2024 Q3 Board Update
2024 Q3 Board Updte
Dear Members,
As we move out of Summer and into Autumn/Winter, we’d like to provide you an update on the past few months and upcoming plans for the remainder of 2024.
MATCH & HANDICAP
Over the Summer months we’ve held an array of competitions, starting off with our Club Championships. Our congratulations must go to Phil Christides and Lulu Housman for winning the Men’s and Women’s scratch prize. The weekend itself was filled with great weather and dramatic play-offs, for some, a final day that will be imprinted into their memory. With such a busy schedule, we must pass our appreciation to our members for your consistent and regular participation.
Winter is now with us, and preferred lies are in place for the foreseeable future. This followed some very late advice from England Golf which caught us and the County by surprise. All clubs now have the flexibility to apply preferred lies and other poor playing conditions relief at our discretion throughout the year. We’ll work with Greens to establish a protocol for applying and removing relief in the future.
Most of the summer knock-out competitions have concluded, with around 4 to finish in both the men’s and women’s competitions in the next few weeks. The men’s winter knock-outs have been drawn, the women’s will be drawn after entries close on 25th October.
M&H will be focussing on the diary for 2025, as well as working on a provisional view of the centenary year diary for 2026. We also commence a formal handicap review from 1st November.
Finally, congratulations to Peter Walsh for winning the playoff for the Directors Cup. We intend to review the play-off procedure for club majors over the winter as well as whether all knock-out finals that are currently 36 holes need to be that long. If you have any comments, please feel free to reach out to Martin Walker.
COURSE
Thanks must go to our Agronomy Team, lead by our Course Manager Jimmy Butler for providing us with such great playing conditions throughout the summer. For many years we’ve been asking for more consistency and faster greens and our team are now delivering this on a regular basis, even bringing greens speeds up to 13ft for our Club Championships! Our Borehole has been fully operational all Summer allowing us to water the fairways regularly and preventing the burnt-out appearance we have seen in the past. We hope you have all enjoyed the benefits this has provided.
Mother nature has regrettably moved us into Autumn quickly and with Winter only around the corner there will be more emphasis placed on disease prevention and preparing for the Winter months. There is a lot we can do to help the team by remembering to repair our pitch marks, replace divots, and ensuring we all follow traffic management put in place by the team.
The team have been hard at work progressing with the 2nd phase of our course development, if you’ve missed the club update on what this may include, it’s still available to view on your V1 portal.
Following Frank Pont’s visit earlier this year, having discussed the course plan with the Greens Committee, a few tweaks to the bunker plans have been made, of which we have attached to this mail.
You’ll recognise that the 3rd and 4th holes look a little different. As you may be aware, we have been advised that the poplar and willow trees between these holes are coming to the end of their life span. Therefore, they are likely to prove a safety hazard in the not too distant future and consequently must be removed. Over the past couple of years your Greens Committee alongside the course designers CDP have been discussing how we can provide the members with two excellent holes, both providing individual character once these trees have gone.
For many years there has been a desire to introduce another par 5 to the course, and we now collectively believe we have found an excellent option, our 4th hole. By moving the tee to the left and back, the hole will measure 465 yards from the tips. Whilst short for a par 5 in modern standards, the par can be justified due to the arrangement of hazards along the hole and is the same length as the 13th hole at Augusta National was before changes were made in 1994.
From the tee there shall be bunkering ranging from 245 yards to 290 yards running diagonally across the hole with bunkers of a similar size to the 15th. The player playing this as a three-shot hole can lay up short of these bunkers. However, for the player aiming to reach the green in two, they must be taken on, either by carrying the front bunker or playing as close as you dare to the far bunker. Numerous bunkers will surround the green and a runoff at the back of the green will challenge your approach shot, regardless of whether it is your second or third shot. The green will remain unchanged and therefore will continue to be one of the most interesting green complexes on the course.
FINANCIAL UPDATE
When we spoke to you at the AGM back in January, we justified the increase in subscriptions by stating that our goal was to generate a surplus of £50,000 of which £25,000 would be used to invest in the club and £25,000 would be held back to keep as a reserve. Based on our current activity, we are on target to achieve this. Hopefully there will be no surprises for the rest of the year, and we will be able to achieve this goal which will help secure the long-term future of the club.
CLUB PROJECTS
For the remainder of the year our attention will be on two projects:
Course
We will continue to focus on our course development plans which will include: drainage, woodland management and bunkering all outlined in our Phase 2 development plans.
Clubhouse
We’re excited to inform you that this Winter, we’ll be starting work on our Clubhouse to give it a much-needed uplift. In this initial phase, we’ll be stripping out the carpets in our Men’s and Women’s entrance foyers as well as the main clubhouse, replacing with both Carpet and LVT.
