Pukekohe Golf Club
Up With The Play - July 2010

Welcome to Up With The Play, the new Pukekohe Golf Club email newsletter. If you are not interested in receiving it anymore just Unsubscribe here instantly. If you are not subscribed, but wish to do so then Subscribe here. Click Forward to a friend to send it to a friend or colleague.

General Managers Corner

I am getting sick of the “Rainy Day Feeling” now and, hopefully, with the days getting longer, summer will be around the corner – bring back the drought – only kidding.

It has been an interesting comparison recently with me travelling alternate weekends back to play Omanu at Mt Maunganui. Down there I have been scoring well – like 43, 42 & 43 points whilst, when I play back here, I flounder around like a fish out of water.

Similarly the Junior Pennant team has been down there recently and they have been the reverse. The influence of a familiar course must have a great influence on how we play.

It has also been good to compare the course and to realise that Pukekohe is not an easy course. The trees are more numerous, more concentrated in the locations around the course and the water has a great influence on how well you score.

I have something else to announce as another membership benefit. Come and get your car cleaned while you are out playing. Click here for more detrails or go to the club website at www.pukekohegolf.co.nz and click onto the Select/ Valet icon on the Homepage and away you go. From all of those who have tried it I have heard only positive responses. Give it a try and the club will also benefit.

I hope to have a few more deals like this that will make your membership value higher than just play golf, so watch this space. Also remember the Finder’s Fee option at South Auckland Ford & Mazda along with real estate options at Harourts and First National South.

Cheers & happy golfing.

Ian

Monthly Calendar

Check out this months events and happenings on the monthly calendar.
Click here

Back to top

SWOT Night: Some comments from the night

Last month Ian Litchfield invited 100 members along to an evening meeting to undertake a SWOT Analysis of the club.For those that have not been involved with strategic planning, the anagram SWOT stands for “Strengths” “ Weaknesses” “Opportunities” “Threats”.

This is a widely used process to get people thinking creatively and putting ideas forward, in a freewheeling manner from which an organisation can plan for the future. I have been involved with many of these over the years and am constantly surprised about the great ideas that come forward from people who you would never think give much thought to such issues.

I probably should not have been surprised that only 30 people turned up to the SWOT evening but Ido share Ian’s concern about the low turnout. We did however, get some good input form the group and from those ideas we should be able to produce some meaningful short, medium and long term plans for the club. It was pleasing to note that virtually all the staff of the club turned up, even though they were not being paid. Good on you staff!

I am very conscious that members are very quick to make comments about various aspects of the club, whether it’s to do with the course, the staff, the board or the finances- and in my case it seems to happen while I am trying to play golf. Usually I am non-committal, or if I feel it is appropriate I suggest to the member that they put their suggestion/complaint in writing to the General Manager. From what I can gather, this doesn’t happen very often.

What really amazes me is that we seem to have many, many members who are experts on turf management, drainage , irrigation , finance etc, etc but what I don’t very often hear are many worthwhile suggestions as to how we are going to fund all the wonderful amenities on members wish lists. I do hear a lot of angst about the effect on members of the increases in annual fees even though in my time as Treasurer the increments have really only kept up with inflation.

In a similar vein, and even though last year somewhere around 100 turned up to the AGM, the previous year we struggled to get a quorum of 50 people. I can only deduce from the low turnouts to such important meetings that the vast majority of our members are very happy with the way the club is being run. Or…they just don’t really care as long as they can turn up and play golf.

I would suggest, that next time you are invited to attend a meeting (whether or not you have the right to vote) that you take up the opportunity to have your say about the way the club is being run, or its future.

Phil Blain,
Treasurer
 

Back to top

Womens Captains Report

The Pennant Season is over for another year. Although we didn’t actually win any of our sections, all matches were fiercely competed for. Thank you to our sponsors, Wattyl for your continued support. All our teams were in new uniforms this year and the comments from other clubs were very encouraging. Thank you to our Pennant Convenor, Judy Tremain, A Team Captain Dawn Day, B Team Captain Briar Childs, Business Women Captain Margaret Johnson and 18 Hole Midweek Captain Trish Hooker. To our players, thank you, your commitment is valued.

Results: A Team – 9th, B Team - 2nd , 18 Hole Midweek Team – 4th and Business Women - 4th.

Thank you to the players who played all 9 matches for the A team and for those who took time off work so they could be part of the team. Your commitment is very much appreciated. To our caddies and valued supporters, particularly Gloria and Johnnie Wills who supported every A team game, your time and effort is appreciated.

