Newsletter | December 2023

Trust my final Newsletter for 2023 finds you all well.

Our course is looking better every day. The tee boxes with the additional areas is making it better to keep them in good shape. Our greens are nearly back to perfection. The seventh dam is looking very impressive, with the grass being laid around the edges. We intend to put in a water fountain, and this will make it even more impressive. I have had several compliments from the links residence on how our seventh dam has enhanced the look of the estate.

We are working hard on sorting out the dry patches on the fairways. We are very lucky that we are receiving a good supply of quality water from Potsdam. Installation of our AOX salt conditioning system is in progress and hope to commission soon. We are planning to start clearing out the reeds from the various dams. The construction of the extension to the second green has been completed. The surrounds remain to be tidied up and hopefully will be ready to play on shortly.

We are considering building ablution facilities between the 6th green and the 13 Tee box. New concrete pathways are being considered on various holes where required.

I have been asked by many members on what we propose to do on the protection of our club house. To answer this is very difficult for the following reasons:

1. we don’t have the money to cover the cost which would be in the region of between 40 and 50 million.
2. it would probably take 2-4 years to get permission from the environmental department for approval.
3. we have had countless meetings with the costal engineers and they all report that we would be wasting our money on whatever we do and it probably would last approx. 5 years. And their advice is to retreat probably to the old Bowlers

Congratulations to our premier league for winning back-to-back

Congratulations as well to our 3^rd Challenge for winning their league and also to all the players that represented our Club in all the Leagues.  Let’s make it a clean sweep for next year.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank You all, the Members, for your support through the year.

A huge thanks to the Board of Governors, Committee, Management and Staff for their continued support throughout the year.

Thought for you to carry on to 2024

Extend your attitude and risk capacity – Attitude Capacity – your choice to be positive regardless of circumstances:

Attitude cannot give you a skill that you don’t possess. Attitude doesn’t make all your dreams come true. It isn’t everything you need in life, but it sets the tone for your life. If all things are equal between two people except for their attitudes, the person with the better attitude will usually be more successful in life – and enjoy life more.  No single change you make in your life will have a greater positive impact on you and those around you than making a choice to improve your attitude!

Happy Golfing

Billy O’Brien
Captain

We welcome the following new members

Monthly Golf Fixtures & Results

Lady Captain’s Corner

Season’s Greetings Golfing Stars,

As this year winds down & we gear up for our year-end prizegiving, I couldn’t help but walk down our golfing memory lane. And guess what, we’ve had more cancelled competitions due to weather than I have clubs in my bag! But just when we thought the year might end quietly, lo and behold Mother Nature decided to add an unexpected twist to our game by introducing slithery companions to make the few games left of the year more exciting! While we’re used to navigating bunkers and tricky lies, who knew we’d be adding “snake avoidance” to our golfing skill set?

Winding down the year

Regrettably, I’ll miss our annual prizegiving on December 5 and Gift Day on December 12. Nevertheless I’d like to extend my heartfelt congratulations in advance to all the winners! And to everyone else, remember, there’s always next year to tee off for victory and swing for success.

My heartfelt thanks to the Ladies Committee for making 2023 a fantastic year. All the best with the remaining events & for holding the fort while I’m away.

Ladies Committee from left to right: Sylvia Crotz (Committee Member), Lesley MacFarlane (Hon Secretary), Ntsotiseng Morojele (Lady Captain), Ros Howard (League Manager), Judy Teixeira (Lady Vice Captain), Lorette Hegie (Lady President) and Karien van Rooyen (Hon Treasurer).

Celebrating Our Shining Stars

Let’s applaud our November Monthly Competition Maestros:

Congratulations to all!

Christmas Cheer!!

As we swing into the holiday spirit, let’s take a moment to appreciate the lessons golf teaches us – patience, resilience and the pursuit of improvement. Golf isn’t just a game; it’s a mirror to life’s ups and downs, teaching us to adapt and evolve.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches!!

Wishing you all the joys of the holiday season and a fantastic New Year filled with drives toward success and precise approaches. Keep swingin those clubs and chasing your dreams, both on and off the course.

