Today we welcome Jamie Batts who has joined our office-based team as Golf Operations Assistant. Jamie has local background having attended both Perins & Peter Symonds before heading to Bournemouth University where he achieved a BSc in Sports Management.

James will be completing induction and initial training with David, and then finding his way around our quirky club and our systems, which will obviously take some time.

Jamie’s particular interests in the role are the opportunity to develop our social media presence, providing excellent customer service and a general understanding of our members club.

Behaviour Towards Employees (including franchisees and contractors)

Having Jamie start with us today provides a good opportunity to remind the Club about the standards of behaviour expected towards our employees, franchisees and contractors.

Fair treatment is a key principle in best employment practice at Alresford Golf Club. The Club promotes equal opportunities and good relations for all staff and others working in an official capacity on behalf of the Club, such as; contractors, franchisees, employees of franchisees, committee members.

All members, visitors and guests are required to treat all employees, and others working in an official capacity on behalf the Club, as follows;

• With respect
• Equally
• Without rudeness
• Without foul language
• Without harassment or bullying
• Without threat or intimidation
• Without sexual harassment or nuance

Should any member, visitor or guest be dissatisfied with the performance of any employee this must be reported to the General Manager or the Chair of the Management Committee without delay.

The Club has suspended members in the past who have not maintained these standards, so do please keep up our excellent relationship with those that work here and fully contribute to an amazing place to be.

Non-Payment of Green Fees

One of our diligent and helpful Course Marshals approached a member with three guests on the course not displaying green fee tags. The member concerned had not paid for or signed in the three guests but suggested they were all going to pay the green fees after the round.

Our club rules state;

At the time of payment of the appropriate green fee, the guest/visitor must sign the Green Fee Register and will then be issued with a Green Fee Paid label that must be displayed on their golf bag or trolley.

I will be asking the Management Committee to confirm that any member taking a guest onto the course without having paid a green fee before play will be subject to full disciplinary proceedings.

My thanks go to all of our marshals who are improving standards on the course and discovering these problems.

Robert White

Chairman of the Management Committee

I hope you are enjoying your summer golf.

First of all I must thank Jan, John and Jim White for another successful year of Team golf. Diverse teams, great comradery and competitive golf – well done to all teams involved, successful or not! I mentioned last month the Captain’s Invitationals that I and others gladly attend representing Alresford. The most recent was a rare chance to play with Gunnel and our vice-captains Richard and Sandra at the Promethean Trophy at Royal Winchester. It was a great day and a top six finish was an acceptable result. Next up for me, Hayling for the Centenary Trophy followed by Stoneham and Hockley with past captains.

It is with great pride that Alresford host this years’ Francis Holmes Shield on Sunday August 20^th. The format is teams of 8 playing foursomes medal in the morning and singles medal in the afternoon. Francis Holmes MBE was a well-connected and popular figure throughout the County and highly respected in Hampshire Golf for countless years. The Proprietor and Editor of The Andover Advertiser, and prominent member of The Andover Golf Club. He was always concerned that the ‘nine-holers’, as Marlborough, Romsey, Alresford and his own Andover were overshadowed by Hampshire’s so called bigger clubs and resolved in the mid-‘Sixties to launch a competition just for them. It was an instant success, even with three of the four now 18 holes — Romsey in the 1970s, Marlborough in the 1980s and us in the 1990s the competition continues from 1965 and adds to the rich heritage of all competing clubs. Please check the diary that day and I thank Members in advance for their understanding of restricted tee times as Alresford take their turn in hosting this historic Shield.

We have significant Members competitions throughout August; Courage & Barclay 4BBB, 125 Medal (which is a Stapleford!), Mackershaw and finally one of our ‘majors’ for men, Bill Young Trophy, 36 holes played over the weekend of 26^th and 27^th August.

This trophy was presented by the 1978 Captain, Albert Mayes, to honour Bill Young, life-long member, Captain in 1959 and Professional/Greenkeeper 1964-77. Good luck to you all whichever competitions you play in this month.

Finally, Vice-Captain Richard has put together his Captain’s Trip 2024. Full details are on posters in the clubhouse, it runs from Tuesday 7th to Friday 10th May 2024 and is being held at East Sussex National, Uckfield. Sign-up sheet will be posted on the foyer notice board at 9am Saturday 5th August. I’ll join you in the queue!

Simon Freemantle  Captain

‘July’ has been rather wet and windy compared to June. Yet, the golfing season is still in full flight!  The AGC Ladies are doing great yet again and we welcome our new member Jeanne Renshaw to our section.

We remember with sadness John Goodacre, husband to Esme, who finally succumbed to illness. Our sympathies go out to Esme and her family at this sad time.

The Charity Bowl Trophy, donated by George Grant in memory of his wife in 2011, is played annually in the summer months. The entry fee to play is by donations to the Club Charity which raised £167.10 for the Rainbow Trust. It was played on 1 & 4^thJuly with a close-run affair between Helen Marchant and the Ladies Captain both on  40 points  but awarded to the Ladies Captain on countback.

