President's Update
Hello Club Members
Firstly my congratulations to everyone who contested the Club Champs finals, and especially to the winners. Also congratulations to Sam Gavin and Ken Williams who ran 1-2 in the Shootout.
A huge thanks to all of the helpers at these events and especially to Gibby for his
outstanding organisation of the shootout. His form guide was brilliant!
We held our Committee meeting last Thursday.
Our key item was, of course, the irrigation water. I can advise you now that the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa, and the Hurunui District Council, have been amazing in their attempts to help us find water. if the proposed plan comes to fruition we will owe a huge thank you to Graeme Abbot (GMof the Pools). He is representing both of those parties on this matter. Many of you will know that HSTP&S have a discharge bore on HDC-owned land on the knoll between holes 3 and 9. This bore, which is 12 years old, is now seldom used for returning hot thermal water into a void in the ground.
Graeme, and others, recall that when the bore was drilled it went through strong cold water flows at less than 40 metres deep. The bore has two liners to stop that water intrusion. It is believed that we could cut into, or remove, those liners to access sufficient water to meet our irrigation needs. Firstly though, we need ECAN approval to do that and Graeme engaged with them a few weeks ago. We still eagerly await their response. Assuming we get this approval we can then test the water flows and quality as well as addressing electricity access and other matters.
We will keep you posted as things develop.
As I indicated, Graeme Abbot may be our saviour. He has worked very hard for us on this. Thank you Graeme.
On other Committee matters:
Our financial results are well ahead of last year and budget for the 4 months for July- October. Revenue is up and good cost savings are being achieved.
Among a myriad of items we discussed at the meeting were our insurance, our audit arrangements and removal of dangerous branches and dead trees.
The Senior Pro-Am field for 1-2 Feb is now full and sponsors and prizes are all arranged (thanks Mike).
We will hold a pot luck dinner and social night after the Christmas hamper on 14 Dec. More details to follow from Carolyn and Nicky soon. Thanks to you both for organising this.
We debated changing the mens starting sheets to a random draw but decided, for various reasons, to retain the status quo.
Lastly, we spent time generating ideas as to how we could grow our membership using
special promotions, coaching, etc. Some of these ideas will be fleshed out and trialled in early 2025.
Kind regards and enjoy your golf.
Graham Heenan
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