Clubhouse Development Programme – Approval to proceed.

I am delighted to report that the recommendation of the Management Committee to progress with Option 2 of the Clubhouse Development Programme was carried at the Special General Meeting (SGM) of the Club. The Club is most grateful to extensive contributions made by former Captains Graham Marshallsay and Brian Wright at the early stages of concepts, and the most recent contributions of Sue Masser and David Maskery in preparation for the SGM on behalf of the Management Committee. We are also indebted to Nick Duncan, Chair of Planning and Development, for communicating so effectively throughout the planning stages and for delivering on ambitious targets for full members, which provides a stable financial base on which to plan confidently for the future.

The Club held the Special General Meeting (SGM) on Friday, 15^th January 2021 to determine matters in relation to Clubhouse Development as required by our rules. 121 full members participated by either providing proxy votes to the SGM or by attending, and voting, at the meeting hosted on Zoom. In compliance with Club rules regarding general meetings of the Club; the meeting was quorate upon the participation of a minimum of 50 full members.

Next Steps

Chair of House, Sue Masser, and the General Manager will progress the following, on behalf of the Management Committee;

• Liaise with the architect to provide final plans and apply for planning permission
• Review schedule and costs associated with the Clubhouse Development
• Invite and review tenders from contractors
• Provide final costs to the Management Committee (assuming planning permission is granted)

Should planning permission be granted the Management Committee will consider costs and schedules, taking into account the agreed caveats in place; set out below.

There are three caveats to be in place, before the build for Option 2 begins;

1. An extension to the current lease for the 30 acres leased from the Tichborne Estate is signed and in place.
2. The Management Committee’s assumptions on the maximum number of full members are achieved.
3. The Management Committee will continue to manage the risks presented by the ongoing Covid pandemic. Whilst it is not possible to specify the exact conditions that need to be in place in relation to Covid in order to commit to the build phase of Option 2, the Management Committee will restrict or approve progress sensibly in relation to the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic.

Club Professional – Mark Wood

You can probably imagine how tough it is for our new Head Professional, Mark Wood and his wife Mandy who both joined us on 1st November 2020.

Due to Covid restrictions they are currently unable to open the shop or provide coaching at this time. However, they are taking bookings for coaching and indeed providing excellent deals on equipment that can be collected in readiness for your return to golf. Golf coaching packages are available at discounted rates which will provide the perfect springboard for you to get back into golf for the season.

The Pro-Shop has been upgraded, to provide a lighter space.  Upgrades to Flightscope for coaching provide state of the art coaching support, with video, together with ball and swing path tracking. It’s quite an experience and available through Mark at your Club in the new Golf Studio; so, do book in advance.

Members Subscriptions

Many thanks to the vast majority of members who have paid their 2021 subscriptions already and claimed their £50 credit for paying before the end of January. As a members club, your loyalty is critical to our successful future.

We do appreciate that some members do leave each year, which is why the Club runs a continuous campaign to bring in 40 to 50 new members each year. On 1st February the Management Committee will meet to determine the maximum number of full members for 2021, as we have been experiencing much more members’ golf during the Covid period, and there is an obvious limit to the number of tee times that can be available. There will be no opportunity to pay a ‘pro-rata subscription’ to renew later in the spring; for example, as we are expecting membership to be full at that time.

Any current member who paid before 31st January 2021 is guaranteed membership for the year, however from 1st February the Club will be accepting the applications from new members waiting to join, and we will be limiting the total number of full members to ensure that the course is not too busy. That number is very likely to be slightly less than the total number of members that we had last year.

As recently announced; the Government will be reviewing Covid restrictions in a few weeks’ time, and we expect the course to re-open at that time so we will re-open tee bookings to paid-up members at the earliest opportunity. However, when coming to play, do ensure that you attach your members tag to your golf bag because the Club will be operating a strict ‘no bag-tag…no golf’ policy. We do appreciate that there can be a lag of a few days between making payment and collecting your bag-tag, especially if playing at weekends. I am sure that you will understand that we need to check that only 2021 members are playing the course.

So; if you intend to play at the Club in 2021, and have yet to pay your subscription, you must do so without delay. Otherwise you risk losing out should new membership be closed.

1^st Impressions Project

In our absence, Simon and the greens team have made outstanding progress on the 1^st Tee and 1^st Impressions project. There is a noticeable improvement already in the layout of the 1^st Tee providing for a safer environment and greatly enhanced ‘first impression’. As announced on Malcolm’s retirement; the 1^st hole will be re-named; ‘Scotts’, in appreciation of the many contributions to our Club and course by Malcolm, Jane and family. I look forward to not only returning to golf, but also to some ceremony and celebration upon formal drive-in of the new 1^st hole. No pressure, Malcolm, just a nice easy draw over the new bunker. I am sure, at that time, there will be a lot for the Club to celebrate in near-normal golfing conditions; hopefully!

I am expecting that next month’s Fore Info will be written having returned to golf at the Club. Times like these really do remind us how important our golf, community and friends are to us. Not long now; hopefully!

Robert White

Chair of the Management Committee

Entry for all the Summer Knockouts will be available on the Members App and HowDidIDo.

Note, for the Cooper, you have to enter as a team, but the teams in the Rotherham are drawn so you enter as an individual. Like all our other competitions, to be eligible to enter you must have played in 6 qualifying competitions (Supplementary and Casual Play Scores don’t count) in the 12 months prior to the closing date of the competition. A full list of all those eligible to enter the Company Cup will be posted in Match Committee section of the Members’ Area of the Club website.

Terms of Competition

It is a year since we first published our Terms of Competition. This has undergone a major revision with the introduction of WHS and now includes much more detail on competition eligibility, handicap allowances, sign-in and score entry requirements. It is in the final stages of review and will soon be posted on the Club website.

