly create good will with their customer base. Letting golfers know before they show up to the course should probably be the minimum practice, and most courses are trying to do that. Our Club V1 system will be of good use to inform members.

The ins and outs of aerating First of all, there are probably as many as five different types of aerating practices, according to Adam Moeller, director of education for the USGA Green Section. The least invasive small-tine aerating hardly disrupts the playing surface at all and is usually very playable immediately afterwards, but its effectiveness is certainly debatable.

Most courses employ the practice of less frequent deeptine aerating (often 5/8 inch or more wide), where holes are created and filled by sand top-dressing. Core removal opens up substantial holes on the greens, which helps the soil profile breathe. That improves drainage and air exchange for the plants. It can take up to a couple of weeks for the greens to recover, but these procedures are critical for the long-term health of the greens.

This should really be done a few times a year but given our circumstances, that is very hard for us to do.

What you will find more and more is the general topdressing. We will continue to do the deep aerating in the beginning and at the end of the season, add plenty of sand to the greens and brush it in but in between, we will apply some gentle topdressing more frequently. For that we will probably need volunteers as unfortunately we don’t have access to machines to do that for us.

Applying a fine layer of sand and then brush it in will have to be done manually for the most part.

With more and more dry weather influencing our climate, our greens have become tired over the years and accelerating the topdressing and watering makes sure we will have improved putting surfaces and healthy greens for years to come.

Next time I will inform members of what other work will be done over the winter.

Plenty of work still to be done but getting there.

www.blackliongolf.com -Pay your membership online - Pre pay your competition fees online - Buy your tickets online - Find out everything about the club To reach all members, we communicate via different means - the Club V1 Members’ hub - Mobile Push notifications - Newsletter - Whats app - Facebook & Twitter

Competition Corner

by Aidan Melanaphy, Comp & Hcp Secretary Competitions are back on Blacklion GC from Monday onwards. We’re already through a bit of the season and certain competitions we had planned to start early in the year will now be shelved but we will try to pick up the pace going forward.

Given the COVID19 situation and the phased relaxation, we can only plan short term and we will start with June and the schedule for that month which is available on the website.

Some changes in the rules going forward.

- Registration remains in locker room - Players mark their own card but need verification by co player. Name of marker should also be written on card. Player still signs card.

- No score entry via touch screen, cards dropped into slot.

- Flags remain in the hole at all times - Bunkers are in play but ball can be placed.

Smooth the surface with your feet afterwards.

- Social Distancing rules apply - Book a slot on the timesheet both for casual as competition play

June Medal (Wed 10, Sat 13, Sun 14) - Stroke €10 and €1 to enter the two’s Weekly Sweep (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun) €5 with re entry - stableford 9 Hole, any day and whole month €3 - best 3 cards over the month We have set up a prepayment facility for competition fees via website as we want to eliminate as much cash handling as possible.

Registration for competitions will look different as well, put the date in the competition column next to your name when you play, you will also see your balance.

It will be easy enough to figure out.

- All other golf rules apply but also …

replace your divots and fix your pitch marks.

- Respect the Course for yourself and your fellow competitors.

Members Corner …

Over the past few weeks we have seen a great number of new members join our golf club. This is fantastic news for all of us and gives us a boost to continue to improve our facilities going forward. We welcome each and every one of you and trust you will have a great experience at Blacklion GC. Given the CV19 restrictions, we are not allowed to organise social events which we would live to do to get to know the new members and introduce them into the club.

The timesheet does allow for new members to join a group of existing members and please do so as this is the best way to get to know the club.

We have planned a day in July where we try and get a social event going during a, what will be a new competition for us, the Club Championship Stroke Play, open to all members, ladies and gents and with a bit of a social event tied to it.

Competition dates and formats are available via the website.

Handicaps for New Members As we were moving to an online system and we had to really work hard to get a lot of date put in etc. some of the new members might have been allocated a ‘default’ handicap.

Should you have an existing handicap from a previous club, please let Aidan Melanaphy know about it so we can adjust.

Should you not have a handicap yet and want to obtain one, please bring in 3 signed and verified cards played over 18 holes so we can allocate you an appropriate handicap with which you can participate in competitions.

Come November, the World Handicap System comes into force and the ways we calculate handicaps will change significantly.

More information on www.whs.com

Blacklion Golf Club

Useful information and Tel Numbers Darren Boyle, Captain +44 7784 402106 Shauna Fee, Lady Captain +353 85 875 9886 Peter Robinson, President +44 7974 679171 Aidan Melanaphy, Comp Secretary +44 7927 159033 Kevin McPartland, Course Convenor +44 7790 653860 Website: www.blackliongolf.com info@blackliongolf.com Follow us on facebook and Twitter

Published by Blacklion Golf Club, Ireland - All rights reserved.

Publisher: The Committee - Editor: Jo Maes - jo.maes@me.com

Est. 1962