Club News

From Ollie Young, Golf Operations Manager: We are now officially up and running under the new management of Get Golfing CIO. Here’s to an exciting new era and good times ahead for Arkley Golf Club. 

As previously stated in the correspondence from Get Golfing CIO on Friday, May 21st, renewals will begin from Tuesday, June 1st. Fundamental to the way that Get Golfing operates is that Members pay their subscriptions monthly by direct debit, may I please ask that Members co-operate on this matter and avoid wishing to pay annually in advance. 

We are introducing some very minor changes to membership categories to streamline the membership options. As part of this process, no member will be paying more for their membership in 2021/22 and you will be receiving much the same, if not more, benefits. These can be best illustrated below. (Introduce the member benefits chart below) 

Some notable changes are shown below, and I will be available to discuss your options in detail from June 1st. 

• A3 7-Day Student will renew as an Intermediate or Flexible Member 
• A4 7-Day Flexible will renew as a Silver Flexible Member 
• A5 7-Day Flexible Credit will renew as a Silver Flexible Member 
• B1 7-Day Restricted will renew as a Full or Flexible Member 
• G1 Social will now get 5% discount on F&B with the new ‘Partner Card’, which can also be used at all other affiliated clubs. 

If you choose to maintain your subscription membership (Full, 5-day or an intermediate), you can opt to pay a further £25 per month (in addition to your Arkley subscriptions) and have access to all Get Golfing’s other venues.  

In addition, if you are — or decide to become — a Flexible Member, you can use your points at all Get Golfing’s other clubs.  

So that I can best manage your membership and ensure you have the correct category for your playing habits, can I ask you to pop in and see me during June.  

As part of this process, we will be checking that the personal details we have for you are up to date as well as setting up your direct debit.  

The first subscription collection will be in early July and will include May, June and July’s subscriptions, as well as your affiliation fees. After July’s collection, you will only be charged for the coming month’s subscription. For those members that have paid annually in advance, then we can tackle this on a case by case basis.

The membership transfer needs to be completed by June 30th. If any Member has not completed this process by then, access to the tee sheet will be restricted until it is done. From July 1st, the new membership benefits will commence. Please look at the chart on the membership page of the website to understand these best. 

A reminder that from Tuesday, June 1st, the club will be going cashless, so any purchases made at the bar or paying for a green fee in the Pro Shop will have to be done by debit/credit or Member card. 

If you would like to take up the option of a courtesy round at Mill Green Golf Club, on the 22nd June, please come and see me in the office with the names of your players and when you would like to tee off and I will arrange this for you. 

Your Club Card balance has been transferred across to Get Golfing. We will also be transferring away from the current golf management software and will be advising you on this in due course. 

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me. 

Course News

From Jason Hatton, Course Manager: Since I wrote the last newsletter, we have had more than five inches of rain and temperatures have yet to reach the average for this time of year. The grass is growing but not as quickly as it should be. With temperatures about to soar over the coming weekend the course will finally benefit from some sustained growth. 

This month we have tined the greens and given them a top-dressing to alleviate the winter compaction and smooth the surface, the wet weather helped with getting the top-dressing in to the green. 

Unfortunately, we are still having a problem with leatherjackets on most but not all greens. The warm weather will be the perfect tonic for the larvae to hatch into the crane fly and leave our greens. Once they are gone an overseed of all the affected greens followed by a light top-dressing will commence. 

Recently, we had our annual herbicide spraying operation done to tees and banks, all fairways, approaches, greens banks and around all bunkers. This is an ongoing commitment to improving our surfaces across the whole course.  

Stakes and ropes are being removed daily off the course and will continue to do so as we go into the summer. 

The first week in June we will commence with disc seeding the bare areas on the fairways. This consists of the turf being sliced and seed dropped into the channel and a lightweight roller will firm the channel up. This will help with the germination and should come through quite quickly. 

All bare areas on fairways have been fertilised to strengthen the grass plant. All bare areas around the greens and approaches have been top-dressed and over-seeded and will be marked as GUR or they will be roped off.  

Please avoid walking on these areas or taking your trollies over them. We really need your cooperation and help in making sure we get the best germination we can achieve around the greens and approaches.  

Finally, on a personal note, I am really looking forward to working with Get Golfing and its specialist course maintenance team. Their knowledge and fleet of specialist machinery will be a great help in the delivery of truly excellent playing surfaces. 

Captain’s News

From Captain Kaz: It was good to receive the letter from Get Golfing CEO Edward Richardson about how things will progress for Arkley Golf Club. Please make sure that you put the meeting on Monday, June 21st into your diary. It will be a great opportunity to meet Edward and find out a bit more about Get Golfing.  

The Home Guard Plate saw Eddie Chen win his first piece of silverware when he posted a nett 67 – well done Eddie! Runners-up were Dave Wallace and Keith Menezes on nett 68. 

It was great to be on the tee to see everyone off on Pro’s Day.  Eddie led the field out (to a fanfare from me and his playing partners) and it’s a great shame that everyone had to come back in so soon. However, Pro’s Day (part two) is in the diary and I’m sure that Kevin will be updating you accordingly. 

The Playing Fields Cup was won by Phil Shearly with a nett 69. Top job Phil! David Oates came a close second with nett 70. 

There still seem to be hiccups with the cards. If you really don’t know how to complete the card properly, now is the time to find out. Please try to get it right! 

The May Bank Holiday Mixed Competition was won by our organisers Tanya and Chloe with their little helper, Matt Holland. A very respectable 82 points saw them seal victory over Eddie Chen, Jim Connolly and Ann Bunny Bunyard, who finished with 80 points. 

Our Foxes went to South Herts and won 3-1. The match against Mill Green was halved – so they still have a clean sheet. Well done to Captain Martin Pyrke and the guys who played. 

Congratulations to Colin Bacon and Jim Corbishley, who were victorious at Knebworth in the Crameri Cup. Good to see that both of our pairs have qualified for the next round. 

Terry Wakeman and I won our County Greensomes match against South Herts – so that’s very jolly! 

Monday, May 17th saw the reopening of the Clubhouse – what a treat to be able to sit inside and eat a pie! 

As you know Captain’s Day is looming and as mentioned in my recent email, it will be “followed by an evening event that is normally a dinner and a bit of madness on the dance floor.” I really hope that you have put this in your diary. It will be a very jolly evening and more details will follow shortly. 

Last, but not least, our congrats go to Jason and Sharon – very exciting news about their engagement! 

Pro News

Did you get a chance to see Phil Mickelson win at Kiawah Island? Great to see, 50 years young and still beating the young boys out there.  It was strange watching the players grounding their club in the sand as it was all “waste bunkers”.  I was watching Dustin Johnson on the first day with 110 yards to go in the sand and he thins it 30 yards through the back. The commentator mentioned it was because he could ground his club that it changed the sequence for him. Not sure about that.

We have Professionals Take 2 on Saturday 5th June, and the morning tee times filled up in the space of 30 minutes which was great to see. There are only a few times left now in the afternoon if anyone would like to play still. Following the closure of the golf event I will do a presentation and if anyone would like to come up for that then please do.  There isn’t the normal sit down meal and entertainment this year but during the day and after there will be a chipping competition and a little social gathering. The raffle will be drawn too, still time to get your tickets!

Here’s to a great June, with sun on your back and warmth 🤞🏻.

Play well

Kevin Evans

Director of Golf