Oatlands Golf Club Enews – Friday 28th August 2020

Published on 28th August 2020 in E-News, Guests

Content

This week’s Enews covers the following topics:

From the Course
Course Renovation – Video Overview
Course Renovation – Volunteers
Ladies Course Volunteer Day – Tuesday 8th September
Website Issue – “My Accounts”
Website Offline – Sunday 30 August 8pm – 5am
Golf Tips with Jeremy Ward
Takeaway Meals still going Strong
Bettington Road Update
JDP Clinics – Please be Patient as the Kids Learn this Great Game
Social Play Tees (Black Tees Prohibited)
Upcoming Clubhouse Events

From the Course

Rainfall for the Week: 0.0mm Rainfall for 2020: 967.5mm Dam: 100% Green Speed: 10.75 feet

Spring Greens renovations have been performed this week, with the course staff and a team of volunteers (over 60ppl across 2.5 days) working together to achieve a great outcome.

Proceedings started on Sunday afternoon with the coring and cleaning up of all greens except for the putting green. This is the first time that we have managed to get this many greens completed on the Sunday afternoon, and set things up nicely for the rest of the week.

Our plans for Monday were to top-dress all greens, rub them all in, plus work with our Arborist contractors to cut down the dead tree between the 2^nd and 16^th fairways that contained a bee hive in one of its branches. The contractors were also going to cut down the dead tree on the 11^th hole. The truck fire that closed the M1on Monday morning interrupted these plans somewhat with 2 of my staff unable to get to work, and the Arborist team being delayed several hours trying to get down from the Central Coast. Despite this, all greens were top-dressed, however only half of the greens were rubbed in, and only the tree on the 16^th being cut down and removed. We were able to save the bee hive which was removed by a local bee keeper, and we are told the bees are doing well.

On Tuesday we were able to start fertilising the greens that had been rubbed in on Monday, while we finished rubbing and brooming in all the remaining greens. Some extra sand was added to individual greens that had some core holes open up. All greens have now been fertilised with this completed on Thursday.

While all this work was going on with the greens and tree on the 16^th, Col McRae was using our Ventrac machine to aerate our fairways. Col spent the best part of 22 hours over 3 days aerating fairways from the 1^st through to the 11^th, plus the 14^th and 18^th. Our verti drain cored the 12^th and 13^th fairways, and as of Thursday afternoon all remaining fairways (15, 16, 17 and practice) have been completed. The topdressing of fairways has begun today, with this to be completed by the end of next week with approximately 30 tonne of washed sand per hectare applied to each fairway. Once each fairway has been rubbed in, fertiliser will be applied with cutting to resume in 2 to 3 weeks time.

We also prepared/ repaired an area of the 8^th flyover on Wednesday morning, firstly rotary hoeing the area before incorporating cores which we had extracted from the greens. The new power rake attachment on the Ventrac then worked this area over and levelled it out.

The whole process wouldn’t have been such a success without the ideal weather conditions and most of all, without the unbelievable help from all of our volunteers. 60+ volunteers contributing 300+ hrs of assistance is another unbelievable example of Club spirit, and means the comprehensive renovation process required to maintain a sustainable high quality of playing surfaces can be conducted twice a year without compromise. In addition to renovation assistance the volunteers also painted all sand and rubbish bin boxes on course, as well as all the seats at the tees, tombstones, speed humps and lines in the car park. Path edges and sprinkler heads on fairways were all trimmed, bunkers were blown out and prepared for Wednesday’s competition, many maintenance tasks were performed in the clubhouse, and we can’t forget the dreaded brooming in of sand on the greens. Thank you very much to all of our volunteers for all your efforts over the 3 days, it is very much appreciated!

A short video giving an overview of the renovation is included in the next Enews item. This has again been prepared by the Clubs Manager who continues to “claim” his bad back prevents him from assisting the volunteers with brooming.

Have good weekend

The Course Team

Course Renovation – Video Overview

Course Superintendent Dom Yates provides an explanation of the renovation activities that have taken place during Course Closure.

Course Renovation – Volunteers

The video below gives a great insight into the volume and diversity of work achieved by the volunteers during Course Renovations.

