Evertonian Jan Evans cheered herself up after Everton's poor result on Saturday with a great score of 42 points to win the Bronze A division in the Ladies Stableford on Tuesday. Jill Holmes won Silver division with another great score of 37 points and Karen Munro won Bronze B division with 31 points.
Best score of the day in the final Stableford of the year last weekend was Ben Reese with a whopping 44 points in Div 2 followed by Terry Crowe on 41 points who beat Bryn Jones on a card playoff. Div 1 was won by Jim Hughes with 39 points who beat Sean Byrne on a card playoff with Kevin Brown 3rd with 38 points.
The Jack Lee order of merit was won by Jim Harvey after his great early season form followed by Simon Taylor, Rob Lowles, Ben Keegan & Richie Fitzgerald who also won the John Behn Trophy.
I have asked to mention pace of play especially those of you playing Winter League. Last Sunday one match was 4 hours 40 minutes and a few matches behind were not impressed so please try and work on a 4 hour round maximum and please call groups behind through if you are holding them up. Unfortunately also leaves are becoming a problem try to find golf balls so once again be please be aware of those playing behind you.
I also have some spaces left for any of you wishing to play in Saturdays the 9.6.3 competition so please pop in or give us a call if you wish to play.
Current offers in the shop include adidas Gripmore shoes as shown in the photo reduced from £79.99 to £59.99 and Stuburt tops (click here to see) at £39.99. I have shown the Black/blue for bitter blue Brian Daly but they do come in Black/Red as well!!!
Rod has done a piece below to keep you up to date with what's happening out on the course at present. In addition you will see work this week work has been done to get rid of the bank on the side of the putting green. This will allow this area to be mowed rather than fly mowed which will mean less work for the green keepers so they can get on with other work.
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The Graden work is complete. The greens staff worked very long days at the end of September, beginning of October to slit the greens and inject sand. The project was not without its moments as the Graden machine broke down twice leaving us with a rapid change of process for the remaining five greens. As many of you know, we had to hollow tine and top-dress these five greens.
Peter Jones, Peter Darch, George Heggarty, Denis Munroe & Jeff Ollerhead ably assisted the greens staff on the first day - thank you to you all for this help as it enabled us to complete the Graden work in good time.
Many members have commented that the greens "putt better than expected" - I am pleased that this is the case and to be honest, that is what I expected.
Winter work has started with hollow tining, top-dressing and seeding of all tees. Unseen work is underway on the "Triangle" to the right of the seventh fairway to allow us to get rid of the winter debris. We have changed the exit route from the seventh to the eighth to avoid damage to the greens complex. You will see work starting on the tenth hole in the next week or so - we are changing the bunkering, approach and surrounds to tidy up this hole.
Jason and his team are working on all greens complexes to repair damaged areas and to improve the complexes generally across the course. We have seen a significant improvement already in the quality of the greens complexes albeit that we are only at the end of the first year of the programme.
I made a commitment last year that I would ensure an improvement to the greens, inner & outer surrounds - this is still my goal and to this end, we shall be putting out stakes to identify "no go for trolleys & buggies" areas in the next week or so. PLEASE, PLEASE KEEP YOUR TROLLEYS OUTSIDE THE STAKED AREAS AROUND THE GREENS.
I am pleased to say that most of our members and visitors respected the "no go" areas last year - a few do not however!
Overall, I am pleased with the progress we are making although I realise there is still much to be done.
As usual, any questions please email me at rod.backhouse@sky.com
Rod Backhouse, Greens Chairman