October Newsletter 2018. Congratulations to Alison Kelly & Jess Brown Alison recently became the first winner of the England Women s County Champion of Champions event held at Frilford Heath Golf Club near Oxford. Alison completed the 36-hole competition in 6 over par and won by two shots from a very experienced field. Alison Kelly More Ladies Success has been achieved by Jess Brown who has been called up into the South West u18 girl s squad and in addition Jess has been part of the Full Gloucestershire Ladies Team which have just won the National County Title for the second time in three years. The club is very proud of you both. Jess Brown Top left
Competitions Winter Fourball A reminder to members that the Winter Fourball League starts on Sunday 4 th November. Details and the Entry List are on the WFBL Notice Board in the corridor. All new Winter members are welcome to enter but they must have either an official Cirencester GC handicap by the start date or an official CONGU handicap from their former club. The Entry List will close on Saturday 13th October 2018. Ellett Cup The entry sheet for the men s winter knockout competition The Ellett Cup is on the notice board. Entry closes on November 7th. Please place your name on the entry sheet and your entrance fee of 4 through the Competitions letter box. Winter Mixed Stablefords We will be scheduling monthly mixed winter Stablefords in November, December, January and February. They will be non-qualifiers and can be entered via the website or through the terminal in the club house. The first competition takes place on November 17th and can be entered from October 27th Hospital Cup Every year we raise funds for Cirencester Hospital by donating the proceeds of the Hospital Cup. This is a mixed entry individual medal and takes place on the 13th of October. Entry is open now. This year (by one off exception to our normal rule) we will be playing 4 ball. We will return to 3 ball for all other competitions. Winter Rules We have introduced Winter Rules from 26 th September. Earlier than normal this year to save wear and tear on the fairways following the very dry summer.
Competition Winners Vouchers It has become apparent that over the last few years the winnings from Club Competitions have evolved into being paid in a number of different ways, and with a variety of spending periods. In order to provide some parity and make it a clear, transparent and easy to administer reward scheme, this will be changing from the start of 2019. From the start of next year ALL winnings from Club Competitions will be paid by way of a Voucher, with a 5 month expiry date, which is 2 months longer than the current system generally in place. Vouchers from the start of 2019 will then be available for collection in the Pro Shop. In order to "clear the decks" for next year, please ensure all unused credit you have in the Pro Shop is used by 31st of December 2018. Social Media To many of us Social Media may be something we avoid at almost all costs and for others it will be an important way that we keep up to date with events around us. Whatever we think no one can deny it is a no cost way of sending and receiving information to many people at the touch of a button. If you are a user of Facebook or Twitter you may like to link to the Facebook accounts of our professionals, Ed Goodwin, James Harraway and Mitch Caunt. They post regular items of news and special offers of interest to us all, including important information about the course condition and availability, special deals on equipment, lessons and club news. You may want to repost to friends or family interested in golf. There are separate Facebook pages for Cirencester Golf Shop, Cirencester Golf and James Harraway. Richard Louisson our head greenkeeper regularly tweets about the state of the course to keep members fully informed. You may like to follow him at @Cirengolfgreen to receive this information which is especially useful in the winter months. Also connect to @CirencesterGolf, @CirenGCProShop and @pgajimmer to stay fully informed. Please retweet information that may attract other golfers to use some of our first-rate facilities.