Ladies Course Volunteer Day – Tuesday 8th September

Following the success of the Clubs first ladies volunteer day on Tuesday 5th August, the second of the monthly dates has been set for Tuesday 8th September.

Ladies interested in taking part should register via a signup sheet in the Ladies Locker Room.

The ladies volunteer day will focus on gardens so volunteers are suggested to bring along their own favourite gardening equipment such as gloves to ensure there is enough to go around.

The August contribution by the ladies in the cleaning up of the garden between the 6th green and 7th tee has received a large amount of positive feedback from the membership.

Website Issue – “My Accounts”

Members may have noticed the error message pictured below when trying to access parts of the website. This is a known issue which is being resolved by our provider.

Please note, that while the message indicates “Attackers may be trying to access your information” this is not the case. This is a browser generated message as a result of our Membership system provider (a third party to the Club and website provider) requiring access to the website to resolve the issue.

Members can be assured that there is no threat to data stored on the website.

Website Offline – Sunday 30th August 8pm – 5am

Members are advised that the Clubs website will be offline for scheduled improvements and hosting enhancements by the provider (MiClub) on Sunday the 30th of August from 8pm to 5am EST.

This down-time is essential to keep up with the ever increasing demand for MiClub products and services. The update will further improve the performance and availability of MiClub’s existing services.

Golfing Tips with Jeremy – Alignment

This weeks lesson video sees Golf Operations Manager Jeremy Ward discussing alignment and how to practice correct alignment for improved on-course performance.

To book a lesson with Jeremy please visit the online lesson booking section of the website, phone the Pro Shop or email Jeremy directly, golfoperations@oatlandsgolf.com.au.

Takeaway Meals still Going Strong

Members are reminded that the Club produced takeaway meals that commenced during the April / May closure of the Clubhouse due to Covid restrictions are still be offered and continue to be very popular amongst members.

These takeaway meals are also available for non-members who can place orders by contacting the Clubs Reception.

The latest menu items are provided below;

Bettington Road Update

Members are aware of the terrible accident that occurred on Bettington Road in February this year resulting in the deaths of 4 local children.

Recently there has been media interest in the affected families, with a desire expressed for Oatlands Golf Club to facilitate a memorial to the children.

The board wish to advise members that the club has been in discussion with all parties including the families, Parramatta Council and State parliamentarians on this matter. Discussions are obviously very sensitive, and at this time there is nothing of substance that the board can report on to members. Any proposal or submission by the families or Council that would impact Club property will be assessed in-consultation with the membership and in line with the Clubs Constitution. We undertake to keep members appraised of any developments.

JDP Clinics – Please be Patient as the Kids Learn this Great Game

The Clubs Junior Development Programme (JDP) is going from strength to strength under the watchful eye of the Clubs Golf Operations Manager with more than 40 kids participating in clinics weekly.

Many of these clinics take place on a Saturday afternoon and as such the practice fairway tee is often buzzing with activity when members are playing the 12th green and 13th tee.

Due to the position of the practice tee and the constant flow of competition golfers moving through this area some disruption is unavoidable, and while the PGA Professionals running the clinics endeavour to limit the disruption constant stopping and starting of the clinics while competition golfers hit diminishes the effectiveness of the clinics and the enjoyment and long-term engagement of the kids.

As such the Match Committee have agreed that while the JDP kids will be instructed to be quiet and respectful while golfers are on the 13th tee, they will be allowed to continue hitting under the guidance of the PGA Professional in charge.

We kindly ask that members please be patient if playing the 12th / 13th while JDP clinics are in progress, the JDP programme is one of the pipelines to a strong membership and necessary for the long-term success of the Club as a whole.

Social Play Tees (Black Tees Prohibited)

Members are advised that during social play the Black tees (back men’s tees) are not to be used.

It has long been a custom at golf clubs that the back tees are only used for special events such as Club Championships, Medal Rounds and Trophy events. This is a custom that the Club believe should be upheld.

Men’s social play should be from the White or Green tees. In the event that the white tees are not out (and the black tees are) then social play after the competition field must be from the green tees.

Thank you in advance for your co-operation.

Upcoming Member and Guests Events

The Club has a range of Member Events planned for the month ahead that we hope you will join us for and bring along friends and family;