At the same time, we’ll be both improving the safety of the building and re-decorating the main clubhouse, all of which we hope to have complete by the end of January 2025.
More broadly, there has been discussion regarding how we have spent the money on the sale of Great West Road. By the end of 2024, we will have spent £291,000 out of £520,000 that we received after tax. This is broadly split on the following projects (including those outlined above):
• Borehole (including obtaining licences) – £97,000
• Bunkers (31 new / refurbished bunkers) - £69,000
• Excavator (to enable development work to be completed in house) – £51,000
• Woodlands management work (excluding work on the 2nd which was completed before the sale of Great West Road) – £49,000
• Replacement of new carpets and decoration in clubhouse (proposed Dec ’24) – Estimated at £18,000
• Other small item (drainage, tools etc) – £7,000
The balance of any cash not needed in the short term is being invested in a high interest bank account so that it earns interest for the club before being used. It is also a financial policy of the club for cash reserves not to fall below £100,000. This means that we will not undertake any further discretionary projects if we believe that it would have the effect of reducing cash below that amount in at any point in the 12 months following that project.
However, as indicated above, one project that we are going ahead with in 2025 is the removal of trees between holes 3 and 4. The anticipated cost of this work, together with the grinding of the stumps, creation of the new bunkers and associated earthworks will be £94,000. Consequently, we plan this to be the only major improvement project that we will undertake next year.
The work to transform these holes will take place towards the end of July 2025 (just after the Club Championships) and is anticipated to take between 3-4 weeks. Performing the work at this time, rather than later in the year, will reduce the amount of damage that the heavy machinery will cause to the area and allow as much time as possible for the ground to recover and be ready for our centenary year in 2026. We apologise in advance for the inconvenience this will undoubtedly cause but are confident that the resulting holes will be interesting and challenging and will help secure the long-term sustainability of the club.
We’re pleased to inform you that membership numbers remain healthy with just over 550 members at the club and our Junior section continues to flourish with representation in the Middlesex Friern league for the first time in over a decade.
CAPTAINCY
We are still to receive any nominations to become Club Captain in 2025… Having been Captain myself, I can honestly say it was one of the greatest privileges and if you think you may want to be our Captain next year, but something may be holding you back, I urge you to please speak to one of our past captains or the office.
We appreciate there is some big news included within our latest update and if you have any comments or need any clarification with respect to the projects highlighted, please do reach out.
Patrick Marshall
Chairman
Wyke Green Golf Club
Wyke Updated Plan Sep 24.jpg
As we move out of Summer and into Autumn/Winter, we’d like to provide you an update on the past few months and upcoming plans for the remainder of 2024.
MATCH & HANDICAP
Over the Summer months we’ve held an array of competitions, starting off with our Club Championships. Our congratulations must go to Phil Christides and Lulu Housman for winning the Men’s and Women’s scratch prize. The weekend itself was filled with great weather and dramatic play-offs, for some, a final day that will be imprinted into their memory. With such a busy schedule, we must pass our appreciation to our members for your consistent and regular participation.
Winter is now with us, and preferred lies are in place for the foreseeable future. This followed some very late advice from England Golf which caught us and the County by surprise. All clubs now have the flexibility to apply preferred lies and other poor playing conditions relief at our discretion throughout the year. We’ll work with Greens to establish a protocol for applying and removing relief in the future.
Most of the summer knock-out competitions have concluded, with around 4 to finish in both the men’s and women’s competitions in the next few weeks. The men’s winter knock-outs have been drawn, the women’s will be drawn after entries close on 25th October.
M&H will be focussing on the diary for 2025, as well as working on a provisional view of the centenary year diary for 2026. We also commence a formal handicap review from 1st November.
Finally, congratulations to Peter Walsh for winning the playoff for the Directors Cup. We intend to review the play-off procedure for club majors over the winter as well as whether all knock-out finals that are currently 36 holes need to be that long. If you have any comments, please feel free to reach out to Martin Walker.
COURSE
Thanks must go to our Agronomy Team, lead by our Course Manager Jimmy Butler for providing us with such great playing conditions throughout the summer. For many years we’ve been asking for more consistency and faster greens and our team are now delivering this on a regular basis, even bringing greens speeds up to 13ft for our Club Championships! Our Borehole has been fully operational all Summer allowing us to water the fairways regularly and preventing the burnt-out appearance we have seen in the past. We hope you have all enjoyed the benefits this has provided.
Mother nature has regrettably moved us into Autumn quickly and with Winter only around the corner there will be more emphasis placed on disease prevention and preparing for the Winter months. There is a lot we can do to help the team by remembering to repair our pitch marks, replace divots, and ensuring we all follow traffic management put in place by the team.
The team have been hard at work progressing with the 2nd phase of our course development, if you’ve missed the club update on what this may include, it’s still available to view on your V1 portal.
