Fore Info May 2020

Management Corner

Furlough and Essential Staff

The Personnel Committee has met twice recently to consider the staffing implications from closure of the Club due to Covid-19 restrictions. The Personnel Committee considered options to furlough some staff, and retain others essential to maintaining the course and our Club. The Management Committee supported the recommendations from the Personnel Committee which are under review on a fortnightly basis.

Re-Opening of the Course

The opportunity to re-open the course is out of our hands and we await information from Government to guide us. There is no telling when this might be, of course, or what restrictions might be in place. We are however planning in the background on some basic assumptions, central to which is prioritising loyal members. If Nikki and I have found the closure of the Club tough, I imagine it is the same for all members. So; for the initial period of re-opening it is envisaged that only members of the Club will be able to play the course or use the practice facilities. The Management Committee will meet urgently when we become aware of the potential to re-open to ensure that all members and all sections of the Club can get back to golf as soon as possible.

Recruitment of the Head Professional

Our advert for a new Head Professional closes on 30th April and we will therefore cease to accept further applications. There has been much interest in the position with in excess of 20 applications received so far from PGA Professionals currently employed locally, nationally and internationally. A sub-group of The Management Committee has been formed to consider all applications and to narrow-down candidates to a short-list of an unspecified number. Given the quality of the applications received, this is going to be a very tough job indeed. Ultimately, those candidates short-listed will be interviewed by The Management Committee with all current Captains invited to attend. So; we will ultimately appoint through a fully democratic and transparent process, and hope to offer the role in the summer to enable a smooth transition through to November 1st. I have spoken briefly to Malcolm about celebrations to mark the immense contribution to our Club by both himself and Jane; more to come on this nearer the time from the relevant committees.

So, I hope that we can all get back to playing our course in the near future, and thank you for your continued support and loyalty to our unique Members Club.

Robert White

Chairman of the Management Committee

From the Club Captain

Isn’t it marvellous – we have just had one of the wettest winters, yet the weather didn’t stop us. Now we are into ‘wall to wall sunshine’, and all we can do is look at the course (in my case from afar via the webcam).

“When we will be allowed back on the course?” is the $64K question!

Wont we enjoy it when we can play … … and to heck with bad shots!

In the meantime the following may amuse – they came to me from my sister ‘across the pond’.

Keep safe

Mary Rook

Ladies Section

How many of us have ever spent so much time at home? Lockdown coinciding with the warmest driest April ever recorded.

We have been keeping in touch via Zoom, with some difficulties in my case, but David Maskery & the Management Committee have been extremely active keeping the Club up & running in our absence. Despite the difficulties, we’ll be ready to hit the course running once the green light is given.

Chris Pullinger has been a godsend to many, with weekly supplies & delicious freshly cooked meals delivered with care to the distanced doorstep! 

I have ventured to the Club a couple of times & enjoyed the Captain’s parking space

The lovely flowering shrub by the steps is Viburnum carlesii.  Planted by myself in 2000 It is happy on chalk & neglect! and this is what it looks like after 20 years.

We must be proud of the newly formed ‘Alresford Scrubbers’, who have been tirelessly working on making outfits, bags, masks etc for the NHS, Sarah Marshallsay & Jan Harring organising a team of over 30 ladies with great effect & output.

One of them was Pat Palmer here modelling a ‘scrubs outfit’.

Pat, a member of Alresford for 47 years & Lady Captain in 1992, is a valuable Team Player & still maintains a low handicap.

Our Vice Captain Di Peisley has been keeping us amused with some very funny videos from Australia. She has been busy in her garden & has used 50 bags of Compost on her beds! A good way to keep fit!

Past Captain Sue has organised Zoom tea parties & Bingo which is such a great way to see how us girls are looking, especially the length of our hair!

I’m sure our Ladies will be thinking positive & will be ready to embrace play once again, I wonder how many of you were able to chip onto Malcom’s mat?

With great anticipation and fingers crossed our first competitive foray should be at Romsey at the beginning of July for their Team Golf Competition, already organised by an ably optimistic Linda Glynn.

Let’s hope it’s on!

Mal H-M 

Match Committee Report

WHS Update

The current status of the move to the new World Handicapping System is that the implementation date remains at 2nd November 2020.

The Match Committee had deliberately scheduled a lot of qualifying competitions this year so that we all had plenty of opportunity to return a good number of scores over 8 months (that is a sufficient quantity of scores rather that a number of good scores).

Your new handicap index is based on the average of the best 8 from your last 20 scores. However, we are assured by England Golf that, though the situation isn’t ideal, they have everyone’s scores back to January 2018 so the process to transition from your exact handicap to your new handicap index will still work.

