Captain's Newsletter - 14 July 2019

July 14, 2019

With no photos taken this last week, I thought I would give you an insight into part of the course from the air. In fact, from a drone that the greenkeepers sometimes use to get a different perspective of the course! An interesting view isn’t it, but can you place it?

Some small changes that The Club Company promised a few months back are beginning to be seen! This week the new ‘Costa’ coffee machine took pride of place in the clubhouse and all the staff received their training on it Tuesday! New menus are now out on the tables, with a separate one for Breakfasts for those who like to partake before a round! Think you will agree they look tasty and there are certainly some welcome additions. New mats have arrived for the Driving Range and I believe they are now in place. No time to take advantage of them for me this last week, although I could have done with it! We have been informed that Intelligent Golf and the electronic booking system it supports, should be up and running by the first week in November. All concerned thought it sensible to delay the coming on stream until the important matches; championships, medals and cups/trophies etc are largely out of the way thereby avoiding any difficult moments!! Our new membership cards should be out soon, but I have no definitive date as yet, your balances will move across for you. I should have more news after Monday 22nd when we have our first club committee meeting with the new team. In the meantime, I will keep you as informed as I can!

This coming week sees the Friendly team away at Heydon Grange, good luck to all those playing! Its a great course as long as it stays dry!! Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.

There are still a few places left on Thursday for the Lorraine Palmer Cup, so do sign up and fill up the spaces please! The Palmer Cup competition against the Senior Men on August 7th still has a few spaces too and a reserve or two would be perfect! This competition is open to anyone and is Pairs Stableford Betterball, so we are all equal and there are no handicap restrictions! Check your diary to see if you can join us! A general point about signing up on the computer please, whilst Lin is always willing and able to move people around to avoid gaps in the tee times we use, it would save her time if you were able to do this when you consider booking yourself in. Its always good to sign up with different people and pick up a few tips as you go along! Thank you.

Thursday of last week saw just 3 nine-hole ladies venture out, with Pam B taking top spot with 15 pts on count back from Pam W and Pat P. Don’t forget if you decide that you would prefer to play only 9 holes on a given day, for whatever reason, please do sign in to play with them. I know they would welcome you!

The main competition that day saw the Ladies’ Champion playing to her best again! Kathy D came in with an impressive nett 71, just beating Jean R on countback and winning Division 1. Division 2 was won by Ann G with a nett 72, just ahead of Jean P and Julie R, all in with a nett 72. Great playing ladies! Personally, I must go away and get my head together after a disaster in the bunker on the 15th and ending up ‘picking up’ – what was that all about!!!

There were Medal matches all round this week and on Saturday, four ladies were out for their game. Nikki B came in with a nett 73 a convincing win for her ahead of Megan B, Lin G and Annette G. Well done Nikki!

Finally Friday September 13th 2019 is a HUGE day for Chesfield Downs Ladies!! While the biggest event in women’s golf takes place at Gleneagles, this is the date for our very own biennial Solheim Cup Competition played against Mill Green Ladies. This year we will be at home and if you were not there in 2017, you simply can’t imagine the fun we all have supporting the United States in this club v club day! (See 2017’s photo below.) A notice will be going up on the board very soon for you to express an interest, your availability to play etc etc. We will then be looking for a squad for the day but also an equal amount of ladies to be caddies for our players. We obviously hope you can join in the obvious fun and challenge!!