There is a pennant meeting at Auckland Golf in the near future and there are several remits being put forward by other clubs regarding A Pennants and also B Pennants. I will let you all know of the outcome. The club looks forward to your continued support for our Pennant Teams in 2011, be it player, caddy, captain or supporter.

4th and 11th Holes We have had feed back from members regarding the trial in place for the above holes. After some discussion and deliberation our final decision will be made by 31 July 2010.

Enjoy the rest of the season, it might be a little chilly but at least it is dry!!

Back to top

Board Stuff

Course Plan: A meeting has been held to progress further the course plan.
Honour’s Board: We are trying to find a source of OB rimu to match the existing rimu Honour’s Board which will be adjacent the new one. This is a bit of an issue so, if anyone has some stored away for any reason and would like to get rid of it then please let me know. Then we can complete the new board.
Some house keeping things – Craig now has a signed contract for his professional’s role and the Golf Committee have a Job Description about what they are trying to achieve. All roles, both paid and unpaid will have these done in due course.
Irrigation: The Board is working through the options to replace the existing irrigation pump to provide a more reliable system with back up and to be able to do the things Robin would like it to do. Two contractors are providing prices to do the work and then we will seek funding once the Board agree to do whatever they choose to do. Once completed, I believe, this work will give the club the surety to ensure that the course’s most vital asset, the greens, can be looked after much more better without the risk of going without irrigation over summer – an essential ability if we are to progress further with the quality of our course.
Bore Pump: This recently packed a “sad” and had to be lifted up. We found that it was clogged with goo from the iron in the water. This has been fixed and the bore will go back down to provide back up water for year’s to come.
Reciprocal Rights: We have been approached by the Palmerston North Golf Club and we have agreed to Reciprocal Rights between our two clubs. In the very near future this will be signed off and you will be able to enjoy a complementary round there as will their members here.

Back to top

Hole-in-One

Nigel Mason has had one too so another “well done”.

Back to top

Cooch Trial

You will notice now that winter is here that the cooch grass seems to have “disappeared”. It hasn’t but it has become dormant and other grasses like Poa have come through to take its place and give us a green playing surface.

Just before winter set in, Robin and his staff took cooch plugs and placed them in non-cooch areas to see if we can get a faster transfer of it when summer starts. Check them and the new ones we will put in when the cooch comes out of dormancy in October’ish.

Finder’s Fees

Yes, you have seen this before. It is important to use our sponsors so we have set in place arrangements for Finder’s Fees for real estate and motor vehicles (new and used). To take advantage of this offer then contact Paul Whiteford on 021 956 399 and he will look after your real estate needs anywhere in Auckland or NZ.

For your vehicles contact Michael Halliday on 0274 954 893 and he will look after you. In both cases tell them who you are and where you are from to take advantage of the arrangement.

Remember 50% goes towards your subscription and the other 50% to the club. Let me know as well so I can see how well the scheme is going.

Back to top

From the Mens Captain

“Golf without mistakes is like watching haircuts. A dinner without wine.”

Well the rain came, a very wet month with the Karaka Cup qualifying round having to be moved a week as the bottom holes were all under water, by Sunday the water was gone but the holes were not playable and the Stevenson Memorial was played on the short course, congratulations to the winners Kristian Griffiths and Gary Inwood, a good field of 12 playing, we enjoyed shortbread and cakes at the turn with a little mulled wine (unfortified), thank you Ray, Linda and their helpers. The Christmas dinner after was excellent.

The Men’s Wednesday Mid Year Ham & Turkey day was a great success with over 115 playing in the field, our monthly Wednesday opens continue to be popular with our own members and visitors.

Rules:
There are rule book available in the office at no charge.

Back to top

Centennial

This reminder will stay here until it happens but I know some more progress has been made and we look forward to the committee achieving what they are setting out to achieve. I will have more in the next Newsletter.
 

Back to top

Automatic Payments

A few of issues have arisen recently about these. The first being that paying by AP is not a month-by-month membership where, for any reason, you wish to stop you do so and you have no obligation to complete payment of your subscription. This is not correct. An AP arrangement is a time payment method to pay for a full subscription of whatever
kind you have chosen and the expectation is that full payment is made.

The other issue is that some AP’s are well behind where they should be as the rate of payment relates to past years and is not up to speed to have full payment by year end. We would appreciate a lump sum payment to get these in line. Notices have gone out to those that this applies to.

The third is starting dates for paying for subscriptions. It is our expectation that some contributions should be made throughout the year and from the start of the year to enable you to continue to play. We can not have payments coming at “some time” in the future and allow people to continue to play. This is not fair on those who pay
their subscription when they are supposed to. If you have a short-term problem then come and see us in the office as we will work something out for you.

