MUNDESLEY GOLF CLUB NEWSLETTER

Transcription

1 MUNDESLEY GOLF CLUB NEWSLETTER Issue Date: January 2019 CONTENTS: Development Committee Business and Membership Captain s News Lady Captain s News Senior Captain s News Introducing the Junior Captain Social News News from the19th Hole Development Committee Business and Membership THE CLUB OF CHOICE Although encouraging progress was achieved during 2018, and the overall financial situation stabilised, there is a further challenge to substantially increase revenue this year. The aim is to attract 90 new playing members during 2019 as part of a strategy to strengthen the exchequer and to reduce annual subscriptions to not more than 500 within three years. Our policy is to bring affordable golf to people in our part of North Norfolk and to be The Club of Choice. It has been clear for some time that the development of a product range that meets changing market needs and wants is a recipe for making positive progress. Internally, some members have already taken advantage of an enhanced product range which boasts five-day and nine-hole membership. Entries for next issue to lmcquattie@hotmail.co.uk by 25 February The January introduction of a shop volunteer programme is an attempt to provide a comprehensive service to members throughout the week and to meet/greet visitors and callers to the club. It is believed that most visitors want to learn more about golf, Mundesley Golf Club, and possibly enquire about membership.

2 This point of contact is key to the achievement of our new membership target. I am very grateful to the team of volunteers who have come forward and it is hoped that the exercise will be rewarding for the club as well as enjoyable for the individuals involved. Ryan Pudney has provided training and is, of course, on hand to help with queries. Without the generous volunteer help it would not be possible for the shop to be open all day every day. There is scope for more volunteers and anybody who is interested in helping the club by giving one day or even half a day each month should speak to Ryan. The tee sponsorship initiative is moving apace and now we have sixteen committed sponsors. We are hopeful that the new furniture will be delivered and installed before the end of February. The team are working to develop further sponsorship packages and offer corporate clients good value for their support. We are still looking for six sponsors for the 3rd, 8th and 18th main medal tees, and the former Ladies 3rd, 10th and 14th tees. If you know of anybody or company that might be interested to participate, please let me know. It is encouraging to report that we have attracted more junior members and to date there are fourteen keen young golfers playing regularly. Ryan and Ros Fretwell are progressively working to strengthen the numbers and the outlook is bright. The recent Seniors AGM which was well attended revealed that more over 55 s were now playing in competitions and actively supporting the section. Mike Clark, the new captain, is keen to make further progress and help integrate new members into the daily life of the club. Often, in the past, new members have found it difficult to find likeminded people to play with but I can see that a buddy system already works well within the section. I hope that 2019 is a good year for Mundesley Golf Club and I wish you all health, happiness and good golfing. Finally, belated nonagenarian birthday greetings to Molly Johns and John Titley. Congratulations! Andrew Keates Page 2 of 10

3 Captain s News May I start by wishing all our members a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year and thank all those who supported the Captains at the Captains Drive In and Tartan Scramble. I trust that most members are aware by now that I am your Club Captain for 2019 and I hope that I can represent you as well as Past Captain Jim did in I must thank Jim for asking me to be his Vice Captain last year. I ve been a member at Mundesley for about 14 years and am still striving to achieve a respectable handicap! It s an honour that myself and my wife, Diana are captains this year. Our vice captains are Pat Kerrison and Jenny Smith and I d like to thank them for agreeing to support us. Our chosen charity is The Benjamin Foundation. A local charity celebrating its 25 th anniversary in 2019 and exists to help young people across Norfolk and Suffolk. Richard and Vanessa Draper set up the charity in 1994 following the death of their son Benjamin in a motorcycle accident. They wanted to create something special to celebrate his life. It began with providing rural youth services across North Norfolk and has grown so that today they help about 2000 young people a year across Norfolk and Suffolk. This includes Hostels for homeless young people and support in schools for children having difficulties coping with bereavement, divorce of parents or bullying as examples. Their work provides these young people with hope, opportunity, stability and independence. Diana is a past member and chair of the board of the foundation. The Captains bunker continues to be the one on the right of the green on the 3 rd and 12 th green and I hope that you will place a donation of at least 50p in the tin on the bar if you should have the misfortune to end up in this bunker! Page 3 of 10

