Club News

From Matthew Basey, Director of Golf Operations: November has been a sad month with lockdown 2.0 enforced. We can only hope that the new vaccines mean this will be the final time we are closed for a prolonged period and Covid will be a long-forgotten nightmare.

The Masters was the highlight of the golfing month and our Fantasy League was a great success with many of you taking part. Our overall winner was Peter Baber, who took the bottle of bubbly with an incredible score of -36 on countback. This was closely contested by Chris Chinnick and Jitesh Mistry both getting -36 as well but Peter had the best second pick with Rory McIlroy on -11.

A really, really short survey

Communication is really important to us, which is why we want to ask for your help. We have created a very short survey online to find out about what aspects of the club interest you. Would you please fill it in, it takes about 30 seconds, and will help us deliver timely and relevant information to your phone via text.

Food and drinks news

Unfortunately the clubhouse will remain closed in December but we will be offering a takeaway service for golfers. The grab-and-go menu will include the traditional breakfast fare of tea and coffee and bacon and sausage rolls to fortify you before you tee off. Once you finish your round we hope to tempt you with something more substantial to enjoy with a drink from our drinks buggy.

Charity news

We would like to share with you all the fantastic work the Captains have done with the support of the Members for this year’s Captains’ charity. To date they have raised approximately £8,400, which is pretty incredible seeing as they have only managed to hold three Captains Charity Days

Now for my BIG ASK… they would love for us to get to five figures and break the £10,000 barrier. It’s for a great cause and, in these unprecedented times, mental health awareness has never been more prominent. 

Men’s Captain Tony Crook will be running a silent auction and is currently looking for donations to auction. He will start by donating a Bristol City FC signed football shirt, if you have anything you would like to donate please contact him on [email protected] or WhatsApp him on 07919 613 085 with your donation and he will add the items to an auction catalogue for Captains’ Day.

Let’s get to £10K and really show what this great golf club is about!!

Course news

From Dave Taylor, Courses Manager: For the greenkeeping staff, having a month of no golf foot traffic has been great for the courses. Some areas were starting to look very wet and ground conditions were already on the turn, so this time off has given the course a good chance to recover after the busy season before it. 

We have also been helped by having less rainfall than this time last year. We had 121mm October compared to a hefty 202mm 2019, which was made worse because it was so persistent. This November we had 72mm of rain compared to 117mm in 2019. This is another noticeable difference for the better.  

The long-range forecasts suggest we are heading into a much colder spell and with that a much drier period. I will be keeping everything crossed that this is the case. 

Back on the course, with no golfers playing, we were able to complete our fairway/rough Shockwave aeration work uninterrupted and at a much quicker pace. 

This work is crucial in helping to dry out the playing surfaces over the winter months and allowing the upper six inches of the profile to breathe, dry out and so firm up the surfaces. 

One of the biggest jobs over the past month has been the ongoing leaf blowing and collection around the whole site. 

One of my least favourite jobs, it can take weeks and weeks and you can only blow and collect what has fallen from day to day. You can have an area fully cleared, then return the next day to find the same amount has fallen again. Thankfully we are now on the better side of this job, and it’s only the older, more established oak trees that are still holding a very few left. 

Keeping the course clean and tidy of leaves is not just about aesthetics, it also has a very important role in reducing the incidences of disease occurrence on and around the greens. 

Leaves that remain on closely mown playing surfaces act like small incubating blankets on the grass and increase the risk of disease developing. They restrict air and light from reaching these areas and, in essence, the plant starts to sweat. The extra moisture level means the disease spores have more freedom of movement to attack the host plant and damage the surface. Worst of all, this time of year, we see very little chance of recovery because there is little warmth or daylight and we would have to suffer the scars the disease causes through to the start of the next season. 

Thankfully, we are doing well with the level of disease on the course, with a few small outbreaks in certain areas. We have made sure to overseed these areas and help any chances of recovery this side of Christmas. 

Elsewhere, we have been able to carry out a number of major machinery repairs that we have been looking to do all season long. Our machines run flat out for the best part of 7-8 months and obviously we pick up small problems from time to time. We keep them going with short-term fixes but, at this time of year, we like to get them fully serviced and do any necessary mechanical work to maximise the lifespan of each machine. 

Another benefit of lockdown was that we could cut back the hedges and overgrown areas around the car park to improve the presentation for people arriving at the club. We think these little details help the bigger picture of the club and course and we always try to keep improving these areas as we progress. 

Hopefully by the time this is published the latest lockdown and closures of golf courses will be nearly over and we shall be seeing many of you back on the courses. 

As we approach the shortest day of the year, finding a tee time to accommodate a full 18 holes is obviously harder but I really feel the more important thing is to get some exercise, have some socially distanced interaction with others and, most importantly, have some fun. Regardless of how well your round goes, please just enjoy the time playing the game you love. 

WHS news

The WHS was launched in November and, with the transfer of 15 million handicaps, there were always going to be a few teething problems. We have a few of these and are in contact with England Golf support, so please bear with us while we work them out and rest assured all will be in order very soon.

England Golf has released a great new app (click here). It’s well worth downloading and will help you stay up to date with your handicap index.

As a reminder, the club’s data privacy policy has been set to require consent from all Members before any data is sent and to send placeholder data for any Members who do not have an email address or who have not provided consent.

Members are able to set their privacy preference but please before doing that, within your Member log-in, go to My Golf and then Preferences and verify your email address and tick all the appropriate boxes that allow you to receive communications.

Only then go to My Golf, My Rounds and click on the WHS Privacy Link.

Competition news

We also have some exciting competitions ahead, Saturday, December 12th, there is the Captains’ Charity Day, which will be a Turkey Shoot and the format will be a 4-person team, Texas Scramble.

We also have two open comps that are open to both Members and visitors

Santa Swing Open: Monday, December 14th, 2020

Texas Scramble: Teams of four; 10% of combined handicaps. Minimum three tee shots from each golfer.

Shotgun start: 09:30am. Men to play from yellow tees; Ladies to play from red tees. Christmas jumper or shirt or hat to be worn please.

Entry: £60 per Team of 4 for Members; £120 per Team of 4 for visitors.

• Tea, coffee and bacon rolls on arrival
• 18 holes of golf
• Hot chocolate (& brandy!) or mulled wine served on the course
• 2-course meal after.

Turkey Trot: Sunday, December 20th, 2020

Pairs betterball Stableford off full handicap (best score to count on each hole). BOTH scores to count on holes 9 and 18.

Shotgun start: 09:30am. Men to play from yellow tees; Ladies to play from red tees.

Entry: £30 per pair for Members; £60 per pair for visitors.

• Tea, coffee and bacon rolls on arrival
• 18 holes of golf
• Hot chocolate (& brandy!) or mulled wine served on the course
• 2-course meal after.

Pro news

Staff news

As this is the last newsletter I will be writing for The Bristol I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support over the last three years.

Although I am leaving, The Bristol will always be a place I look back on with great memories and I can’t wait to see what the future holds under the guidance of Get Golfing. 

I truly believe The Bristol will become the best course in the area with the investment and management of Get Golfing and I look forward to stopping by in the future and seeing the transformation. 

Lastly, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, Covid-free New Year.

Covid-19

As ever, please follow the latest government guidelines regarding Coronavirus as they apply to your area. We would appreciate everyone taking personal responsibility for maintaining the correct physical distance while they are at the club. Wear your mask when it is required and wash your hands whenever you can.