Captains' Newsletter March 2021

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March 2021 Newsletter

Fellow Golfers

Due to Covid 19 restrictions, we again have faced a slow start to the 2021 golf season.

While the course has remained closed since January, the course work has continued with great vigour, with our course staff and committee taking every chance to maintain and improve playing conditions. We are glad to report that the work which started on the trees in November was completed by the tree surgeon in February. All agree we’ve had an excellent outcome leaving the course much safer for all players.

Hollow coring and sanding of the greens and fairways has been carried out during lockdown, and essential drainage work has also been done.

All this work has resulted in great improvements and our golf course is looking so inviting and in pristine condition, we wait in anticipation for a return to golf in April.

We have recently received terrific news as our grant application for €25,000 has been approved by Golf Ireland. This means we can now do the kind of work we’ve wanted to do for a long time but have not been in a position to carry out. We still need to agree the precise details with Golf Ireland as the money can only be spent on certain items as agreed with them. We hope to include further drainage work, repairs and improvements to the clubhouse and car park, new fencing and signage, purchase of an online booking system as well as other defined projects to be agreed. We will let you know more when the detail has been confirmed.

Many members have already paid their annual subscription and we are grateful for that. If you haven’t yet gotten around to that yet, we would be grateful if you could do so in the near future. Day to day expenses such as wages, insurance, rent and machine maintenance must be paid from our own resources and membership fees are our main source of income. Furthermore, we are likely to be impacted by a fall in sponsorship and other income due to the pandemic.

Our committee members have held regular meetings to plan and prepare for a safe return to play and again we will need volunteer course rangers. We will post details of this nearer the time and

we take this opportunity to thank all the rangers who assisted last year. Their help and input resulted in the smooth running of a difficult situation.

We have a lot of plans and improvements scheduled for the coming year, and we will keep you updated via newsletter/website. For now, our focus is on getting ready to welcome you all back in a safe way.

Kind Regards

Captains Vivian and Angela.