THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE - January 2010
Members
Welcome to the January edition of Pin High. I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas.
Car Park
The Board decided recently to reduce and move the number of reserved Car Park spaces to allow for the movement of Disabled Spaces, during the club refurbishment and make the prime car park spaces available for members and visitors. The new committee spots will be adjacent to Pro Shop Amenities. For those members that have made these car park spaces their regular spot I suggest you grab one of the newly available spaces closer to the clubhouse. The committee spaces will be remarked early in the new year.
DA Lodged
James Clifford Constructions lodged a DA on our behalf on Wednesday 23rd December. At the time of writing this report we are confident that work will begin in late March or Early April.
9th Hole
During the renovation of the clubhouse the existing 9th Green will be affected by both the construction activity and the encroachment of the new building footprint. The Board has contemplated a number of solutions to this issue. Initially, in order to conserve funds, a Par 3 will be reinstated using a Tee Block on the Practice Fairway and the “Old 16th” Green will be brought back into play. Please note that this is a temporary solution and the Greens Committee and Course Superintendent have also designed a quality Par 3 with a well bunkered 650 square metre green immediately below the clubhouse utilizing the existing 9th Tee Block. This “New Hole” will be constructed when the Board is comfortable with our financial position and performance after the completion of the refurbishments.
Possible TAB Kiosk
The Board is currently reviewing the possibility of installing a Kiosk based TAB system. Due to our size and operating hours a full blown TAB is not feasible. It may, however, be feasible for our club to have a self service TAB Kiosk system. We are expecting a proposal for our consideration from Tabcorp early in the new year. I hope to have further information to you in the February edition of Pin High.
Financials
The Club continues to perform well. Our General Manager has informed the Board that most Central Coast Clubs experienced a “Slow” month in November which we did also, however, December’s trade has been very buoyant. A slow November may be attributable to interest rate rises and a general expense “tightening” just prior to Christmas Festivities. Having said that our club still more than doubled our profit for the same period last year.
The General Manager has provided an update to the Profit and Cash Flow Table below.
Profit Table
| Month |
Actual |
Budget |
Last Year |
| July |
$5,614.72 |
($25,880.82) |
($20,130.87) |
| August |
($7,938.55) |
($38,876.73) |
($42,617.74) |
| September |
$1,039.55 |
($7,817.79) |
($30,669.21) |
| October |
$20,027.62 |
($3,667.11) |
$46,624.84 |
| November |
$33,052.69 |
$41,628.93 |
$12,285.49 |
| YTD |
$157,366.26 |
$58,764.35 |
$61,706.18 |
Cashflow Table (EBITDA)
| Month |
Actual |
Budget |
Last Year |
| July |
$32,688.72 |
$7,083.18 |
$7,244.13 |
| August |
$24,173.45 |
($5,912.73) |
($14,937.74) |
| September |
$31,475.39 |
$22,378.88 |
($3,919.26) |
| October |
$50,079.16 |
$27,119.56 |
$73,642.70 |
| November |
$63,327.42 |
$72,425.60 |
$40,007.26 |
| YTD |
$337,789.30 |
$241,535.03 |
$222,800.72 |
Note: EBITDA = Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortisation. EBITDA is a widely used financial calculation. EBITDA is used to measure and compare the performance of a business without the impacts caused by financing decisions/structure, taxation issues and asset write off policies all of which can impact accounting profit. EBITDA is an approximate representation of the company’s Cash Flow.
On behalf of the Board, Management and Staff I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.
Ken Hey
President
CAPTAIN'S CORNER
Well another year has begun and I hope all members had a good festive season and you can now get back into the swing and have a successful year playing golf. The fixtures book is currently being printed and hopefully it will be available to all members around the middle of this month. This year I decided to have the programme printed from January to December, so the first 2 months will be the same as your current book and once the new book is out you can discard the old one; nobody seems to know why it has been printed from March to February in previous years. (Editor's Note: The fixtures calendar found here will also be updated by end of January.)
There have been some good scores returned by men and lady members over the past month. Is our course becoming easier or have we all improved our game on our great golf course?
Craig Chilvers had an early Christmas gift when he had a hole in one on the 9th. Well done Craig and we hope you have many more.
Pennants start on Sunday 31st January and continue for 5 weeks. It was a very hard task to select the players to represent our club as all grades had very good nominations. Teams are as follows:
A Grade:
Peter Sliwinski (Captain)
Ty Purnell
Rodney Wherle
Tim O’Regan
Brent White
Brett Parker
Matt Martin
Ron Ayton
B Grade:
Rohan Collier (Captain)
Adrian Katona
Phil Coker
Neil Smith
Mark Brownlow
David Van Gestel
Gemini Brown
C Grade:
Tony White (Captain)
Clive Nertney
Barry Burfield
Geoff Hunter
Greg Wall
Adam Baxter
Arthur White
Juniors:
Shaun Gray (Captain)
Matt Dawson
Jack Ray
Justin Angus
Matt Lockwood
Juniors:
George Crowder
Ben Saunders
Managers of the A Juniors is Peter Crowder and B & C is Pat Collier. We wish all the teams good luck during the series.
