Strategic Plan

The Planning & Development Sub-Committee has been working on a draft 10-year Strategic Plan for the Clubhouse for the past few months. The work is approaching completion and the draft plan is to be presented to the Management Committee for its consideration.

Finals evening on Thursday 26th July drew to a close ten weeks of evening golf over nine holes for ten teams of six, who completed individual cards on the first and last evening and then pairs played betterball with each of the other teams for nine weeks, with one rained off.

This format produced a really good mix with member as one never knows who you will be playing with each week.

Congratulations to the League winners, Mike Battisons team ‘Two plus Four.’

Also to The Champions  Carole Roes team ‘Roe the Boat.’

Numerous other prizes were awarded for best scores by individual Ladies, Men, and Juniors as well as some twelve players who achieved a gross birdie during their League matches.

Prior to prizegiving players and guests enjoyed a tasty Barbecue provided  by Chris and his team.

An evening much enjoyed by one and all as was the Team Golf format.

Finally Carole Roe, on behalf of the Social committee, thanked John White  for all his time and effort running this event, which was first held in 2000.

The extreme weather conditions of a very wet start to the year followed by a hot and dry summer have made the upkeep of the course very challenging for the Greens’ Staff. A few comments have been made regarding the lack of sand in the bunkers and I reiterated this to Adam, one of our Greenkeepers as we headed out to rake a few of the bunkers. Although Adam disagreed with my views, I knew better because I play the course every week! Our first task was to test the depth of the sand and to my surprise we found that in the lower parts of the bunker, there was up to 150mm of compacted sand. To transform the hard-base back to fine sand we used metal rakes, always taking care not to break into the soil underneath, as this would contaminate the sand. On completion of this task, the sand was redistributed around the bunker and no imported sand was required to complete the task. The energy I needed in helping Adam to break up and rake the sand in only 3 bunkers, ensured I was finished for the day and not fit for any further physical work. Adam kindly made no suggestion that I eat humble pie!

On the first day of July, we held our Mixed Open which attracted a good entry and as usual was very well organised by our Ladies. Test Valley won in the morning round and a Hockley pair in the afternoon.

The number taking part in the Junior Championships was lower than last year; however, this was more than made up by the superb scores registered in the morning round. Jasmine Jury scored 49 points, Patrick Harris 45 points, Jenny Myers and James Parry both 43 points. For the second round of the day, it was decided that only 3 Juniors with the lowest gross would go out again. Oliver Stuart came out on top with a gross of 159, James returned 161 and Patrick 166. The scorching sun in the afternoon made for a very tiring round and as you would expect the scores reflected this. Our thanks go to Chris Geary for running the day and to George Clelland for keeping check on the scoring. Unlike some of us, the Juniors were very pleased to learn that their handicaps had been significantly reduced and especially Jasmine who was cut 6 stokes. Congratulations to all of you.

The Pro’s Clubhouse Knockout again proved to be a very enjoyable evening and a very successful one for the Ladies. Katherine McLaughlin overcame Claire Monkhouse in the final and the winning Dropout was Carol Young (alias the mother in law). Well done to you all and special thanks to Malcolm and Jane for all their hard work in making it a great evening.

This month we have said ‘good bye’ to 2 special Ladies. Angela Peel, past Ladies Captain and Diana Hampton who have both moved away. We will miss them enormously.  We wish them happiness in their new lives and good golf in their new Clubs.

The beautiful warm weather has continued all through July and our Greens staff are working extra hard keeping the greens… green! Our fairways, like all courses locally, are beginning to look a little brown, but at least our balls are running well.

The Grannies was held at the end of June. It was such a warm day we decided to make it a 9 hole competition. I think overall this was a popular decision. Lots of Ladies had a nice handicap cut and the worthy winner was Liz Petheram.

The Mixed Open which is run by the Ladies, was another great event with many compliments paid to our Club by those attending. For the last few years we have even had a couple come from New Zealand… well they probably don’t come to the UK just for our Open but they always enter and this year won a few prizes to take home as well.

And now to my personal highlight… I would like to thank all of you who came to my Lady Captain’s Day and for all your lovely presents and cards. I really was overwhelmed.  We were blessed with super weather which helped. I think the whole day had a ‘family’ feel about it and all of you seemed to enjoy the ‘No Stress’ approach to golf.

Also, having a massage, followed by a large bowl of prosecco jelly, at the end of hard days golf should be compulsory! I couldn’t have managed without my helpers who so kindly gave up their day, so a massive thank you to them all and to Annie who helped with the organisation and kept me calm!  It’s certainly a day I will never forget and so many lovely memories – I could fill this whole page writing about it!

In glorious weather we are playing our way through the mixed matches organised for this year but would welcome more support from you all. You do not need a playing partner or a low handicap – everyone is welcome. We get to play some great courses away and welcome teams from those clubs to Alresford.  There are currently three lists on the board. Sunday 5 August at home v. Hayling Island, Sunday 12 August, away v. Alton and Friday 24 August at home to Bramley.

Please sign up for one/all of these matches if you can. We need you!

