Club Committee Minutes 2nd July 2018

Present : Club Captain – Craig Crowhurst. General Manager – Barry Careford, Ladies Captain – Sarah Faircliff. Men’s Captain – Des Walker, Seniors’ Vice Captain – Brian Feaver Seniors’ Captain – Steve Cornell. Junior Captain – James Wilson, Andy Copeland, Course Manager, Jackie Crabb – Junior Section Organiser John Dench - Mens’ Vice Captain

Meeting commenced 7pm 1. Apologies Apologies received Margaret Gentle – Ladies’ Vice Captain, Jack Rogers -Junior Vice Captain

2. Minutes of last meeting – 16th April 2018 were agreed

3. Open Action Items Reviewed and updated the Action List (attached separately) 4. Club reports 4.1 General Manager

Review of last few months

Current Membership Situation:

• 228 x 7 Day Members (+3) • 250 x 5 Day Members (+5) • 101 x Freedom Play Members (-2) • 128 x Junior Members (-8) • 40 x Intermediate members (+2) • 106 x 9 Hole Members (-1) • 917 x Health Club Members (+19) • 13 x Retained • Total = 1788 (+49)

Weather:

Weather has vastly improved. Following a slow start course roundage is getting better although down YOY. See Roundage report.

Staffing leavers:

• Paula Hawkins – Left to join Brocket Hall • Dean Berks – Greenkeeper, Left for a change in career.

New / Returning:

pg. 1 • Ross Jackson – Membership Manager • Shauna Hughes – Fitness Instructor. • Pravin Liddar – Membership Consultant – Starts 23rd July • Chris Birkett – Returning as a Greenkeeper. • Amy DeWolf & Rachel Crabb – FOH Assistants. • Joshua Rickard & Louis Day – Retail Team.

Positions currently available:

• FOH Manager – To replace Ross Wilday

Social Events:

o Tina Turner – SOLD OUT 100 Tickets o Father’s Day – Sunday Carvery = 55 Attended.

Upcoming Events:

o Rat Pack – Friday 10th August o Members BBQ – Sunday 26th August o Hawaiian Golf Day – Friday 20th July o Wedding Fayre – Sunday 9th September. Project updates:

Internet – An update: Openreach have completed the connection. Awaiting testing, still no update on timeline.

Carpet / Dancefloor Clean: Dancefloor stripped and clean, now ongoing maintenance plan in place.

Bathroom Refurb: All quote in with COO, decision was to be made by end of financial year June. Awaiting decision.

4.2 Greenkeepers Course Update

In my last report I spoke about the wet weather and the challenges we were facing because of it. In this report it is exactly the opposite. We have now been starved of rain for 33 days and that is a full month (June) with 0mm recorded.

Main objectives

• Our main focus is hand watering hot spots on greens in the current drought conditions and retaining healthy and full playing surfaces. I audit irrigation heads around the greens daily to make sure they aren’t broken, sunk or watering areas around greens they aren’t meant too. It is crucial that we don’t let them ‘brown off’ and lose grass coverage through these periods. The loss of turf can be visually bad short term but also not so good long term as these are the areas that normally get hit harder with disease in the autumn / winter months. • As we don’t have automatic irrigation to our tees we have had to unfortunately let them suffer. When we next have sufficient rainfall I will apply a wetting agent to them so it will aid the rain water to get into the soil so they will recover quicker.

Club Championship

• As a team we were very happy how we delivered the golf course presentation and greens through the last 3 weeks. It’s never easy to keep greens consistent over a long period of time with testing weather. It is a credit

pg. 2 to the boys with their daily input which made my job easier to make decisions where need be. Greens speeds have been consistent (11.5-13 ft) over the weeks.

Mowing frequency -

• Our mowing frequency has reduced dramatically in the last 2 to 3 weeks as the moisture in the ground is either evaporated or transpired through the plant. This has allowed us to spend more time on bunker presentation, car park, The Lannocks, main ditch and other small jobs around the course.

Spiking Greens –

• From Thursday P.m. after the final group of the ladies club champs we will be spiking the main greens to help them absorb water in the current conditions. They have gone 7 weeks without any aeration.