Unfortunately we still have some idiots around who seem to get enjoyment out of destroying our great golf course and the mess they made on the 5th green on New Year's Eve was disgusting. Fortunately our greens staff were quickly onto it, carrying out repairs and they have done a magnificent job. It will be out of play for a week or two.
The annual Top Gun Shootout is set down for Sunday 24th January and as usual should be a good spectacle to watch so keep the date available and come along to see who will be the Top Gun for this year. Hit-off time will be 12 noon.
Tuesday the 26th January is our annual Australia Day Commemorative Medal Day as per the programme book. The draw for this day will be held on Friday 15th January in conjunction with our normal draw.
Col Hines
Captain
COURSE REPORT
Paths
The path on the 18th hole has been completed. The planting of native shrubs and grasses in front of the tee and along the path will be trimmed to a convenient height for playability. These plants will also screen the path from the tee as well as soften the area.
The 10th and 13th paths will be constructed when finances and the program permits.
The staff has been busy turfing miscellaneous areas around the course. The reason why these areas have bare patches is due to one or several issues. These include poor soil or sand profile, drainage issues or poor irrigation coverage. Some examples are:
1st hole
Level with the fairway bunkers
1. This area is infested with ground pearl (Margarodes spp.) The sand profile needs to be removed when the fairway bunkers get remodeled in the future. This will remove the pests and more suitable sand will be used. The alterative is to apply for a permit to fumigate this area at a significant cost and the outcome is undetermined, then replant with turfgrass.
2. Due to the ground pearl, the roots of the turfgrass are damaged (shortened), which result in the plant losing moisture at a faster rate. To coincide with this, the control of the irrigation system is limited. To water this area being a sand profile, I must also irrigate in front of the green which has a different soil type being of loam. Having two different soil profiles and watering with the same time duration, means that one area is over watered and one is under watered.
Due to the irrigation and soil profile difference, there are a couple of different watering scenarios to choose from:
1. Satisfactory turf cover adjacent to the bunkers but over watering in front of the green, which would result in poor turf coverage and no cart access.
2. The scenario we use at present, is to irrigate with the maximum amount of water to keep turf healthy in front of the green and make carts accessible. This means that the sandy area adjacent to the bunkers dry out and turf health suffers. To combat this, during dry conditions and when play permits, a hose and sprinkler is located in this area from the 2nd tee. This can not always be achieved due to the amount of players during the day, vandals at night and the fairway bunkers don’t drain.
To improve this area, 2 things have to be achieved:
1. Install new irrigation.
2. Re-construction of the fairway bunkers and surrounding area.
2nd Hole
At the start of the fairway
1. This area is poor due to drainage. During winter when air and soil temperatures are low and rainfall is high, this area becomes waterlogged and turf loss occurs.
2. On the other side of the coin, when the air and soil temperatures are higher in the summer and rainfall is limited, the irrigation layout of sprinklers is not adequate. If these areas are thin or bare from the previous winter, turf health is poor due to lack of moisture and recovery is slow.
5th Hole
Drainage is the major issue on the fairway in front of the temporary green. The soil type is of loam on top of a rock shelf. It is during winter when this area becomes waterlogged, that turf loss occurs. Drainage needs to be installed to fix this issue.
18th Hole
The soil profile on this hole is made up of several different types of sand, sandy loam, loam and clay. As with all areas on the course, the irrigation design is of a block system. The means that individual sprinklers don’t have their own run times. There can be as many as 12 sprinklers running at one time in many different soil types. The result is over and under watering in some areas. Two examples of over watering are on the left hand side of the fairway as you play the hole. The first is at the start of the fairway and the second is level with the 17th front tee.
To solve this issue, new irrigation needs to be installed as well as drainage.
Bunker edges
There are two main reasons why some of the bunker edges/surrounds have bare patches:
1. The older bunkers don’t have many entry and exit points into the bunker for the machine. This means that the machine has to run over the same areas constantly between 5 and 7 times per week due to the amount of competitions held.
2. Inadequate irrigation along with course sand profiles. The bunkers were constructed many years ago with the native and dune sands that were in the area. The irrigation system at present only allows the ability to water the greens and the green surrounds at the same time. To produce the best possible green surfaces, minimal water is applied through the system and hand watering on greens has been increased. During dry conditions, minimal hand watering around the surrounds is under taken due to staffing numbers.
These two points are the reason why some areas around the bunkers are in poor shape.
The new bunkers on the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 16th fairway have had an irrigation upgrade during construction, which means that I am able to water the green surrounds without watering the green. Also, the bunkers have been designed so that they only get raked by hand to eliminate wear by the machine and a sandy loam has been used around the edges to maintain more moisture and prevent the edges from collapsing.
