Since my last blog post there have been plenty of things happening/taking place at the Club...

Kids Halloween Evening - 28th October

This year we decided not to clash with other events taking place on Halloween night itself, therefore the annual kids halloween evening instead took place on Monday 28th October.

Despite a few families being away due to the school break, around 60 parents, grandparents and children came to the Club to enjoy some food, face painting and ballon artistry, as well as enjoy the Halloween decorations around the clubhouse.

Many thanks to both my mother and my son for all their help in putting up the decorations, the whole place looked amazing and even those attending bridge on Tuesday and the quiz on Wednesday night also got to enjoy them!

Men's Annual Club Dinner & Presentation Of Prizes

The annual Club dinner and presentation of prizes took place on Saturday 2nd November, and was attended by several respresentatives from the Ulster Branch of the Golfing Union.

The evening was a great success and was enjoyed by all those who attended - congratulations again to all of this year's prize winners:-

Recent Rainfall/Flooding Of Bunkers

With record amounts of rainfall since early September, the course has endured a lot of punishment but has so far held up reasonably well, with the exception being our bunkers.

The first photo below helps illustrate the problem that we face, with most of our bunkers now retaining water rather than draining freely, resulting in further compaction and contamination of the sand, which in turn leads to bunkers being treated as GUR or at best, being very difficult to play from.

The water will drain from the putting surface within a matter of hours, unfortunately this is not the case for the bunkers.

However, on a brighter note, the newly installed bunkers at the 6th green held up perfectly well during the heavy rainfall last weekend and not only did they drain fully, no sand was washed in from the faces and the playability was unaffacted (that is, if they were actually in play as yet!).

Major plans are now in development in respect of the bunkers throughout the course - more details to follow in due course.

Ongoing Works To The Side & Rear Of The Courtyard Area

For those of you who may not have been at the Club recently, or who were perhaps otherwise unaware, there is ongoing work at present to tidy up/develop the area behind the courtyard building and also down the side of the building from the Club shop as you approach the new warm up area.

This area has been cleared and will soon be laid in tarmac to facilitate additional parking spaces to act as an overflow from the staff car park and also for members to use next year when the warm up range is completed and in play.

The area below the Club shop where the old putting green was located has now been cleared and will soon become parking bays for the Club's fleet of golf carts/buggies going forward.

Recent Tree Maintenance

Much work has been carried out over the course of the last couple of months to maintain many of our mature trees bordering the Upper Malone Road, along the left hand side of the 17th hole and also along the driveway.

Some trees have been removed during this process, as many of the trees were past their best and were/are now presenting health and safety risks - the oak tree on the driveway was a perfect example of this, as it was already dead and needed to be taken down before we ran the risk of branches falling down onto passing traffic.

That's all for now...

Kind regards,

Paddy Dean
General Manager