Jan Harring

World Handicap System

The implementation of new World Handicap System (WHS) is still some 17 months away, but we’re starting the preparations now. WHS will be a major change to the way handicaps are managed. The current system in the UK is an incremental system, where small changes are made to your handicap more or less every time you put in a qualifying score. WHS is an averaging system so your handicap will be based on the average of the best 8 gross differentials (the difference between your score and the CSS) from your last 20 scores. One effect of this is that a ‘bad’ score may not result in an immediate increase in handicap. Another effect is that for your handicap to be reflective of your playing ability, everyone will need to submit more than the current minimum of 3 qualifying scores per year.

I’m often asked if we will need to put in every score into the system. The answer to this question is no, you will not have to do this. However, everyone will be expected to record more than just scores from competitions, so it will be possible to submit a score from any round that you’ve pre-registered the intent to submit a score and which is played to the ‘Rules of Golf’ much like the process used for Supplementary Scores today.

England Golf has produced a document of Frequently Asked Questions about WHS. We will put a copy of this document on the Club website in the Members’ area

Well, mid-season its still busy (and hot) out there. Thankfully there have been no more episodes of heat stroke (your captain was the only victim we know of and that was not on the golf course)

Since my last report we have played friendlies against Test Valley (won) Hockley (draw) Weybrook Park (won), Tylney Park (lost) The Army (lost) Sandford Springs (lost) Bramshaw (draw) and Waterlooville (result not in at time of writing). So its been mixed picture but the good news is that players are continuing to sign up in good numbers. The exception was the replay against Waterlooville and my thanks go to the match captain, Graham Lumb, for getting a team together finally.

The Vets past captains day was a great success. 13 past captains, together with the current captain and (non-playing vice-captain) attended for lunch and many played golf as well. It was a pleasure to see some of our older members tottering about. Joe Kitchen started on 10 and just played 9 holes. He was vets captain 28 years ago. The trophy was won by Stuart Slater despite the current captain having a better score on count back (but being sensibly excluded from winning – “just saying”). Stuart also won the front nine. Keith Turner won the back nine and Bill Pescod was nearest the pin on both 10 and 18 (in 2). Thanks to Drew Fielden for a military grade planning exercise and for making it a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Looking forward to August we have now closed the Vets Invitation and made the draw, with a large number of players involved. AND don’t forget the vets flag competition on the 15th August

Chris Thompson

New Members

Welcome to the following new members who have all joined the club starting during July / August so far ; Bill Thorne (5 day), Andy Mckenzie (7 day), Nicola Benison, Mel Gates, Cheryl Malam and John Watson ( Academy), Steve and Julia Ward (Overseas), Nicky Freemantle, Patricia Bashford, Cath Eddy, Geoff Eddy, Louise Didlick and Sally Thoday (Social Extra), Louise Hardy and Sophie Wilkinson (Juniors).

We hope that your time at the club will be a long and enjoyable one for all of you.

May I remind all members that we are welcoming new membership enquiries for all categories? If you know any friends or acquaintances who are thinking of joining a club or changing clubs, please do your best to sell them the benefits of Alresford.

Club ‘Roll Up’

Fancy a game in the week? All members are welcome to come along to the ‘club roll-up’ on Wednesday mornings. The usual start time is 11am all year round but may change subject to any advanced tee reservations. Up to date timings are shown on the main noticeboard and on the website.

AUGUST

Wednesday 1^st ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 8^th ~ 11.00am (mid-week medal)

Wednesday 15^th ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 22^nd ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 29^th ~ 11.00am

SEPTEMBER

Wednesday 5^th ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 12^th ~ 11.00am

ALRESFORD GOLF CLUB PRO-AM

Thursday 6^th September

 The Alresford PRO-AM has been running for over 25 years and is the largest such event in the Hampshire PGA calendar attracting over 200 competitors and professionals from not only Hampshire but all over the south of England.

If you would like to play we still have some members slots and some limited availability for visiting / corporate teams. Please speak to Malcolm Scott for the AM and PM prices.

It really is a great day and one of the best organised and supported Pro-Am’s you will ever have the opportunity of playing in. Great course, great food and great prizes. One not to be missed!

Great weather for golf! As we all know we are going through somewhat of a drought of late with no rain since May 30^th. That’s 60+ calendar days without notable rain fall and none forecast soon. This presents a challenging environment for the greenkeepers work in and to deal with. We are fortunate to have a good irrigation system to keep the Greens Tees and Aprons alive but other outfield areas struggle with no real means of getting water to those areas.

The fairways are struggling to survive in a hostile climate but the plant (rye grass) is hardy and has predominantly gone in to a state of dormancy where it sheds its leaves to conserve moisture in the crown. This state however can’t last forever and with some oppressive heat in the recent weeks it has desiccated some of the grass. We won’t really know how much or little we have lost until more favourable conditions return. We will do all we can to repopulate those areas with our beloved rye  grass as soon as this happens.

The winners of the 100 Club prize draw for August were:

£100    –  Mike Pigott

£50      –  Gareth Rees

£32      –  Esme Goodacre

£32      –  Drew Fielden

£32      –  Chris Brandon-trye

£32      –  Annie Beal

Congratulations to all the winners. The next draw will take place in the week beginning 20^th August. There will be a full report on the 100 Club Salver and Evening Meal in next month’s Fore Info, but if you’re reading this on the first couple of days in August remember that even if you’re not able to come to the meal in the evening, you can still play in the Stableford competition … remember to sign-in in the Pro’s Shop and collect your free ball.