Clubhouse Development

It seems such a long time ago that we took the first steps to redevelop our bar, lounge and kitchen areas. The Kitchen@ continue to provide extensive hours of service way beyond that Club’s previous offering which is resulting in more people using the clubhouse more often.

We had promised to provide final costs on the build to members which we can now formulate. There are two contractual retention periods left, however the final costs will not increase from this point, so we can report to you on the maximum final costs.

At the Management Committee meeting last evening we agreed that this will be included in Fore Info next month.

Administration and Governance Review

The Administration and Governance review was presented at the Management Committee on 30^th May 2023 and carried in full. A full action list is now being delivered including the need to adjust the sub-committee structure as the Bar & Catering Committee has very little work given that we now have a contract in place with The Kitchen@ to deliver those services. We need to ensure that members have effective channels for feedback and suggestions, but we also need to adapt as things change.

Course Emergency

Our Greenkeeping team provided outstanding playing conditions for the Jubilee Cup weekend only to find that the main irrigation pump, and then its back up pump, failed on Tuesday 30^th May. To complicate matters, our course manager Simon Justice was on leave. We have to thank the entire greenkeeping team for going the extra mile to get essential water onto the course and especially Adam who was working right through to 8pm to identify replacement pumps and have them fitted this week. Amazing work!

Water Usage and Storage

By 2030 the Club will face restrictions on its use of our bore hole water and mains water. In effect this is likely to result in the need to build a reservoir, or more than one reservoir, to store water. As an indication, if the reservoir was one metre deep it may be about the size of a football pitch; so, this is a very large project.

The Management Committee will now put in place arrangements to plan this project and find the correct solutions for the Club and ways of funding the project. Whilst restrictions may come into force in 2030, we will plan to be ahead of the curve and complete the project in good time thus securing the course for future generations.

Robert White

Chairman of the Management Committee

Cornwall in sunshine, a super place to be.

I must start with a massive thank you to all those who attended my Captain’s Trip. Four days of golf at St Mellion in Cornwall with the sun shining and 88 golfers truly put to the test made for a great adventure.

With a total of 92 guests, we pretty much took over the hotel, who should be complimented on every aspect of service and a golf professional team who left no stone unturned to ensure we all had a great time.

I chose the venue as it had two picturesque and testing courses. Not built for the long hitters but for those (not me!) able to surgically plot their way around. The winning team, over three days of competition, certainly deserve our respect in their ability to score so well. Keith Halls, Richard Carlton, Jeff Ellington and Nick Austin each played their part in topping the league of 22 teams – well done. There were many fine displays of great golf but the real winner was Rainbow Trust.

Thanks to the generosity of those there and significant donations on our return means we have raised £5,000 for the Captains’ Charity. Gill and I are grateful for the thanks for hard work we put into the planning and organisation of the event but we consider that time well spent when we reflect on the funds raised. A heartfelt thank you to you all.

Back here at Alresford then season really is getting into full swing. With the extra May bank holiday (which of course was damp!) we held our first ever Greenkeepers Revenge…it certainly lived up to it’s name!

As the course and tee times get busier, please remember to send a text or email should you join another playing group. You are not asking to join them, it is your right to play as a member, but it is polite to give them notice to look out for an extra player; this is applicable to both new and long-standing members. On the subject of new members, I would like to thank those who have made our 2023 intake welcome. I have received great feedback from those who joined in recent years regarding the friendliness of our club. You should be proud, long may this continue.

The Captains’ Charity Day will soon be with us on June 4^th. Gunnel, Steve, Oscar and I have done our best to ensure it will be a balance of a golfing test, fun and an opportunity for the whole club to make a difference to challenged families in our area through Rainbow Trust. Please support the day in any way you can.

Good luck in all the upcoming competitions.

Simon Freemantle

Captain

Club Championship

24^th & 25^th June 2023

Registration for entry has now closed.

The allocation of preliminary playing groups and tee-times will be made week commencing 13^th June and once this process has been completed, this will appear live on the Members Hub.  Final tee times published week commencing 19^th June (this is after the final handicap qualifying event prior to Championship weekend) and competitors will then receive an email of their start time for Round 1 on Saturday 24^th June. You will not have to book tee times on for either Saturday 24th or Sunday 25^th and the course will be closed for casual play until at least 3:30pm on both days. If a player has not been allocated a place they will be notified separately.

On Saturday 24^th, once the last group has handed in their cards the competition organisers will compile the results for Round 1 and this will determine the playing groups on Sunday 25^th.  The order of play for Round 2 will be in descending order of Round 1 gross scores. This start sheet will be emailed to all competitors on Saturday evening. It will be the responsibility of each player to know their start time on Sunday morning. The first start time for both Round 1 and Round 2 will be 08:00am.

