News Letter Course at Covid level 3

Club President Report

Firstly, a respectful salute to Anzac Day and in particular to all those who made the ultimate sacrifice allowing future generations the freedoms we enjoy and often take for granted – including the current luxury of worrying about whether or not we will be allowed to play golf during a world pandemic! It was a unique, moving and very special experience at 6am this morning standing outside our gate during the virtual Anzac Day service and seeing many neighbours up and down the street doing the same.

Secondly, well done everyone, we made it through the first four weeks of Covid-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown but still have a couple of days to go before the country moves to Level 3 at midnight on Monday.

But HOORAY, we finally received advice late yesterday afternoon from the Govt/MBIE via Sport NZ and NZ Golf that we can resume playing golf from Tuesday 28 April, but under the following lengthy and somewhat confining Level 3 restrictions (with legitimate Club slant applied where appropriate, and no apologies for the list!):

Our course will be open preferentially to members, with un-booked green fees players being allotted spare tee times where available
To assist in managing logistics of restricted play, we have decided our course will open for play at 9am each day, with last tee-off time of 4pm
Tee times must be booked to avoid congregations in the carpark and around the clubhouse. Just for Tuesday only - members are asked to call Marie Rayner on 027-355 2349 over this long weekend to book tee times on a first in, first served basis for Tuesday 28 April. Tee times from Wednesday 29 April until Monday 11 May inclusive can be booked from Tuesday 28th April either when onsite or by telephoning the Club on 06-754 7497, again on a first in, first served basis.
When signalled by a supervisor, please enter through the sliding glass door as usual and exit promptly after play via the golf cart pathway;
Clubhouse and toilet facilities (including the on-course toilet) will remain closed to players;
All play will commence from the 1st tee and tee time intervals will be 10 minutes;
Casual golf play only: there will be no competitive Tuesday ladies’ golf, Wednesday men’s golf, Friday men’s haggle, Saturday Club Day golf or resumption of club champs;
A playing register (name & contact details) is being set up to enable contact tracing if necessary;
You must play within your “bubble”, therefore play will either be solo or possibly in twos/threes/fours if all are in the same bubble
You must observe at least 2m physical/social distancing from anyone on course who is outside your bubble
No scorecards will be accepted by the NZ Golf handicapping system during Level 3 (Dotgolf system inside clubhouse not available anyway);
Flagsticks and bunker rakes have been removed, with holes cut in centres of greens: cups will be inverted to allow holed golf balls to be flicked away with your putter;
Drinking fountains and golf ball washers will be shut down;
Hand sanitiser will be available outside clubhouse;
The sunscreen station will not be available so please use your own;
No hired golf carts will be available;
Do not come to the course if you are feeling unwell or showing any signs of sickness;
If you are over 70 years of age it is recommended (but not mandatory) that you stay at home, but if you are over 70 and have any underlying medical condition(s), please seriously consider whether you should be out playing golf under Level 3.

We would ask that all members read, absorb and accept this list of restrictions if deciding to come out to play under Level 3.

Note also that some of these restrictions may remain in place after the country moves to Alert Level 2.

A small team has been scoping out how to manage all these restrictions, and we have decided that two supervisors will need to be on duty outside the clubhouse to guide everyone for at least the first week of the Level 3 period.

As there may be some delays on the first morning Tuesday 28 April, while our processes shake down, we ask for your patience and cooperation and thank you in advance.

Importantly, essential turf maintenance has been able to be carried out over the last two weeks on our greens, green surrounds, fairways, rough and tee areas, so that our course will be ready for play to resume on Tuesday - many thanks to our course staff Paul Fairhurst and David Soffe.

Finally, for your information we have decided to institute a new section in newsletters giving members some background and information on each of our generous Club sponsors, commencing next week with our principal sponsor Todd Energy: please support our sponsors where possible.

For those who are able, I know you will enjoy getting back to golfing from Tuesday, even if it is only in a solo bubble ...

Richard Crowe

PRO – TIP

Cure that SLICE or at least understand it!

FAULT:

1. The Club Face is pulled across the ball from the OUTSIDE to IN ! ! !

2. Your HEAD & BODY are moving FASTER than your HANDS ? ? ?

CURE:

1. LEARN to keep your HEAD STEADY & BEHIND the ball at IMPACT 👍

2. Feel your HANDS ROTATE going PAST YOUR BODY out to TARGET 👍

EXERCISE:

1. Tie a metre length of rope onto a door handle, post or tree