Club Newsletter: March 2023

Update From The Board

So, what about next winter?

For those of you that have played golf for some time, you will find it difficult to recall such bad and such wet weather. Most certainly it has been the case with our club maybe this is the new normal. The St Mellons course is one of the best draining courses in the area but even we had to close the course more than we would have wished. But hope is on the horizon. We have started looking at the feasibility of operating a dry course – a perhaps 9- or 12-hole course particularly for wintertime, which would be open almost every day. Certain vulnerable holes may be off limits or rotated to allow recovery.

One of the fears when heavy rain falls is the potential damage than can be caused to the summer greens with numerous footprints and unrepaired pitch marks, so from this year we are looking to have good winter greens not simply holes cut into the fairways. By doing this we also protect our summer greens which is in everybody’s interest. There are other matters being considered such as extensive buggy paths, but these may rely upon outside funding and may take several years to complete. These are plans and ideas at the moment and more details will be forthcoming in the coming months

Everyone will have noticed the hard work done in tidying up the area around the green’s equipment sheds. Another step in raising the image of St Mellons. A great course now let’s complete the job.

The directors are very conscious of the need to keep members in the picture – hence a weekly and monthly newsletter. But communication should be two-way. In this newsletter there is a facility for you to let us have YOUR constructive comments and suggestions. If you don’t tell us, we’ll never know where were going wrong .

Who will fill his boots ?

At this years AGM the chair announced that Alistair Pauline, our Financial Director would be stepping down at the conclusion of the meeting for personal family reasons. Alistair has been instrumental in restructuring the accounts providing us with clear transparent revenue streams and expenditure ledger records to enable us to properly budget in the future. From all the directors and staff, we would like to say it’s been great working with you and you will be sorely missed.

Can we therefore send out a clarion call to members with accountancy background to put themselves forward as our new Financial Director to carry on the professional practices and groundwork established by Alistair.

Anyone interested in joining the board for the rest of this year in this capacity please send your CV to manager@stmellonsgolfclub.co.uk Anyone taken on this year will have to put themselves up for election at next years AGM.

An Update on Policies

As mentioned at the recent AGM our SMGC Club V1 Document Folder is now the official repository for all Policies, Procedures , Rules & any other relevant club documents. Since November ’22 we have reviewed and updated our existing Club Rules and the Golf & Competition Rules (Captains’ Committee). We have also developed and approved new policies, which are / will be implemented over the forthcoming period.

These being, but not limited to, the:

• Equality & Diversity Policy;
• Adult Safeguarding Policy;
• Children & Young Adult Safeguarding Policy;
• Data Protection Policy;
• Golf Buggy Policy.

We appreciate that some of these might / appear a bit OTT but they are essential for the good governance, wellbeing and legal compliance of the club. Being compliant can even provide indirect benefits e.g. application for grant aid  & support from Welsh sport’s governing bodies, as they will look at our governance / compliance and / or forward thinking. So we suggest that if you have a free minute or two take a look at these documents and /or  be aware of their existence.

A Message From Our Captains

From Our Ladies’ Captain

Dear Members,

It is a privilege to be the ladies’ captain for the forthcoming season.

Although the weather has yet to be kind to us, we are looking forward to some drier days ahead when we will be able to play in a variety of competitions which hopefully will be both fun and challenging!

Our Senior Ladies have been busy selling raffle tickets for the Easter Hampers. Our Easter raffle draw will take place on Monday, 3 rd April, after our Easter competition. On behalf of the ladies section I would like to thank all of the club members for their support in making our Easter raffle so successful.

Looking forward, we have the ladies County Championships and the second round of the Daily Mail Foursome knockout. I am sure you will all join me in wishing good luck to all of the ladies taking part.

Finally, I look forward to seeing many of you at our Captains’ Drive In on Sunday, 2nd April and I hope that you all have a very enjoyable and successful season.

Kind Regards
Sally Madsen
Ladies Captain

From Our Mens’ Captain

Fellow Members,

Welcome to the first Newsletter since my appointment as the Captain of our prestigious Club. My appointment was a very proud day for me and I look forward to serving the interests of the Club, and each of you as Members, over the next 12 months.

The first thing I would like to do is to pay tribute to my predecessor, Mr Brian Konten, for the excellent job he did during a time of significant change for the Club. If I can be even half as successful as Brian then, while it will be a matter for you to judge, I at least will consider I have done a very good job indeed.

It will also be my pleasure to work alongside our Ladies Captain, Mrs  Sally Madsen, as we endeavour to build upon the efforts already made to ensure our Club is the friendly and inclusive venue it should be for Members and visitors alike. I know we will be ably supported by Sally’s Vice Captain, Ms Gill Rees, and my Vice Captain, Mr Gurnam Bhogal. Please feel free to approach any of us if you have helpful suggestions regarding how the Club can be enhanced or if there are any matters of concern to you.

As you will know, the position of Captain has changed and going forward we will be responsible for Golf & Social, with the running of the business aspects of the Club in the more than capable hands of the Directors. This change has already proved of significant benefit and will continue to reap rewards for all of us.  