On each day of the competition, players should register and collect their score cards from the Scorer’s Table which will be located in the Clubhouse.  Within 5 minutes of completion of each round, players should return their cards to the Scorer’s Table and ensure they have agreed with the scorer that the card is correct before leaving.

Given the format of the Championship, players who fail to participate in the 2nd round will cause significant disruption to the running of the competition. Consequently, and based on our experience of other 2-day competitions, we are making it a condition of competition that unless a player notifies the Committee on return of their Round 1 scorecard that they will be unable to play in Round 2, he/she will be excluded from all competitions, and knock-outs until 1^st August 2023.

Entry to the Championship sweepstake (both men and ladies) will be available in the Pro’s Shop.  An optional 2’s Club will also be running.

To allow for the preparation for the Club Championship, General Play rounds will be suspended from Wednesday 14th June to Sunday 25^th June 2023.

Chair Competitions & Handicap Committee, Handicap Secretary

handicaps@alresfordgolf.co.uk

Vets Captain

Steve Oldham

As I’m writing this contribution to FORE the second round of the Jubilee Cup is underway and I hope all entrants enjoy the course as much as I did yesterday. The good growing conditions of the past month or so has seen the course come back well following the punishment it took over the winter and early spring. We are beginning to see our course at its most challenging and at its best. As a chalk downland course, the seasons play a major part in how our course plays and looks. The grass is growing now, the rough is coming up and most of us are finding the rough to be the hazard it should be on a downland course. For the next couple of months there will be no more “worldies” from the rough and all of us mere mortals will be able to do is try to hack it back on the fairway.

Those of you who have played the course over the past month will have seen that we have allowed the rough to grow up on the back of the fairway bunkers, this is more in keeping with downland courses (like heather on the back of bunkers on heathland courses) and ties the bunker into the surrounding landscape.

The team are mowing the “cut” rough weekly at present because the warmth and moisture in the ground have created ideal growing conditions.

The greens are steadily improving and were running well yesterday. Earlier in the month they were slow because the meadow grass was going through its seeding cycle. This is now complete, and they are rolling out well. The greens mowing height is 3.5mm and ball roll speeds are starting to head towards 9.5 feet (we had 10 on Friday). However, please note we play this game on grass so be prepared for more seeding events as the other grass types seed and as the grass stresses given different weather patterns. The team will continue to work hard to minimise the effect of this, but we all know you can’t beat mother nature! Recently the team have aerated the greens, with 8mm solid tines, to oxygenate the profile and help with root growth. They have also applied a light top dressing, early in May, and another top dressing will be applied early June in preparation for The Club Championships on the 24^th and 25^th June.

In addition to the top dressing, the greens have also had nutrition in the form of nitrogen, calcium and magnesium plus applications of a wetting agent and bio stimulants coupled with growth regulator to keep the seed heads at bay. As the sun warms up, we are losing up to 5mm of water in evaporation from green surfaces a day and the team are already watering overnight and, in some areas, daily hand watering. Damage caused by leather jackets and the subsequent actions of rooks, crows, etc continues to challenge the greenkeeping team. There was significant damage on some of the greens at the end of April. Volunteers have supported the greens team in placing tarpaulin on some of the worst affected greens at night, including the 2^nd green from which a good number of grubs were subsequently removed. The team then applied an insecticide on the greens and coupled with a wetting agent, this and the rain that followed (Simon watches several weather forecasts closely) brought out more of the grubs and they were removed successfully on several greens.

I’ve written before about the importance of developing a deeper root zone on the greens to ensure good health and playability. Simon and the team have been working hard on this and we are beginning to see the benefits of this with root depths on all greens improved and some almost doubled. This is particularly positive news because over the winter you tend to lose depth. The average across all greens was 5.14cm six months ago, it is now 6.63cm an increase of 29%. On our sand-based greens there was an average increase of 22%, compared to 15% on our fen soil greens and 47% on our soil-based greens.

We have received some feedback on sand depth in bunkers. This is something the team continue to work on, checking the depths and moving sand around where necessary on a weekly basis. It is incumbent on all players who enter a bunker to rake them on exit. When doing so please try to ensure that your raking does not contribute to inconsistent sand depth.

The tees and aprons are looking good, but they are also starting to dry out in places! We have applied nutrition to these areas every 3 weeks.  The team have treated the fairways for weeds and have also applied growth regulator to slow growth down and help keep them tidy. A wetting agent has also been applied to the fairways, this will help to conserve water and slow the drying process.

The greens team have continued with the maintenance of “course furniture” including benches and the yardage posts which have been sanded and oiled.

Finally, Simon and the team hope you enjoyed the “Greenkeepers Revenge” and have asked to pass on their thanks for the contribution players made to the staff party fund. Feedback has been positive with entrants “enjoying” the tricky pins and obstacles around the course.

Derek Myers

Chair of Greens