What's Happening...........

As you will be aware the 4 resown fairways are now back in play although initially we are playing off tees to further protect the young grass. So if you are lucky enough to land it on the fairway on 5 , 6 , 15 or 16 you tee the ball up to play your next shot. Great for those par 5's where you want to give the green a go in 2 (watch out of bounds on 5!!).

The strike of grass has been exceptional on 15 & 16 but a little more time will be needed on 5 & 6 to bring them to the same standard. In particular there is a very high sand content in 5 which has made it a wee bit more difficult to get the initial cover. However I think everyone will agree that Mark and the green staff have done a great job to get the holes back in play so quickly and from now on these fairways will only improve.

Given the hot weather that we had over the weekend I heard a number of members say that playing 14 holes was not such a bad idea! I think it will take a few rounds to get us back in the swing of walking that extra distance. It was also pleasing to see the improvement in the greens over the last week. They are now running more smoothly and with the good weather I understand Mark will be looking to cut them down once more this week. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the greens improve after they "turn the corner" so to speak.

Saturday 31 January sees Men's Opening Day a teams net event sponsored by New Zealand Breweries with a morning (8.00am) and afternoon (12.30) shotgun start. This is an important event in the Club calendar so participate if you can. I note the start sheet is quickly filling up and it would be great to have a full field so early in the year.

Sunday sees Shirley host both the President's and Metro teams at home so hopefully Metro can get a win first up and Presidents can turn around their run of disappointing results. As usual full match reports will follow.

The weekend of 6 , 7 & 8 February is potentially very busy with one round of our Annual match with Clearwater on the Saturday and the International on the Sunday. The Clearwater Match will be another shotgun start at 12.30 and will be determined by a complicated formula on Stableford so every score could be important. As usual there will be a small entry fee to cover the cost of the meal afterwards.

In so far as the International is concerned if you wish to play please feel free to contact David Robinson (who has expressed the wish still to be involved in running the event) or Brian Graham(BG). If we can assist these two in getting the field together it will make the organisation of the event significantly easier.

Waitangi Day (6 February) sees us host the 2008 Randolph Cup Open Tournament which was postponed from December due to the fairway renovations. This event is sponsored by PGF and is well worth the entry fee. Try your luck and see if you can play three days in a row over the long weekend (Yeah Right!).

In the interim good golfing............