Kia ora fellow members of Waimarino.
Just a quick update for you all, Jerry Jordan (a long standing member of our club) has been welcomed as our new greens keeper. Over the Christmas and New Year period our course suffered from lack of grooming, but today it is playing so good and looking even better. Jerry has been with us since February and we look forward to him getting our greens tricky with pin placements and more importantly true and fast. (Because that’s what we all like) Good luck Jerry for the months ahead.
Also we’ve had a change of haggle (club) day from Sunday to Saturday. Our committee left it to a member majority vote, and the votes won ‘yes to change the day to Saturday’ 21 yes and 4 no. Still a few members are out here on a Sunday as well giving you more days to play golf or for those families with young children they can enjoy the Sunday with each other, no rushing home to get the kids ready for school and getting ready for work on Mondays.
We have our Ruapehu 4 Tees Tournament coming up in May. (Date yet to be confirmed). 36 holes over 2 days, playing off the reds and blues one day and then the yellows and whites the next. Should be a great tournament before the cold hits, tell all your friends to come play our course that weekend. We have collaborated with some local businesses with discount offers for accommodation and even dining options as well. For the out of towners who want to come play our tournament, it is the first time we will be holding this, so hopefully it turns out a goodie. And to get our course looking and playing just a dream we will be holding a working bee before the tournament, please keep an eye and ear out for the date.
Our new committee have been discussing ways to expand and extend on our membership return, twilight was a hit bringing in new players who often won and enjoyed the winning streak, which eventually led them to join as full members. Also we’ve had a few polls out on the facebook, trying to engage and encourage the wider community with golf. We put out an expression of interest survey for a driving range, ongoing work and research for that will continue this year. We believe it will bring more people to want to join and play golf full time, as well as offer an alternative for families when the mountain is closed and there’s not much to do.
Two of our members have offered their golf carts for hire. We had a lot of interest and enquiries for carts, which we had to say no too because we had none. But now we can say yes! So thank you to those two members. Cost of hire is subject to the owners needs and all enquiries or bookings to waimarino@golf.co.nz.
We are still on the hunt for a junior golf tutor, who will offer their services for free to our children in the community to inspire and teach them the game of golf and hopefully make another Tiger Woods. We have a few donated junior clubs here, we are just missing the man and/or woman to lead that, if you are interested or know of anyone please let us know.
We are a small rural community golf course, always looking for support and offering support as well. We can only hope to keep our course thriving so we can enjoy it for many years to come.
That’s it from me for now.
Pieta
