Dear Members,
There is a change to the normal golf program next week as we host the Australian Veterans Golf Tournament with The Cut, Meadow Springs and Secret Harbour.
Initially, it was thought their requested days of Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday would be unavailable for members, as highlighted in the fixture book however, we are able to run our daily competitions in AM shot gun starts on all four of these days. Timesheets will open as normal on the online booking system.
Please confirm any cart bookings prior to your day of play and we encourage members in the shot gun start to pay with your club account, as we will process this payment whilst you are on course, in order to reduce waiting time at check in.
Although we minimise disruptions to members as much as possible, there are times we are obligated to host events on behalf our governing bodies. As a community club, it is important we support the region and in particular the City of Mandurah, as they look to attract these events with the tourism and economic benefits they bring to the whole region.
We lease our golf course land off the City, with our long-term lease expiring next year and currently in negotiations. Part of our lease is to ensure we do support the Mandurah Community and we are pleased to do this by helping host this major National event.
Regards
Grant Shortland- Jones, General Manager
Golf Course Update – Q3 2022
I thought I would provide one last update for the year about what’s happening on and around the course.
After an extensive search we have managed to secure the services of a 2IC. Craig will be re-locating from New Zealand but has worked in Western Australia before both at Royal Fremantle and The Cut. Craig will be a welcome addition to the team and should commence in December. Unfortunately, we have had a few resignations from the Greens Team over the past few months with both Dwaine and Vince leaving the club. We are actively looking to recruit to fill these roles but as you will no doubt be aware, finding employees in the current market is extremely difficult. It means that in the short term we are understaffed so will only be undertaking work necessary to maintain the course. These tasks include but are not limited to:
- Daily preparation of the golf course
- Poa Control Programme
- Couch Encroachment Program
- Kikuyu Control.
We have commenced using volunteers to perform daily moisture monitoring on the greens. This data is vital to ensure our Poa control program is effective and also allows Neil to present greens that are more consistent. I would like to thank Jim Mahoney and Barry Price for volunteering for this task, if you see them on the course please give them right of way as required. In fact, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers that give their time to help around the course.
Although the lack of employees makes it difficult to undertake major projects or Master Plan works, the Committee is very keen to continue improvements within resource capabilities. The Management Committee has approved up to $30,000 to upgrade furniture and fittings around the course including rubbish bins, ball washers and tee markers. This order has already been placed and hopefully you will see some of the new hardware in a month or so. Stage two of this will be to replace tee signs and benches to be replaced over the next few years.
The practice nets have now been completed however we will be gluing the hitting matts down over the next few weeks as they seem to be moving around a bit. Apologies that this task took a bit longer than expected and I thank members for their patience while the nets were being upgraded.
I have not received any negative feedback about the daily pin positions that are available by clicking the following link:
https://app.pogoturfpro.com/app/public/Mandurah%20Country%20Club/pin-sheet
As a result, I will be getting the link permanently added to the club’s website so hopefully that will be available soon.
With the worst of the winter weather behind us we have now relaxed the rule of having two people per cart that was in place over winter. I would like to thank members for complying with this request which was in the best interest of the course. I would remind members that even in dry conditions we would like to see the cart wear minimised so please spread the wear.
We have started to consider what work we may want to undertake on the course in 2023 and indeed have added money into the 2023 capital budget for this purpose. However, with the current staff shortages we will not be committing to any capital work until we have a full crew and they are up-to-speed with the operation of the course. As a result, we have no immediate plan to undertake renovations on the course. We will review this stance regularity based on staffing levels and I will communicate to members when we are in a position to plan for course upgrades as per the master plan.
In addition to the capital works budget, the Management Committee have approved a $30,000 increase in the operational budget to ensure we keep up with increasing costs but also to allow for increasing output and continued improvements on the day to day course presentation.
As always if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me when you see me around the club.
Dean Stewart, Greens Committee Chair.