Warmest regards,

Ntsoti Morojele
Lady Captain 2023

Golf Course Report

Hi all members,

The course is slowly recovering from all the work that has been done to it, thankfully the second hole has not lost any more of the dune and we have had some strong westerly winds blowing so maybe the ocean will attack the dunes further down the beach.

The new 2nd green has not germinated very well, so we have had to reseed it again, we are going to do the surrounds in the next two weeks and keep top dressing the green till it blends in with the old green. As you have noticed we have taken sods from the left of 17th fairway for lining the 7th dam , loathe doing this but as we have done this in the past and it recovers quite quickly and its less costly than buying in grass at R69.00 a square metre at the time of me penning this I must say our greens are coming around very nicely, the overseeding with bent grass has given the greens a nice covering and they look very healthy, we are busy verticutting them and they will speed up without us cutting them to low.

We will continue to fix all the bad patches on some of our fairways, our surrounds of the greens are still not great so we will be concentrating our efforts on getting them better as well. I do see an improvement in our course condition, and we have been without water from Potsdam for over a week now, evidently a pipe blew on Blouberg road, hopefully Potsdam will come back on track soon.

Happy golfing and please drive in the rough around greens, it does help our surrounds.

Cheers
Shaun Buchanan

From the Range

“The Range is seeing a big increase in traffic. We see some good, some bad and some questionable shots, nothing that can’t be fixed. The grass is looking excellent at the back and is only a pleasure to practice on, arguably the best range in the area.

Please note that the range remains a no play zone for all golfers on the course, you may drop your ball at the point of entry (not directly across of where your ball ended up) which I see way too often.

The range has also increased the prices of balls for members from R20 to R25 per bucket effective from 1 December.

We will continue to strive for an excellent range and will try to improve each day to eventually get to a world class experience to complement the course.

Remember; practice makes better.

Kind regards
Arno Marais

Senior’s corner

November. Only 25 days to the pinnacle of the festive season.

Congratulations to the following winners of the past month:

• 30 Oct 23: 96 points. Marie Junger, Rolf Junger, Tom Ward and John Fitzgerald. (Thanks to Callie for sponsoring the cake.)
• 6 Nov 23: Walter Stertzl, Hugh Neeson, Dave Thorn and Peter Seifritz.
• 13 Nov 23: 93 points. Jenny Whittal, Hugh Neeson, Edgar Amman and Chris Mosterd.
• 20 Nov 23: We were rained out and blown away.
• 27 Nov 23: 96 points. David Riley, Ken Dickenson, Bill Grantham and Arie Meulman

Year-end Get-together

• Monday the 4^th December we will have a wors-braai and a chance to wish each other “Happy Holidays”. The golf format will be a “Pink Ball Competition” See you there.

In a personal capacity at this year-end I would like to thank the following for outstanding work and cooperation in keeping the MGC Seniors a happy bunch.

• The MGC committee for their continued sponsorship and support.
• The MGC manager for allowing us the time slots and the assistance (sometimes abuse) of his staff.
• The Golf Director and the Proshop for their excellent patience and efficiency.
• The catering manager and staff for their quality and preparedness to accommodate these grumpy old seniors.
• To Rolf Junger for putting all this together about 25 years ago.
• To Marie Junger for her assistance and continued willingness through the years. (also for not heeding my warning that once you start baking cake it will never stop).
• To Wesley van Rooyen who had the unappreciated task of putting the weekly four-balls together.
• Then, last but not least, to all the seniors who partook during the years. I think you deserve a pat on the back.

To everyone, Thank you, and may your season greetings bring you blessing and everything you wish for.

I leave you with the words of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen magnificently sung by Old Blue Eyes.

One day you turn around and it’s summer.
Next day you turn around and it’s fall.
And the springs and winters of a lifetime.
Whatever happened to them all.

To all, live your life to the fullest. Do not have regrets. Put a smile on your face for the whole human race. And dance the night away.

Greetings
Arie

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