Redbourn GC Newsletter - April 2024

Robin Cheng General Manager

Dear Redbourn Member,

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GM UPDATE

good opportunity for members to mix with new and existing members alike.

Summer Singles & Doubles knockouts sign up –Summer knockouts sign up is now on the board outside the main office. Entrance close 13th of April, so all those wanting to complete, get your names down ASAP.

Prostate cancer screening evening

Welcome to what hopefully can be described as the start of the golfing season. You can take the hedgehogs off your trollies, and it won’t before long before suncream is recommended!

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Upcoming events

On Thursday 7th March we had over 55 men come to take a PSA test to get tested for markers indicating Prostate Cancer. Of those, 50 came back as green, meaning no current cause for concern, one came back as amber, meaning they would need a follow-up appointment in a year or two, and four came back red, who were suggested to visit their GP straight away for further tests. To be clear, the identities of those with amber and red results have remained anonymous by the testing company, I simply have the results overview. I hope all those with red results see their GP sooner rather than later.

As a reminder, those who couldn’t make it that evening can still go see their GP for prostate screening.

Sustainability

We have a few events coming up this month, so if anyone is interested, please see below:

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Quiz Night – Saturday 27th April – The sign for our members’ quiz night is on the board outside the office. The price is £12pp and includes scampi and chips as well as prizes on the night. Sign up earlier to avoid disappointment.

Roll Ups – We have our members’ Roll Ups starting back again in April. Watch out for Ben’s email with dates and times. The Roll Ups provide a

With a vision of becoming a lot more sustainable club and plenty of projects in the pipeline, I would like to share with you some data from 2023 regarding our waste management at the club.

Last year Redbourn Golf Club produced 25.779 Tonnes that was taken away by our waste management company. Of which:

• 18.168 Tonnes (70.5%) was able to be recycled.

• 4.494 Tonnes (17.4%) was turned into energy for waste (low carbon electricity and heat)

• 3.117 Tonnes (12.15) went for Anaerobic Digestion to produce a biogas that can be used directly as a fuel.

• Zero Tonnes went to landfill!!!

Continued on the next page

While we can’t get any better than nothing going to landfill, moving more from the EFW category to being recycled will further reduce carbon emissions which is why we are trying to separate as much of our waste in-house as possible.

Renewals

We are coming to that point of the year again when all memberships are up for renewal. As per last year, we will be doing our renewal via the Elite Live App or by logging onto Redbourn Golf Club’s website and signing into the membership area.

I hope you have enjoyed the 23/24 season and have seen the improvements we have been trying to make around the course. With plenty still to do, I look forward to helping the team here deliver an even better product this year than last, and I hope you all choose to renew with us this year to see where Redbourn is going.

You will receive your renewal notice later this month, and all those wishing to renew, need to have this done by 31st May. Please see below the 2024/2025

Membership Fees:

CLUB UPDATE

Last year, upon renewal, members received a re-usable mug and three free guest passes, to be used as part of a fourball. Trying to find a balance between all parties, this year there will two guest passes, that can be used separately from one another, to be used by the end of August. Restricted times apply. Only those renewing by 31st May will receive the guest passes. Another gift is currently being sourced as well.

*Flexi point allocation has not changed from last year’s rates. For more information, please come and see the sales team in the office.

Range update

With planning taking a very long time at St Albans Council, we are still waiting for confirmation of the approval to the variation in planning we submitted, which is delaying the start now until late May at the earliest. I will keep you all in the loop concerning this.

Captain’s Update

Neil Marcus Club Captain

Spring is in the air and it really feels like our 2024 golfing diary is underway with medals and trophy competitions already being played.

My Drive-in eventually happened (full report below) and I am very grateful to those of you who came along to my special day. It was particularly pleasing to see the Men’s, Ladies and Friars sections represented. I’m pleased to report that we are making good progress with companies wishing to be on our new sponsors board on the clubhouse wall and this will be finalised for April. We and the RNLI are very grateful for the support. The hole naming challenge is going well and we have some very imaginative suggestions, but please do keep the suggestions coming in by emailing me with your ideas.