Following Frank Pont’s visit earlier this year, having discussed the course plan with the Greens Committee, a few tweaks to the bunker plans have been made, of which we have attached to this mail.
You’ll recognise that the 3rd and 4th holes look a little different. As you may be aware, we have been advised that the poplar and willow trees between these holes are coming to the end of their life span. Therefore, they are likely to prove a safety hazard in the not too distant future and consequently must be removed. Over the past couple of years your Greens Committee alongside the course designers CDP have been discussing how we can provide the members with two excellent holes, both providing individual character once these trees have gone.
For many years there has been a desire to introduce another par 5 to the course, and we now collectively believe we have found an excellent option, our 4th hole. By moving the tee to the left and back, the hole will measure 465 yards from the tips. Whilst short for a par 5 in modern standards, the par can be justified due to the arrangement of hazards along the hole and is the same length as the 13th hole at Augusta National was before changes were made in 1994.
From the tee there shall be bunkering ranging from 245 yards to 290 yards running diagonally across the hole with bunkers of a similar size to the 15th. The player playing this as a three-shot hole can lay up short of these bunkers. However, for the player aiming to reach the green in two, they must be taken on, either by carrying the front bunker or playing as close as you dare to the far bunker. Numerous bunkers will surround the green and a runoff at the back of the green will challenge your approach shot, regardless of whether it is your second or third shot. The green will remain unchanged and therefore will continue to be one of the most interesting green complexes on the course.
FINANCIAL UPDATE
When we spoke to you at the AGM back in January, we justified the increase in subscriptions by stating that our goal was to generate a surplus of £50,000 of which £25,000 would be used to invest in the club and £25,000 would be held back to keep as a reserve. Based on our current activity, we are on target to achieve this. Hopefully there will be no surprises for the rest of the year, and we will be able to achieve this goal which will help secure the long-term future of the club.
CLUB PROJECTS
For the remainder of the year our attention will be on two projects:
Course
We will continue to focus on our course development plans which will include: drainage, woodland management and bunkering all outlined in our Phase 2 development plans.
Clubhouse
We’re excited to inform you that this Winter, we’ll be starting work on our Clubhouse to give it a much-needed uplift. In this initial phase, we’ll be stripping out the carpets in our Men’s and Women’s entrance foyers as well as the main clubhouse, replacing with both Carpet and LVT.
At the same time, we’ll be both improving the safety of the building and re-decorating the main clubhouse, all of which we hope to have complete by the end of January 2025.
More broadly, there has been discussion regarding how we have spent the money on the sale of Great West Road. By the end of 2024, we will have spent £291,000 out of £520,000 that we received after tax. This is broadly split on the following projects (including those outlined above):
• Borehole (including obtaining licences) – £97,000
• Bunkers (31 new / refurbished bunkers) - £69,000
• Excavator (to enable development work to be completed in house) – £51,000
• Woodlands management work (excluding work on the 2nd which was completed before the sale of Great West Road) – £49,000
• Replacement of new carpets and decoration in clubhouse (proposed Dec ’24) – Estimated at £18,000
• Other small item (drainage, tools etc) – £7,000
The balance of any cash not needed in the short term is being invested in a high interest bank account so that it earns interest for the club before being used. It is also a financial policy of the club for cash reserves not to fall below £100,000. This means that we will not undertake any further discretionary projects if we believe that it would have the effect of reducing cash below that amount in at any point in the 12 months following that project.
However, as indicated above, one project that we are going ahead with in 2025 is the removal of trees between holes 3 and 4. The anticipated cost of this work, together with the grinding of the stumps, creation of the new bunkers and associated earthworks will be £94,000. Consequently, we plan this to be the only major improvement project that we will undertake next year.
The work to transform these holes will take place towards the end of July 2025 (just after the Club Championships) and is anticipated to take between 3-4 weeks. Performing the work at this time, rather than later in the year, will reduce the amount of damage that the heavy machinery will cause to the area and allow as much time as possible for the ground to recover and be ready for our centenary year in 2026. We apologise in advance for the inconvenience this will undoubtedly cause but are confident that the resulting holes will be interesting and challenging and will help secure the long-term sustainability of the club.
We’re pleased to inform you that membership numbers remain healthy with just over 550 members at the club and our Junior section continues to flourish with representation in the Middlesex Friern league for the first time in over a decade.
CAPTAINCY
We are still to receive any nominations to become Club Captain in 2025… Having been Captain myself, I can honestly say it was one of the greatest privileges and if you think you may want to be our Captain next year, but something may be holding you back, I urge you to please speak to one of our past captains or the office.
We appreciate there is some big news included within our latest update and if you have any comments or need any clarification with respect to the projects highlighted, please do reach out.
Patrick Marshall
Chairman
Wyke Green Golf Club
Wyke Updated Plan Sep 24.jpg