Good afternoon golfers

 

Later tomorrow (probably sometime in the afternoon) the first of the drainage priorities will be tackled, namely hole number 11.

 

Following an email this morning a number of members have volunteered to help out installing the "bidim" cloth which acts to filter out solid debris (particularly clay deposits) from the nova flow pipe.  As a result the drains should work well for a long period of time.

 

As mentioned last week the committee has enough money to tackle the first three priorities on the plan, namely holes 11,  4 & 5, and, number 16.  This work alone is enough to keep the contractors and volunteers busy for the next five days. 

 

This is about a third of all the work that needs to be done to completely dry out the wettest parts of the course.  In todays dollars to finish the work will take another $43k.

 

Any donations to the cause (bank account 06 0501 0432338 00) is gratefully received (note that we are a charity and donations attract tax deductions) and will reduce the amount which we have to find by way of grant funding.  Grants are uncertain and need to be applied for and often take a while to come through.  So we will need to get on with it.

 

A couple of fundraising suggestions have also started doing the rounds.  A large raffle is one and more immediately an ambrose tournament on Easter Monday sponsored by "Mitre 10 Crofton Downs" is another.  Teams of four, $100 entry fee per team ($140 for visitors team) with a guaranteed prize pool of at least $1000.

 

There are a bunch of groupings in the club so come on and get your teams sorted out, enter on line.  Please have a team name and enter it on the website booking page (https://www.karorigolf.co.nz/event-calendar) or email the club at clubhouse@karorigolf.co.nz.

 

It's the Easter long weekend so it's a great way to spend the Easter Monday.

 

Getting the drainage completed will complete the first stage of the course renovations.  While there is much more yet to be done it is a great start and even what has been completed so far has made a huge difference to the course.

 

To all the volunteers who have let me know that they are available I will complete a roster and I will circulate it to everyone.  There is always room for one more and as I am making the roster, please email me on my personal email address (peck.m@xtra.co.nz).

 

On to the report.

 

 

A big thankyou to Maurice Munro who has completed the first module of a coaching program for our members.

 

It's fair to say that we would like to see the junior numbers increase and there will be some communication to find out what more we can do to encourage the juniors to get involved.  It is understandable that the junior uptake has been a bit slow, not a lot of effort has gone in to a junior program for many years since Peter Dougherty last did this work (a good fourteen or fifteen years ago) so when we find the right recipe the challenge will be to keep consistent contact with our younger golfers in a way that they feel included in the club.  The key to this is undoubtedly Maurice himself and it seems to me that we must be encouraging a few of the parents to lend a hand too.  Junior members and their parent(s) should keep an eye out for further approaches in the near future. 

 

 

 

Our women golfers are playing a putting round (9 hole golfers) and the Ayers Cup for our 18 hole women over 50.

 

Come along and enjoy the day.  There always seems to be good chatter afterwards so often it's not so much about the golf as it is the aftermatch. 

 

 

There have been some encouragingly larger fields of late. 

 

Be at the clubhouse by 10.115am for the disc draw.  Tee time is 10.30am

 

Please note that the roadworks can serve to delay your travel to the course so maybe leave a little earlier than usual to get here on time.

 

$5 pays your entry fee and buys you a raffle.

 

Everyone welcome including affiliated visitors.

 

 

 

Nothing more to say really.  Again good fields recently.  All welcome.

 

 

This is organised by the Diplomatic Golfing Society.  The course will close at 8am to clear the field for the multi tee start and will reopen after 2.30pm.

 

Entries continue to trickle in.  Come on lets make this a bumper day. 

 

Multi Tee start at 11am.  Registration from 10am.

 

Enter on line (https://www.karorigolf.co.nz/event-calendar) or email the club (clubhouse@karorigolf.co.nz)

 

Entries close at 5pm Thursday 22 February.  Post entries will be at the discretion of the Diplomatic Golfing Society.

 

 

Shirties, Matts Mob and Gaskies all support and promote Sunday Club Day.  Join up with one of these groups, or make up your own four but do tick Sunday Club day when you print your card.

 

Gaskies is a really good way to get involved in golf at Karori.  There have been time in my golfing days when I have been "..... no mates" and this takes that stress away.  Turn up to the picnic table at 8.45am with your card printed for the card draw.  Our first tee time is 9.06am and the card draw is done by one of the golfers waiting to tee off.  You have no idea who you will be playing with (unless you are playing an organised match).  It's a great way to meet people just like you.  Once again, everyone is welcome.

 

Grant Keats Memorial Medal is being played.  Tick the competition when you print your card and you are in the competition. 

 

This is a two round event with this Sunday being round 1.  Round 2 will be played the following week.

 

This is Trophy event.

 

 

This week saw three teams away from home and one team at home.

 

Terry McAlister has been marahalling again this year and developed a timing sheet for Division 5 to work to. The result was that the inter club round was completed in four and a half hours.  Quite an improvement on the five hour rounds which have plagued inter club for many years now.  A big thank you to Russell and the Division 5 team for respecting the work that Terry was doing.  It's a thankless job but an important one nonetheless as it ensures that golfers following on from the inter club field are able to enjoy their golf too.

 

Division 2 were away to Boulcott and came away with 7points which is a good result away from home.

 

Division 5 were home to Judgeford and won 8.5/6.5.  A tight result but a win all the same.

 

Division 9 were away to Royal Wellington and gained 3.5points, and

 

Division 12 were away to their old nemesis Kapiti where they came away with 2.5points.

 

Home advantage in inter club does make a difference so any points away from home are good points.

 

No faulting the efforts of any of the teams.  Still a long way to go in this years inter club season.

 

 

Our 9 hole women are away to Paraparaumu Beach this Thursday for their first round of 2024. 

 

This team have been a force to be reckoned with for a long time now so we will be looking closely at how things go for them. 
 

Best of luck ladies. 

 

 

 

This is a Trophy event for our women over 50.  No cards were returned on Sunday.  There is still the Tuesday field this week for the cup to be decided.

 

 

This is for men over 50 and a good field participated.

 

Three players tied on 40 points, Garth Mickell, John Stubbe and Saint Kennach.  As it is a trophy event there will be a play off this Sunday (which just happens to be Grant Keats at the same time) .  Best stableford will win the trophy.

 

 

Funny enough the same golfers also dominated the Sunday Club Day.  The best of the women in the field was Ossie Santos. 

 

 

Karori has been a dog friendly golf course and this has largely worked well with well behaved dogs following their masters.

 

As we all know there are now Kiwi in the vicinity and the last thing that we would want would be an incident.

 

One of our members does "Kiwi Training" with dogs and any member who wishes to bring their dog to the course is asked to contact him for their dog to be trained.  It is a short course of training but very effective.  Please contact the manager Keith to contact Peter.

 

The club will start to compile a register of dogs allowed on the course and your cooperation with this will be appreciated.

 

 

Once the drainage work commences there will be some disruption of play on the holes being renovated and there will necesarily be areas of GUR for a period of time afterwards.

 

Please respect any hole closures (or tee changes) and, the GUR protocols are there for your benefit.

 

It is not expected that it will take too long for any particular hole to be renovated. Number 16 which is where the most work will be done initially will take about three and a half days.

 

The shop will be advised what is going on as well as regular emails on this page, as and when work is going on explaining what the effect on the course will be for players.