CAPTAIN'S CHAT
The Club Matchplay Championships
This weekend saw the culmination of The Club Championships where the top sixteen in the men and top 8 in the ladies compete over two days of two rounds on each day to determine who will be crowned the Erinvale Club Matchplay Champion. Well we were not disappointed even though five of the top six in the club championships did not make themselves available which was very disappointing. On Saturday three of the games went to at least the 20th hole showing how tight the games were.
Sunday dawned with superb weather for golf and at 07:00 the first pairing went out to do battle off the championship tees. The two ladies semi-finals were contested by Vicki Traut against Esme van der Merwe with the second being Tallie de Wet against Thea Sadler. The men’s semi-finals were between Brad Manson against Siggi Konrad and Phillip Taberer against Mark Dukes. I was very fortunate to follow these pairings through both the semi-finals and finals and must congratulate everyone on the standard of play and excitement they delivered. The course was in great condition and congratulations to Gavin Woodroffe for organising the field so that the competitors could play with minimal interruption over the whole day.
It is difficult to single out any one player as both the ladies and men finals were played in great spirit. But congratulations must go to the 2016 men’s and ladies winners, Phillip Taberer and Vicki Traut. Tallie de Wet put up a good challenge and it was tight until well into the second nine, well played. Vicki has fantastic length and almost hit her drive into the sluit on the 9th with a three wood. The men’s final was very close with it going down to the last hole when Brad Manson who had been driving like a machine all day finally faltered to let Phillip in. Both men gave us an exhibition of fine golf with long drives and superb approach shots. Phillip has awesome length and long will I remember his drive on the 13th when he only had 140m in for his second but Brad was undeterred and matched this with pin point accuracy and a solid short game.
Thank you to all those who competed over the two days to make the championship a superb event and thanks also the few who were there from 07:00 on Sunday to support them in their quest to become the Club Matchplay Champions. Prize giving for this will be on Saturday as part of the President's Trophy so please make an effort to be there to congratulate our 2016 champions.
Below are a few action shots taken by our roving paparazzi, Geoff Buultjens and myself.
Best regards,
Dean
DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Staff movements:
As most know that we say goodbye to members of our team with 2 being this week namely Merle Peterson and Yvonne Reynecke and in the upcoming weeks Marco Wenn and Clinton Ching!
We thank them all for tremendous service to the club as in this case Yvonne has been at Erinvale for 20 years and has decided to take her retirement.
Merle, who has been with us for 8 years, has decided to move into a new industry and has taken up a position as a Personal assistant at Rheinmetal Denel Munition.
Marco Wenn has decided after 12 years to take up an opportunity he has been given to get into property development.
Clinton Ching is leaving us after 18 months to take on new ventures.
They all will be missed and we hope to see them around the club in the near future.
Yvonne
Clinton
Merle
Marco
Cart path:
As you would have seen we have started with our cart path project on the 16th hole, which has been marked out alongside the right hand side fence, which will make a great improvement from the current path.
This project will take approx 4 months due to the length of the path and we thank-you for your understanding during this project.
Bunkers:
The debate about bunkers has been one I and many have had over a long period of time. Our initial thought was to start in-house with the bunkers which were mentioned in the Captain’s Report a few weeks back. We were going to begin on the 14. What we have done instead is to contact Gary Player Design and they will be sending their team out to Erinvale with the intention of giving a proposal as to the best plan for the bunkers going forward for us to get them more consistent and improving playability.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Captain and Director of Golf Challenge
The challenge for 2016 has begun and the first one was played on Tuesday, the 23rd of Feb. The first members who took up the challenge were Brad Manson and Glen Hutcheson. We are pleased to announce that it was a successful start for Dean and I, and we look forward to taking on many members this year. To challenge us you can either put your name down on the board or contact us directly.
Happy golfing!
Gavin
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