Good morning golfers

 

You can set your watch to it. 

 

Day one of inter club and the weather is absolutely rubbish. 

 

I have played inter club in Wellington since I arrived here in 2006 and I cannot remember an opening day where the weather has behaved.  Well done to all our inter club players who braved the inclement weather.  All our teams at home had impressive wins and while Div 5 had a rough day at Te Marua there were some encouraging signs.  I'll have more to say later on this.

 

 

This marvellous new bucket holder at the first hole was installed by Dave Conmans.  Thank you Dave for this.  The old one had perished and this gets our sand buckets where they should be.  A reminder please to take a sand bucket with you, fill it with sand and fill in any divots you may make or happen upon during your round of golf.  And, please, also in the rough.  Now that placing through the green is off sanding the divots is important for two reason, it helps promote regrowth and if you happen to finish in a sanded divot you may have a free drop form the divot (note - not a place).

 

A big thank you to Maurice Munro for his first Sunday coaching clinic this week.  He was happy in general with the turnout although he would have liked to see a few more juniors.  He has a second session this Sunday; Juniors (age not handicap) at 10am, Women at 11 am, and everyone else at Midday.  All you need to bring with you is a seven iron. 

 

Maurice had a chat to me on Sunday and suggested that ongoing the club should look at engaging a professional.  While he is capable of providing introductory lessons to enable golfers to begin to enjoy their golf, taking those who wish to another level will take someone with credentials.  This is a matter that the committee will need to consider but it seems to me that a club of our nature should be open to getting an arrangement with a qualified NZPGA professional.

 

A big thank you to Maurice for his efforts on Sunday and here's hoping that a few more of our Junior golfers avail themselves of his free advice.

 

There were two groups of golfers I chatted to yesterday; one a father and son who were just heading out  for a hit, following their lesson with Maurice, who used to be members at another club and the other group were members from Riversdale (Wairarapa).  They love our course.  We tend to forget the things that are special about our course.  Our remoteness allows us the luxury of avoiding traffic noise particularly and when one takes a moment to use one of the benches, donated by various members and groups, to just sit and listen the birdsong is incredible.  We don't know how lucky we are.  Allied with that is that the architecture of the course means that every hole is unique.  With the exception of number 8, every hole has penalty area (normally water from the streams and lake) and the array of shots needed to play the course well is challenging.  We should talk up our course and encourage people we know to come and try it.  Bring a friend out for a game and they play for $20 so a few more visitors would be a great advertisement for us.

 

One word about the course.

 

Please do not remove penalty stakes or distance markers.  There are far too many of them that are not in position and when we play something that matters (such as inter club) it can lead to considerable arguement as to where a penalty area starts and finishes and it is a great discourtesy to all golfers to remove distance markers.  Treat these as immovable objects and move your ball (drop it if in the rough) not the stake.

 

It looks like we might get a bit of moisture this week.  The course could certainly use it right now.  Despite that it looks like those who want to get out for a game or two should be able to enjoy another week of summer conditions.

 

 

Do you know someone who was a member here in the past who is still a keen golfer?  Well we have a deal for them.  If they have been away from Karori Golf Club for two years or more they may rejoin for the sum of $995 for a sixteen month period.  Feel free to shoulder tap your friends and mates and let them know.  We could easily absorb another hundred members or so without any curtailing of anyones ability to access the course when they wish.

 

If in the process you introduce a new member to the club you also get a two month extension on your membership.  The more people you introduce the later you will find your invoice for your next years subscription arriving.  So let's go get them.

 

 

As mentioned in my opening comments Maurice will be taking sessions on Sunday.

 

Juniors @ 10am; Women @ 11am; Everyone else @ Midday.

 

Feel free to just turn up but if you wish to let us kow that you are coming contact the club at clubhouse@karorigolf.co.nz

 

Bring your 7 iron.

 

 

While I have featured the new sandbox I also want to thank Ngatau Hemopo who organised a team of volunteers around the course on Thursday last week.  The tidy up work around the course was evident to our visiting teams on Saturday who were here for inter club, and I have had really great feedback from members.

 

We hold working bees from time to time to do the 1% jobs that assist our green staff in their work.  There is always something for everyone to do that is within their capabilities.  Normally three hours from 9am sees quite a bit of progress around the place.  Keep an eye out and help out if you can.