All upcoming April events and competitions are shown below. Do enter our Captain versus Vice Captain match on Saturday 13th April and come along to our Quiz Night on Saturday 27th April. Finally, the Summer Singles and Doubles Knockouts entry sheets are now on the noticeboard, so get your name down in time for the draw.

CAPTAIN’S UPDATE

great auction lots, and a post match meal. A day not to be missed. The entry sheet with all the details will be on the noticeboard very soon.

2024 Captain’s Drive-in

Write-up by Robin Cheng

Having been postponed from February due to course closure, Captain Neil Marcus finally got his Captain’s Drive-in underway on Saturday 17th March. 60 members and guests welcomed Neil into the car park where he was greeted by a mock up bodyshop to reflect Neil’s career in the vehicle accident repair market. Neil insisted that the “Fred in the Shed” repairer depicted was nothing like the repairers he works with in his business!

Brian and Cheryl were on the RNLI souvenir stall where they sold plenty of RNLI merchandise throughout the day.

The day kicked off with the traditional Captain’s tee shot, in whic Neil had to use the extremely old hickory shafted driver with a wooden head. £170.00 was raised from members guessing how far Neil would hit his drive (if at all), which measured 176 yards. The look of relief on Neil’s face was something else. No one actually guessed as long as 176 yards, but the closest was guessed by Steve Tuhey with 175 yards!

The competition format was a nine-hole mixed Texas Scramble and there were some really good scores.

First, second and third places all achieved a net 28 strokes with countbacks needed to sepatrate them.

First place went to the team of Andy Braddon, Phil Sweetman, Stewart Charleton and Tony Biggerstaff, second place went to the team of Ian Rice, Paul Summerfield, Barry Cole and Glen Wilkes and third place went to the team of Julius Constantinescu, Adarsh Shah, Graham Tomlin and Brett Richards.

I would really like to see you at my Captain’s Day on Saturday 8th June. The day will include bacon baps on arrival, individual and team stableford competitions, nearest the pins, nearest the line, nearest the pin in two, halfway houses, sweepstake prize, bonus points for team scores, prizes, raffle, Continued on the next page

After the competition, Neil arranged for delicious food platters for all the players and many thanks to Paula and her team for taking care of us. As always, Babs Smith did a great job at registration where she was able to handle last minute changes and get everyone underway with a card.

Finally, Ladies Captain Linda Hill celebrated her birthday with us and was presented with a birthday cake from the Ladies Section.

Below left, Neil meets his doppelganger and right, driving off with a piece of history!

CAPTAIN’S UPDATE

Lady Captain’s Update

Linda Hill Ladies Captain I would like to thank everyone for their support and the fantastic day I had at my drive-in. I was happy to finally have the Men’s Captain Neil Marcus’ drive in on the 17th of March which was a nice day.

We also had 12 ladies joining in and the bonus was that it was my birthday - I was so surprised when they came out with a cake, and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me!

Hopefully, we can now play some serious golf with the weather improving. I would like to thank the greenkeepers for all their hard work during this very wet period.

We are now sorting the next joint venture when we play the Friars in the first of our annual friendly games. This is on the May 15th and will be a mixed game of two ladies and two men to a team with the best team score. Later in the year, we will play them again in a Texas Scramble event on July 10th so keep your diary free.

An Update

From ...

Charlie Turner Golf Operations Manager

The golf season is upon us! So being the nice guy I am, I have got a fully stocked pro shop with fresh new spring/summer clothing, so you can be looking your best when teeing it up this summer.

We have had a huge delivery of all the new Motocaddy gadgets for your trollies so if you’re looking to make your life easier on the golf course, we’ve got you covered. Regarding Motocaddy, we are selling our old hire fleet of M5 GPS for only £499 a trolley with a year’s battery warranty, normally these trollies retail at £999.99!