Course Maintenance Course Maintenance took place in August this year and as we are all aware the recovery has taken longer than in previous years. Course Maintenance week used to be carried out at the end of September to early October, which is too late in the year giving us less time for the greens to recover for Winter Golf. As soil temperatures start to drop it gives less time to gain the advantage of germination and establishment of strong growth when over seeding has been carried out. There was also no guarantee that weather patterns would allow for successful maintenance then. Over the last 8 years Richard has carried out the major maintenance work in August and this has worked very well due to the fact that recovery is speeded up during perfect growing conditions at this time of year. It does also give the option to carry out maintenance work later if we lose the week due to poor weather. End of August is also a perfect time to give the greens a pick me up for the rest of the season. As part of the maintenance we hollow core, scarify, top dress and overseed each of the greens. The hollow coring and scarifying removes much of the thatch that builds up in the green during the season and allows the roots to breathe and travel down into the ground. Allowing thatch to build up and not doing maintenance will lead to spongy greens and disease issues. This August Richard & his team did micro hollow coring and deep scarifying. A double pass with the scarifier was carried out this time where the green is treated front to back and side to side. This was done to remove large amounts of thatch material but also left lines on the green going both ways. This has been a more aggressive approach than normal but Richard felt after the summer we have had, more thatch would have been accumulated. This also produced extra space for the ingress of sand into the profile and for new seed to be established. The greens have continued to be irrigated to desired moisture levels in line with the use of our new moisture meter. Richard is confident greens will be excellent again within a week or so and in great shape heading into the winter months. It has been disappointing with how long it has taken to repair and next year it may be worth looking at regular (monthly) maintenance which is less obtrusive and can be done through the season on a quiet day and repair will be immediate. As far as the actual maintenance Weeks in March and August is concerned, this is of vital importance to Richard and his team. The timing is perfect from a green keeping perspective and allows the work to be
carried out when the course is quiet. Golf is now played all year round with no off season and so time has to be found to carry out maintenance. If this is not achieved the fine turf surfaces we all desire will struggle to be produced. Communication is really important which we haven t done on this occasion. The Weeks are set in the diary at the start of the year in accordance with Richard s experience of the golf course and there cannot be much flexibility as all other competitions and societies are booked around this. Winter Work We are looking to have smaller projects on through this Winter and really focus on tidying up areas of the course that really need it that were missed last winter due to works on the 18 th. This includes clearing all walls of weeds, tree maintenance and removal, including some copse work on the 16th/17 th areas, and clearing the pond area behind the 11 th green. Currently we are working on the 3 rd hole winter tee enlarging it and adding irrigation. Recent Open Day The club held a new member open day on September 16 th. This was an opportunity for members to bring along friends who could be potential members and for visitors locally who may be interested in joining our club. We had 35 players on the day mainly visitors with a few members mixed in. We have managed to recruit 9 new members from the day with the potential for a few more to follow. Thanks go to everyone who gave up their time to assist on the day. Welcome to New Members Joining the Club in September. Nick Rutter Brenda Smith Nicholas Stein Lester Woods Emily Gorman Alistair McKeeman David Mallison Simon Hall Philip Kuhlwein von Rathenow Denise Powel Terry Gorman
Seniors Some really exciting news to start with is that Cirencester Seniors have reached the Semi & Finals of the Gloucestershire Seniors Scratch Foursomes to be played at Knowle, Bristol on October 7th 2018. We beat Cleeve Hill 2-1 at home last week in a nail-biting finish which went to the 19th hole in the last of 3 matches. We have had quite a number of new Senior Members join recently, and having spoken to all of them, they all seem to have settled in very well. So good news for the future. We have had a fairly decent response to the first ever Seniors Mixed Open on October 3rd with 76 players participating so far. There are still spaces if anyone is interested. The Senior s section will have a new Captain from Monday October 1 st when David Lowbridge takes over from myself. Keith Hodgson Ladies Charity Golf Day Friday 19 th October in aid of Maggies just a few places left sign up on the competition notice board Social Events Captain Dinner with Music & Casino Saturday November 3 rd Sign up on the social board for what promises to be a great night of fun. November 30 th Christmas Golf Day December 16 th Christmas Lunch Party Bird Boxes in Colour Ken Anderson is growing Baby Fig Trees and is planning to sell them at 5.00 each with all funds raised going towards a colour camera for the bird box. Contact Ken either directly or through the office. Winter Membership is now available from October 1 st. Full details are available from the Office or on the Web site
Christmas Bookings The club is taking bookings for Christmas functions. Please contact the office if you or your company are planning a Christmas Party. Membership Survey In the next couple of weeks, we will be sending out a member s survey. This is your opportunity to give us feedback on the club. Please take a few minutes to complete and return to the office. James Hopkins Trust We are very pleased to announce that the pro shop/cirencester golf club charity day raised 2735.41 due to kind donations and a well supported day. This equates to 48 respite nurse session that the James Hopkins Trust can provide for children with severe disabilities and their families. This will make a real difference to such a small local charity. Ed will organize and run the same day next year with a date and format to be confirmed. For more info on this wonderful local charity visit www.jameshopkinstrust.org.uk Great Job Everyone.