In the New Year, a nursery green will be constructed down the southern end of the course between the 7th green and 8th tee. This is due to the existing nursery green (old 16th) will be used as a substitute hole for the 9th.
I would like to thank the course staff and volunteers for another great year. Their dedication and enthusiasm shows by the way the golf course has been presented and the numerous improvements that have been accomplished.
Andrew Banning
Course Superintendent
GOLF SHOP NEWS
Staff Update
Ben Sweetman has joined the Golf Shop team in December. Ben is commencing the 3rd year of his traineeship. He completed years 1 and 2 of his traineeship at The Oaks Golf Club in Cessnock. Ben was a junior member of The Oaks Golf Club and played from a scratch handicap. He won the Junior Championship 3 times, the Club Championship twice and also represented NSW.
Tim Wallington also joins the Golf Shop team. Tim worked at TLGC several years ago and returns to the Golf Shop after a stint at Magenta Shores. Tim is a regular golfer who plays off a handicap of 6.
Please introduce yourself to the boys and make them feel welcome.
Funny Golf Quotes of the Month
"The only thing of actual value that you can take from the driving range to the first tee is a pocketful of golf balls."
"I gather you earn more than the Prime Minister," the nosey member asks his Club Professional. "Why not," he replied "I'm a better player than he is!"
"The harder you work the luckier you get." - Gary Player
Tip From The Pro’s
The key to knocking two or three shots off your game instantly isn't always changing your entire technique or hitting the ball further. It can be quite simple, you will hear the term all the time and the key is “course management”. Three things to remember the next time you play golf are -
1. If a pin is tucked in behind a bunker on the right side of the green, then don't go for the pin and potentially cost yourself two shots by missing it on the wrong side, just aim for the left half of the green and give yourself a chance to hole the putt and walk off with a par.
2. If you find yourself in the trees and there is a one metre gap to hit through, don't go for the impossible shot for the sake of gaining an extra 20 metres, simply take the safe option and hit it out sideways to the safety of the fairway.
3. Don't fall into the trap of trying to use a lob wedge from everywhere around the green as the old saying goes a bad putt is better than a bad chip.
We guarantee you that by applying these couple of ideas into your game on a week to week basis it will definitely improve your score in the long run.
Rule of the Month
Q: After marking your ball and replacing it on the putting surface, if a gust of wind blows your ball away from its original position what is the ruling?
A: The player must play the ball from its new position as wind is not an outside agency.
Refer to (Rule 18-1/12) Decisions On The Rules of Golf 2008/2009.
Golf Shop Specials
Titleist Golf Club
Price Reductions
• 909 Drivers save $160
• 909 Fairways save $30
• 909 Hybrids save $30
See in-store for a HOT price.
Callaway X Series -
Big Bertha and Fusion Technology
• Drivers from $199
• Fairways from $159
• Hybrids from $139
Taylor Made
• Burner Drivers were $499, Now $299
• Hybrids were $289, Now $189
Dirty Dozen Runout Sale
• Men’s Golf Athletics & Womens Contour IV
were $159,
NOW ONLY A CRAZY $99
Adidas Golf shirts at 1/2 price!!!
* LESSON SPECIAL *
Teaching Professionals Jason Hart and Peter Cliff are continuing their ever-popular Lesson Package.
Purchase 5 x 40minute lessons at $225 & receive a BONUS 1 hour on-course lesson.
New Products
• Cleveland CG 15 wedges $159
• Tour Special Wedges only $49.00
• Callaway FTiZ Drivers
Demos are available in store
Introducing
Odyssey White Ice Putters
The new Odyssey White Ice Putters have arrived in store.
Prices from RRP $259 & RRP $279 for the 2 Ball.
Demos are available.
Survive those hot summer days on the links with the NEW Eagles and Birdies BIG FRIDGE bag. Loads of room for all your drinks and lunch. RRP $249,
Special Price $199.
CLUBHOUSE NEWS
Club Historian Volunteer
The Board would like to officially appoint a “Club Historian” from within the membership base. This would be a voluntary role supported by the club’s administration staff. The objective being to review, catalogue and display relevant historical items in a quality manner. If you are interested in such a role please contact the General Manager on 4332 3400.
Club Library
A huge thank you to Danny Bradney our ‘club librarian’, Danny has been doing a wonderful job maintaining our library. Thank you also to our members for donating their books for the enjoyment of others.
Please note that the library operates on an honesty system and it would be greatly appreciated if books could be returned within a reasonable time period. Thank you for your co-operation.
'A DAY FOR KANE' CHARITY GOLF DAY
There are still some hole sponsorship opportunities available and by the current level of interest it is expected that the field will fill up quickly so don’t be disappointed and book in soon! Payment can made at the golf shop.
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PIN HIGH NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 2010