MEMBER NEWS
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2023 In this Edition | Club, Golf and Shop Update
GOLF SALES & MARKETING TEAM Henry Willett Sales & Marketing Manager Hello everyone! It feels like I’ve been saying it for months but this time, it is almost Christmas! The festive season is in full swing here at Wycombe Heights with our Christmas Lunches, Party Nights, Tribute Nights, and TrackMan Range party packages underway. Do you have friends & family in town for the festive period? If you are looking for a fun activity this Christmas, then please reach out to us!
As we look forward to 2024, our evening functions and golf day bookings are filling up already. Got a big birthday or anniversary coming up? Use your 25% members discount to book our function rooms, or bring a group of friends to try the new bunkers on the golf course. On behalf of Torrie and myself in the sales office, we would like to wish you a happy and warm festive period, and we look forward to hosting you again in the New Year. Henry
We have tables still available for our Christmas Party Night on Saturday 23rd December which will kick off your Christmas week in style! Similarly, our TrackMan Range party packages are a great way to showcase your golf skills. The package includes unlimited balls, hire clubs, heated VIP bays and a festive platter, and we still have key dates available – even between Christmas and New Year!
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DRIVING RANGE UPDATE Jack McDonagh Driving Range Manager Season’s greetings everyone! What a great year we’ve had! It has been an absolute pleasure working with you all over the past year. I have had some really high moments this year working with you all, from dominating the senior’s fantasy premier league alongside Colin Richards, to attending some of your AGMs, taking part in golf days with you all and on a personal note, welcoming my first child, Elsie, into the world back in January. We have had a great year this year on the driving range, and it has been brilliant once again to see so many of you using the fantastic facilities we have here at Wycombe Heights. I would just like to take this opportunity to remind you all about the ‘Member’s warm-up basket’ available to you all, every morning throughout the week. It entitles you to a 50% discount on a bucket of 25 balls, costing you £2. You can redeem this whenever you check in for your round in the professional shop, just ask a member of the team for a voucher for a warmup bucket, and they will be happy to help. We have some exciting competitions coming up here at Wycombe Heights, which will be running throughout December. The first competition is ‘Beat Santa Claus’. This is a TrackMan competition, which will run on the game ‘Bullseye’. One of us will be dressing up as Santa and hitting nine shots on the driving range to get as high a score as possible. If you beat the score of ‘Santa Claus’ on the TrackMan leaderboard outside of the range kiosk, you will win a one hour VIP driving range session. We will also have ‘Basket Baubles’ (see poster).
If you find a golf ball that has been painted to look like a festive bauble, you will instantly win a ticket for 100 balls on the driving range. Over the past few months, we have said goodbye to our ball-picking robots on the driving range. We have decided to upgrade our ball collection system, to a new system which involves an RTV Kubota with a ball picker attachment on the front. The system is still in its infancy, but hopefully will make a difference to the team. I hope you all have an amazing Christmas! Regards, Jack
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AN UPDATE FROM...
We are now starting to sell our TaylorMade exrental and demo clubs in-store. If you would like to try some of these clubs first, Matt and I are holding free TrackMan custom fitting events on the 2nd, 3rd, and 9th of December. Enquire instore for more details.
Duncan Purcell Head Professional Season’s greetings everyone!
With Christmas around the corner, it brings the opportunity to unveil some great bargains in the Professional Shop. At present, we have sales on golf shoes, Titleist Vokey wedges, all of our ex-rental/demo clubs and so much more. Drop by the Professional Shop to see for yourself what’s on offer, and follow us on social media for our latest updates.
I would like to remind everyone that every member must check in individually into the Professional Shop before each round is played. This is a directive that has been in place for quite some time. We also need every member to have their photo taken and put onto the system, so that when signing in for a round or using their members card in the bar the person handing us the card matches the picture we have on file. I would like to welcome Donny Frankel to the team as an Assistant Professional. Please pop in and give Donny a warm Wycombe welcome. He is here to assist with your needs in-store, as well as providing lessons. On behalf of the team and I, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!
Duncan
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COURSE UPDATE Stuart Giddings Course Manager Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well - I would like to give you an update on what we have been up to here at Wycombe Heights. Firstly, I would like to introduce a new member of the team - Dean Gregory - who is our new Deputy Course Manager! Dean has joined us from Aldenham Golf Club with a wealth of knowledge and 15 years in the greenkeeping industry under his belt.
In October, with a little help from TurfTonics, we had our greens overseeded with brown top bent grass seed. With soil temperatures still above 10 degrees, the seed germination was perfect for the new grass to establish, and we should see the benefits of this both now and into the New Year. Hopefully, you have all had the chance to witness first-hand the huge investment we have just put into the bunkers this Autumn. We have had 11 dug up, reshaped with a capillary concrete base (to help with drainage but also stop the stones coming through to the sand) and then rivetted with artificial grass. We have also filled in three unwanted bunkers altogether, and filled in the old grass bunker on the right of the 9th fairway with a nicely shaped mound.
It has been a real mixed bag of weather here over the last month, with wind, torrential rain, and some heavy frosts! Unfortunately, with heavy downpours comes worms. We have been doing our best with worm management over the last month and we are slowly seeing the worm casts reduce, which will reduce the amount of soil out on the course.
Unfortunately, with all this work comes the need for temporary greens from time-to-time, but they are there to help protect the bunkers and construction areas. We have invested in more post and rope which has been put out to help protect areas around the bunkers and greens, so please refrain from walking your trolleys past the rope line.
Many of you will have noticed we have put out our new white 150-yard markers on the fairways, and we also have red 100-yard and blue 200-yard markers coming soon.
You may have also noticed some holes in the fairways! Our brand-new ProCore 648 machine has allowed us to go out and aerate our fairways, starting with the wettest. Aeration helps with water getting through the surface of the soil and helps the surface to dry out a lot quicker. We have planned to aerate all main course fairways, and also started to aerate our main course greens with smaller micro-tines.
These measurements are all to the middle of each green and should help speed up play on the golf course.
All the best everyone and take care. Stuart
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F&B UPDATE Rhiannon Curnow Food and Beverage Assistant Manager We hope you all are having a fantastic start to your festive season! If you have been up to the bar recently you will see that we are in full swing for Christmas! As we come into the last month of the year our opening hours are changing slightly. The bar will be open from 7 am to 6 pm Sunday to Thursday, and 7 am to 5 pm on Fridays and Saturdays due to Christmas functions. The kitchen is open from 7 am to 5 pm Sunday to Thursday, and 7 am to 4 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The week of Christmas our opening hours will be 7:30 am to 4 pm.
We are taking Christmas lunch bookings in the café with our seasonal function menu - if you want to book a table just speak with the girls in the bar. Also, why not pair your lunch with some of our new wines or cocktails? They are specifically chosen to
pair alongside our menu! Also, keep an eye out for our holiday specials, pop down today and try some! Our staff spotlight this quarter is being given to the whole team who are all working so hard and putting in extra hours to host some amazing Christmas lunches and parties, and making sure that the few brave souls who play golf in the winter are taken care of. So, here’s to the kitchen and bar staff!
We look forward to hosting you all at some point over the holiday season, whether that be a coffee in the café, or at one of our Christmas parties or tribute nights! We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and look forward to what will come in the New Year! Regards, Rhiannon
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Thank you for reading the latest Members News. Please feel free to contact us on 01494 816686
WYCOMBE HEIGHTS GOLF CENTRE Rayners RaynersAve, Ave, Loudwater, High Wycombe HP10 9SZ