Catch up

It’s a long time since I’ve posted anything – not because nothing’s happened but because a lot has.

The work on the greens carried out in August appears to have improved them and the quick recovery justified treating them early: we’ll continue to do that in future, and also slit-tine and dress the greens more regularly during summer. The idea is, weather permitting, to do this at the start of the week before the fourball competitions.

The winter work is going to be approved at a green committee shortly, but will involve tidying up some of the paths, gorse management (management rather than destruction, please note), drainage improvements and improving the winter tees as well as repairing the walls by the 14^th. The most controversial item for the green committee is the position of the 14^th tee, where there are strongly held split views between the old position and the new, on top of the hill.

We’ve had two general meetings since I last wrote; both seemed to go well, at least from my point of view. The first approved the clubhouse development, both in principle and also the detailed work to be carried out this year. We have now written to ask people to assist in the funding and the contractors are on site doing preparatory works before starting the main demolition work next week.  As important part of this project has been minimising disruption to the day to day activities so we’re pleased that the bar can continue to operate throughout, that Paul will be able to provide basic catering – probably most of the things people want in winter anyway – and that there is a bit of slack in the timetable so we should be open for business before April next year – as always, weather permitting.

The next six months will be critical to the long term development of the club; it’ll see the main phase of the clubhouse improvements and we’ll be very focused on finishing it within budget and to a high quality. We’ll be having regular team meetings: something – probably more than one thing – is bound to go wrong and it’ll be important to catch that early and to respond flexibly.

The AGM also went smoothly: the best line from my point of view was that since becoming chairman people only talk to me to complain about something. Since then – they do talk and they haven’t complained! I’m sure that will change but it’s nice while it lasts.

Looking forward, we had our first committee meeting of the new year last week, welcoming the new captains. We decided on the main objectives for the coming year – we won’t achieve them all    but it’s a useful discipline. The main ones are:

- the clubhouse development and its financing (obviously)

- completing the new rules

- reviewing and possibly updating the competition system

- Improving the course management

We have also decided to improve our marketing efforts – we’re not sure how yet, I’ll write more about that later, but we need to improve our profile to attract more visitors and potentially, as the waiting list declines, members.

Clubhouse Forum

I was curious about what would happen at the third clubhouse forum – who would come and what would they think. It was quite well attended, interestingly mostly by older members, but not by as many people as the first two. My sense is that people accept the need for the work – certainly all those who replied to say they couldn’t come raised no problems with it. Notes of the forum will be on the website soon.

Originally we’d wanted agreement to move forward as we’ve outlined previously. However, we’ve had a couple of setbacks: it’s taken longer to get the specifications and tenders than we hoped, the year has started disappointingly in financial terms and most importantly the tenders have come in at more than we hoped – not a ridiculous amount more, but more. However, the committee felt that given the benefits of doing the work and the momentum shown by offers of loans and donations we should still try to start the project this year. We therefore suggested more aggressively phasing the project to build the new extension this year, finishing the demolition of the flat roofed areas and extending the bar next year. And before then, we are working with the builders and the QS to reduce the costs.

The plan was enthusiastically received by the meeting. We will therefore consider the costs at a committee meeting at the end of June and if they are satisfactory call an Extraordinary General Meeting on 2 August to approve the overall plan and then to approve the proposed work in 2013, together with the necessary financing arrangements (HSBC loan, loans from members and a limited number of life memberships).

One of the main points is that we must never reduce focus on the course because of work on the clubhouse. This is shown by the investment in new machinery like the rough cutter and turf iron even as we’ve been saving up money for the development. People have said we should spend money on the course not the clubhouse - but I would genuinely like to know where, if so, we should spend more money on the course. This year’s issues have been more about weather than resources.

So it was good to see the course looking excellent for the 150 or so people who played on Invitation Day.

Greens

The STRI made its annual visit earlier this week: their report will be published once we’ve received it.

We vary the timing of their visit each year so they get a chance to see the course and the greens at different stages of the season. The timing this year was fortunate because of our concern over the slow development of the greens and  STRI confirmed many other courses are experiencing similar problems.

The STRI findings are based on a detailed and consistent analysis of the greens; initial discussions suggest that although the appearance and smoothness is not good, they are actually running true and at a reasonable speed. However, there is some evidence of compaction below the surface and some greens have too many varieties of grass. Chemical treatment should alleviate the latter and continued aeration and sand dressing the former.

The  main cause of the problem with the greens this year,  was the late core tining last year, followed by the weather conditions which have affected us in two ways:

- heavy rain washed away the top dressing after tining; we could have re-dressed the greens, but did not for fear of potential damage,  as we were then in November.

- the cold weather combined with Easterly winds have meant that the greens have been slow to grow this year. Soils temperature is currently several degrees below what is expected by mid May.  

The key lesson is that we should core tine earlier in the year: August is the recommended optimum time. As I noted previously, the timing of tining is a problem. We have few visitors in August, and the only major event is Captain’s Day, but it is a time when many members play. September is often our busiest month for visitors and we have the pro-am and a couple of opens: our last open day is in October.

This timing will be discussed at the next committee meeting but it is likely (as suggested in the Christmas newsletter) that we will tine at least some of the greens in August so they have a chance to fully recover by September and therefore winter. We are well aware of the problems with the greens this year and will be doing what we can to improve matters.