4 These are exciting times at the golf club with many new initiatives coming to fruition. A huge amount of work was done last year by the Development Committee to make Mundesley Golf Club The Golf Club of Choice. They managed to increase the membership, with a fantastic total of 70 new members, as well as getting tee sponsorship which has enabled the club to get new tee furniture and a new noticeboard. These should be in place in the next few weeks. Many local businesses have also sponsored the Club and this helps bring the Club and the community together. They hope to increase membership again this year and have set an ambitious target of 90. Their work has been a contributory factor in the club being able to reduce subscriptions and offer members a lesson with Ryan as part of their subscription. You will also soon see the introduction of non-gender tees with new ladies and gentlemen s scorecards with updated stroke indices, and pars. Our greenkeeping team have kept the course in superb condition throughout the last hot dry summer and into the autumn and winter. They are currently working to improve the bunkers in front of the 9 th /18 th green and ask for your patience while this work is completed. There will occasionally be a temporary 9 th /18 th green when they are working in these bunkers. A number of new rules have been introduced this year and books detailing old and new rules are available, free of charge, from the club shop and around the clubhouse and I urge all members to familiarise themselves with these. Roz Fretwell has agreed to oversee the junior section and she has a number of exciting initiatives and with Ryan s help will try to increase the membership of junior players. I thank her for agreeing to take on this important role. Our Myhill team had a fantastic run to the semi finals last year. They played all matches away from home and have again been drawn away to Ryston Park in the first round this year. The Cullington team also have a difficult away draw at Costessey Park. Both these matches will be played on Sunday April 28 th. Your support would be greatly appreciated. The Senior Barnard Trophy team have a home draw against Middleton Hall. This will be played on Wednesday 24 th April and again all support is welcomed. We also have entries in the Scratch knock out and Handicap leagues. I hope members will support the many and varied social activities that are planned over the coming year. The first one being the curry evening on 8 th February. Enjoy your golf. Dave Page 4 of 10

5 Lady Captain s News It is a great pleasure and honour to become Lady Captain for I received the captain s brooch at the ladies AGM. If anyone knows its history I would love to know how it came into being. It is a lovely thing but sadly I m afraid it might stay in its box until I hand over to Jenny Smith, current Vice- Captain at the AGM in November. I t s too precious to risk losing. I have been wonderfully supported by Sue our past captain during 2018 with her wise counsel and sound advice. Many in the ladies section have helped me prepare for the challenge ahead and I hope to serve the club well in the coming year. There was a moment back in September when I thought I might not hold a club again. Thank you all for your wonderful encouragement and good wishes after I broke my arm. The Ladies section hopes to grow in number and we will always welcome new members of any age or ability. I feel sure we will continue to have enormous energy from our seasoned players who will play in the many County Competitions and friendlies already organised. This year will see us entering teams in the Norfolk Scratch league, Gillieson Trophy, League 6 and the Diamond knockout. Last year we had many ladies enter the various other County Competitions including the winner of Division 4, Shirley Davies. We aim to bring home more trophies in 2019 and have some fun doing so. Whilst we can`t expect the same wonderful weather of 2018 I hope we see our fair share of it in 2019 to help us get used to the new nongender tees and stroke indices and pars. Of course we have the new Rules to also contend with and Beryl Nash (Ladies Handicap and Competitions secretary)has run a couple of very informative and helpful sessions for the ladies aided by Maggie Moore. Thank you both. The captains Charity has been described by David in his section and I am hopeful that we can, through the activities and donations during the year, help the Foundation meet the needs of many distressed young people in Norfolk. (If you buy things off Amazon through Amazon Smile please consider nominating The Benjamin Foundation as your favoured charity). Thank you and Keep Golfing! Diana Page 5 of 10

6 Senior Captain s News Here goes with my first Newsletter as Seniors Captain for I mentioned this at the AGM, however, I would again like to thank Terry McCallin for his great work as Captain over the last 2 years. During this month we had our first competition, a Stableford on the 7th. Well done to: Steve Cook, the winner with 41pts(on countback) 2nd Bob Porter 41pts 3rd Don Schorn with 38pts Although there is a sign up sheet for these competitions re tee times between , don't forget, it is perfectly acceptable to play anytime during the day of the competition. Those of you who played at Gorleston last year may remember we had to play on temporary greens, which wasn't much fun. I've heard from Gorleston that it would be the same this year, so we have agreed to swap our fixtures home and away. We will therefore play Gorleston at home on Tuesday 26th March, and be away on Friday 28th June. The main talking point at the moment (apart from you know what!) are the new rules coming into effect this year. If you go to this website you will find plenty of information about the new rules which you can download and print. ations I think being able to putt with the pin in place will stop players having to attend the pin, which will greatly reduce the wear around the hole, particularly during the winter months. Another change this year is the use of non-gender tees at Mundesley. In the next couple of months we will see the Red Tee marker disappear. We will then have Black Tees, White Tees and Yellow Tees, New Score Cards and Tee Information Furniture. I'm sure this will start some discussions. Just one more thing to mention, as many members will know John Titley celebrated his 90th birthday this month. I know John considers himself very lucky to still be an active golfer which I know we all hope continues for many years to come. Well Done John! Well, that's it for this month. Enjoy your golf. Mike Clark Page 6 of 10