As you are all aware we have been on a real recruitment push recently trying to create the best Golf Operations team for the club, I’m pleased to say that it has been extremely successful with three new Trainee

OPERATION’S UPDATE

Assistant Professionals starting with us in the next month.

On a sadder note, we will unfortunately be losing Luke, our Retail Assistant. Luke has been offered a job closer to home and will also be going back to his hockey coaching career.

After all this rain we have had to deal with, it’s safe to say the course is drying out lovely, with this please still remember to repair all your divots and pitch marks, even if you feel the ground is firm.

As always if I can be of any assistance don’t hesitate to let me know.

Charlie

COURSE UPDATE

Course Manager Update

Haydn Drinkwater Course Manager

Hello everyone, Renovations on the greens have taken place over the last couple of weeks with the greens being ninja hollow tined, which removes smaller cores of thatch which will help firm the greens and aid drainage.

Following this, the greens were solid tined with a 20mm diameter tine and sand was then added with over 80 tonnes of sand added to the greens to fill the holes up. The sand helps firm the greens for the season and helps with surface drainage. Greens will be regularly rolled, and we are awaiting delivery of a new roller over the next couple of weeks.

As growth increases the green heights will be lowered to the season height of 3.5mm. Both courses will receive the same treatment and cutting heights. Granular fertiliser along with liquid fertilisers will be applied to aid recovery from the renovations and disease scarring.

Tees and approaches will be spiked, seeded, and top-dressed to help them recover from the wet winter we have experienced. The approaches that have suffered this winter will have drainage installed once they have dried out and towards the end of the season ready for this winter.

Fairways over the winter have been slit-tined and verti drained to help improve grass density, drainage, and drought tolerance. Fertiliser and selective weedkiller will be applied before the season.

All new bunkers are back in play with new sand added which has settled down well, with recent wet weather having drained well. The old bunkers will be edged, weeded and where needed, sand will be added.

We have had two new greenkeepers start here at Redbourn, Adam Bowling Smith who comes from a landscaping background and Peter Darvell who also comes from a landscaping / park attendant background.

Thanks,

Haydn

COURSE UPDATE

Course

Water Update

Paul Geary Ver Society

Hello everyone,

For the first time since the flow returned (twoyear anniversary in June), the Ver Society to which I belong offered to do a chalk stream “Kick test”. This is a method of disturbing the gravel (or muddy bottom) of a river with a boot over a set period and area (18x18 inches) and sending it into a net held downstream. The gravel is then examined in a white water-filled tray for life and documented.

It’s a search for the level of invertebrates in the river, which will be a good indicator of the health of the river at that point, and the level of food available for fish and birds and apex species like the White Egrets Kingfishers.

For context a kick test had already been completed north of the road bridge by the tunnels which yielded only baby earthworms, so disappointing, but to be expected as it’s only recently that the gravel has been exposed. Our GC however produced 27 freshwater shrimps and five stone fly larvae, plus some earthworms and blackflies, and Daddy Long Leg larvae, which was a great result and bodes well for our small fish and Kingfishers which also feed on freshwater shrimp. Combine that with finding approx. 200 small fish on the 16th as I moved through the channel clearing excess weed and it looks like we have a healthy chalk stream.

On a cautionary note, you may well see small patches of green in the gravel bed. These are patches of filamentous algae, almost certainly indicating high nitrate levels from field runoff of fertilisers. If these get out of hand, they can choke the stream and reduce oxygen levels. You will also see brown algae developing and attaching itself to rocks and plants on the spring at the 7th hole. This is not Algae, but billions of microorganisms called Diatoms which interlink and once again are an indicator of high nitrate levels and / or phosphates (sewage farm or sewage overflow) which get into the Aquifer. These fellows release oxygen by consuming CO2, but it looks ugly!

This year will almost certainly be just regular removal of excess fools’ watercress and flushing away green / brown algae, but I do hope to get some more gravel into the river at 16 to replace the silt on the green side bank.

Thanks,

Paul