Introducing Our Newsletter
We’re delighted to share the first edition of our brand new monthly club newsletter. This month’s newsletter will give you an update of everything that’s been happening on the greens and behind the scenes at St. Mellons Golf Club. Find updates for everything that’s happened in November and also a preview into what’s going on in December.
From The Board of Directors
The new structure is now firmly in place and we (the Directors) are getting our feet “well and truly” under the table. Our working relationship with the Captains Committee is building and growing stronger by the day. We also aim to be as open and transparent with you the members and communication / feedback is very important to us.
Feedback at St.Mellons
We know communication with the members has not been a strong point at St. Mellons and this is something that we (with the Captains Committee) are working on to improve. It may never be perfect but your feedback is always especially welcome to us, and will always be treated confidentially. Wherever possible it will be answered by a Board member. So please keep the emails coming in via feedback@stmellonsgolfclub.co.uk. It is very much appreciated.
On that point, via email, we received a great response to your views on the future roles of the Club Captain and Lady Captain – this was greatly appreciated by the Directors. The consensus of opinion (some 85% of those who responded) preferred having a Gents Captain and a Lady Captain – both of equal standing. Some also thought that this year’s vice-captains should take on the role they had already agreed to carry out. Having considered all views the Board have decided that for the year 2023 the roles will not change.
Info / Notices
The stuff that will take the club forward, as a business, is making great progress. e.g. Work on the Strategic Plan is progressing well – to do this right takes time to organise & plan, so more to come. Policies are currently being developed and existing ones reviewed. So on that front pleased to announce the approval of the Equality & Diversity Policy, with more follow-on work with the Captain’s Committee to come. Our Data Protection Policy was also approved.
We propose to use the Club V1 Documents Folder as the main point of access to share the formal information with you (from both the BoD’s and CC). Accessible via new website and / or mobile phone app – more on that to come.
Going Forward
We are currently looking at ways to bring more revenue into the club both on and off the course and hopefully can / will provide more info in the next newsletter.
& FINALLY
Happy retirement to John Jones our longest serving member of our greens staff who has decided to hang up his “boots & wellies”. John has been a member of our greens team for 50 years and is very well known to scores of members over the years. In his “spare time”, John and his wife have travelled to Africa for many years taking over much needed items for the under privileged. John, many thanks for your loyalty to the club, contributions made and the work you have done for us over these 50 years – have a great & happy retirement John – well deserved.
From Our Captain
Dear Members , just a few words to say a huge thank you to everyone at St Mellon’s Golf Club we have been through a lot of changes this year, but I truly believe we will all benefit from them all. The golf course is now one of the best in the area if not the best, social events have been well supported and successful (thank you all).
The new Directorship structure is taking shape; I would personally like to thank the Directors for all their hard work to date, and a big thank you to Peter Borley for the kind renovation donation of the New Board Room.
With the Christmas season upon us I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Kind regards,
Brian Konten (Club Captain)
Updates From The Pro Shop
Pro Shop Raffle
The Pro Shop Christmas Raffle is well under way. You can now see all the prizes laid out on our Christmas table as you walk into the shop. Currently over 14 prizes with a total value in excess of £1000 are up for grabs with tickets just £5 or 5 squares for £20!
If all tickets are sold, don’t worry…..more tickets and prizes will be added! The draw takes place on December 31st to be drawn by The Professional Golf Team and the Randomiser App. All prize winners will be announced on our social media pages.
Christmas Ideas
Struggling for Christmas ideas? We have the latest Autumn/Winter apparel from FootJoy, Under Armour, Galvin Green, Ping, Oscar Jacobson. We are fully stocked on FootJoy, Ecco and Under Armour golf shoes and have plenty of equipment from the leading brands in golf.
Why not purchase a Gift Voucher from the pro shop? This can be redeemed for stock, lessons or a custom fitting experience on the Golf Simulator for that someone special. You could even wait and put it towards the brand-new driver line up launching in February from Taylormade, Ping and Callaway!
Golf Coaching
Following the success of the junior and ladies New2Golf coaching programmes this summer, Tom ran follow on coaching courses running through the Autumn and into the Winter. The recent block of ‘after school’ junior coaching concluded when the clocks changed and Tom is now running junior group lessons on a Saturday throughout the Winter.
