Strategic Plan – update

The Management Committee has decided that the 10-year Strategic Plan for the Clubhouse drafted by the Planning & Development Sub-Committee should be combined with the 10-year Building Maintenance Plan from the House Sub-Committee.

Greens Maintenance took place in the first week of August. Although the greens were solid tined and top-dressed with 40 tons of sand, there was minimal evidence of this having taken place only a few weeks later. Our green-keeping staff deserve congratulations from us all for such a fine job.

On the Friday following the Maintenance, the 100 Club members participated in their Salver competition. I am certain the Ladies who took the first seven places in this competition, would reiterate my comments above. Our Lady Captain, Mary came first with 41 points followed by Kathryn Fielden and Elaine Spreadbury who both had 40 points. Well done Ladies.

Our Lady Captain does seem to be having some success in the competitions this year. Winning the 100 Club Salver, Ladies Committee Cup and coming second in the Summer Salver and Ladies Senior Championship. Along the way she has also managed to reduce her handicap, which is not a bad feat in her Captain’s year.

In the friendly matches, the men are continuing to do well, winning against Meon Valley at home. Regrettably, Stoneham had to withdraw from their match with Alresford as they were unable to get a team together.

August has been such a busy month, I feel slightly exhausted! Its all been very enjoyable though and I hope you have all had a great month. The weather has certainly been changeable, either boiling hot sunshine or torrential rain!

We ended July with a fantastic result in the North Hants Trophy. Our team, made up of Lynne Cowser, Jane Scott and  Becky Scott, in the most awful weather imaginable, beat North Hants at North Hants in the North Hants!! Now they are in the semi finals on Monday September 3^rd at Brockenhurst. I wish the team the best of luck and I hope there will be lots of us supporting them.

Our Scratch team, Captained by Jane Scott, also has had fantastic results winning against Blackmoor at home and away this month. See the results of the Scratch Matches below.

And now, on to the Senior Ladies Championship… played over 2 days and in completely different weather! On Tuesday the weather was perfect and on Thursday it was terrible! Well done to Elizabeth Hesse who was the worthy winner and my thanks to all of you who battled the conditions on Thursday – we are a brave lot!

Congratulations also go to Karen Fox for being the first winner of our new Silver Salver… with a great score of net 68 as did Kathryn McLaughlin who came 2^nd on Countback… brilliant. Well done to them both.

Another well done..this time to my Vice Captain, Sue Masser who won the Summer Salver with a fantastic 40 points. We had a most enjoyable game together and she was hitting the ball beautifully. It all looks good for next year, Sue!

This month, we also played quite a few friendly matches and I was lucky enough to make my first ever trip to Foxhills. Wow, what a lovely course and Club… the cream tea afterwards is amazing. We lost the match but it was such a lovely day, so we weren’t that unhappy!

Armistice Day Competition

We are in the early stages of planning a special one-off competition to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the Armistice of 11th November 1918 to end the Great War. The concept plan is to hold a foursomes competition on Sunday 11^th November 2018 which will have a shotgun start at 11:02am. The klaxon will be sounded at 11:00am to mark the beginning of the 2-minute silence and then again at 11:02 to end the silence and the start of play.

There will be no formal entry fee as such, but we would like each pair to donate a minimum of £6, and all monies collected will be passed on to the Royal British Legion. RBL mementos will be awarded to the leading pairs. All members will be eligible to play, and pairs may comprise men, ladies and juniors in any combination.

Further details will be announced later.

New Rules of Golf – 2019

The new Rules of Golf will come into use on 1^st January 2019. During September, the R&A will be release education material to the national golf unions such as England Golf, and will be expecting them to cascade this down to clubs and their members. Whenever we find out how this programme will work we let you know, so please watch this space.

In the meantime, you could make yourself familiar with the changes by reviewing the material already available at www.rules.golf/#resourcesarea.

The new rules will affect us all as for example there are many changes of terminology … through the green becomes the general area, the procedures for taking relief, and what you can and cannot do in water hazards and bunker are changed and you will also be able to putt with the flag-stick unattended.

As the rules are changing significantly, this also affects all our Local Rules so we are also waiting on the R&A to provide us with new sample text and guidance.

George Clelland

At the time of last writing I didn’t yet know the result of the game against Waterlooville. We won 5/2. This was followed by our first fixture away to Hamptworth, a new club for us this year. It was a great day. The course was, as predicted, a tough one. But the guys we played with were all gentlemen and the game was played in a  good spirit. It’s a completely different kind of course to Alresford with lots a water, and sloping lies, and the greens were good quality. The food was exceptional. We lost though, so bring on the slope index system, is what I say.

