Our January 2024 Update
We hope you’ve all had a great start to the year. Here’s our update for February 2024 from the whole team at St Mellons Golf Club.
Update From The Board
From The Board
This year we have 3 Directors roles to fill, which includes a Financial Director. Our current Financial Director Greg Element will be stepping down due to work commitments. Anyone qualified in the field of Finance or Accountancy would be especially welcome to put their expertise forward to work with a great accounts team and oversee the financial supervision of the club. Please find the appropriate application forms –
Links to the necessary forms:
Last month the selection panel posted their preferred choice for Men’s Vice Captain and President for the coming golf season. Philip Crean has been proposed as Mens Vice Captain and Terry Borley proposed as the next President. The Ladies Vice Captains role currently remains open.
Whilst these are excellent choices the general membership are able to oppose any of these candidates providing they have 2 no proposers by filling in the appropriate application form –
Please send in your application forms for any of these roles between the 6th and 20th February 24. Forms received before the 6th will be filed until then and after the 20th will be discarded. A ballot will be held and result announced at the AGM on 20th March 2024 unless any of these roles are unopposed.
For more information on roles and responsibilities of all Directors and Club Officials please consult our Governance and Structure document.
View Governance and Structure Document.
Golden Jubilee year – what happened after the war and in the sixties.
You will have read in the last months newsletter how St Mellons played its part in the war effort. Ron Boyce continues the story into the founding years in the sixties.
In the early sixties the course was owned by Mr Gwynne Davies who lived in Vaendre Hall, the large house near the thirteenth fairway. Mr Davies died in 1963. Consequently the purchase of the course was offered to St Mellons Golf Club.
At this time the club had 1000 social members and 160 golfers. The amount required for the purchase was £34,000 – £850,000 in today’s value. The social members did not want to know anything about the purchase. So now you see the size of the task facing the golfers. The lease would be for 972 years and the annual ground rent £600 (£15,000 in today’s currency).
How to raise the money? £6k was loaned by the brewery and the rest by compulsory debenture issues from the members. This soon saw a big drop in the number of social members! A big problem on the final day – getting to the bank before it closed!
What brave men they were. For their courage what did they have to show? A very basic golf course, a clubhouse in need of major work and clapped out course machinery. The club became a limited company on May 21st 1964.
The clubhouse you know today had been the servants quarters for Llwyn Arthun (the big house) the buildings around the court yard (outside the now Managers office) were the stables and coach house. A tethering ring still hangs on the wall today. This area was altered to house the locker room which unfortunately burned down in the 70’s. So this is where we now have the snooker room, junior locker room and living accommodation.
The course went onto improve and is now undoubtedly regarded as one of the best in Wales played by many, many well known golfers.
In 1978 the Coral Classic was played here a pro-am which included – Sam Torrance; Sandy Lyle; Brian Huggett; Howard Clark and many more including Antonio Garrido who took the course record. Celebrities included Jimmy Tarbuck; Bruce Forsyth; Henry Cooper; Barry John and lots more. The members caddied.
You are indeed fortunate to be member of such a prestigious club so never be reluctant to pass on your ideas to the Captain and the Board for ways in which we can keep on improving
Ron Boyce
From the Proshop
We hope you’re well.
February has snuck up on us, and we can’t believe we’re already a month through 2024! January has as always proved to be a busy, productive month….we have a new shop counter and a new workbench to complete club repairs. The upgrade in our Studio is scheduled for 7th February and we will have a facility that will be the envy of many clubs around.
We are very excited to offer a special “FREE Fitting February” offer. Book 1 hour with us to trial the new products from Callaway, Ping, TaylorMade & Titleist….there will be limited spaces available for this so don’t delay in contacting the pro shop team to make a booking…..we’ll even throw some goodies in should you purchase when you come in!
If you’re yet to dust off your clubs this year and want to loosen yourself up again, we’d be happy to book you in for some lessons, please keep an eye on my personal website, brianleegolf.co.uk where there will be a lesson / fitting booking system available in the next few days.
On a final note, a Thank You to everyone that has taken the time to pop in and introduce yourself, your well wishes have been very much appreciated.
Brian, James & Tom
Update From Our Greenkeepers
With a much needed break in the wet weather that December brought us, the greenstaff were able to get a large amount of mowing done on the course this month. All fairways, tees, approaches, and rough have been mown. Hedge-cutting has also been started using our tractor mounted flail and will continue throughout February.
The buggy path programme is now in full swing with a large amount of work already completed on the 2nd hole. The greenstaff aims to have the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd paths completed by mid-March when we will then start to turn our attention to greens renovation and preparation for the 2024 season. Greens renovation is scheduled for March 11th and will consist of deep scarification in 2 directions, spiking and heavy top dressing to reduce thatch and increase firmness.
Alan Quarterman from South Wales Irrigation has started the installation of our new valve assemblies and hunter Bluetooth nodes for our newly upgraded irrigation system for the greens. He will be on site over the next few weeks, getting it ready for the 2024 season. This upgrade will allow us to run an overnight irrigation programme on the greens, which will result in us using less water as watering will take place at optimum times when evapotranspiration is low and also save us valuable man hours.
The greens remain in good health and have recently been sprayed with an application of iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium to boost plant health and strengthen them against disease. Following the spray application, the greens have also been aerated using the Air2g2 air injection machine and toro procore to boost microbial activity, increase rooting, and aid drainage.
What’s On At The Clubhouse?
Find out what’s on this month at the Club House. Please use your membership card to book any social events.
Caribbean Night:
Curry Nights:
Thank you
That’s all for this month’s update. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and thank you to all who have left feedback. If you wish to leave feedback, then you can do so using the form below.
