Ditch alongside the 8th

There's been a ditch alongside the 8th (lateral water hazzard) since Danny Hall was a young man, but I have never seen water in it. However, today it was wet!! There is no truth in the rumour that I lost a new proV1 in the old ditch and asked Steven Quince to look for it.

Steven Quince has been digging out the ditch to provide a proper drainage route which will eventually reach the ditch crossing the 7th and hopefully carry more water off the course.

AGM Presentation Night NJGA

Tonight was the AGM and Trophy Presentation Evening of the Northumberland Junior Golfing Association held at the City of Newcastle Clubhouse. Following the AGM, there was a presentation of Junior and Patrons trophies and Parklands was well represented at the event. The first trophy winner was in the Patrons Competition where Barry Forbes received the Madgwick trophy for his superb win at Slaley Hall GC. In the Ladies competition at the same event, Parklands made it a clean sweep with Kath Morpeth winning the Duncan Quaiche.

The Junior trophy presentation saw two of our members picking up awards. At the Spring Meeting at Seahouses in April, James Hall won the Best Nett (15-17 years) with a nett 60.

At the same event, Alyssa Balding won the Girls Best Nett with a 66. In addition Alyssa collected awards for winning the Under 18 Girls Strokeplay Gross Winner at Bellingham in May, Best Nett at the Junior Girls 36 Hole Championship at Longhirst in July, Best Gross at the Autumn Meeting at Newbiggin in October and Girls Matchplay Runner Up. Alyssa is pictured holding the award she received for her term as Girls Captain in 2008.

Well done to all our ambassadors!!

Tractor Marks

The course is open and the Men's Competition today was over 18 holes. Hallelujah!! The warmer weather and drying winds are just what we need. Long may it blow.

There are a lot of muddy patches on the course and there are also a lot of 'wheel' marks left by the greenkeeping staff as they have continued to use vehicles on the course during the wet conditions. So if the ball lies in wheel marks ...... Is a rut made by a tractor considered a 'hole made by a greenkeeper' and should it be declared as 'ground under repair'?

The Rules of Golf (decision 25/16) states that such a rut is not a hole made by a greenkeeper. The Committee would be justified in declaring a deep rut to be ground under repair, but not a shallow indentation made by greenkeeping equipment.

But if the Committee or greenkeeper have not declared it ground under repair by either marking the area with white lines or specifically mentioning the area on the board .... sorry ..... you must play it as it lies.

So much talent on display

This week in the Club house there is a display of the artistic talents of our members and their families. A wide variety of subjects in water, acrylic and oils .... so get there and have a wander and a ponder ... you will be amazed .... and don't forget to make a donation to the St Oswald's appeal whilst you are there .... worth a visit and worth a pound.

Day 23 No golf but another step forward

The course was closed again today ... no surprise with all that melting snow ... but there is a nice drying wind and with warmer weather it's fingers crossed.

And with no golf today, two members of the Vets section were busy installing a permanent 'score input' screen and keypad in the hallway to enable the Vets to input their competition scores without the need to move the monitor and table out into the hallway for each competition. Thanks to Brian King and Stan Scowen for their industrious mornings work.

Now is the winter of our discontent

.... and on it goes ..... no golf ..... cancelled competitions ..... and lost souls wandering the clubhouse wondering when the first green shoots of spring will herald a return to normality.

Appointments (with bad weather)

Not much more I can add about the weather .... So at the Men's Committee meeting this week, Kenny Shepherd allocated a number of jobs for the 2009 season to the elected members of the Committee. The jobs which were already known were Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary (since these are elected positions) and of course Captain and Vice Captain. All the others were 'up for grabs'. As you can see (click the picture) the duties have been spread evenly and all members will also act as starter a couple of times through the year. So if you need advice or need to talk with someone, now you can work out the best person to suit........

Day 10 and the snow has gone

The good news is that we seem to have escaped the 8 inches of snow they had forecast to land on us last night; the bad news is that it all came as rain and as a consequence the course is flooded again and we are closed. The lake on the 2nd/3rd has burst its bank and we watch and hope .....

Day 8 Sunday 1st Feb ... and the Club AGM

This cold February Sunday started with the Men's competition, the 5th round of the Winter League. And the significant aspect of this day had nothing to do with my stuttering round of golf, but it was the first occasion that we have used the new touch screen for registering the scores. It worked fine and the only down aspect was that the bill for the system also arrived in the post on the Saturday ... so please look after it folks ... its an expensive piece of kit.

The Club AGM was held in the Clubhouse on the evening. It was attended by 37 members, who had the privilege of hearing the President, Section Chairman and the Treasurer make their annual reports. In addition, I was re-elected as Club Secretary for a period of 3 years and Ronnie Dixon was elected as Greens Chairman for the same period.

The General Manager, David King and the Executive Director, Mark Spincer answered 9 questions which had been submitted to them by the members, covering the recent drainage work, green staff, cutting new holes, fees etc. The draw for the Callaway Clubs was won by .... oh you should have been there!!!!!