Ladies Captains Day took place on 11 July. 81 ladies joined in the ‘Swedish Summer with Daisies’-theme  arriving wearing daisies as hair decoration, as head protection, dressed as a daisy and shoes wearing daisies , and more. Teams were drawn and played as a Bowmaker with stableford individual counting. Winning team included Catherine Carberry, Lyn de Mestre, Mary Ritchie and Caroline Warne with 118 points just beating team 2 & 3 by 1 point! Lyn was delighted to be awarded best individual score to win the Ladies Captain’s Prize, an honourable title only. The Kitchen made a magnificent effort to comply with a Swedish food menu of ‘Jansson’s Temptation’, herring, beetroot salad and meatballs! This was a ‘new’ for them and many others but enjoyed by everyone, I think! Well done to caterers and thank you for trying and complying hard. No-one recognised the picture of the Swedish king in the quiz, but I was most impressed by the knowledge of the rest! Grieg’s summer symphony went down well during the lunch. We celebrated  a happy day together.

The Alresford Scratch team, lead by Lynne Cowser, is playing until the end of September.

The Annodata team, led by Sally Reid, is through to final stages taking them to national levels being the only Hampshire club to achieve that. Well done Team!

The Knight Cup, lead by Karen Fox, is through to the semi-final/final  on 4^th Sept.

The North Hants Trophy team, lead by Polly Church, look forward to the semi-final/final on the 8^th October.

The Stoneham Cup team, lead by Rosemary Verrall, is still playing matches until end of summer.

I wish you all Good Luck! in the next stages.

The Alresford Ladies won the Romsey Ladies Team Tournament on 19^th July played at Romsey GC averaging 35 points to win amongst 14 clubs which was a nice surprise for all.

Team Golf  finished with a spectacular last evening on the 20^th July with all members of 14 teams played and enjoyed a BBQ afterwards.   ‘Jabba the Putt’ – team with Alicia Hardy, Jo Youngs, David Forrest, Tomascz Prescott, Richard Prescott and Dave Seager won the competition. It was particularly nice to link up with the juniors in a competition. A special thanks go to the White family, John Jan and Jim , for staging this very popular summer competition!

The Friendlies –  Thank you to Sandra for continuously, and without complaints, organises and sort out players and clubs for the Ladies friendly matches. Only 6 to go now!

Mixed Golf  – Thank You to Liz and Les for doing the same organisation for the mixed friendlies. These events are such an opportunity to meet other golfers and to play on new and different courses. They are well worth joining!

Hampshire Ladies Golf  – Ann Younger is keeping us updated for the wonderful opportunities to play in a much wider group amongst ladies in Hampshire. Many ladies from ALG are taking this chance to expand their skills and test their talents. Thank you Ann for organising.

Stay well and enjoy your golf!

Winter Knockout Competitions: Men’s Lombard 4BBB and Mixed Winter Foursomes

Entries for our Winter Knockout competitions 2023/24 will open later this month.  Please keep an eye on the Members Update for further details and where to find the Terms of Competition and Entry Procedures.

Members are asked to consider their own availability for arranging matches before entering, particularly if players are intending to have extended holidays in the new year.  The provisional timetable for the winter competitions are:

Entry Opens:                             6am on Monday 14^th August 2023

Entry Closes:                             10pm on Sunday 24^th September 2023

League Stages Commence:        2^nd October 2023

League Stages Conclude:           31^st December 2023

Knockout Stage Commences:     8^th January 2024

The provisional deadline dates for knockout stages is as follows (based on 16 qualifying pairs):

Round 1:           11^th February 2024

Quarter Final:   10^th March 2024

Semi Final:        7^th April 2024

Final:                28^th April 2024

Entry for both the men’s Lombard 4BBB and mixed Winter Foursomes will be via the Club V1 App/HowDidiDo.

Entry for both competitions if open to 7 day members who have competed in 6 qualifying competitions in the preceding 12 months (25th September 2022 to 24th September 2023).

How to enter for Men’s Lombard 4BBB & Mixed Winter Foursomes:

Entry is via “HowDidiDo” or Club V1 Members Hub.

1. From the “menu” select “knockouts” and find either

“Mixed Winter Foursomes 2023-24 (entries only)” OR

“Men’s Lombard 4BBB 2023-24 (entries only)

2. Select “View Info” or down arrow to view details, and select “enter knockout”
3. At the confirmation screen, your name will appear in the box labelled “player 1”, start entering the the surname of your playing partner in “player 2”, and select the correct partner and click “enter”.

