Doncaster Golf Club February 2019

View from the Chair

Thank you to everyone who turned up to the AGM

and SGM.

The AGM went pretty smoothly and I was thrilled

when the proposal to make Josh Berry an Honorary

Junior Member went through unanimously. It was

even more heart warming to witness the reception he

received when he was presented with the honour at

the Captain’s Drive-in.

The SGM gave the Committee good feedback about

what the membership did and didn’t want and we

now have a clear picture of the work we need to be

getting on with in the first part of this year. Changes

that you will see include the new ladies loos, two

additional honours boards, some changes to the

entrance hall, new furniture on the balcony, lift

refurbishment and the redecoration of the Con

Davies lounge. All small steps to move the club

forward.

Whilst doing this we will also be working on plans

relating to gates, buggy store, practice areas and

course presentation and where relevant, will bring

ideas back to membership late in the year.

In the meantime I hope that you are starting to fine

tune your games for the approaching new season.

Jon

US golf giant sinks tiny Cornish Village Contest

In an excerpt taken from the Mail on Sunday the following

may bear a warning for our very own Masters Competi-

tion.

The green jacket has long been a treasured prize in golf, to be

worn only by the winner of one of the sport’s greatest tourna-

ments.

Until, that is, a few amateurs in a Cornish fishing village

affectionately copied the US Masters by adopting a green jacket

for their own competition.

But the players in the Coverack Masters have been told by the

mighty Augusta National Club in Georgia they are breaching

copyright and must stop. The Americans insist they hold the

rights for the terms ‘Masters’ and ‘green jacket’ in a golfing

context.

The row has bewildered the players in Coverack, who cannot

see how a competition involving two dozen pub pals can

possibly be confused with the famous US event.

Sources say Augusta National sent a letter of complaint to

Coverack’s Mullion Golf Club after spotting a photo of 2017

winner Wilf Hutchinson proudly wearing the green jacket.

The event was last month renamed in memory of a late former

captain.

Fire Evacuation Procedures

Please note all staff have recently been trained in evacuation

procedures, in the event of an emergency.

We thought it was a good opportunity to remind members

what they should do, in the event of discovering a fire or the

fire alarm sounding.

On discovering a fire, members should:-

Activate the fire alarm via the nearest call

point

Only tackle the fire, if they feel confident to

do so

Evacuate the building

On hearing the fire alarm, members should:-

Must not ignore the fire bell or instructions and ACT IM-

MEDIATELY

Follow whatever instructions are given to them by staff

Congregate at the FIRE ASSEMBLY POINT, which is in the

car park

In the event of an evacuation, please:-

Do not delay, collecting belongings etc.

Do not move vehicles, as this may block the route of

emergency services

Get into Golf

Book your Family a place on this years

first family fun session - Sunday 7th April

Help us to share the game of golf with family and

friends. Make golf an activity for all the family.

Bring along partners, children, grandchildren,

nieces, nephews, friends to 'have a go' at golf on

the practice areas at DGC on Sunday 7th April

2019. All ages and genders welcome.

You are then invited to a hot buffet (pre-booking

and payment required £11pp, kids 6-12 £5.50, kids

under 5 eat free. Book a place for your family

behind the bar.

In answer to the recent member survey please see below

the Greens team responses.

% of answers which were good or excellent

Greens 95% Tees 66% Fairways 76%

Rough 54% Bunkers 37% Signage 49%

Paths 34% Overall 86%

Greens

A very good score but comments on variable pace and

slow recovery after maintenance work. There will always

be some difference in pace due to soil and grass type as

well as climatic factors such as sun and wind. Overall, I

would not have said there was any major differences but

will monitor more greens this summer to see how

variable they are. Recovery from hollow coring would be

far quicker if we carried this out in August rather than

April. However the greens are going to be bumpy in early

spring due to the grasses starting to grow at different

rates so for us to core at this time brings all the

unevenness together. The more work we do to the greens

in applying top dressing and better seed will slowly

negate many of these problems.

Tees

The money saving idea of having single row sprinklers in

the middle of tees always causes unevenness and the

extra divotting of par 3s will cause the hogs back effect

with slopes away from the centre. All new tees have had

the sprinklers moved to the edges and over time others

will be rebuilt and have their sprinklers moved.

Remember you can go 2 club lengths back from the

markers.

Tee mats in winter is a debateable subject. Put them on a

tee and you take up lots of space and have wear all

around them as golfers insist on walking on the other

areas of the tee. Put them well forward, the course

becomes very short causing golfers to be taking divots

and landing on the greens leaving pitch marks. Tees like

17 and 4 have been built to take the wear of winter play

on one side of the tee and 8 and 9 use the sides that you

wouldn’t want to use in the summer due to trees. The ide-

al is the 18th

with a useable tee behind the general play

one, the 14th

is the worst as it is small and weak due to

the trees.

Fairways

They suffered from the drought. Having undulating fair-

ways and centre line irrigation will always mean some

areas suffer when excessively hot. The height of cut was

raised but what is needed is scarification to reduce the

thatch layer so water can go into the soil and not roll off

along with over seeding of better grasses.

The carry on certain holes will be looked at when the new

ring main is fitted.