For those of you who don’t return many qualifying scores, the following extract from the WHS FAQs is relevant ….

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Obviously, this was written before the lockdown, but everyone will be allocated a handicap index using the data which is available.

Given that we were anticipating that the Club Systems software would start to display a handicap index alongside your exact handicap this summer, it seems likely that England Golf will also start a promotional campaign in the coming weeks which will be followed by educational material which we will share with you all.

Winter Eclectic

The results of the Winter Eclectic have been delayed because of the lockdown, but will be published in Fore when they are available.

George Clelland

A Look at the Rules

Question.

In a match, players A and B have a blind tee shot.

When walking up the fairway, each player finds their ball and both play to the green.

At this point a walker who was crossing the course said he had found player A’s ball out of bounds and threw it back onto the fairway.

 

 

What is the ruling and would it be different in Stroke play?

Vets Section

Well, when I became Vets Captain in November I certainly didn’t think I would have ample time on my hands in which to paint the outside of the house, decorate the hall and the kitchen, and manicure the garden to the point where weeds are conspicuous by their absence. Like most people I suspect my ‘To Do’ list is currently taking a bit of a hammering.

I’m sure that, like me, you are all seriously missing your golf right now. There is only so much watching of old golf tournaments on the TV or practicing on the lawn that any sane person can tolerate before tedium and frustration win out. 

Alas, I haven’t been to the Club for well over a month now. I am told that the course looks an absolute picture in the spring sunshine; not that

I find this very comforting at the moment. So, putting it bluntly, I have little in the way of golfing matters to report on this month. Other than the one solitary successful match against Corhampton back in the middle of March, all other scheduled Vets inter-club matches, 8 to the end of April, have understandably been cancelled.

I fear this may be the way of things for a little while yet. One crumb of comfort is that Denmark recently reinstated the playing of golf at its clubs, albeit it with restrictions, ie only one or two balls. I don’t know about you, but I would settle for this at present!

So, apologies that there is not much more to share with you this month, but hopefully, some of the restrictions will be lifted before too long and we will all, once again, have the chance to play our favourite sport and to reacquaint ourselves with that little white ball.

In the meantime, please, please, adhere to social distancing, stay safe and don’t take any unnecessary risks.

See you soon, I hope.

 

Ed Tinley

…from the Secretary

Welcome A huge welcome to all the following 28 new members who have joined us in March and April despite not being able to play!

Mark Truran, Andrew Gwynne, Jamie Rowe, Nick Callaway, Paul Hutchison, Tim Reid, Robin Cockain, Gill Stubbs, Paul Robson, Terry Waters, David Buckland, Martin Simmonds, Lee Feast, Peter Chase, Colin Newton, Mike Barter, Chris Stephens, Lee Phillips, Mike Lane, Anthony Bradley, Paul Arber, Adrian Leese, Jonathan Wood, Louise Morton, Patrick Morton, Peter Cant, Mike Skinner and Nick Batchelor.

Thank you!

We look forward to seeing you all participating in all the golfing events and opportunities we have at the club – whenever they are able to resume. We sincerely hope you will all enjoy your time with us for many years to come.

Remember  – YOU, our members are our best sales people. We need new members and have vacancies in all categories? If you know any friends or acquaintances who are thinking of joining a club, or changing clubs or have new neighbours who have recently moved to the area, please do your best to sell them the benefits of Alresford Golf Club.  Now more than ever we need your help to convert ‘interest’ into membership and as soon as the club re-opens we will be launching a brand new ‘New members’ incentive scheme.

RE-ARRANGED

FORTHCOMING EVENT YOUR DIARY

NOW SCHEDULED FOR – Saturday 10TH OCTOBER

Please let the office know if you still wish to attend this event

Under the ‘SPOTLIGHT’

Thank you to Mary Rook for answering the questions …

Holes in One: Very ‘lucky’ to have had 2!  

1st one was a good shot (for me) on 5th hole at Isla Canela in Spain during a practice round a couple of days before start of the 2008 Hants PGA overseas Pro Am.  On the tee we could not see the green and so had no idea where the ball ended but Phil Bryden, our team’s Pro, was at the green & saw it go in.

2nd on 10th at Alresford.  Date? – without looking at the board in the bar!   During a Saturday roll-up hit a terrible shot which probably only got about 12inches off the ground.  I was so disgusted with I did not watch but fortunately my playing partners did. 