Best Wishes,
Robert Cook
Captain

From Our General Manager

Month Two

Well, for me, March has flown by just as quickly as February. This month we saw the Club hold it’s AGM with attendees informed by the Board about what actions have been taken and plans for the next 12 months. In the office we have also been inundated with subscriptions renewals – this has been a great way to meet so many of the members (although possibly not so great for you having to pay your fees).

I have re-organised the office slightly so if you want to contact Jackie who works on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays and will now deal with all the financial aspects of the club, her email is accounts@stmellonsgolfclub.co.uk and Alison who will deal with more general queries will be working on Wednesdays and Thursdays and is contactable on secretary@stmellonsgolfclub.co.uk.

Hopefully these changes will help streamline the office function and make things clearer. The re-structure in the Clubhouse is in full progress. Amar has stayed with us and he has worked so hard behind the scenes (as well as in front) to keep our operation running as smoothly as possible. I know that the catering provision is currently reduced but I hope to have some exciting news to share very shortly which will stand us in good stead to excel in this area.

Finally, I’ll see what I can do about stopping the rain but you may have to give me a few days on that one!!

Upcoming Charity Events

Our Club director Simon Dibley will be staging three charity events this year to help money for Teenage cancer trust. Last years event at St Mellons raised over £6000. 

The events this year will have some well known sports celebrities in attendance. With some fantastic prizes including the use of a lovely golf home in Marbella these events will provide a great day out to support a very good cause. If you would like to support any of the events and enter a team please visit majorgolfingevents.com or email  simon@majorgolfingevents.com.

Updates From The Pro Shop

New Arrivals

The Masters Sweep is back by popular demand! Last year we had a large number of members who enjoyed this sweep stake and we’ve been asked by many of you to repeat it. 

This year 1^st prize will win a Callaway Paradym Driver (£529) and 2^nd prize is guaranteed to win a Callaway ORG14 Cart Bag (£229). Any additional money taken will be paid out in yet more prizes!

The conditions are as follows:

• £10 entry
• Choose 1 player from each of the 4 categories
• All 4 players in your team must make the cut
• The lowest aggregate score wins!

To enter please see the Professionals in the shop. You can view the categories in the pro shop, in the members bar or on our social media pages. Remember ‘you’ve gotta be in it to win it!’

CALLAWAY CUSTOM FITTING DAY

St Mellons Pro Shop hosts a Callaway Demo Day on Thursday 6^th April between 1pm-5pm. We have 4 slots remaining so if you would like to try out the superb Paradym clubs, products that has won multiple times on tour already this year, please get in contact with one of the Professionals.

Winter Series Competitions

First and most importantly we would like to thank everyone who entered the Saturday Winter Series Competitions and tackled some challenging weather. It’s been a tough winter season but many of you supported these events religiously and we really appreciate your support.

Secondly, Order of Merit 2 completed last Saturday and here are the results:

Division 1

1^st F Duffy – 66pts, 2^nd A Belcher – 62pts, 3^rd S Parkhouse – 60pts, 4^th R Hallett – 54pts

Division 2

1^st H Nagtegaal – 94pts, 2^nd S Hill – 66pts, 3^rd T Prewett – 60pts, 4^th C Powell – 49pts

Division 3

1^st G Thomas – 105pts, 2^nd Rob Davies – 60pts, 3^rd RM Davies – 57pts, 4^th S Richards – 49pts

There were 4 players who entered all 10 events in OOM2 and win an additional prize:

H Nagtegaal, F Duffy, R Hallett, P Goodman

March Course Update From The Head Green Keeper

March has proved an extremely challenging month for the greenstaff with significant rainfall falling throughout the month causing the course to be saturated for prolonged periods resulting in multiple course closures. Rapid changes in temperature has also caused microdocium (fusarium) spores to become highly active which has proved difficult to manage with the ground conditions being so wet and an inability to spray during these conditions. On the 20th of march the greens were aerated with the toro procore and fed with an organic granular fertilizer to help thicken the sward and boost recovery of any winter grass thinning and disease scars. The greens have responded well to the granular feed and have also recently been double scarified and top dressed with 15 tonne of sand. This will help promote new growth, remove thatch and smooth the surfaces by eradicating any lateral growth. With temperatures now on the rise it is also planned to dyna spike and overseed all greens with bent grass at the end of April as part of our overseeding program with a goal of producing bent dominated greens in the future.

Despite the poor weather the greenstaff have made good progress on the course this month. All bunkers have been edged, mown and weeded. When the weather improves all bunkers will also have sand levels redistributed and be topped up as necessary.

Further work carried out this month has included improvements to pathways, seeding and top dressing of tees and bare areas and the removal of the sand and rootzone from the car park which has now been relocated to our new bays situated in the greenkeepers yard. On the 27th of this month the golf course received a full cut and all tees, approaches and surrounds have since been fertilized with a slow release granular fertilizer. I am hopeful that April brings us some much needed dry weather where mowing and the presentation of the course will then increase greatly.