Staff

• We have recently taken on the Ex Club Champion Chris Birkett. Chris left the retail industry to pursue a career in Greenkeeping. He managed to secure an apprenticeship at The Grove and he had 5 very successful weeks helping with the day to day maintenance of the golf course. Chris has the potential to be a massive figure on the greenkeepeing team in the future. His golfing mind, 5 weeks intensely high standards at the grove combined with his enthusiasm will cut him from the rest. • Iain also had a very successful 3 days at Wentworth’s BMW golf championships. He was on the support team raking the bunkers behind play. (Basically he got to walk to the golf course 10 times and watch tournament golf for free!!) All joking a side, it was all voluntary, cost him money in travel and it was long days. This proves his desire as a greenkeeper to learn and eventually progress into a course manager. • One of the most important members of staff at Chesfield Downs GC retires on the 11th July 2018. Peter Brown has been with us for 14 years maintaining our fleet of equipment and greenkeeping duties on the golf course. Pete is what I call a ‘proper mechanic’. He can strip any machine down, rebuild it and put it back together better than the manufacture. He will be sorely missed and we will have a drink with him on Tuesday 11th around 1pm to present him with a token present from us. • We are recruiting to take on a part time mechanic so if you do know of anyone one let me know and please spread the word!

Summer / Autumn Greens renovations

• Week commencing the 30th July we will be doing our second aggressive spiking and top dressing for the year. As the same as March I will use 19mm solid tines and 50t of sand. We will using 5 temporary greens at any one stage to give us time to maximising how much sand we brush into the holes. This is extremely important method to keep on top our thatch levels, assisting in drainage and maintaining firm greens throughout the winter months. We will complete the Lannocks one week earlier w/c 23rd July so the work load can be spread which will give us a better outcome.

pg. 3 5. Section Reports – 5.1 Ladies’ Section

Events

• We started in April with the Jubilee Jug, traditionally a pairs competition with a theme. This year it was Lets Fly in Red and Yellow – a nod to the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance, there were some fab outfits and we raised around £400 for the charity. • Next up in May was our Spring Meeting. Again we had reasonable weather for this event, raised some more funds for the charity and had a great lunch followed by Cups and Trophies presentation. • Our annual away weekend this year was held over 3 days at Belton Woods. The facilities and golf courses were fantastic and around 30 of us had a great time with loads of laughs and a fair bit of drinking! • Charity Day in June was a massive success, with the air ambulance landing, great golf with friends and fabulous support from everyone, the LS managed to raise almost £3500 on the day. It was truly a special day for me and will live long in my memory.

Competitions

• We have competed in a few new competitions this year – an Australian Spoons competition run by Golf. Margaret and Pauline H will be representing Chesfield in the next round at in July. • The Foursomes pairing of Pat W and Kathy M are going into the next Regional round of the R and A run Coronation Foursomes event, also in July. • Virginia and myself hope to make it into the final of the Ping Pairs to be held at Gainsboro in early September. • A couple of weeks ago we held our qualifying round for the Race to Turnberry so hopefully along with Des’s fundraising for the On Course Foundation we may be able to qualify! • We are half way through our Club Championships with Round 2 coming up in Thursday this week. Leaders at the halfway stage are Pat W, Virginia and Vicky Thompson…

Teams

• The Scratch team have now played 5 matches and lie joint top of our division with 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. We are striving to make the play offs for promotion this season… • The Friendly Squad are enjoying the chance to play at other clubs and this year we have a number of debutants on the way to the Pearson and Scratch teams in due course…..

Thanks

• I would like to thank all the Captains, Committees, Chesfield Downs staff and Management for all the continued help and support through my Captains Year. This part of the season is very busy for us all and without a strong team behind us we wouldn’t be able to pull it off!

5.2 Men’s Section

Events • Mens captains charity day took place in May raising over £6000 for the On-Coarse Foundation • On the weekend of 18th May, 56 of our section went away to Forest Pines for my captains weekend. It was a superb weekend, course was fantastic and the members had a great time. Stevie Smith won the singles, Pank Patel and Tulio Lanni won the pairs. I’m sure the seniors will be warmly welcomed for their trip and hope they have as much fun.

Club Champs • This weekend we had the mens club champs • Congratulations to Tulio Lanni who won the scratch and handicap 50+ pg. 4 • Congratulations to James Crabb who won the title of Mens Champion 2018 and also collected the handicap prize • A great weekend was had by all, with a fantastic bbq and the england game on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Barry and the F&B team for their hard work and contributions • The greens were incredible, so thanks to Andy and the team. So much good feedback from our members

Teams • Scratch team have won their first 3 matches (all at home), hard work with away games starts now. But excellent performances from Stevie and his team so far and we still hope we can be promoted this year • Handicap team have had a difficult season so far and have lost 3 and won 1 match, next match is this weekend at home to Stocks • Our team lost in the first round of the Herts Cup to Hertsbourne, so our bid is over for another season

Food • Has been very good, i’ve received no complaints or negative comments since the last meeting.

