Oatlands Enews – Friday 22nd May 2020
Content
This week’s Enews covers the following topics;
- Volunteers to the Rescue
- Clubhouse Re-Opening
- Oatlands Senior Cup – Friday 5th June 2020
- Russ Brooks – Hole in One
- From the Course
- MiScore App – Available to all Members to Trial
- Coronavirus Golf for the Frail
- Takeaway Meals, Tap Beer and Cocktails
- Virtual Competition Presentation Videos
- Pace of Play – Pickup when you can’t Score
- Social Play – White, Yellow or Green Tees Only
- Ladies Locker Room – Locked After Hours
- Rules Corner – Rules Quiz
Volunteers to the Rescue
Oatlands has always had a very strong volunteers programme with volunteers who had primarily focused on assisting with course maintenance both on Mondays and the twice annual greens and fairway renovation. During Covid-19, clubhouse closure and as we were heading toward an inevitable full lockdown, the Club’s General Manager consulted with long time volunteer and life member John Carey to ambitiously undertake the project of painting the entire inside of the Clubhouse using enthusiastic bar staff on what was to become the JobKeeper scheme. Well before you could say, “that’s a ridiculous idea”, John had agreed and following consultation with a colour consultant, we were underway.
Well, no one could foresee that the inevitable full lockdown would not eventuate and that golf would not only be possible but be in unprecedented demand, or that our enthusiastic bar staff would be required to operate a 7 day week takeaway cafe with an ever expanding product offering including takeway meals and bottled tap beer.
Skip forward to the last fortnight and John Carey and Joe Wahbe have been gallantly supervising a much smaller than expected crew of bar staff and doing much of the work themselves. As such, a call was put out to members to assist with painting over the last two days and in typical yet still inspiring Oatlands fashion, the members responded in numbers to the extent that the maximum number allowed for non-essential indoor gatherings and social distancing needed to be closely managed.
The result of this has been nothing short of spectacular with almost every wall inside the clubhouse now having received at least one coat of paint, if not completed.
A huge thanks go out to all the volunteers who lent a hand. Below is a short video produced this morning which gives a great overview of the contribution made by the Club’s volunteers.
Clubhouse Re-opening
At the time of writing, the NSW Premier has just announced that as of 1st June 2020, Pubs and Clubs will be able to open for up to 50 people (seated). This is great news for the industry and Oatlands Golf Club.
The specific details of the eased restriction will be known in the coming days with the main point of interest being whether we can open the clubhouse for bar only service or whether the previous restriction of bar services with seated meal service will be in effect.
Either way, the Clubhouse will be open in some capacity in the first week of June including dates for Bistro on Bettington nights to be advertised. More information on re-opening the Clubhouse will be provided once the NSW Health Orders are enacted and the details assessed.
Oatlands Senior Cup
Members are advised that the Oatlands Senior Cup scheduled for Friday 5th June 2020 will go ahead as scheduled with the timesheet open for eligible members to book.
This year, due to the Covid-19 situation, the event is Non-Order of Merit with Golf NSW however, all other aspects of the event will be unchanged.
The format is an 18 hole stroke event and is open to male amateur golfers not less than 55 years of age as at 5 June 2020, with a Golf Australia handicap not exceeding 15.0 for non-members and 18.0 for Oatlands members.
Bookings can be made via the Club’s website.
Russ Brooks Hole In One
Oatlands member Russ Brooks scored his 3rd Hole in One on Saturday 9th May on the 18th hole at OGC.
Russ hit a 9 iron and wasn’t aware that the ball was in the hole until he got to the green and checked the hole.
Well done Russ on another perfect shot!
From the Course
Rainfall for the Week: 50.0mm Rainfall for 2020: 706.5mm Dam: 85% Green Speed: 10.0 feet
Another productive week on the course for the team, with some nice rainfall to finish the working week off! Another 2 fairways were verti drained this week (4th and 6th), leaving the 8th fairway as the only fairway that hasn’t had any renovation work performed to it since the end of summer. The 1st and 11th fairways had the aeravator machine run over them, which does break the surface up but nowhere near as deep as the verti drain machine. With this in mind, and with the improved condition of the fairways after the verti draining, we will also verti drain the 1st and 11th fairways after the 8th fairway.
Fertiliser was applied and watered in to the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th fairways this week as part of the recovery process after summer.
Our tees are starting to head into dormancy for the winter, so we have applied an iron based fertiliser and green paint this week to all tee pads to help these areas keep some colour. The iron is rapidly absorbed through the leaf of the plant during periods of sunlight, and darkens the turf appearance. This process will be repeated on our fairways next week to provide definition between fairway and rough lines. An example of this can be seen on the left hand side of the 11th fairway, where we used up our tank leftovers from the tees this week.
The work we performed around the putting green last week will take some time to settle down as the grass needs to adjust to the changes. We have filled the holes in the roadway next to the concrete edging with asphalt to tidy up this area.
Our greens are in great condition at the moment with alot of attention being shown to them by the team. The damaged edges have all been repaired with turf from our nursery green. Recent fertiliser applications have increased growth rates on surfaces and we have applied our first growth regulator since renovations. As a result, green speed will increase and stay consistent throughout the day. We have started cutting more regularly with our walk behind mowers the past week, which provides a cut and roll at the same time and adds to the appearance of the greens with the mowing strips that are left behind.
