Hello Members
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
Our Committee met last week and here is our final update for the year.
Some key points from the meeting follow:
- Our financials are in good shape, albeit a wee bit behind the same first 5 months of last year.
Our green fee takings are down -5% on LYTD which is almost in line with NZ Golf’s national average. A number of local businesses have experienced a similar reduction in turnover in this period.
A major cause of the decline was undoubtedly the weather with more bad weather interruptions this Spring, than in Spring 2024.
Looking ahead, we will have a big financial boost from the Ladies tournaments in March. Amazingly we now have 129 players registered for the 18 hole tournament and 96 paid up for the 9 hole tournament (both had 60 players last year). This is primarily due to some outstanding promotional work, to all South Island clubs, by Sandra Best. Congratulations and thank you Sandra.
- Water. We continue to work with ECAN on possible solutions to our irrigation water supply.
- Our annual prizegiving took place last Saturday/Sunday. Congratulations to all trophy winners.
- The Christmas hamper day on Sunday was a great success 40 players. Thank you to Carolyn, Dean and Ken for providing breakfast. Much appreciated by all.
This year we decided to have Hamper day on a Sunday to avoid a clash with the Culverden Club on the Saturday. Several of our members played there and Ken and Nicky were the winners.
Unfortunately our Sunday date then clashed with the Santa Parade.
The Committee agreed to have the Christmas hamper day on a Saturday next year, with the prizegiving to follow.
Thanks to Greg and Sandra Samson for entering our Club “float” in the Santa parade.
- Club Champs format. By far the most vexing, and complained about issue from members, this year has been the timing of the Club Champs and Top Dog competition … they took far too long to play, far too many matches were not played by due date, etc, etc.
The Committee has resolved to re-draft the 2026 annual programme and to hold the Club Champs in Autumn next year, to be all wrapped up before Winter. Each round will have only a 2 or 3 week window in which to be played and the Match Committee (Mike, Sandra and Gilly) has been mandated to disqualify one, or both, players if matches are not played by due date.
- Hole in One “shout”. We have acknowledged that the current $100 that the Club has paid for a hole in one for the last 10-15 years is insufficient to fund the traditional “bar shout”. We agreed to increase that to $300 effective from 13-12-25. The higher payment will not be backdated (sorry Carolyn, Nicky and Sam who all scored aces this year). The payment applies to any member who has a hole in one on our course in an official club event.
- Practice cage. The new practice cage to replace the one damaged in the 23-10-25 storm is almost ready for use. A huge thanks to Richie Campbell for his good work on that project.
- Sponsors’ day was held on 28 Nov and was big success (a cross country match).
- Senior Pro-am. All is on track for a great tournament on 31 Jan-1 Feb.
- Staffing. We continue to seek a new staff member to work part- time to complement David and Mike. No luck so far, but if you know of any potential candidate then please contact David ASAP.
Thank you all for your contribution to the Club in 2025 and for your friendship to each other. Special thanks to our David, Mike, Steve and Neil and to the Committee and Dad’s Army.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a fun holiday break.
Kind regards
Graham Heenan, on behalf of the Committee
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