5.3 Seniors’ Section May

• Tina Turner Tribute Night was a roaring success amongst our members who not only enjoyed the food and wine but also entered into the spirit of the evening. It was fantastic when “Tina” sat on Jim Crombie’s lap whilst he was in his wheelchair, we haven’t seen him smile like that in a very long time.

• We also had an outing to the Queen Mother Theatre in Hitchin to see “The Quartet”, the stage version of the film starring Dame Maggie Smith. June

• Our club championships produced 2 playoffs in both the Gross and Net for the men, I had to call 2 people back with differing results, the Gross going to sudden death down the 5th after being all sure after 4 holes. Graham Findlay won the Gross and John Gresty won the Net, with Hazel Brunnen winning the Ladies Gross and Alison Webber winning the Net. Rose Coggin won the inaugural 9 Hole Alan Martin Club Championship.

• We had our Charity last Wednesday (27th), when we had 126 players on the course and 140 people sitting down to a lovely 2 course lunch. We had 10 teams from 9 different clubs, also members from the Mens and Ladies Sections playing. A lot of people put their heart and soul into the day, including the staff from the club who generously helped out wherever they could. Both the Charities were extremely impressed with the sense of “Community” they felt around the club. Steve and I achieved our aim which was to provide a day where everyone enjoyed themselves and to get other clubs participating. This is borne out by the wonderful comments and emails I have received. We raised a staggering £5348.86 on the day but there is probably a bit more which has not been included yet. We await the bank statements and a definitive final reckoning for the day. I would like to thank everyone who took part or helped us in anyway with this, there are far too many to mention here. Matches

• April - saw us beat Whitehill away from home by 4 1/2 to 3 1/2

pg. 5 • May - was not such a good month for us with one home win against Beadlow Manor by 3 1/2 to 1 1/2. We then lost away at by 5 to 3.

• Mixed matches were 3 home and 1 away which were all losses, although it has to be said that the last one at home versus Wyboston Lakes we fielded 6 men & 6 ladies, whereas they had 9 men & 3 ladies. Crameri Cup

• Tony Stokes got knocked out by The Stewart King his partner had his appendix removed so could not help him. Bob Hawkes & Graham Brown are yet to play Arkley. Membership

• Currently 6 funerals and 6 new members this year.

5.4 Junior Section State of Junior Section

• The Junior section is fairly stable and many Juniors are involved in the CAP Academy Programme, iTours and playing Junior Opens around the County. We have about 12-15 Juniors participating in the Junior Comps on a regular basis. Competitions

• There has been a lot of activity since the last meeting with handicaps tumbling J! • The April Medal was won by Amelia Fitzgerald who had a great afternoon of golf running away with the result with a Nett 62 and 7 shots clear of 2nd place. A nice handicap cut of 5 shots was in store too! • The May medal was won by James Bearman who had a great afternoon of golf coming in with a Nett score of 65 and 6 shots clear of 2nd place and a nice 4 shot handicap cut • The Anniversary Bowl was won by Jack Rogers, who, taking time out from his GCSE revision, had a great afternoon of golf scoring a fabulous 42 points and getting a nice handicap cut into the bargain! • May half term holidays and what a fantastic week this was for the Junior section ! • Jack Wilson started the week off coming first in Nett at Redbourn Boys Junior Open on Sunday 27th May shooting a Nett 61 and getting a nice handicap cut to 11! • Wednesday 30th May we had our own Junior Open at Chesfield Downs where Harry Catlin won the Nett Prize shooting Nett 62 and getting a nice little handicap cut to 25 and Justin Andrews missed out on top prize on count back shooting a Gross 76. Other notable results were Luke Scholes with a Nett 68 • Thursday 31st May saw a number of our Juniors participate in the Essendon Junior Open where we had more success – Amelia Fitzgerald, playing in only her 2nd Junior Open, won the Girls Nett shooting a Nett 70 and another handicap cut to 29! • Friday 1st June brought Junior Champion Club at Verulam, this County competition had been postponed from April due to the incessant rainfall. • Representing Chesfield were Luke Scholes, and brothers Jack and James Wilson. The best 2 from 3 Stableford scores is used to determine the winning club. Luke and Jack posted amazing scores of

pg. 6 46pts and 41pts respectively which shot the Chesfield Team into 1st place 9pts ahead of the team in second place. Luke also came 1st in the individual standings with Jack in 3rd place. • Luke and Jack have now had big handicap cuts after playing competitions during half term, Luke was playing off 25 at the start of the week and is now off 18! Jack started off at 13 and is now off 8! • Sunday 10th June brought more good weather conditions for our Juniors. Once again handicaps tumbled for one of our Juniors. Jack Rogers had another great afternoon of golf scoring a Nett 64 and getting another nice handicap cut along with an ESR – he is now playing off 8! • Sunday 1st July – Summer Cup – on a scorching hot afternoon handicaps tumbled again. James Bearman had a fantastic afternoon scoring a Nett 59, getting another nice handicap cut along with an ESR which has given him a Congu handicap of 27. It’s great to see James playing so well as he only moved up from the Par 3 this season. • We are pleased to report that we now have 5 Juniors playing off single figure handicaps which is fabulous! Junior Lexus league

