Pukeko Pages
A newsletter for Waikanae Golf Club members
August 2011
In this issue
Title
New members
Club Captains Corner
Section results and upcoming events
Course report
Acknowledgments
Pukeko Pages
has been selected as the title for our newsletter by the selection panel.
Congratulations to Peter Price.
Pukeko, love them or hate them are a significant feature of our course. I have heard them described as demonstrating “attitude”; being just crazy and even manic. We thought the title reflects their contribution to the special character of our club and is appropriate to the intended light nature of the newsletter.
Thank you to all contributors; we had 30 suggestions which made the selection process amusing and not at all straightforward.
New Members
Welcome new members
- Junior members
Michael Hinton and Reuben Nicholas
- Country member – John Murphy and Kevin Carolin
- Full members
Ian Morby, Mal Ward and Julie Mason
We hope you find the course challenging and the company warm and friendly.
Club Captain’s Corner:
(Captain Ed will be contributing a regular section to Pukeko Pages)
Congratulations to 9-holer Ian McKegg for his recent Hole-in-One on the 8th hole. Well done, Ian. May you have many more.
Members will have noticed a number of “works-in-progress” in re-developing some of the teeing grounds. It is good to see such progress taking place. Please be patient with any inconvenience that these and any other future improvements may cause in the short-term – it is all for the better presentation of our course.
Sunday Competition
Wairaki Trophy winners were Ron Olivecrona and Kate Pope. Congratulations.
Shootout 2011 Continues with gusto. There are now 35 men and 24 women in the field and competition is vigorous. Qualifying ends 4 September.
The Combined Pairs Cup was won by Stu McLaren and Ian Douglas on 141 with Ron Olivecrona and Paul Keno close behind on 141.
Vets Golf
Kapiti Vets 5 September – Paraparaumu
12 September – Otaki
Gold Coast Vets 8 September – Paraparaumu
26 September – Levin
Women’s section
The Waikanae team won the Amorangi Cup at Kapiti. They are: Liz Cavies, Deb Turner, Cath Peters, Jill Lane, Nedra Shand and Yvonne Adair. What a team!
LGU results for August
Silver Ilene Wilson net 75
Bronze Sandy Dalziel net 69
‘Foot in the bucket “ team winner on 10 August was Rosalie Starling, Janet Strand, Cath Peters and Kip Marshall. Francine Callis and Anne Hadfield were highest individuals with 40 stableford points each.
The Wellington Women’s Stroke Play Championship was played at Waikanae on 20 August. Best Gross went to Kawhena Rangihaeta from Te Marua and best net, 74, to Gabriel Paloea, age 13!!! from Karori.
Women’s dinner and quiz night – 6 October – mark your calendars; dust off your glad rags!
9 hole women Wednesday start time is now 12.45pm playing from tees 1 and 10 alternately.
Gaynor’s words of wisdom: “when your husband retires you get half the income and twice the husband”. She reports that some male board colleagues claim that is why they are ordered to go to golf. (The editor is unable to comment).
Course information
60 mm of rain, a snowfall and two frosts this month have slowed growth. Thank goodness for spring!
The Yellow 5th and 12th Blue tees have been levelled and seeded.
Willows by the 4th Blue tee and in the car park which were dead and likely to collapse any time were removed. Several other willows are in a similar state and will be removed as time and resources permit.
The hill behind the yellow 13th tee has been tidied up and planted out with a selection of native trees and shrubs from the nursery in a cooperative venture involving the greens staff, the conservation laddies and the scrub-cutters. If you have some spare drinking water when you pass the new plantings would appreciate a drink.
The irrigation pump has been out of action for several weeks due to a lightning strike however it should be up and running this week with additional surge protection.
The greens are running beautifully; to keep them in good condition they will be sliced on 12 to 14 September with 3mm blades to a depth of 50 mm. Recovery should be quicker than from the usual coring but as always this depends on the weather.
Acknowledgments
It is always a challenge to maintain the course and club facilities to the standard we would like, within the budget based on our subscriptions. Therefore we are very grateful for support from charitable trusts and our own member groups. Recent contributions have been:
Infinity Foundation Limited whose grants enabled the purchase of the greens sprayer which is a great improvement on the old tractor mounted unit.
Endeavour Foundation for the purchase of the vibrating rollers which have already contributed to improvements in our greens.
The Waikanae Community Board and Mid-Week Men for the upgrade of the men’s ablution area.
The NZ Community Trust has enabled us to complete replacement of our greens sprinklers.
Thank you to all who have provided information and encouragement
John McConway