Bunkers

Lots of comments on needing to rake bunkers more

often and of too little sand (some of too much). We

have put more sand in during this winter and they are

raked very often, however it only takes a couple of

golfers to drag back the sand and the hard work is

undone. Golfers should enter the bunker at the lowest

point as it moves less sand and then use 2 hands to

rake the bunker pushing sand over footprints and shot

marks as well as pulling, it only takes seconds to leave

a smooth finish. A bunker that is used more will always

be softer than one that is used infrequently.

Rough

The cut around the fairway (31mm) and the majority of

cut rough (60mm) is lower than previous years due to

better mowers. The longer rough is cut and collected

regularly to keep it manageable so that a golfer who

has watched their shot will find it. It will always be

thicker when warm and damp but the more cutting and

collecting of the arisings that is carried out will thin the

sward.

Signs and furniture

All the tee signs will need to be replaced once the bun-

ker project is finished and the stroke indexes decided.

Bins have been replaced around the course, with some

removed due to not being needed.

Paths

A very expensive problem. All grass walkways would

be great but will not survive. So the next best is shred-

ded tyres bonded together at a cost of £50 per square

meter. So to do all the paths would be close to £100K.

We are looking at options but with this sort of cost it

has to be carefully evaluated. Also how wide do we

make a path? Too narrow and golfers walking side by

side chatting, walk off the side of it and we don’t want

them all 4m wide.

Overall

We know we have a long way to go. Tree work

continues all the time removing overhanging branches

and dead or poor trees. We need to improve walk off

areas to greens, which we try and manage with hoops

and ropes (hoops now all gone from all areas apart

from winter workings) however golfers foot traffic does

need managing or wear on the shortest routes will

always occur. This spring lots of scarifying, over

seeding and top dressing will be needed to produce

better surfaces. Feed will be applied to encourage

growth but not so much that a lush, unsustainable,

worm infested course is produced. We will never

please everyone but will always try to provide a course

that challenges all golfers to play well.

GREENS NEWS

Scarifying fairways to reduce thatch and improve grass coverage

How wide do we need to make a path?

However well the greens staff rake the bunker in the morning, badly or unraked bunkers infuriate the next visitor to the bunker

Can you help identify any of these players? This photograph shows a group of Doncaster Golf Club

ladies gathered round a trophy which they had won for

the second year running in 1913. It is one of the oldest

photographs in the club's possession. It was rescued

by David Horncastle over 25 years ago when carrying

out research for the centenary publication, lying in a

pile of debris in outbuildings which used to be in the

club car park before they were demolished. Extensive

research at the time revealed neither the names of the

ladies nor the fate of the magnificent shield. David is

currently revisiting the subject using the facilities

afforded by the internet, but wondered if any members

recognise relatives in the photograph.

The lady in the centre holding the shield could be the

Lady Captain. The Lady Captain in 1912- 13 was

Mrs Greener and in 1914, Mrs N A Smith. Notice the

golf bag lying on the ground. The photographer's name

(in pencil ) below the picture, is illegible but he was

based in York. We are publishing this in the hope that

someone out there may be able to shed light on the

subject. We hope to display the photo in the

Clubhouse but in the meantime if you would like a

closer view I can show you an enlarged version on my

screen.

Chris

Forthcoming Social Events

Why not bring your family along to one or both of the

upcoming events at the Club.

Take your pick from:

Tapas night on Friday 1st March or

Sunday Lunch on 17th March

Menus are available to view.

Captain’s Drive In

Captain Allan Beaumont, Lady Captain Carole O’Neill

and Junior Captain Shane Longworth had a lovely

day for their drive in on Sunday 13th January.

This year they have chosen:

Parkinson’s UK & St John’s Hospice Doncaster as

their nominated charities.

Fund raising events will be organised throughout the

year.

Last year members raised a staggering £3697.48 for

Freeman Heart & Lung Transplant Association.

125th Anniversary Publication

Some members may remember when the Club celebrated

the centenary in 1994, David Horncastle produced a

paperback book covering events over the past 100 years.

This time David has produced another very interesting

book touching briefly on the previous book and bringing

us up to date over the last 25 years.

This time we are producing the book in house, it will be

available to view on the website and also a hard copy

version will be available for members to purchase for a

donation of £1 to the Captain’s Charities Parkinson’s UK

& St Johns Hospice Doncaster.

Hopefully these will be available in early March.

125th Anniversary Events

As we enter our 125th year we are hoping to bring

lots of new fun events to the members this year.

We will be kicking off the celebrations with Annie’s

Salver 1 on Saturday 23rd March. This competition

was introduced to the Club in 2017 with Annie Morris

buying a Salver to present to the winners as a thank

you for all the support members gave her in raising

money for Dwarf Sports Association.

The competition is open to gents & ladies playing for

either the Juniors or Captains Teams. The entry sheet

is on the easel in the foyer.

Further events that we hope to run are:

Sun 7th July Family opening event

Tues 9th July Seniors event

Thurs 11th July Ladies event & Afternoon Tea

Fri 12th July Greenkeepers revenge

Sat 13th July Team Event followed by Gala Dinner

Further details will be published throughout the year.