 

Seaside Golf: the 17th.

Golf, as we all know, is a strange but also a strangely satisfying game. All thoughts of my first drive into the Dinkie disappeared as I walked down towards the17th green.

On the first tee, there was a very cold wind and true to form I hit the ground harder than the ball which toppled over the edge into the Dinkie, as three quarters of them have since we made it out of bounds.

But on the 17^th tee it was warm, the wind had died down and to quote John Betjeman, how straight it flew, how long it flew… a glorious, sailing, bounding drive that made me glad I was alive. And then the very turf rejoiced to see my quite unprecedented three.

Clubhouse Development

We had a long discussion about the clubhouse at the committee meeting on Friday reviewing the current plans, the cost indications, the proposed financing and the timetable. We then discussed when to hold the next clubhouse forum; as I’ve noted earlier we want to have another forum to make sure all issues and concerns have been dealt with before holding an EGM to formally discuss the project.

It took the architects some weeks longer to prepare the detailed specification than we expected so we are only now sending it out to tender. The cost indications by our QS are higher than we hoped but broadly in line with the financial planning we’ve been making so hopefully the tenders will show no surprises. We have asked three local firms to tender, and three from further afield to make sure we properly assess the market. All the firms are being pre-vetted for financial stability and relevant experience.

There has been broad agreement that we should carry out this work – I am now asked “when” rather than “why” – but as a brief reminder, parts of the infrastructure (the kitchen, the changing rooms, showers, heating) need replacement and the bar is starting to become too crowded too often. Addressing the first leads us into major spending and if we are doing this we should take advantage of the disruption and develop the clubhouse for the long term.

One of the questions that will inevitably be raised after the recent landslip is the stability of the foundations: we’ll address that point at the meeting, but the ground engineers have obviously focussed on this and are satisfied.

An important part of funding the will be loans and donations. We will be approaching those who have already indicated they would be prepared to lend a significant sum to confirm their continued willingness to do so, but if any of you are willing to consider such a loan, and have not already let us know, then please let either Mike Robinson, Ian Brown or myself know so we can discuss the proposed terms with you. Similarly, we expect to offer a limited number of life memberships, on terms favourable to the club. If this is likely to be of interest please let us know.

The forum is likely to be a Friday evening in June, after the tenders are back: we’ll know the date soon.

Membership

We have now finalised the membership numbers for 2013:

	2013	2012
Full Playing Members: men	478	486
Full Playing Members: ladies	81	84
Junior and Other categories	114	119
Social	99	108
Total	772	797

Numbers leaving: 47

New members:     22

We retain a waiting list for male playing membership of about a year, but as previously noted it is declining and the number of membership applications is now lower than ipreviously. We are in a good position compared to many club but things are not as they were: we don’t have a very long waiting period, we do welcome membership applications and we would like to encourage members to encourage potential members to apply.

 

Things to worry about - or not

We have recently been focusing on three things (in addition to the usual getting ready for the summer season):

• The Dinkie
• Membership renewals
• Tee sponsorships

The Dinkie
The scale of the landslip is important because:

a) of the potential impact on the course - in particular the risk to the 18th green

b) of the risk to the public using the footpath - which is also a bridlepath.

c) we are planning to spend a lot of money on the clubhouse when there is unstable land nearby.

We are therefore taking professional advice. The intial view is that the series of landslips are due to

water on top of the underground layer of rock loosening the sandy soil and making it slip, reinforced by erosion at the foot of the slope by the sea. The enigineers thought it unlikely that the clubhouse was at risk, but the 18^th green eventually would be. They also identified other areas of slippage along the first hole. The preliminary indication was that any work to stabilise the Dinkie would be (very) expensive and could not be guaranteed to work. In addition, the Council’s official Shoreline Management Plan says that natural erosion should take place in our area of coastline so we probably would not get permission for major work. We will  carry out a proper ground survey: to give us more certainty about the intial conclusions. Such a survey will also be helpful when we have discussions with the Council and others about the routing of the footpath and bridlepath.

The likely outcome – that we will do nothing – raises two issues for longer term consideration:

- how would we alter the course layout if the 18^th green did come under threat?

- how would we want the footpath/bridle path re-routed  if the path disappears?

Shorter term, we are thinking about how local rules should treat the Dinkie from now on; it will probably be out of bounds.

We have notified our insurers and the Council; the latter have inspected the landslip and are comfortable with the continued use of the path at this stage: they will prepare some warning notices.

Membership renewals
We'll report fully when membership for the eyar is finalised (the end of the first quarter), but renewals have been pretty good compared with previous years and although the waiting list covers men only and there have been reductions in ladoes and junior memebrs, the total should be similar to the budget.

Tee sponsorships
As noted before, a three year tee sponsorship programme is an important part of our funding plans for work on the clubhouse. We have spent the last couple of months discussing the programme with various businesses and I'm pleased to say that we are virtually there in getting all the holes sponsored froma  good mix of local and national businesses, members and suppliers. We are having a draw to see who gets what holes next week. In current economic conditions that is a good result which reflects well on the club's reputation and which will bring in over £55,000 in total.