We look forward to announcing the new dates for the ladies, junior and men’s New2Golf courses early 2023…..Watch this space!
One to one lessons continue through the season with now being the perfect time to work on technical changes you’d like to make to your golf swing. The driving range has benefited from new mats and the simulator room is perfect for the dark evenings. Simulator lesson packages are available throughout the Winter months.
Lesson vouchers are also available to buy through the pro shop and would make an excellent gift idea.
Course Update From The Head Green Keeper
Conditions over the last month have been very challenging for the greenstaff with over 150mm of rainfall recorded in November alone. Unfortunately, we have had to close the course on several occasions this month due to the heavy rain we have suffered. The greenstaff continue to work hard to keep the course open as much as possible. However, this isn’t always possible due to unplayable conditions and the health and safety of our members.
Growth rates and disease pressure have also been a cause for concern this month. The abnormally high temperatures and moisture levels have unfortunately created the perfect conditions for microdocium (fusarium) spores to thrive and become active. A preventative spray consisting of iron, phosphite and humic acid was applied at the start of the month. However, with the conditions so favourable to the pathogen this was not enough to prevent an outbreak of disease. The greens have since been sprayed with a preventative and curative fungicide which has now ceased all fungal activity.
On Monday 14th the greenstaff were given a small window of opportunity and were able to mow all fairways, semi rough and approaches while the ground conditions were favourable to improve playability and aesthetics. Unfortunately this break in the weather was short lived with further rainfall following.
As I’m sure you will all agree, autumn is now in full swing with the leaves now falling at a rapid rate. Blowing and leaf collection has been our main priority this month however, this has proved to be difficult as the ground conditions have not been favourable for the access of our tractor blower and leaf collector. It is planned to continue with leaf blowing and collection as often as conditions permit in order to keep the course as clear as possible.
Winter work continues at a steady pace with a large amount of tree work carried out on the 5th and 8th holes to improve playability, increase airflow and improve aesthetics. The winter mat on the 8th hole has also been moved to a better position to take the surrounding trees out of play. A vast amount of the greenstaffs time is currently being taken up on leaf blowing and collection. Once the leaf situation is under control it is planned to carry out a vast amount of tree work throughout the course and edge and improve our existing pathways.
Update From The Kitchen
Our Sunday Lunch is always popular and consists of a choice of two or three courses. Available between 12:00 – 16:00. You don’t need to be a member of St Mellons Golf Club to eat in our clubhouse. Everybody is welcome with a Children’s Menu available.
Our sample Sunday Lunch Menu can be viewed below, our in-house caterers will amend the menu on a weekly basis to offer a variety of starters, mains & desserts to our guests.
Please find our Sunday Lunch Menu on our Club Website or in the image below:
Updates and Announcements From The Club
It’s been another busy month behind the scenes at the club. We’ve put together a few updates and important announcements, to keep you in the loop.
New GM Announced
In case you missed it, earlier this month we announced our newly appointed General Manager, Russell Thomas. Russell will be joining us from February 1st 2023 and will bring a wealth of experience to the club. Here’s words from Russell himself:
“I aim to help the new Board, Staff and Membership take St Mellons forward together. I know that the Club is well-established and held in high regard both locally and nationally and I will do all that I can to both enhance the reputation and further it. I look forward to getting started and meeting you all soon.”
If you’d like to read more about Russell, then you can find more here in our official announcement.
New Sponsorship Opportunities
We’ve been busy working on new sponsorship packages, giving businesses the opportunity to advertise their business in partnership with St Mellons Golf Club. With thousands of visitors and members visiting our course and club each month, our sponsorship packages provide a great opportunity for businesses to advertise. Our sponsorship packages offer benefits such as branded hole sponsoring, adverts place on our website and social media channels and other great benefits such as free meeting space and FREE GOLF!
You can view our 2022/23 Sponsorship Pack here.
Thank you
That’s all for this month, thank you to everyone who contributed to this newsletter and thank you to each and every one of our staff, members and visitors for continuing to make St Mellons Golf Club a fantastic, welcoming place for all.
