It's that time of year

Apart from the Turkey Trot and the Chicken Run, this is a quiet time for most people at the golf club. But it’s a very busy time for Mike Robinson and some of the committee, and it’s a very critical time for our financial future.

It’s the Christmas mailing time: sending out the newsletter and the subscription notices.

 

The newsletter has pictures and is printed using different colours. We therefore suspect it’s one of the few things we produce that most people actually look at, so we try to get interesting articles; and more importantly try to get people to finish them in time for a publishing deadline. That takes time.

The subscription notices are more mechanical: we know what the subs will be after the AGM (although we still have to wait to hear what the various national and county affiliation fees will be). But they signify an important issue: how many people will renew, and how far down the waiting list should we go to fill vacancies? Each year for the past few years we’ve had about 50 people choosing not to renew, which is pretty much in line with the national average percentage, after a period where we lost fewer. There’s all sorts of articles and theories about why golf clubs are losing members (time, cost, social factors, handicap system, too many golf clubs, easier to play social golf through pay and play) and all sorts of efforts made to reinvigorate memberships. We can look with interest to see which efforts work because our waiting list – more or less – gives us flexibility. But one day it won’t be there and we’ll need to decide how to react. This year’s subscription process will indicate how soon that day will be.

Two other points on subscriptions:

- we are in the middle of changing banks to HSBC so we start the new year with them. We’ve decided not to encourage direct transfers into the account this year to avoid confusion; we will next year. We will continue to be unpopular with bank counter staff as we bank £200K’s worth of cheques and cash in the first couple of months.

- we are unusual in asking members to approve subscription levels for the coming year at the AGM. This is good in that members approve them; it’s bad because we have to decide what we recommend early in the year which is before we know the year’s financial position and what our competitors (other clubs) are doing. The draft of the new rules keeps this arrangement but I’d like to discuss it because it can put us on the backfoot in a year, like this year, when other clubs are raising their subs by more and the unexpectedly bad weather in summer hit our results. We may well have kept 2013 subs at the same rates, but we would have made that decision with better knowledge.

Clubhouse Story

We’ve now got planning permission for the clubhouse development. It’s an important stage but just a stage in the process.

Discussions started about renewing/refurbishing the clubhouse about twenty years ago, well before I became a member. This suggests:

- there really are problems that need to be dealt with, and

- despite that we’ve managed to cope so they haven’t been that urgent; we have the time to get it right.

After the centenary and the course purchase a development committee was formed; the first priority was the new greenkeepers’ shed; the second the clubhouse and a plan incorporating lots of good ideas was drawn up; unfortunately the cost was estimated at well over £1m and so the plan was dropped. The need to deal with the inadequacies of the structure, kitchen, heating, wiring, plumbing meant we started to plan again about four years ago. This post sets out, for the record, what we’ve done and why.

Initially we a) asked what members thought; b) chose a firm of architects; c) carried out a structural survey; and d) held a forum with members to get detailed views. All this informed a design brief for the architects and we gradually refined the plans to those which were put forward and endorsed at the second forum. The key decision was not the design itself: instead it was to deal with the inevitable high cost by saying we would first agree the plan and then only start once we had dealt with the financing rather than – as before – give up, and we would phase it if necessary.

The plan, with an estimated cost, was presented and endorsed at a second forum and we then went for planning permission. After some interesting discussions with the conservation officer about the sightlines, window details and the way that the existing extension blends into the landscape (?) we got planning permission. As the notice in the clubhouse and on the website states, we will now get a detailed specification (hopefully complete by February) and then put them out to tender (during March). If there are no surprises we’ll present the final plan, the costs and the financing plan to another forum and an EGM. We’ve wondered whether to have just one meeting, but decided to have both so that any concerns can be picked up and dealt with at the forum.

You might remember that the plan lends itself to minimum disruption. We aim to start work in October and be complete for the beginning of the following year’s season. The nature of the work means that we should be without a kitchen for only about four to six weeks, in the early part of the year.

We’ve had positive feedback from a number of members about donations, tee sponsorships and loans to help finance the project; we also plan to offer a limited number of life memberships. Ian Brown and I are talking to those who’ve offered some of the larger amounts so we can prepare a detailed package. We expect to do this in Spring and – subject to the project being approved - would hope to ask for money in late summer to be ready for the start of building. We have also prepared a tee sponsorship package similar to the one used for the Centenary but which would last for three years.