George Clelland

Question.

A players ball comes to rest on a path. When taking free relief, the player drops a ball from ankle height instead of knee height as required by the rules. The ball comes to rest in the relief area. What penalty does the player get if he/she does not correct the error by redropping?

Workers only live for about 6 weeks but can fly up to 5km to collect the pollen and nectar. After about 500km of flying their wings drop off! The Queen lives until she stops laying eggs and her ‘subjects’  decide she is of no more use. They will then kill her and arrange for several more Queens to be produced. The first of these to hatch will find the other queen cells and kill them with her sting. The Queen then leaves the hive on a mating flight to the Drone Assembly Area where a number of expectant drones are waiting.

Unbeknown to the drone the act of mating with the Queen results in their death as the act kills them by pulling their insides out.  Is there a lesson to be learnt there?  Honey is produced from late April through to September. Here in Alresford the first flow is in May largely from the oil seed rape being grown in surrounding fields. Later in the year the flowers on lime trees, of which there are many in Alresford, provide a second flow in  late June/mid July. George makes his own blend up from these two distinctive tasting honeys. During the summer there is a lot of work involved tending to the hives on a weekly basis which has to be  fitted in around playing golf and other household and gardening duties which is why George now only has 3 hives. George is a member of AGC and a member of the Vets Section.

As we look forward to the end of this current lockdown and a return to the golf course let us keep optimistic with a date in our diaries for the Vets Capt. v Vice Capt. fixture currently scheduled for the 10^th March. This is a very popular fixture and the traditional curtain raiser to the new season.

Updates will follow by email and also on the Notice Board once the Club House reopens.

Gareth Rees

The work involved in creating the new paths is considerable. The outline is created by removing the top soil and levelling/edging before then compacting Type 1. Then “limestone to dust” is put on top to provide the finishing touch and raked/levelled once again. You will notice the gap between the yellow and white tees on the 1^st has now gone as the path is re-routed. We are thinking of some feature planting in this area but need to be mindful of any ongoing maintenance costs. Perhaps a small shrubbery and box hedging, maybe some colour with annuals. If any of our keen gardeners fancy a challenge do get in touch! Likewise if somebody feels moved to sponsor a neat AGC box hedge or other feature that helps create a good 1^st Impression. The sides of the new Tees will be turfed when the weather conditions allow.

The practice swale was retaining water so a soak away was dug and it now appears to be fine. It was also discovered why some of the bunkers were holding water. The sand had compacted and blocked the layer of Aquadyne over the soak away. They have all been cleaned out and will be checked more frequently in future. The new fairway bunker on the 1^st has settled in nicely and will be in play when the course re-opens. We had planned to improve the drainage of the 7^th fairway just before the green this winter but might well defer that to next winter. Partly we seem to have less of a problem and partly to allow the other works to continue and complete.

Can we ask that members do not drive up to the log pile on the right hand side of the range please. This is partly because it’s very muddy at the pinch point beyond the range hut but also because it’s not a “help yourself” system. If you would like some logs please get in touch with Simon.

50% of the Ash between the 3^rd and 7^th fairways has now been removed due diseased, we will see how the remainder recovers before reviewing next winter. We have more Ash to come out between the 14^th and 15^th fairways and also behind the 13^th White Tee. You might have noticed the excess debris on the ground from the diseased ash trees after we have experienced high winds. Colin Luff is due in on 17^th February and Stumpbusters on 1^st March. We have an issue with lack of light and air to the 11^th green in particular so will ask Colin to look at some large trees on the right hand side that are well out of play but causing the shading issue for most of the day.

The crowns have been raised beyond the 12^th green with the plan being to extend the wild flowers and also allow more light and air to the green. The new tree saplings are on order and should arrive in early February with most of them going around the edge of the Academy Course.

We now have a long term plan for the Academy Course and hope to make incremental changes basically at no cost such that ultimately it will be 9 holes with some of the holes being increased in length.

A wildlife tail camera was set near the 5^th green to clarify if the turf damage was Corvids (Crow Family)  or Badgers. The foot prints in the snow favour Corvids with the trail camera mainly recording walkers and their dogs! The sheep have escaped four times now which we put down to walkers and their dogs being too close. Having explained the issue to members and walkers things appear to have improved. The picture above shows our resident “Sheep Whisperer” Dan settling them down again!

You might have noticed in your 2021 Diaries that Course Maintenance is 22-26 Feb! This is linked to the seasons not lockdowns and course reopening dates. Needless to say we have no idea when the course will be reopened and would not want to be spoiling your enjoyment when it does. So lets just see how this pans out.

Agreement has been reached across a number of committees to trial forward/blue tees. We will put these out in March on all 18 holes for the summer season and see how popular they are. If well utilised by Juniors and Seniors then we can in theory produce another card.

Bob Moore
Chair of Greens Committee

Answer.

The Player gets a one stroke penalty. Note; If the player had placed the ball instead of dropping it, he/she would get a two stroke penalty.
See Rule No. 14.3b

Why not find out more about the rules? The R&A Rules of Golf app, available on the app store, has thousands of quizzes in 3 difficulty levels. Great for a cold, cloudy lockdown day!

If you would like to be part of the 100 Club and actively contribute towards future enhancements to our facilities, and have the chance of winning a cash prize each month, then why not join us. 

The monthly draw is for six cash prizes: £100, £50 and four at £32. 

Each share cost £1 per month paid for by monthly standing order and there is no limit to the number you can purchase.  Members generally have between 1 and 10 shares with 5 being the most common holding. 

 For further information about the 100 Club and its history please refer to this section in previous editions of FORE Info.  Application forms can be obtained from the Secretary’s office or from me –  Pat Wallis phone 01420 564417 or email peterpat51@outlook.com 

 Pat Wallis