I am delighted to say that the Vets invitation was a fantastic day of golf and fun. The match was won, with 48 points, by Ewan McGregor and his guest Mike Bottrill (Goodwood), who made a handsome speech of thanks to the club (and the section) after the awards. But they only just pipped Brian Overton and his guest David Lambie (Stoneham) to first place. It was so close that the two teams couldn’t be separated on count back, either of the last 9, last 6 or last 3 holes. So then the scorers started counting on the front 9 and again they couldn’t be separated on any hole except the first, on which Ewan and Mike had the higher score. No-one could remember such a tight finish and to make sure the count was done correctly, even our esteemed secretary had to check the process with another club. Phew. Thanks to David – and well done Ken Coburn for assisting Wynne Tufnell with the organisation and scoring.

Third place was taken by Mike Garton and his guest Tom Thompson (no relation – Hainault). Even they, in third, had 47 points! The prize for the first 9 from the first tee start was won by Pete Dowse and Bob Wolfe (Surbiton), with 24 points, and the best first 9 from the 10th tee start with 23 points was won by Tony Wright and Hugh Gibbs (West Surrey). Nearest the pins were won by Michael Ryan (Southwick Park) and Paul Duncan (Petersfield). Longest drives were won by Stuart Slater and Mike Garton. And nearest the pin in three on the 18th was won by Barry Mitchell of Bramshaw. Congratulations to all of them.

Our thanks are due to our sponsors, Bluebird Care for their generous support. Also thanks to Mary Panter for raising over £500 for the captains charity by selling raffle tickets at the beginning of the day and to Mrs Thompson (and friends) for “womaning” the half way table with nibbles!

New Members

Welcome to the following new members who have all joined the club starting during  July / August so far; Paul Greenwood, Mike McNicholas (7 day), Paul Winstanley (5 day), Nicola Bennison (Academy), Hazel Mayho, Terry Mayho and Martin Froment (Social). Welcome back to Mick Blackwell and Phillip Campbell who have re-joined us as playing members after injury and ill health.

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.

SEPTEMBER

Wednesday 5^th ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 12^th ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 19^th ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 26^th ~ 11.00am

OCTOBER

Wednesday 3^rd ~ 11.15am (golf society)

Wednesday 10^th ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 17^th ~ 11.00am

Wednesday 24^th ~ 11.00am

TROPHY WINNERS 2017

Would all trophy winners please start to return their trophies to the club for engraving and re-presentation at the Trophy Evening on 16th November.

All Trophies must be returned to the Office by Friday 12th  October.

Every year we are left with a few unhappy members who either do not have an engraved trophy or a trophy at all , where previous winners have forgotten to return their silverware.

PLEASE RETURN YOUR TROPHIES IN PLENTY OF TIME.

The drought is over and normal weather patterns are resuming. The summer of 2018 has been tough for the green staff in many ways. The team have come through conditions not seen since ‘76 and although for most it’s been a summer to savour, for us it’s been extremely testing. Many man hours on a hose pipe battling the heat and trying to keep a good consistent sward for the membership to enjoy. The outfield is now recovering from the searing temperatures and we have been helping along certain areas we feel won’t come back with seed, feed and dressing.  I know that many members have been astonished by the recovery on the fairways which was almost overnight after the first rain!  We have had much comment from visitors and it seems that comparisons are favourable.

Greens maintenance was a success with 40 tonnes of sand delicately nursed in to 20mm holes down to a depth of 150mm. The procore followed this with 8mm tines to a depth of 100mm and the surface was then brushed to a decent standard. We followed this with a feed for recovery and 10-14 days later with a bit of help from Mother Nature the green surface was performing well and is healthy. Recovery now is complete.

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

£100    –  Peter Harwood

£50      –  John Goodacre

£32      –  Tim Chandler

£32      –  Ken Richmond

£32      –  Trevor Nice

£32      –  Henk Ribbink

Congratulations to the winners. The next draw will take place in the week beginning 24^th September.

The 100 Club Stableford on Friday 3^rd August attracted an entry of 32 members. The ladies found conditions very much to their liking as they took the top 7 places with scores ranging from 38 to 41 points. The winner of the Salver, for the second time, was Mary Panter with 41 points, in 2^nd place, on countback was Kathryn Fielden  with Elaine Spreadbury in 3^rd, both on 40 points.

Forty five members enjoyed a two-course meal in the evening in a fine convivial atmosphere. After the meal, the prizes were presented to the winners by 100 Club Trustee, Robin Good.