The final thing we’ve done this year is a full repainting of the clubhouse repairing much of the badly damaged woodwork. The previous work was not done to such a high quality and we decided to do it now so we could repair the woodwork and prevent it from needing replacement at a later date, at a high cost. We’ve phased the quality: the work at the back of the clubhouse, which will be affected by the development project, has been done with a two to three year time frame in mind. Also – how many of you have noticed that one window in the dining room has been replaced with a double glazed unit? This was done to test how easily that can be done: the answer is quite easily and all the windows at the front will eventually be double glazed. 

 

The plan for next year in summary is:

- Get detailed drawings: February

- Tender: March

- Finalise loan, life membership and tee sponsorship arrangements: April

- Forum/EGM: May/June

- Appoint builders: July

- Collect funds: August

- Start work: October

All this assumes there are no surprises and that members continue to endorse the project. The main caveat is financial: if we are not confident about the financial arrangements then we will delay the project until it can easily be afforded. This year has not been an easy one financially, principally because of the weather; we hope to be profitable but not by as much as the budget or last year. The cash we generated has been used to buy some machinery which should benefit the course – a grinder and a turf iron – and to pay for professional fees which form a necessary part of the development. We should have as much in October next year as we expected for the start of the project but we will watch finances carefully and if next year is also a bad one for visitor income then we may delay. One thing we will not do is risk not investing in the course because of the clubhouse.

Four years ago a common question I was asked is “why are we doing anything?” Now most members I speak to recognise that we have to improve the clubhouse and the most frequent question I’m asked is “when are we starting?”. I hope the above gives a clue.

Turkey Trot Blues

Now the Turkey Trot is over half way through it’s a good time to reflect on the results to date.

As with so much to do with golf, the weather has had a big impact – but unlike the rest of the year it’s been positive with most weekends having been calm and dry. This has meant the number of people playing is up on last year, and the number of rounds is about 20% higher. Strangely, though, the average scoring is low, at least until the recent efforts by Hugh Adair which have seen his handicap come down by 6 over two weeks.

Despite the better weather, the average scores have been about 5% lower than last year.

Are we all not as good as last year? Do we need Christmas presents of better equipment? Are the extra rounds being played by worse players ie the good scorers play in all conditions? Perhaps the greens, with the late treatment this year, mean we are putting more? Or maybe we are used to windy conditions so calm weather means we play less well. Who knows? Something to speculate on during the backswing.

This year’s competition has been my first chance to become involved in running a competition and checking cards etc. As a result I’m even more grateful to the people who do this each week during summer. It’s not as easy as it seems particularly as each week people seem to confuse the dates of Saturday or Sunday, forget to put their names on the sheet or on the money envelopes or to put their cards in: there’s always a discrepancy. It is a pain – although I can hardly grumble since the only time I (almost) won a competition in 2012 was the time I forgot both to sign in and sign my card.

Rules

Rules are important for golf. And for golf clubs.  And for competitions between golf clubs. But rules often don’t cover circumstances that arise. Hence the fascinating, if you’re that way inclined, book “Decisions on the Rules ofGolf”. Hence our current review of our rules. And hence our attempt at the recent AGM of the North Northumberland League to deal with a couple of anomalies.

We have been an important part of the North Northumberland League for a number of years, for example winning it five times in the last decade. The matches themselves are usually good to watch, and we usually have many more supporters than the other side. A couple of years ago the League agreed to add a couple of new teams and to split into two divisions. The benefit of two divisions and more teams was that each team in the top league could play home and away, so reducing any home advantage, and the teams were a bit more evenly matched. The disadvantage was that it split the league. And also that no thought was given to how clubs with two teams should operate in terms of team selection and most importantly whether there should be B teams in the top league.

Theoretically, as there are four clubs with B teams (Magdalene Fields, Goswick, Dunstanburgh and Foxton), you could have a eight team division A with just four clubs particpating; even if there are one or two B teams more matches would be played at just one or two clubs giving some form of advantage; even if there are no tactics employed with team selection there is scope for an advantage for clubs with two clubs. Secondly, the rules did not comfortably deal with what happens when – as happened in 2012 - a club does not get a full team out for a particular match – at the moment, the other club is deemed to win 12 – 0.

Keith Whitfield put a lot of work into drafting a new approach for these issues with the most important suggestion being that a club could not have two teams in the top league – as is the case, for example, in the Ladies County Shield. This was an unemotional year to make that suggestion since Foxton’s B team had been relegated and none of the others had been promoted – although Goswick B nearly made it. Unfortunately although the AGM agreed with our proposals to make scores fairer if a club could not get a full team out they did not agree the changes for B teams.