 

 

A number of our new members get to meet and enjoy the company of our regular golfers on a Sunday morning (8.45am at the picnic table for a 9.06am tee time).

 

Sunday is our club day and while we have a couple of organised groups the Gaskies caters for all comers who are still finding their way in terms of golf at the club and also learning the game. 

 

It is a boon for new members and we do encourage our Juniors to join us as well.  Now that we have coaching going we are very keen to start to develop a junior program and look and entering a team of our better junior golfers in to the WGI age group inter club events.

 

The disc draw at the picnic table ensures that we are always playing with someone new and it is always a lot of fun.  Come and get involved.

 

 

This weeks results:

 

Division 2: 11 -4 winners against Masterton (home)

Division 5: 3.5 - 11.5 loss against Te Marua (away)

Division 9: 11 - 4 winners against BFHGC (Home)

Division 12: 9 - 6 winners against Manor Park (Home)

 

Of note: Dave Thorburn was player of the day for Division 2 (6/5) and the highlight for the team was that every pairing conributed to the result.  For Div 5 special mention for Fergus McDougall (5/3 away win) and Tony Nguyen (3/2 away win).  Winning away from home is always difficult but even more so this round with the terrible weather.  Division 9 saw captain Michael lead the way with a 5/4 win, with Stewart Preston 7/6 and Wayne Cook 6/5 win.  It was also good to see three new comers to inter club playing at the top of the order have 2up wins, Neil Hoskin, Isaac Henry and George Blundell.  A good team win.  Then, The Hillbillies (drum roll please) Division 12.  A 9 - 6 home win with Captain Norks, Nicholas Mills (newbie) and Dave Petersen having well crafted 4/3 wins.

 

A good start for our teams this season.  Still a lot of golf to be played, and, as always we are always on the look out for new golfers for our squads.  Don't be shy. Come along - put your hand up. Let us know and we will see where we can fit you in.

 

The next round is 10 February.

 

 

The Diplomats Golfing Society elect Karori for their season opener each year and we play a match against them.  The diplomats use their well honed skills to diplomatically lose to Karori on every occasion (I think that there was a tie one year).

 

The Diplomats sponsor the day entirely - they put on a morning tee before the Tee Time and they provide a generous prize table.

 

Enter on line (https://www.karorigolf.co.nz/event-calendar), or email the club (clubhouse@karorigolf.co.nz) or phone the club (04) 476 7337 and speak to a person.

 

Let's honour these hard working representatives of their various countries with a big turn out reflecting their standing.  It's always fun and they are full of interesting stories from their world perspectives.

 

 

 

Apart from the various eclectic options, our women are playing the Hazel Buck Trophy (18 holes) and a Par Medley for our 9 hole golfers.

 

 

Be at the club house by 10.15am for the disc draw ahead of the 10.30am tee time.  $5 pays your entry to the competition of the day and a raffle ticket.  This event is open to anyone who is available to play on a Wednesday (including our women) so come along an join the fun.  The fields have been improving and it is hopeful to see the fairways packed with happy golfers during the remainder of "the golden weather".

 

 

 

This event goes from strength to strength. 

 

There was a large field last week which saw Terry Bastion prevailing against some very hot scoring.

 

The golf (tee off late afternoon - off the yellow tees) is followed by a gourmet barbecue dinner and generous prizes.  Once again this is an enjoyable evening and a precursor to the happy weekend ahead.

 

 

This Sunday, Sunday Club Day will happen.  Apologies to anyone looking for it last Sunday.  It was not loaded on the events page for which I apologise.

 

Also it is round 2 of the Bogey Cup, and it's the Nes Beard Stableford (for golfers fifty year of age and over).

 

There are no special draws for these events.  Go with your usual groups, join Gaskies, or go with a friend.  Select the competition and go to it.

 

 

Let's get entering.

 

$25 for the year with all shootout money going in to the prizes for the end of year play off.  The top 19 golfers at the end of November are in the "shootout".  This is so much fun and it is nice to the see the scramble for the last spots.

 

So come on Shirties, Matts Mob, Gaskies and all the rest of you cowboys and cowgirls...

 

Who will de-throne Captain Norks this year as the lone ranger!

 

 

There are no results from Sunday Club Day - My bad...

 

But!

 

There are results for the first round of Bogey Cup.

 

Leading is Tane Cassidy on -1 from five player on plus 1. 

 

Everything to play for in round two this comins Sunday.