We understand some people will have these types of issues from time to time but we do ask that they are resolved quickly so that we can all contribute equally to the club.

Old 4th green

The turf nursery in this area is all greened up. Robin thinks he may have to under sow it a bit more but all is good in this area.

Other course stuff

Robin has indicated that there is some hydrocotal weed in the greens and this will be sprayed once there is enough grass growth to replace it without leaving bare patches.

Suckered ball

This will obviously be a problem with the wet underfoot conditions out there and the debate is how to treat this from a golf rules perspective. Unfortunately for those who have assumed (as the old rule allowed) that you could agree with your marker that the ball was suckered and you could drop at ball at an agreed positioned this is no longer correct. Sorry, if you can’t find it then it is lost – back you go. A real pain I know but “them’s the rules” whether we agree with them or not and it does slow play.

Senior Membership

The club’s records do not show how many people may be qualifying for this type of membership over the next 5 years. If you do can you let me know.

Greens Pages

Check the Greens Page out - it is online now under the 'Home' tab ..  It is a services directory between fellow members. If you have a business and you are keen to offer your services to fellow members then we can do so for you. For a small fee (isn’t there always) of $50 we can put your company’s name, some text detailing what you do and a link to your own website. If you already sponsor the club we will do this for nothing. Members,  support our supporterscheck - this page out first when looking for goods or services.

Out of Bounds

I understand there has been a bit of debate about the 13th & 13th bamboo ruling with regard to the path but, to try and make the OB more clear, Robin’s team have put up a white painted board to clearly define where the boundary is.

Sadness

For those who didn’t know a past member, Dudley Tate passed away in June. Our condolences to his family.

Play & Stay

This is another feature that we have arranged. We have a "Stay & Play" arrangement with the Touchwood Motor Lodge for people staying there and who wish to play golf. Check either theirs or our website for the details.

New Sponsorship

The next newsletter will detail our sponsorship options in which we will take a different approach to past years in an endeavour to meet the conditions of the post-recession era - watch this space.

Back to top

New Members

New members since the last Newsletter include Caroline Carrick-Eede, Morgan Brady, William Crosby, Matthew Mates, Mike Kaukau and Mathew Fox.
We welcome you with open arms and we hope you get as much fun out of the club as other members do

Back to top

Bad Boys and Girls

After Slow Play, repairing pitch marks in greens must be the next biggest bug bear. Not only does it make the green look awful, it is a pain for those behind to fix them and an access way for disease into the green. Please repair your pitch marks as it does not take long to look for them and fix them. If you do see others then also please repair these as well as your own.

Back to top

Membership Funds in Proshop

With the GST changes coming up on 1st October all of the items in the Proshop will increase in price by the increase. This will mean that all of you who have funds with Craig will lose the increase in value. I suggest that you get in early to spend it before the GST changes.

Membership

On the table adjacent to the café entrance you will see a new "New Member" booklet and new application forms. If you have any one interested in joining them grab one of each and get them involved. As members you are the best sales people to promote our club so please feel free to take one to give to a potentially new member.

Communication

This is often the biggest bugbear the manager finds in our role. We do not communicate enough!!!! Well, this is about to change and I have been working with Phil Evans (a member) of TrioNet Ltd and we are about to introduce a system that will improve our communication ability.

Those of you who we have an email address of will soon be getting one seeking your approval to use this method for future communications. At any time you will be able to "Unsubscribe" by clicking a button. All good stuff.

For those without email addresses in our system then please give them to us and those who haven’t got computers then we will have newsletter hard copies available from the office.

Junior Bay of Plenty trip

The PIC sponsored Junior Pennant team has been in the BOP over the first days of the school holidays and their report is as follows:

The Junior Pennant team travelled to the BOP Region on a training program and enjoyed some of their courses the likes of Te Puke, Omanu and Omokoroa. The weather played it’s part with fine sunshine on the first two days followed by a miserable day at Omanu with wind gusts which provided plenty of challenges.

Although there were many highlights some worthy of mention are a good number of two’s scored, a couple of miss hits from tee resulting in falling short of yellow markers (he knows who?) and of course the parents vs Juniors challenge by net score. The parents showed the way again by some 3 shots.

The experience will have our team in good stead for the upcoming round vs Titirangi at Whitford. Two weeks prior the team lost in a close game 3.5 to 2.5. On Sunday the 25th of July our boys will enjoy home course advantage against Akarana and we are hoping for as much member support as possible.
Regards,
Leo Ruyg

Back to top