Redbourn GC Newsletter - October 2023

Robin Cheng General Manager

Dear Redbourn Member,

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Welcome to Autumn at Redbourn. The days are closing in, temperatures are dropping, and golfers are transitioning from shorts to trousers. Having said all that, I still think the course is playing exceptionally well and has recovered quite quickly after our renovation week.

GM UPDATE

Bunkers

With six bunkers already being developed earlier this year, there may be a possibility of six more being completed before the year is out. The proposed bunkers would be on the 1st fairway, 5th greenside (short of green), two greenside on the 7th, and two greenside on the 18th. The plan was also to fill the 18th fairway bunker which was once at the side of the fairway when the fairway was in a different place. This could potentially become a sculpted grass bunker to keep some features. I understand there are some mixed feelings about this bunker, but with the costs of redeveloping bunkers being so expensive, the two options for a bunker are to spend a lot of money on it or to fill it in.

Christmas Parties

Last year saw a fantastic Christmas party offering, with members and non-members alike coming to watch Elvis and Tina strut their stuff! This year Elvis will be back in the house, but we will also be running an Abba tribute night. To avoid any members missing out, please see Sophie, Ben or Paula to book a table or enquire, or send us an email at info@redbourngolfclub.co.uk.

Guest Bookings & Tee Time Availability

Although we are coming to the end of the year, there is still plenty going on at Redbourn.

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With bookings in the morning becoming tighter due to light we will be restricting guest bookings until after 12 p.m. at weekends when booking online. They will be allowed to play after 10 a.m. via shop bookings so that we can manage tee times, but not at all before 10 a.m. This is to give members the most amount of tee times possible in this rather compact period. This will come into effect for bookings as of Saturday 14th October (noticeable from Saturday 30th September).

Other ways to help ease congestion. Please make sure you only book for the correct amount of people and cancel any extra players from tee times that aren’t needed. Members who book for a two-ball when only intend on playing as a one must phone the shop up to book in and will be paired up at busy times.

The issue of being kicked out of Elite Live if there are no times free within 30 minutes of the original requested time unfortunately remains. As a group, there will be a solution, but I am sorry it hasn’t come yet. If anyone struggles for a reasonable tee time, please talk to us in the shop, and we will see what we can do.

Dear Redbourn Member,

Booking Your Tee Time

As of Friday 29th September, tee sheet bookings will move from 6am to 7am. So to clarify, for those booking on the 29th September, for two weeks in advance (13th October), booking opens at 7am. This will continue into 2024 when the mornings start getting brighter. An email will go out to make you all aware.

Buggies & Trollies

We are fast approaching that time of the year when the rain will force us to take general-use buggies off. If the conditions aren’t too severe to be a danger to the user, we will put medical buggies out only. I urge anyone who needs a buggy for medical reasons to contact the professional shop sooner rather than later which is either a doctor’s note or medical correspondence that shows the need for a buggy.

Trollies were a controversial issue last year as the decision was made to ban them from the main course at a point to protect conditions. As of the 1st November, hedgehog/winter wheels will be compulsory for all trollies on both courses, but we will not ban them, only strongly recommend anyone who can carry them, please do, as it really helps us protect the course we have worked so hard on this year. It will also show benefits in conditions when we come out into Spring 2024.

Robin

COURSE UPDATE

Course Manager Update

Haydn Drinkwater Course Manager

During September all greens on the main and short course were hollow-cored, this is when small cores of organic matter are removed in small cores. This helps reduce organic matter which helps produce firm and smooth greens once recovered. Following coring, 80 tonnes of sand was applied. This sand is then drag-matted and brushed into the cores, this helps with drainage and dilutes any organic matter that was not removed from the greens surface. A granular fertiliser was applied afterwards to aid with the recovery of the green, over the last couple of days the rain has helped wash this fertiliser into the green surface so this will help with recovery.

Some cores have been used to repair certain areas of wear on the 3rd path and 6th path end, with the cores also seeded and fertiliser added.