Chair Competitions & Handicap Committee, Handicap Secretary

handicaps@alresfordgolf.co.uk

Steve Oldham

Vets Captain

The observant amongst you will have noted some small lines at the edge of the greens this has come from a piece of work done by Rob Gates, Ash Wilmott, Sean Yates, Simon Justice and the green team to make the use of coloured flags to denote the front, middle and backs of greens more accurate. They measured the depth of each green front to back perpendicular to the tee (or the fairways for doglegs). The depth was then divided into three and marked at the side of each green, giving the greens team a guide for flag colours.

The “Alresford Golf Club Pin Positions” have been posted on the course information page of the club website and a hard copy pinned to the members notice board for your information.

The first week of August is usually Greens Maintenance Week. This is year we start on Monday 31^st July, but we are starting later in the day as we are also accommodating a Vets Match V Sandford Springs so once the match is through the first green the team will make a start!

The running order for Greens Maintenance Week this year is as follows.

1. Greens will be cut to remove growth from the previous 24 hours.
2. We will then scarify to a depth of 3mm. This cleans the sward of any surface thatch.
3. Solid tining to a depth of 7 inches, to aid root growth, relieve compaction and allow oxygen deep into the profile.
4. Scarification is followed by hollow coring to a depth of 1-2 inches. This will remove organic matter/thatch and help to firm up the surfaces.
5. We will then overseed with bent grass at a rate of 5-7 grams per square metre followed.
6. Then comes sand dressing followed by brushing and rolling the green surfaces.
7. Cutting heights will be raised to 4.5mm to help the seed germinate and the greens recover.
8. The greens will receive regular nutrition in liquid form after maintenance week to speed up recovery. Given good weather we should see normal playing conditions and ball roll 2 weeks after maintenance.

At our last Greens Committee meeting Simon Justice, our course manager, explained the makeup of our greens and how the types of grass are affected by factors such as weather, disease etc and how that affects green speeds. Consequently, I asked Simon to provide an explanation to members in FORE. Simon writes,

“Our greens are made up of a mix of Poa grass and Bent grass. Poa is an annual meadow grass which flowers mid-May creating a white tint to the green. Typically, this slows the speed of the green during this period. This is complicated by the current climate as this grass also throws a seedhead or flower out when it is stressed, and I am seeing this more and more often as we go through the summer months. Bent grass is the darker coloured grass, with a slightly thicker leaf blade, you can see within the sward.

Poa annua is susceptible to many turf grass diseases whereas Bent grass has a good resistance to the diseases. If you look at the grass sward on the greens, it will always be the lighter coloured Poa which gets hit by disease and the darker coloured Bent will be sat happily with no disease. This is why we are trying to establish a greater proportion of Bent grass in our greens, to prevent major disease outbreaks. Another major and related reason for this is the reduction of chemicals available to greenkeepers. Currently, we are losing fungicides at a rate of at least one a month, so we need to look at a grass species that requires less water, less fertiliser, and suffers from less disease outbreaks. Bent grass surfaces are considered the best in the UK, for greens, given the right environment.

We will never be Poa free, but we are making good progress in increasing the proportion of bent grass in our greens. For Bent grass to survive it needs a free draining surface which, we create with all the maintenance regimes, including top dressings, we apply to the greens throughout the year. Bent grass also need light and air movement so presently if we use the 10^th green as an example we have restricted light because of shading from the trees, this will also cause rooting problems so the Bent grass will struggle to establish in this environment.

Having a mix of grasses in greens does leave us some challenges, we go through a tough period between April and May when at first the Bent starts to grow. It grows at lower soil temperatures than Poa, so we get an uneven effect on the surface and then the Poa species throws out its flower. This naturally slows the ball down until we can do we get consistent soil temperatures and we can then improve the situation. Maintenance procedures that will help us get through this period are regular mowing and at the nearest opportunity to getting consistent soil temperature lowering the cutting height, regular brushing and applications of top dressing and nutrition liquid spraying implementing plant growth regulators into the mix. We are already doing most of this, but we have been advised by the STRI to substantially increase our application of sand dressing. This, as with almost all improvements comes at a cost; the cost of purchasing more sand (from 60-80 tonnes to 100-120 tonnes of sand dressing per year) plus increased maintenance costs for our cutting units.”

Recently Mark Tiplady, Simon Justice, Rob Gates and I took a “Tree Walk” (woodland management). The objectives on a tree walk are as follows.

• We are mindful of the safety of anyone on our site, greenkeepers, walkers and golfers.
• Ash Dieback. We are now (through 3-5 years’ experience) able to identify diseased specimens. These become increasingly unsafe as many die from the top down.
• Identify weak, dead, poor quality, trees that detract from the look or play of the course with a view to removal.
• Identify areas where the old “plant 3 to keep 1” has not been followed through, leaving trees struggling for space, light etc.
• Last but not least, identify opportunities to plant new and appropriate trees.

We made excellent progress on the tree walk and our findings will inform our work over the next six months and beyond.

Derek Myers

Chair of Greens