At least the matter has been discussed but it strikes us as bizarre that the league is willing to see a potential concentration of clubs. Hopefully, having raised the matter this year it’ll come up again and common sense will prevail.

Closer to home, Keith together with Angela Peereboom and Mike Robinson have been preparing an update to our rules. This work has been long promised and is nearly complete: the fact is that it’s not easy to come up with a simple, plain English, set of rules to cover how we operate. There’s a number of topics where more than one approach is perfectly reasonable (eg how long should committee members stay on; should we allow proxy voting; what membership categories should we have and which should have voting and ownership rights; should the Ladies group have a separate committee) but we need to suggest an approach to these and then get members’ agreement. We think there are four levels of rules: the rules that govern how the club operates; by-laws that deal with detailed issues; competition rules that deal with how we run golf matters and local rules that apply on the course; all are being considered in this exercise.

Our intention is to send the draft rules (and by laws) to the national body that provides legal advice to golf clubs for comments and advice to make sure everything is covered properly (it should be: we have taken the EGU’s model rules as a guide) and then to send the draft to members, together with a summary of topics where we’d like members’ views. We’ll probably also hold a forum for those who’d like to discuss them – I suspect it won’t be as packed as the clubhouse development forums but of course it’ll be as interesting, at least to those people who attend. Once we are sure they have general acceptance we’ll present them for approval either at an AGM or an EGM.

Stroke indices

Now the summer competitions are over, it's interesting to look at the difficulties of each hole compared to the current stroke indices. The table below shows for the last season the current stroke index, the "scratch" index - ie without taking account of handicap - and the index after taking account of player's handicaps.

Most were in line; the anomaly of 11 & 12 is well known, but it's interesting that the 17th was the easiest hole.

History repeating (2)

We are fortunate to have a complete set of minutes from the time the club was formed. We've decided that the earlier ones at least would be stored in better conditions and more safely at the County Archives at Woodhorn instead of with us; we will keep both a copy and the copyright. The team at Woodhorn were grateful, not least because they still remembered all the work Gordon McKeag had done there whilst researching the Centenary history.

It was interesting to have a quick flick through the minutes before leaving them at Woodhorn: many of the issues we talk about now were talked about many times in the past – not just the obvious things, like work on the clubhouse or visitor income, but also the mundane. In 1905, players climbing into neighbouring fields to collect balls were a problem. In the 1960s, the committee was asking why the greens had become larger. Again in 1905, the committee decided to have a maximum handicap of 18 in competitions.

Nothing new under the sun was obviously also George’s thinking as the Green committee walked the course to agree winter work and think about some longer term issues (actually, we drove around in buggies, much to the interest of the few visiting players we kept disturbing and who wondered what we were doing).

There’s certainly not much wrong with the course, apart perhaps from the 6^th which most good players seem to think is not particularly fair. Reducing the blindness of some of the holes by improving the tees would make the course more enjoyable particularly for visitors but as we walked through dunes, bracken and brambles to the sound of George telling us we were walking in the footsteps of previous green committee it became clear that there’s a good reason the tees are where they are. However, over time we will try to elevate some of them and next year we are going to try putting the competition tees for the 14^th and 6^th in different places: the 14^th, by the 9^th tee, and the 6^th, by the yellow tee. If that is better we'll consider a permanent change, if not we won't.

The winter work will focus on improving the paths particularly by the 8^th (although we will leave the first tee area until the clubhouse work is completed); improving the drainage especially on the 12^th and 7^th; improving the signage for walkers; controlling the gorse (although not as radically as last year) and promoting heather by the 9^th. The work on the greens and the rough cutting will happen after our last open competition in October. We will also work on the collapsed walls at the 17^th and 14^th. That could cost a lot so we’ll have to think carefully about the scale of any repair.

History Repeating

After the friendly match against Brancepeth four of us went down to Woodhall Spa, the home of “England Golf” (the new name of the English Golf Union) and one of the top 50 courses in the world, The Hotchkin Course.

The main objective was to play golf while staying dry, but we also thought we’d speak to the Club Services man at England Golf to benefit from his experience regarding our re-write of the rules and our fundraising for the clubhouse development. Unfortunately he’d been called away “unexpectedly”. I’m sure it’s nothing personal, and we can speak to them by phone, but it’s a shame not to have got inside the inner sanctum.

On the golf course, our objective was a bit harder: rain swept across the country for the two days we were there. The good news was that everyone else stayed away from golf on the Monday, which meant we had a world top 50 golf course to ourselves. The bad news was that we got wet. But not too wet.