Sand has been added to the front bunkers on the 18th green so that depths are correct. This work isn’t intended to make these bunkers play any easier or harder, but to ensure that players don’t hit the linings beneath the sand. All up, 25 tonnes have been added to these 2 bunkers.
Daily rounds of golf still remain high and we ask that all players repair their pitch marks on greens plus any others that they see while waiting to putt out. Divots on fairways also need to be repaired. If you’ve forgotten or lost your sand bucket, please ask the Pro Shop for a new one so that you can fill your own divots plus any others that haven’t been filled.
The course volunteer program has been suspended at the moment, but they have been assisting with the clubhouse painting this week. Thank you gentlemen for your efforts this week, and we will hopefully have you back on the course soon!
Have good weekend
The Course Team
MiScore App – Available to all Members to Trial
MiClub have offered Clubs’ a free trial of their MiScore App which members are encouraged to trial and provide feedback on its functionality and convenience.
The MiScore App allows golfers to complete scorecards on their mobile device and can be loaded onto your device by searching MiScore App from the Apple or Android store and selecting the icon displayed below.
Once loaded simply open the app and follow the prompts. The App acts exactly like a scorecard with all of Oatlands’ hole lengths, pars, indexes and local rules built in and provision to sign the card at the completion of play (note: under current restrictions signing of the scorecard is prohibited).
Note, just like a physical scorecard when using the MiScore App you are filling in the scorecard of another player as the marker.
If you have any questions or would like to go over the app with a member of staff please see the Pro Shop staff or General Manager.
Coronavirus Golf for the Frail
The coronavirus situation has presented some interesting challenges for all of us including those members who normally share a cart, having to go it alone.
A certain member who shall not be named sent in the photo below which he captioned “Golf for the Frail”.
Whether we are out there walking or driving, it is just great to see so many people playing golf and it is also great to see members such as Rod Ruston able to have a laugh at themselves and send in photos such as these of his fellow playing partners (Jerry Maher, Barry Blackmore and Rolly Nice. Photographer: Rod). Note to self, remove names before sending the Enews.
Takeaway Meals, Tap Beer and Cocktails!!!
Well they say crisis creates opportunity and that is certainly true of the initiatives being created by our young F&B team at the moment with the takeaway meals continuing to sell out within days of production and the introduction of takeaway tap beer and cocktails generating similar support from the membership in the first few days of availability.
The graphics below outline the current items available from the Clubhouse Cafe operating from the Verandah 7 days a week.
Virtual Competition Presentation Videos
Many members will have noticed the daily Competition Presentation videos being posted online by the Club in response to the Clubhouse being closed and competition presentations not being possible.
Members can view these daily presentations on the homepage of the Club’s website or the Club’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/oatlandsgolfclub/).
The last week of presentations is shown below. Thanks to Club Director, Rodney Walsh and Ladies Captain, Amanda Walkerden for presenting these.
Pace of Play – Pickup when you can’t Score
With scorecards being handed in for entry at the Pro Shop, it has become evident that many members are not picking up when they have run out of shots on a whole.
With the move back to groups of 4 and as we head towards the shortest days of the year in winter, Pace of Play will once again become a key focus for everyone who plays.
We ask that all members please make sure that they pick up once they have run out of shots on each hole and be aware of their position in the field which should be directly behind the group in front.
Oatlands’ also asks that you please call up on all par 3s when it is safe to do so.
Thank you in advance for your assistance!
Social Play – White, Yellow or Green Tees Only
Members are reminded that all social play, (play outside of competition times), is to be from the White, Yellow or Green Tees only.
The Black and Red tees are for competition play only and as they are required to be on the back of the tee, the provision for moving their position and rotating the wear on the tee is limited when compared to the other tee blocks.
In-conjunction with this, social play from the 12th tee is to be from the front tee as pictured below and not from either back tee.
Members and guests not abiding by these Club rules will face Match Committee action.
Ladies Locker Room Locked After Hours
Lady members are advised that an after hours lock has been installed on the ladies locker room door. This is due to the key pad access door allowing access to the locker room after the clubhouse is shut and alarmed. As such, please be mindful of the need to remove personal belongings such as car keys from lockers prior to the Clubhouse closing.
Rules Corner – Rules Quiz
Now that we have had over a year to come to grips with the 2019 rules, let’s consider some of the finer points. There are subtle differences in the rules governing activities on the putting green, and some of those changed with the 2019 rules.
Consider the following simple scenarios:
Stroke Play
A, B, C, and D are playing stroke/stableford. All the players’ balls are on the putting green. A putts and it is clear that A’s ball will hit C’s ball which is at rest near the hole.
- No one takes any action. A’s ball hits C’s ball moving it 30cm closer to the hole.
- C seeing that A’s ball will hit his ball, quickly marks and lifts his ball before they collide.
- C seeing that A’s ball will hit his ball, quickly lifts his ball without marking it before they collide.
- B was standing close to C’s ball and seeing that A’s ball will hit C’s ball, quickly lifts the ball without marking it before they collide.
In each of the above cases, what penalties if any are incurred, and how should the players proceed.
Match Play
Using the same scenarios above, but now A and B are playing C and D in four-ball match play. In each of the above cases, what penalties if any are incurred, and how should the players proceed.
Answers next week.