Favourite UK Course:    Difficult to pick one only!  Toss-up between Royal North Devon – have played it twice (well walked round with clubs) but …. and Bamborough (ABFAB on a nice day)

Golf Ball:   Titliest Pro v1

What Clubs do you Play?  Cleveland

Best TV Commentator:    Always was Peter Allis but Ewan Murray coming up on the rails.

Best Major:    The OPEN

First drink in the Clubhouse:    To maintain my reputation have to say Pot of Tea

Best ‘Half-Way’ House:   Downs at Goodwood

Bacon Roll or Sausage Sandwich?  Bacon Roll

Most Underated Course:    Pass!! – brain dead 

Toughest Golf Course:   Any, on a bad playing day

Favourite Golfing Destination:    South Africa 

Best Clubhouse:   Alresford – not the building but the people in it.

Favourite Hole at Alresford:    17th

Have you ever four-putted?    Often sadly!!

Favourite Golfer:   Rory (now Seve is no longer with us)

Bucket List Course:    Pebble Beach

Perfect Fourball:  not sure, but would have to include my late brother Nick.

HANGING BASKETS

For those members who have pre-ordered their summer hanging baskets – we are still expecting them to be planted up and delivered to us ready for your collection. As soon as we have a date for this, we will contact everyone for payment. You will need to collect from the club as quickly as possible in case it is dry weather.

Have you downloaded the Club V1 App onto your smartphone?

To download the app please visit the App Store (Apple) or Play Store (Android) and search for ClubV1 Members Hub. The app is completely free. If you wish to download the Club app to your laptop or home computer use the web link below, creating a HDIDO registration as above and saving onto your desktop.

https://alresford.hub.clubv1.com

One of the key benefits of the app is that it will provide a secure access to members contact information. However, members must edit / confirm their details and privacy settings to enable other members to be able to access their contact details.

Within the Members area you will also be able to view:

  • Course Status
  • Live Competition Leaderboard
  • Club News
  • Competition Results
  • Bar Balance and Receipts
  • Members List
  • Edit your personal details and privacy settings (You must ‘opt in’ for other members to be able to view your contact details)
  • Club Diary

Please inform the club if you wish your name to be not visible to other members.

We fully expect changes and guidelines to playing access. It is therefore important that members are able to keep up to date with course availability and any notifications. The App is an easy way for us 

**********

Thankyou

Once again thank you to everyone who has telephone the Office or emailed their support of the staff at this difficult time. It is heart-warming for us to know that we are appreciated. I am glad that you have welcomed the regular ‘Members Updates’ which give you an idea of what’s been going on. The golf club is a real community and therein lies the strength of the club. Your continued support of the club in all its various aspects is what makes the club strong and healthy. We will survive!

Stay Safe

I have not been made anywhere of any member who has suffered with COVID19 and so sincerely hope that we all are able to stay safe and healthy during this period and that we can resume the sport we all love before not too long. Remember, however tempting it is to go out, short term pain equals longer term benefit of being out and about sooner. Stay inside and help the NHS beat the virus! The golf course and practice facilities will be here waiting for us all when we are told we can resume.

… … within the guidelines

This is a picture taken off our webcam (22/04) and sent through to me at the club with a comment ‘Social distancing??’ I cannot identify who it is or if they are members.

Please be aware that our webcam is ‘open public access’. Bad publicity is not what we need at this time. If you are coming to the course for your exercise you must be complying with the guidelines. 

David Maskery

FACEBOOK – check out our Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/alresfordgolfclub

Make sure you ‘like’ our Facebook page and you will link to it and get the regular pictures and updates on what’s happening ! Share with your friends to help us boost our online and social media profiles

 


Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/alresford_golf_club/

Green News

I’m finding myself becoming almost obsessive about the weather!

After so much rainfall in winter we have applied 20% of our annual borehole quota of water in April. As I write it is thankfully raining, which is our first drop, apart from 17th April, when we got 30mm which was of enormous benefit. 

The recent divot filling exercise was a huge success, thanks to all who made a contribution, with the whole course being done just prior to the rain. So hopefully we will see some germination in early May. 

Our newly planted trees are showing signs of life. Amongst the many very helpful and probably unseen things Malcolm does for the club is ‘hand-watering’ them during dry spells.

Our greens are being cut at the summer height of 4mm and, apart from the treatment of some high populations of leather jackets, are very healthy. No fungicide has been applied since late January. The bunkers have been topped up and are raked once a week mainly to keep the weeds at bay. 

Footpaths have been graded and topped up with fresh material.

Fertiliser was applied to the fairways just before the rain on 17th so they are looking good with some beautiful ‘cutting patterns’ achieved by Dan who has been cutting them and the surrounds since ‘lockdown‘. 