With rain and temperatures still high, regular cutting will continue on all playing surfaces. To aid the greenkeeping team in achieving this a new greens mower has been purchased, a Toro 3420 hybrid mower. The new mower will provide a better cut on the greens whilst helping to save diesel with its hybrid technology. The greens mower that we have been using will be overhauled over the winter and used as a backup to cut tees/approaches and to verti-cut.

A Kubota RTV was also purchased and that will help the green staff carry out a number of tasks around both courses.

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Work planned for October is to get all bunkers edged and sand distributed and topped up if needed. Fairways were harrowed and slit to help aid recovery from the summer, and areas were overseeded where needed.

Haydn

Men’s Captain’s Update

Ian Rice Club Captain

Well, summer is definitely over!! After a week of sweltering weather, the unsettled weather has returned but although we’ve had a mixed bag of summer weather recently, we’ve managed to get through a busy diary of events, competitions and matches.

Australian Stableford

28 players took part in the Australian Stableford

“Nine & Dine” where pairs had to multiply their Stableford scores after each hole. The eventual winning pair were Tracy Carr and Beverley Walters with 42 points. Winners Tracy Carr and Beverley Walters pictured here being presented with their prizes by Men’s Vice Captain, Neil Marcus.

CAPTAIN’S UPDATE

Mixed Friendly Foursomes

Twenty ladies and gentlemen took part in the Bank Holiday Mixed Friendly Foursomes. The winning couple were Mark and Naomi Zieseniss pictured here being presented with their prizes by Men’s Captain, Ian Rice.

Men’s Match v Mill Green

The Redbourn Team took on Mill Green GC on Saturday 19th August. Team Redbourn came out on top winning 4 – 2. A great result. The last match of the season will be at home against Chiltern Forest on 21st October. To date, we’ve played four matches, lost two and won two.

Redbourn Team Shield

On Sunday 17th September a Redbourn Team consisting of Neil Marcus, Glen Wilkes, Barry Cole Steven Tuhey, Jim Manning and myself represented the club in the Redbourn Team Shield. This competition is held at Redbourn annually and teams from Batchwood Hall, Abbey Hill, Chiltern Forest, Mill Green and Aldwickbury Park compete. In this competition all the team members stableford scores count towards the final total and the highest total wins the Redbourn Team Shield. On a showery day the Redbourn team

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team collectively played exceptionally well with all players scoring 33 points or higher and averaging almost 37 points a man. The team scored 221 points which was 36 points more than Abbey Hill in 2nd Place. This enabled the team to win the Redbourn Team Shield. This is the 4th year in a row that Redbourn has won this competition. Well done team!

CAPTAIN’S UPDATE

(pictured top left), the Doug Cook in-house Past Captain’s Trophy for Ladies was won my Marion Knott (pictured top right), the Doug Cook in-house Past Captain’s Trophy for Men was won by Carl Ingram (pictured bottom left) and the visiting Men’s Past Captains Challenge Jug was won by Duncan Mutton (pictured bottom right). Other notable winners (not pictured) were Bob Taylor for 2nd place in-house Men as well as Nearest the Pin on the 16th, Neil Marcus for Nearest the Line on the 12th and Jeff Carter who won the Guest Prize. After event we all sat down for a meal and everyone had the opportunity of catching up with old friends.

The club singles and club doubles have reached their conclusion with Ivan Boyce playing Glen Wilkes in the singles final and Eddie Mills/Russell Field playing Steve Tuhey/John Lennon in the doubles. In the singles Ivan Boyce was the winner beating Glen Wilkes five and four. Congratulations, Ivan. The doubles final has still to be played.

Thanks go to Ben Gray for all the organisation of these competitions and keeping them on schedule as much as possible

Past Captains’ Challenge

On Saturday 23rd September, Redbourn past captains reunited for their annual Past Captains’ Challenge. After the wet and windy weather during the week we were lucky to have a beautiful day for this event. The Visiting Ladies Past Captain’s

Thanks as always to Babs Smith for her excellent organisation and to Paula and her team for the excellent carvery meal.

Many thanks to Haydn and his team of excellent greenkeepers for maintaining and presenting our golf course with the best possible playing condition; we receive many positive comments about our lovely course from visiting teams.