7 Introducing the 2019 Junior Captain. 15 year old Finley Burnett-Kiernan is our Junior Captain this year. Finley would like to pursue a career in golf in the future and is one to watch! Social News Hello and welcome to another year of Social golf and other Social events at Mundesley Golf Club. I hope you all had a good Xmas and I wish a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all our members, their families and of course, our staff. In case you don t know who s writing the Social news this year, it s your Immediate Past Captain Jim, who has been tasked with leading the Social Committee this year for the second time. Hopefully this year we will be able to tweak things a little compared to previous years by introducing some new golf events and formats. If any of you have ideas regarding new golf events or formats, then please contact any of the Social Committee who will be more than eager to hear your ideas. A list of all the Committee s is displayed on the Club noticeboard. The Social Committee is as follows: Jim McQuattie Tony Peacock Pat Kerrison Mike Clark John McGuire Jenny Smith Ron Noble (Chair) (Treasurer) (Vice Captain) (Senior Captain) (Club Steward) (Lady Vice Captain) (Club Secretary) Each year always starts with the traditional Captains Drive-in and Tartan Scramble on New Years Day and this year was no different. Members gathered in the clubhouse for a glass of mulled wine, courtesy of our President Mike Foster, to warm them up before proceeding out to watch our four Captains perform the ritual of the Drive-in. I m pleased to say there were no duff drives and all of our Captains made a good show of themselves. Page 7 of 10

8 A special mention to our Lady Captain Diana who had just recovered from a broken wrist for making it to the Drive-in. Of course, the other Captains taking part were David Clarke (Club Captain), Mike Clark (Seniors Captain) and Finley Burnett-Kiernan (Junior Captain). Measurement of the drives was carried out by Steve Smith and David Clarke (Jnr). After the Drive-in, members dispersed and those that were taking part in the Scramble got their golf gear ready for eighteen holes of fierce competition, those that didn t I guess they went back to the bar to finish off the mulled wine or something similar. The weather was good for a New Years Day, a little chilly but was at least dry. After the eighteen holes of golf we all assembled again in the clubhouse for few drinks and a meal of steak pie, peas and chips served up as usual by Phil and his team. So, the winners of the 2019 Tartan Scramble were as follows; First with a 54.9 net Second with a 55.2 nett Third with a 55.5 nett James Crosby Tony Wilson Tony Victor Stockham Graham Bensley Donald Stuart Jenny Smith Donald Schorn Joe Andrzejewski Justyn Clements Chris Cutting Jack Clements Max Cheeky Chappie Cutting There appears to be no pictures of the any of the Tartan Scramble winners, so here s a picture of a man in a kilt taking a shot. Page 8 of 10

9 Looking forward, here are a couple of events coming up in the very near future: The first is a Curry Night at the clubhouse on Friday February 8 th between 1830 and 2030 hrs. The advertising poster is located on the Social Noticeboard at the top of the stairs showing the menu, and also on the Club website and twitter for the technophobes amongst you. Just ask at the bar if you wish to attend The second is the first Quiz Night of the year at the clubhouse on Friday March 1 st. There will be food available if pre-booked and can be served either before the quiz or at the interval. If you require a meal please state your requirements at the bar when booking your place in the quiz. The format are teams of four and booking early is recommended as the number of teams are limited. The Quizmaster is Brian Shingler aided by his wife Linda. The poster will be displayed shortly on the social noticeboard and also on the Club website and twitter giving full details of the night. Keep your eye on the noticeboard at the top of the stairs for upcoming events. That s all for now. Jim News from the 19th Hole Traditionally a quiet time of year but we try to keep the clubhouse warm, cosy and welcoming.remember you can bring your friends and family for Lunch, drinks or just pop up for a coffee meet your fellow members and have a MARDLE. We have a Curry night on Friday 8th February and you can book your table by contacting the bar. Page 9 of 10

10 Also we have another popular Quiz & Supper night coming up on Friday 1st March keep an eye on the social noticeboard, Twitter and the club website for details. Cheers and heres to a great Page 10 of 10