The scoring was tough on Saturday with the SSS going up to 73 with winners in Div 1 Steve Pilgrim 82-12-70 playing his monthly game!!! Closely followed by Anthony Passingham 83-12-71 and Brian Newman 78-7-71.
The winner of Div 2 was Ray Bobby 90-20-70 followed by Dave Uden 92-20-72 and Steve O'Donoghue 86-14-72.
My back was sore Sunday after my squeegeeing on the 4th green Saturday afternoon while 6 groups came through. Next time if I am out will you all try and hit it a bit closer!!!! Please John Mooney if you read this will you bring us some Squeegees with longer handles!!!! I have also been asked by the Handicap Committee to mention pace of play which was very slow last weekend.
The Ladies Stableford this week was won by Div 1 Dawn Skelland with a great score of 41points followed by Colly Faulkner with 36 points. Div 2 was won with another great score of 39 points by Sue James followed by Debbie Roberts with 34 points and Div 3 by born again golfer Emma Chapman who beat the Lady Captain on a card playoff with 33 points.
There are still some holes available for the Men's Invitation on Sunday 16th August for any of you who would like to bring a guest along to see the course in great shape. There will be a shotgun start in the morning of the Invitation at 8.30/8.45 so if you would like to play please come in the shop and book the hole you want to start on.
The photo right is of Rob Cull who continued his good form by winning the Cheshire Boys at Delamere Forest last week with great scores of 70 + 71 3 under par which included an eagle on the last hole to win by 3 shots. Rob now goes onto represent Cheshire at Woodhall Spa in September in the National finals.
In the shop we had some great shoe deals from £49.99 and some great deals on Shirts from £20 whilst stocks last.
The new PING demo irons have now arrived for the new GMax & i e1 models which replace the Karsten & i25 models.
WE have also had in some Waterproof Callaway Aqua Dry Carry & Trolley bags in which are reduced from £199 to £139 whilst stocks last.
This week I am focussing on responsibilities of members and visitors.
There are five major issues:
1. Bunkers - badly raked or not raked at all
2. Bunker rakes - placement and care of rakes
3. Pitch marks on greens
4. Care of the "hole" in the green
5. Trolleys on surrounds of greens
I need your help! I know most of you are careful about these issues. There is, however an annoying minority of members who seemingly do not give a damn! For example, last Saturday I played at 13.36. Sadly I ended in a few greenside bunkers - that's bad enough but when you find that the bunker is raked so badly, leaving mounds of sand around your ball, it really is unacceptable (I changed my original adjective to unacceptable as it should not be seen in print!!!!). So, considering it rained heavily in the early part of my round, the culprit/s were somewhere not far in front of our group.
I have re-issued the piece from a 2011 greens up-date below (nothing changes does it?) regarding raking bunkers - I shall be grateful if you will take a few minutes to read it.
As far as the rakes are concerned, will you place the rake back on the ground - please do not throw the rakes as I witness over and over again.
The pitch mark problem continues - please remember to repair your pitch marks. If a pitch mark is not repaired, they leave small brown patches of dead grass, which take some time to re-grow. A pitch mark properly repaired immediately leaves no blemish on the green. See website for "How to repair a pitch-mark"
Care of the hole in the green - this matter was drawn to my attention by one of our members. If you use a suction device on the end of your putter to retrieve the ball from the hole, please ensure that you insert it so that it does not touch the sides of the hole thereby distorting the perimeter of the hole.
Please always keep trolleys away from the greens surrounds, as a general rule you must keep trolleys outside the line of the greenside bunkers.
First published on 6th December 2011
"RAKING BUNKERS - IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
We've all been there haven't we - it's bad enough being in a bunker, but when you get to your ball and find it in a footprint or another bad lie as a result of un-raked or badly raked bunkers. Don't you just wish you could get your hands on who left it like that?
So in an attempt to alleviate the problem we have decided to publish this notice. Raking the bunker and generally taking care of the golf course is your job as a golfer. Make sure every time you walk into and out of a bunker, you smooth your footprints and the divot from your shot.
Bunkers are the most fluid piece of earth on a golf course - every shot from a bunker changes its shape. If it is not repaired of raked correctly when a player exits, it will result in uneven levels of sand, leaving the following players faced with sloping and hanging lies and no idea of the depth of sand under their ball.
HOW TO RAKE A BUNKER
THIS IS THE PRACTICE TO BE FOLLOWED AT BROMBOROUGH
1. Find the lowest spot around the edge of the bunker that's near your ball. You will enter and exit here. Stepping in and out near a steep face causes erosion and pushes the sand off the face and into the bottom of the bunker. Plus, it's easier to rake flat areas of sand.
2. Step into the bunker… and take the rake with you. Though some believe it's against the rules to take a rake into the bunker, we assure you it is not only perfectly legal, but recommended as it speeds play (see rule 13-4 for more). Just don't "test" the conditions or "improve" your lie with the rake.
3. Play the shot. Put the rake somewhere behind you or otherwise out of the way. Be careful where you drop the rake: not only do you not want it to interfere with your swing, but you do not want it to help you align your shot or otherwise touch you during your stroke. Both of those could be construed as using the rake to assist in making the shot.
4. Begin your raking by raking the divot from which you hit your ball, then your footprints. Pull the tines of the rake toward you to smooth over the sand without pulling too much sand. Attempt to restore the average surface of the sand to the proper contours of the bunker. Walk backwards towards your entry point, cleaning up your footprints as you go - as you exit, PUSH the sand away from the edge of the bunker to smooth your last footprints. (Pulling sand to the edge or in some instances OUT of the bunker destroys the grass by smothering it with sand).
6. The raked bunker should have an even surface with no signs of footprints or divots and minimal signs of digging or ploughing. Furrows from the rake tines are fine - you can't do anything about those, and bunkers are hazards.
Raking bunkers properly is a nice way of "paying it backwards" to flip a phrase, and the next time your ball lands in a properly raked bunker, you'll be grateful that someone took the time to learn to clean up after themselves properly."
Thank you for taking time to read this piece.
Rod Backhouse, Greens Chairman
Finally I'm pleased the new football season is just about here although I'm not so sure Caroline is!!! Buts let's hope all the local teams do well as long as Liverpool finish above Everton!!! After Sunday with our game away at Stoke I may be thinking a bit differently but I'm sure we can only get better after last seasons debacle.