• Our Junior Lexus League Team have had mixed successes since the start of the season – won 2 (Knebworth and Enfield Elms at home) and lost 2 (East Herts @ home and Enfield away). All matches have been really tight and the results could have gone either way. The matches were played in a great spirit and everyone has had a good time. • Our next match is away at Knebworth next Sunday 8th July. County Events

• Junior Champion Club Finals - The Junior team will represent Hertfordshire at the England Golf Junior Champion Club Final, held at Frilford Heath Golf Club as part of ‘Golf Week’ week commencing 13th August 2018. Our original team are all on holiday at this time so we are looking for other members of the Junior section to compete in the finals. Junior Captains Charity Day - Saturday 21st July

• Our Junior Captain James Wilson is holding his charity day in aid of Prostate Cancer • Format: 4 ball Team Alliance - 8am Shotgun Start • Cost: Members £20 Non-members £25 • Sign-up sheet is on the Club noticeboard. • Contact James or his mum Jo Wilson for further details

pg. 7 6. Matters Arising 6.1 Societies and Bookings before 11:30

Issue was raised about this by Des Walker.

There have been some issues where same tee times have been double booked by Crown Head Office and On- line booking system.

Barry informed us that he had spoken to the call centre manager at Head office to make them aware this and to put steps in place to ensure it doesn’t happen. Additional training has been given to head office and pro shop staff.

Non-members should not be able to book tee times before 11:00am at weekends. Barry also re-iterated that if someone teeing off is not recognised as a member another member it could be they are a 5 day member who is entitled to book. They should not be challenged by other members as this is the course marshall’s role BARRY PLEASE CONFIRM ABOVE IS CORRECT 6.2 Rough on right hand side of 2nd Fairway

Des Walker raised the issue that the length of the rough on the right-hand side of the 2nd fairway had caused major hold ups during the club championship. The unusually dry conditions meant that more than often tee shots were going into this rough and the delay was caused by more numbers of golfers than in typical conditions were looking for their ball.

Steve Cornell raised the issue that before any decision could be made that the club need to check the convenant for the land as this may not be possible due to protection of nesting SkyLarks.

New Action added to list. 6.3 Captains Day Sarah Faircliff raised concern that with the Captain’s day drawing nearer that no entertainment had been booked. New Action Added for Jackie Crabb to organise separate meeting with Captains. 6.4 GDPR Craig Crowhurst reminded everyone to continue to be diligent in terms of mailing lists, contacts etc for GDPR compliance. Barry commented that the letter sent by Crown was not clear and Steve Cornell hade reviewed it. New Action Added to list to get more clarity from Crown

6.5 Sleeping Policeman Height Brian Feaver had been asked to raise issue of the height of the sleeping policeman at the entrance to the course. Barry agreed this does need to be looked at. New Action Added to list – Barry to look into how is responsible and how it is maintained. 6.6 Implementation of 2019 Rule changes Question had been raised by a member about Club’s plans and readiness for the rule changes being implemented by R&Q in 2019

pg. 8 New Action Added To List – Men’s section to provide other sections with guidance on the rule changes and how to implement then 7. AOB 7.1 Etiquette for Playing Through Question was raised around allowing group’s that are not part of competition through – Perception is that this is not permitted though there is nothing in R&A rules. New Action Added To List – Captain’s to clarify and communicate to section ALL – IS THIS WHAT WAS AGREED 7.2 Jackie Reid Past Captains Trophy Craig Crowhurst reported to the committee that he thoroughly enjoyed playing in this and it was a great addition to the annual diary. Big thanks to Barry for providing drinks on the very hot day it was played on. Craig suggested this would be a nice addition to the honours board New Action Added To List – Barry and Brian to include in discussion for additional boards.

8. Date of Next Meeting Dates of future Club Committee meetings have all been issued by electronic meeting requests. Date of Next meeting Monday 24th September 2018 at 19:00 Meeting closed at 8.45pm

pg. 9