There was also some compensation for Mike Robinson and I as we were heavily beaten by John Southern and Keith Whitfield: a chance to see why Harry Vardon was such a good player. Keith had absorbed pictures of Vardon’s putting in a history of the course, and decided to putt in that manner. It worked: pretty much everything sank.

As golf club members we get a discounted rate to play the course; it's a long way to Woodhall Spa but it's an enjoyable place to visit.

Another benefit of the course was the opportunity to admire their heather reclamation work, in some cases at very close quarters, and also the scale of some of their gorse: some had become so large but straggly that you could walk around underneath their canopy. Why would you? Looking for balls of course. This is important: I was told a couple of weeks ago that the trouble with committee members is that they lose their balls when they join the committee. I'm pleased to say I found five in one lot of gorse bushes, and three in the adjacent heather.

A Vardon quote: "A great deal of unnecessarily bad golf is played in this world."

And a link to HistoryRepeating, a great song performed by Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads.

Early days

September is a busy month for both the course and the new captain.

For the course, it’s one of the top two months for visitor income and there are also (including the last week of August) a number of important events: every year, Captain’s Day, the pro-am, two Open competitions, and a couple of friendly matches; this year we also co-hosted the Swedish Golf Secretaries annual match against the English golf club managers’ association and we host the County Salver at the end of the month. And we saw the important final match of the Ladies’ Northumberland County Shield league against Ponteland where our 7.5/0.5 win guaranteed we won the shield. All this is explains why we do not to do the aeration and treatment of the greens at the best time of the year to do it (mid August/September): there’s just too much going on which benefits the club.But as part of further improving the quality of the course we are going to think about doing this some of this work in August at least for some of the greens.

The men’s captain has to hit the ground running; in addition to the points above he also has to deal with the Lady Mayoresses’ competition. Trevor hit the ground a great deal better than Keith or I in terms of weather; most of the days since he took over have been the best of the year so far with in particular a dry and calm Captain’s Day and a successful pro-am and friendly against Ponteland (the latter successful only in the sense that people enjoyed it). Fiona, the ladies' captain, oversaw the culmination of Alison’s season with the aforementioned win against Ponteland meaning all three ladies teams won their respective leagues. This is a fantastic achievement for the club. I’m not sure how I can take credit for it but I’m sure I’ll try.

The pro-am had a bit of a frisson this year, with the added celebration of Keith Whitfield's 70th (hard to believe) birthday with the clubhouse decorated to show him in a new light. He did eventually get his cake cut.

Hello again

I finished off my last blog with Jeremy Clarkson’s quote about golf club captains being halfwits, hated by their family at a molecular level and so on.  I did modify his quote a bit: he actually talked about chairmen not captains. I’ll leave it to others to judge whether he’s right. I am of course grateful to be Bamburgh Castle Golf Club’s chairman; to be precise, chairman of the committee, but when people have congratulated me on the appointment I’ve downplayed it because it seems to me that there will be many hassles to offset the undoubted benefit of the parking space. I respect John Southern even more now for staying sane while people dumped their problems on him: I’ve only done the job for a couple of weeks and already I think the best solution is not to visit the club when anyone else is there.

Not everyone will know that each year, after the AGM, the elected committee disappears into the small lobby by Mike’s office. Under the chairmanship of that year’s captain it decides who should chair the committee for the following year and who should do what jobs. This year, no-one else wanted the job, hence me. The good news is that at the same time we managed to solve one of the biggest problems for any treasurer (of anything): how do you get anyone to take over? Ian Brown agreed to take over and to chair the finance committee. This role will be critical over the next couple of years as we finalise the clubhouse development: equally critical is the clubhouse development committee itself, which will now be a formal sub-committee: Malcolm Cresswell who, with Ali Gilhome, embodies experience of this type of project will be the chairman. At the same time we have to keep the usual business of the club going; the Green, Competitions/Handicap and House committees will benefit from the continuity of John Cairns, Keith Whitfield and Tony Cawthorn continuing as the respective chairmen.

The key to the office bequeathed to me by John Southern

Anyway, I’ve decided to restart a blog as a less formal means of communicating what’s going on at the club. We already have the occasional newsletters and the annual report; we post odd things like quarterly accounts on the web and we are going to publish committee minutes (occasionally edited for personal or very commercial issues) but I think there’s also scope for a more personal interpretation. As you can see from the earlier paragraphs it won’t always be that interesting and unlike my previous blog it’ll be more focused on the club in general rather than the golf. But my belief is that golf is meant to be fun and we are extraordinarily lucky to be members of a club like Bamburgh so I hope it will always be positive.