Club Champs is now underway, so good luck to all those who qualified.
This is what every club player should try and win each year, as you will be the champion in your grade and your name on the Honours board.
I have played a few courses around NZ and still come back to Motueka course and realize how good ours is compared to other courses. So, a big thanks to Nick, Steve and Jack for keeping our course in excellent condition.
On that note, please remember to look after YOUR course by replacing divots and fixing pitch marks,
I have noticed some unrepaired divots lately which might be new members or green fee players, if you see it happening just remind them of their obligation to repair their divots even in the rough.
Visitors love playing here and having a great experience and will go and tell everyone to come and play Motueka course. Word of mouth is one of our best forms of advertising.
Rob Annett our barman has moved on after 13 years of loyal service. He has been the face of our club to all members and visitors and made it a great experience for all. A big thanks Rob, and we wish you well in whatever you do in the future.
Once again, we have had to call on some of our members to fill in for bar duty, golf operations (Green fee collecting and monitoring) and cleaning while we wait to fill the vacant position left by Rob.
So, a big thanks to all who have volunteered to help out.
GOLF AND HOSPITALITY SUPERVISOR
The operations of the golf club are currently being undertaken by a group of volunteer members. This is not intended to be a long-term situation, but it has provided an opportunity for the Management Committee to carefully consider how we might offer a more complete golf and hospitality service to our members.
The committee has identified three areas for improvement:
· Providing bar and kitchen services seven days a week, for longer hours.
· Improving access to golf booking and scorecard printing services for both members and visitors by having a person stationed in the Matchroom for a period of time at the start of each day.
· Strengthening the collection of green fees from visitors and managing the entry of visitors onto the course.
The hours required to achieve the above cannot realistically be filled by one person. We will therefore be seeking to employ two people to work as Golf and Hospitality Supervisors, with both working part of the week. How the hours will be split between the two people is yet to be determined and will likely be worked out in conjunction with the successful applicants.
Duties will include time in the Matchroom in the mornings, assisting with food and beverage service in the kitchen, and running the bar.
If you know of anyone in your network of family and friends who might be interested and suitable for the position of Golf and Hospitality Supervisor, please alert them to the opening, and ask them to contact either of the two people below:
- Ron Noordijk (0274 358838, housechair@motuekagolf.co.nz) or
-Pete Cederman (0272440018, president@motuekagolf.co.nz ).
A job description is available from Ron Noordijk (details above.)
CREDIT CARD AND PAYWAVE CHARGES
I also wanted to give you a quick heads-up about another change we're making at the club.
In the next month or so, we're going to introduce a small surcharge for anyone paying by credit card or paywave. The reason? Well, the fees we get charged by the banks for these types of transactions are starting to add up, and we want to make sure we're keeping things fair for everyone. Instead of spreading those costs across all members, we thought it'd make more sense to apply them to just those using these payment methods.
Here's what to expect:
-A small fee of 1.5% to 2% will be added to any payments made with a credit card or paywave.
-No extra charges if you pay swipe or insert your debit card.
-And of course, there is no extra charge if you pay with your House Account card.
We know nobody loves extra fees, but this is just to help us cover those transaction costs without affecting the overall club finances.
If you have any questions or just want to chat about this, feel free to reach out.
FROM OUR GREENKEEPERS
It has been a steady month with some good things achieved while we have also been trying to get rid of our annual leave. We have made a good start with the root pruning around the course. These do create a slight mess, but we will top these areas up with sand and seed in the spring. The results will be huge come summer with less water stress and more grass.
The drainage work on hole one has been working great so far with very little water left after the last few downpours.
Next month we will start the turf nursery next to Number 12 green which will be a full kill of the grass that is there, and turf cut old grass and replace with a layer of new sand. (It's the new dark area now visible) We will sow this down early September and hope to for a good grow in so we can crack on with using it to replace some of the tees.
FROM THE WOODIES
A quiet month for the woodies as four of us were on a golf trip to Australia's Sunshine Coast.
We played seven courses, a mixture of Club and Resort courses. The consensus amongst us is that, with the possible exception of Twin Waters, no course was presented better than ours, and most weren't to our standard. That's says a heap for our Greenkeepers and the volunteers that work on our course. The other point was how lucky we are to be able to play virtually whenever we want. The Thursday we played Noosa Springs there were 260 golfers playing that day!
The rest of the month we have been processing the trees that we have recently removed from the course and delivering firewood. We are sure you will have noticed the new edging on the path between the sixth green and the seventh tee. A great improvement, which will frustrate the birds in their endeavour to continually make a mess of that pathway. Thanks to our honorary "Woodie" Derek for the great work he did in constructing this!
FROM THE MATCH COMMITTEE
We are approaching our Opens season, with the first being the Super Liquor on September 28-29th. Entries are filling up so get in quick, we are limited to the first 54 pairs (men or women). Also, just a reminder that the date and competition information in the Members Handbook is set at the end of each year so as changes inevitably occur, the website remains the most up to date for this information.
We were recently advised that there has been a change to the requirements for entering 18 hole Scorecards - the minimum number of completed holes to count has changed from 13 to 10. So now if you only complete 10 holes, and do not continue playing, the remaining 8 should be assessed and entered as if you scored 2 stablefords, or you can press the 'Not Attempted' button, for each unplayed hole, on the kiosk when you enter the card. (Its on the second page under the keypad)
FROM OUR LADIES
Its been a quiet month as many have been away on holidays. 18-hole ladies held a very successful Combined Stableford Tournament which drew 22 teams, 14 of which came from other clubs in the District. Also, $223 was raised from a raffle (our ladies donated all prize items for this.)
NEW & RETURNED MEMBERS
We welcome the following returned and new members to our club. Tony Atkin, Cam Blackwood, Amelia Bryan, Ben Blewitt, Brodie Douch, John Foster, Frida Franz-Halley, Murray Jewell, Inseok Kim, Mark Lutterman, Jonno McKay, Vince Sibbard, Luke Sturgeon and Mark Warminger. As always, please make them welcome and happy that they made the right decision to join our Club.
Enjoy your golf and have fun, its only a game,
Pete Cederman.
© Motueka Golf Club
