Ladies

• 9 Hole Midweek Women’s: While we finished our official midweek competitions at the end of November, we did complete an exciting shootout last week. The final two contestants, Sue McLaren and Lindsey Pickering, were so close they had to complete a chip off on the 9^th. Congratulations to Sue McLaren who was presented with the Elizabeth Wagner Shootout trophy by none other than Elizabeth Wagner. The midweek women’s competition begins again on 28^th January 2025.
   

• Vets: Five Karori players contested the Christmas Vets’ tournament at Manor Park on Monday.  Congratulations to Hilary Newby, Trish Titcombe and Kath Robinson who were all up there in the high stableford numbers and received balls for their efforts.
   

• She Loves Golf: We continue with our She Love Golf hostings, thanks to Maurice Munro for patiently coaching very enthusiastic participants and hopefully new members. Six turned up on Tuesday evening - 2 were so keen, they played in the Ladies 'Nine and Wine'. There will of course be another formal 'She Loves Golf' event in the new year and in the meantime, participants are being encouraged to come out on either Tuesday evening or through their 9 Hole contacts, join a Tuesday morning group at 10am, until the club competition officially begins next year.  Tee bookings are required though.
   

• 9 Hole Women’s Champions Board: We are delighted to have finally erected our 9 Hole Women’s Club Champions’ board in the Clubhouse.  This was made possible through a kind donation from Ingrid Rampton, a past member.  It was decided after much discussion that the most suitable recognition of Ingrid’s contribution to women’s golf was to have this championship board erected, which also recognises the contribution of women players, and more specifically 9 Hole women players, to the Club. (Cheers Chris)

Top Left: Sue McLaren (L) being presented the trophy by Elizabeth Wagner; Top Right: 9 Hole Women's Honours Board; Bottom: She Loves Golf event

Wednesday Club

• Twenty golfers played a Par competition on Wednesday in blustery difficult conditions. Mike Suggate was the winner with an extraordinary +4 with Jono Wake second on -2 (beating three others on countback). Balls were given down to -3. Bob Cavana was nearest the pin and paid the pig for missing his putt. There were no twos. The winner of the cash raffle was Patrick Cordue with Ossie second. The fine red wine raffle was drawn with Gunter winning the wine and Patrick winning the ProV1s. Also, the annual trophies were presented: Stableford - Terry McAlister; Par - Michael Cox; Combined - Ian Bates; Stableford 75+ - John Timperley; Par 75+ - Derek Fitzgibbon; Combined 75+ - Christopher Pearce.

Wednesday Twilight

• What an amazing turnout for the penultimate Twilight of the year! Thirty three came out to play this week and had a great evening of golf and BBQ banter. This week our winning group saw four getting a $5 voucher with 17 points: Terry Bastion, Wayne Cook, Graham Black and Will Lyall (who, more importantly, finished with 3 points more than his dad!). Five got $10 for 18 points: Beau Little, Mark Cooney, Jeff Mason, Daren Riley and Simon Jones. Runner up was James Cosgrove, on 19 points (and $15) and the winner this week was Stu Boston who catapulted in from his 'time-out', with 20 points for the win, and a $20 voucher! Golf balls went to Ronaldo Vollenhoven for NTP and the only 'two' of the evening.
   
• Thanks to Doug Calhoun on the BBQ this week and to Isaac in the kitchen. Next week is the last Twilight for 2024 and we will have a buffet with a Christmas vibe! Come along and join in the fun! (Cheers Gail)

Junior Golf

• Junior Golf Coaching Programme: This Sunday is the final week for Term 4, 2024. Holes 1 - 9 will be for the exclusive use of programme participants between 1:30 - 4:15pm. Hole 5 will be available to book from 3:15pm. Please consider this when planning your golfing weekend.

More on this next week, but here's a sneak peak at what the Juniors will find on Sunday thanks to Meridian Energy's West Wind Power Up Community Fund!

IMPORTANT: For the latest course status visit - www.karorigolf.co.nz

Spraying Update

The blackberry bushes around the clubhouse carpark were sprayed during the week and a warning sign discplayed on the path down to the first tee. Please read these signs and take the necessary hygiene precautions (i.e. avoid collecting fruit, touching your face & wash hands thoroughly after play).

It's twilight Robbery, as golfing grinches come out to play

By Kevin Norquay - The Post

Long summer evenings have Grinches out and about — not stealing Christmas, but sneaking onto Wellington golf courses, leaving divots and excuses behind.

To avoid paying, they park in a far corner of the carpark and sneak down the route least trodden to start out of sight of the clubhouse. Or they play after staff have gone for the day, then steal off into the night.

“These people are recidivists, they don’t just turn up once a year - they come in after 5pm when they know they can get on,” says.....

Course Marshalling - Stepping Up!

You will see new temporary signage around the place to make it easy for visitors to pay green fees via QR code. Permanent signage will be erected in the New Year. It's now a simple 4 step process to pay:

1. Scan the QR Code
2. Select 9H or 18H
3. Enter name & email address
4. Enter credit card details

Once payment has been made, visitors will receive an email confirmation. We've been lenient to date, given a warning and charged the standard green fee, but it'll be an instant $150 penalty going forward.  Any help with course marshalling would be greatly appreciated. Contact the Club Captain if you're able to assist (clubcaptain@karorigolf.co.nz)

Signs on: 1st Tee; 10th Tee; path between the 10th Green & 11th Tee; path from carpark to the 18th Green.

Introducing Our 2025 Committee

The AGM on Saturday elected the following 2025 Karori Golf Club Committee appointments:  

• Mark Peck (President) 

• Graham Black (Club Captain) 

• Denise Marten (Ladies Club Captain) 

• Terry McAlister (Treasurer) 

• Mark Reed (Committee) 

• Neil Hoskin (Committee) 

• Russell Turner (Committee) 

• Lauren Robey (Committee) 

• David McNaughtan (Committee)  

Outgoing Club President Mike Suggate handing over the reigns to Mark Peck at the AGM - thanks for your service Mike

New Presidents Message

The new committee has its first meeting on Tuesday coming and has a very full agenda. It’s exciting times for the Club. The renaissance of our junior program (we now have more than 130 members under 25) has brought new life to the club and it’s a delight to see groups of young members having fun on our course. The success of this program shows that it can be done. It’s hard work (thank you Clayton, Jodi, Maurice Munro and Stephen Wood) but satisfying when a well thought out plan comes to fruition. As we progress we need to remember the lessons from this project.

Over the next few weeks our new branding will become evident. Big ups to our course supervisor TK Ross. The course continues to improve, and he’s only just begun. We are now the preeminent eighteen hole golf course in the Wellington area.

These are some of our challenges:

1. Continue our course improvement. (trees, drains, pest control, weed eradication, rebuilding tee blocks, practice facilities)

2. ?Build our women’s membership

3. ?Play together more often as a Club, and cater for all our members in doing so (e.g. Easter Ambrose)

4. ?Make our new members feel welcome

5. ?increase our membership

6. ?Remain financially stable

In doing all this we need to remember that we need to be good citizens. This puts an obligation on us to respect our environment and to engage with our communities.

Lastly, and importantly, we need to build our competitive base. Playing golf for excellence and competing well on the local front is part of the health of a club. In five years it is my dream that Karori Golf Club will have a strong team in Waikanae Cup and be in the position to challenge for a Duncan Cup spot when the opportunity may present itself.

Ambitious goals perhaps. We’ll see! (Cheers Mark Peck)