Bingley St Ives Golf Club News

Winter Golf - Message from Chairman

Fri 21st October 2011


Winter Golf
Teeing up
It’s again that time of year when the question of preferred lies and teeing up
is raised. The grass is still growing at the moment but as its growth slows
down and conditions worsen the decision to tee up will be imminent. Teeing
up is not popular with everyone but has done much towards protecting the
course. This year the board looked again at whether we could protect the
course even further and at the same time improve the playing surface and
conditions in which we play our golf. For those reasons we have made a
decision to experiment this winter with the use of a playing mat rather than
using tee pegs on short mown surfaces. We believe this will provide better
protection for the course, a better playing surface and a better test of golf.
The mats we've chosen to use are used at many other courses including St
Andrews and are recommended by the R & A. They have been tested by
some of our members who are very good golfers and some who are not so
good and they have all reported back very favourably. The mats themselves
are of flexible plastic construction with a lanyard for attaching to a golf bag
and are about a foot long and 4in. wide and can be played on either side.
They are constructed in such a way that the ball will hold on a sloping lie.
Technology has moved on and we hope that the experiment will be a success.
Every playing member will be issued with one mat free of charge when the
time comes. Extra and replacement mats can be purchased at a current cost
of about £3. Visitors will be issued with them and will pay a returnable
deposit. We realise that there will be those who are in favour of them and
those who are not. We hope it will improve your golfing experience and all we
ask is that you keep an open mind and give them a try this winter after which
we would appreciate your feedback so that a decision can be made as to
what system to use next winter.
Winter tees
We have also been looking at improving the winter teeing areas, particularly
on the par three holes. Following suggestions from some of our members, for
which I thank them, our greens directors and staff have looked at a system
used by several other local courses to good effect. We have decided to build
teeing areas 2m2 on each of the four par three holes and also on the 6th and
15th holes. The teeing areas themselves will be ground level and of a deep
pile AstroTurf construction which will be filled with sand and rubber crumb.
This should provide a safe, frost-free surface which will readily accept a tee
peg, or can be played without one for those who prefer to do so. We hope
this will provide a long term cost effective solution and be a great
improvement on the existing rubber mats.
Alan Dixon
Chairman


Next Club Competition

Winter Grand Prix ...

Sat 25th February

Winter Grand Prix ...

Sat 3rd March

Winter Grand Prix ...

Sat 10th March

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Leap Year Quiz - Wednesday February 29th

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Wed 29th February

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