The Greens Committee had a Zoom ‘video conference meeting’ which worked very well. Following feedback the swale to the RHS side of the 16th has been cut to 10mm which is the same as Tees and Aprons.

This is for a trial period – we will listen to golfers, review feedback and monitor the on-going condition of the swale. So you might want to experiment with a putt here when we re-open!

Whilst hotels are closed across the country and beyond, Ben’s ‘Bug Hotel” is now open! It’s just beyond the 12th green in the trees.

He’s done a lovely job using pallets, logs, drainage pipe, and some cowslips.

You will notice the Range and Practice Facilities have had some significant improvements and additional maintenance, which all helps with giving our course that very positive ‘first impression’, eg., the “dome” was blasted with water to remove algae and dust.

Our new bunkers are settling down nicely and ready for play. The grass edges showed some distress due lack of water but are now beginning to recover.

Our two John Deere “surrounds and banks” mowers were scheduled for return this month at the end of their lease and an extension could not be amicably agreed. So two new Toro mowers will be received on terms that are better in the longer term.

Our ‘Greenkeeper of the Month’ is Daniel Jeffries.

Dan has been with us since Feb 2013 and apart from being Level 2 is also spraying and chainsaws qualified.

He is a competitive weight lifter so if you see him “shifting” materials with ease then you understand why!

Looking forward, needless to say, I sincerely hope next months article will be after the course has re-opened.

Bob Moore
Chair of Greens Committee

A Look at the Rules

Answer.

As player A did not know his ball was not in play and was a wrong ball when he played his second shot, the hole should be played out with the wrong ball and no penalty applied. Therefore both players are on the green in two.

In stroke play: If player A was made aware of the ball being thrown back before he or she tees off from the next tee or in the case of the 18th hole posts their score, the player must not count the wrong ball and must return to the tee under stroke and distance playing their 3rd shot.

100 Club

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

£100            Gil Francis

£50              Jane Hendry

£32              Peter Wallis

£32              Tim Chandler

£32              Gareth Rees

£32              Tineke Ribbink

A big thank you to David for managing our draw remotely again this month. We are grateful for the Office keeping us in touch with what is happening with our club while we are unable to play or visit, especially during this lovely weather.

Well we have our winners so congratulations to them all this month.  Hopefully they can enjoy spending their winnings in due course.  Both Tineke Ribbink and Peter Wallis have been lucky for two months running – Peter is delighted and is convinced that remote draws are the way forward!!

All being well the next draw will take place week beginning 18 May.

If anyone is interested in knowing a little about the origins of the 100 Club then check out this section in the June 2019

FORE Info or the members section of the club website.  Alternatively contact me – details below.

100 Club Snippets

Meanwhile I thought you may like a snippet from the archives – from the original centenary book of the history of Alresford Golf Club 1890-1990 and courtesy of memories from Brian Young.

The 100 Club was formed to raised funds towards the cost of celebrating the Golf Club Centenary in 1990. The inaugural draw was made on the evening of 22 August 1987 at 9.00pm in the clubhouse. Jim Little who was on the Social Committee had taken on the job of organising this newly formed club and it was the old tombola drum used by his colleagues at work that was used for the draw. Members who had applied for shares in the 100 Club were advised by letter (remember those!) which enclosed their share certificates. Subsequent draws were made every two months on a Sunday morning in the clubhouse – this being one of the busiest times to attract members interest. Jim later went on to become Club Captain in 1994 and we believe he now lives in London as a Chelsea Pensioner.

Keep fit and well everyone.

For more information on the 100 Club contact Pat Wallis on 01420 564417 or peterpat51@outlook.com

Pat Wallis

Results

Men’s & Mixed Competitions
All Matches Cancelled Course Closed Due to Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Ladies’ Competitions
All Matches Cancelled Course Closed Due to Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Social Committee

The message from the Social Committee is still “please keep safe until we can all get together again”.

Les Thorne

Chair Social Committee 

Team Golf 2020 – The 9-Hole Evening Summer League

As you are all already aware that there will be no club competitions in any form until at least July, that obviously covers TG.

However, being optimistic, and just in the ‘unlikely event’ there is suddenly a ‘small window’ in June, TG will leave it’s final cancellation of the ‘competition’ until next month.

Every good wish to you all – stay fit and healthy ready for the resumption of general play, even if TG is not to be?

John White
Team Golf Manager

…the sheep’s write to reply

Look after yourselves – we’re looking forward to seeing you all, next year, bah-none!

Editor: Trevor Hodgkinson

DISCLAIMER

The Editorial Team take no responsibility for incorrect information received from Contributors.