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WINNERS

August Medal Winners:

Sunday

Division 1: Craig Ingram gross 75/nett 67

Division 2: Bob Taylor gross 94/nett 74

Tuesday

Division 1: Kevin Knight gross 88/nett 74

Division 2: Jeremy Tatham gross 90/nett 73

Paul Gallagher Winner:

Phil Ralfe gross 73/net 63

August Bowl:

Darren Creamer 42 points

Prostate Cancer Trophy:

Paul Smith 41 points

Junior September Medal:

Zac Munday gross 80/nett 65

Junior Professional Cup:

1st - Finn Ball 78

2nd – John Pruden 87

3rd – Joseph Hobson 88

September Medal Winners:

Saturday

Division 1: Colin Bignall gross 80/nett 68

Division 2: Bob Taylor gross 89/nett 69

Sunday

Division 1: Martin Kennedy gross 76/nett 65

Division 2: David Lorimer gross 88/nett 70

CAPTAIN’S UPDATE

Tuesday

Division 1: Graham Walker

Anniversary Cup Winner:

Martin Smyth gross 89/nett 68

Victor Henry Winner:

Barry Cole gross 79/net 70

Professional Cup:

Steve Harris gross 85/nett 68

Junior Stableford:

Zac Munday 48 points

Junior Club Championships:

Gross winner - Finn Ball 85

2nd - Eddie Diprose 87

3rd - Imogen Lawrenson 91

Nett winner - Eddie Diprose gross 87/nett 67

2nd - Leo Jones gross 110/nett 69

3rd - Imogen Lawrenson gross 91/nett73

Ian

Ladies’ Captain’s Update

Sheryl Tye Ladies’ Captain

The busy summer has continued and we have now held the delayed ladies club championships, and each of the summer knockouts, the Charity Shield Series and Daphne Tant marathons have all been completed. We are now preparing for our Autumn Fun Fireworks day, and then into the Turkey Trots. There is still plenty more golf to keep us all entertained.

Captain vs Vice - Mini Solheim

The Captain’s team played the Vice team in an epic match with six holes of Betterball, six holes of Foursomes, and then the last six holes were two sets of singles matchplay per four ball. However, the sum of all those matches resulted in a draw! Sue HJ (for the Vice’s team) and Shirley Deudon for the Captain’s team replayed the 18th hole – which was also drawn! They then played the 1st, where Sue HJ won with a birdie! Well done Sue, and congratulations to Linda Hill, the Vice Captain

CAPTAIN’S UPDATE

Ladies Club Championships

Well done to all ladies who took part in this postponed competition. Congratulations to Sally Burrowes, at 80 years old, for coming 2nd in the Best Net score, and to Imie Lawrenson at 14 years old, for both runner up for the Best Gross Score and winner of the trophy for best net score with 144 shots. The winner of the trophy for best gross score, and hence Ladies Club Champion for the 16th time since 1985, was Dee Tolman with 170 shots. Great job ladies.

Summer Knockouts

Both the doubles and singles knockouts have now concluded. In the final of the doubles, Pauline Byrne and Linda Hill put up a sturdy fight, but just lost out to the victors – Lisa Taylor and Sam Daniels.

Annette Brooks also fought hard in the singles final, but I just managed to win on 15th.

Autumn Trophy

This was a high scoring game on both of these beautiful September days, with a total of six birdies.

Each of Marie Jacques, Lisa Taylor, Naomi Zieseniss and Chris Lewin vied for places each with 40 points, but the Trophy winner was Nicola Holmes with 41 points

Monthly Charity Draw, supporting the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance

The sixth of 10 draws for this year took place on 6th September at the club.

The winners were:

1st prize - £40 to Kevin Hamer

2nd prize - £25 to S Sahota

3rd prize - £15 to Jeff Carter

Congratulations to the winners and thank you for taking part in the draw!

Daphne Tant Marathon

The final of four games in this series saw some great play – both Jane Clapham and Naomi Zieseniss scored birdies on the 7th. The winners, with the highest scores over the best three of four games were Jane Clapham and Catherine Kay in joint 5th, Anne Williams in 4th, myself in 3rd, Mary Bromham in 2nd and the trophy was taken home by Sue Hickman- Jameson.

Sheryl