from our ceo - royal johannesburg & kensington club...6th june: els for autism special mentions...
TRANSCRIPT
From our CEO
April is certainly the most beautiful time of year to play golf and again, we were treated to an incredible Masters Tournament. Watching Tiger come back from the depths of despair to win his 5th green jacket was arguably the greatest moment in sports history. It was just sensational!!!
Our annual Masters Par 3 Contest took place on the 10th April and it was another great success and was so well supported, with caddies participating and dressed to impress. It was none other than Chopper Fell who came out on top – congratulations! Thank you to our special guests, Brandon Stone & Gavan Levenson for a wonderful Q&A session around what lies beyond Magnolia lane.
The Annual Member Survey closed on the 17th April and we are extremely pleased to see an overall positive increase of 3%, at a weighted average result of 84.98%, which exceeds the Club’s desired benchmark of 80%. The increased results and valued feedback from our members is highly appreciated and we can only thank our Board, management and staff for consistently striving to deliver a better Royal Experience year on year, none of which happens without the member’s tremendous support. The membership renewal advice for the new financial year starting on 1st July was distributed on the 23rd April and despite the ever increasing running costs, economic climate, for which there is always a balancing act between member expectations and the necessary income required to meet such expectations, we are pleased to say that subscription fees will only increase at an average of 6.3% and no category more than 10% as per the Clubs Constitution. We thank the members for the positive response so far and should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Your management team and Treasurer now work tirelessly to finalise the budget and consolidated cashflows with the property developments for the new financial year.
Some have heard the whispers of our club potentially hosting a Presidents Cup event in the future…. It is true that over the past 8 months we have persued the potential to host the coveted event and engaged with the PGA Tour of America. The Tour invited us to submit a comprehensive proposal for 2023, which was well received. However due to the current economic and political climate in our country, they will be pursuing new markets for that year. On a positive note, our Club remains on the PGA Tours list as a potential host venue in future years - who knows maybe 2027! I would like to thank the Board & senior management for the long hours and support througout the bidding process.
GOLFRSA will shortly release that our Club will play host to the South African Amateur Championship, considered the marquee event of the amateur golfing calendar, which will undergo a groundbreaking revamp that will see the men’s and women’s championships being played simultaneously in mid February 2020. The new-look SA Amateur Championship Week, which incorporates the SA Women’s Stroke Play Championship, will be played across both our courses. We have hosted the men’s and women’s SA Amateur Championship on 12 previous occasions, the last time being in 2008. This will mark the first time in the event’s history, dating back to 1892, that both the men’s and women’s SA Amateur Championships will be played at the same time, at the same venue - a great honor for our Club and our responsibility to amateur golf.
In closing, we hope you and your families enjoyed the Easter month, please continue to use the Club, bring your family, play golf and enjoy our wonderful facilities.
Warm regards,
Christopher Bentley
World Golf Award
2019 Nomination
South Africa’s best golf course
We remind all members, that our East Course has once again been nominated for South Africa’s best golf course 2019 by World Golf Awards.
Please help us win this top honour again by voting at:
https://worldgolfawards.com/vote/royal-johannesburg-kensington-golf-club-east-course-2019
East to West
Just as we thought the summer rains were behind us, Mother Nature once again showed how unpredictable the weather can be. The rains over the Easter weekend and following that period have unfortunately been the cause of softer, muddy golf courses of late. Over the past few months, these rains have also been a cause of some minor but unwanted moss/algae on our greens which we have treated chemically and will continue to do so until fully eradicated. The effects of this treatment are showing great results.
The team continue to repair pitch marks as quickly as possible, daily, considering the soft conditions. We urge all golfers to be mindful of the rainy periods of late and encourage you to assist our course staff by repairing as many pitch marks as you can, which is ultimately in the best interests of keeping our greens in great shape for all who play.
With all the challenges we face due to inclement weather, both courses are still in very good condition going into winter with a healthy stand of turf and coverage to withstand the cold months that lay ahead. Although the conditions may be soft currently as mentioned, as winter approaches the ground and turf will naturally firm up and dry up as the temperatures begin to drop and the need for water becomes less. These firmer conditions will provide more ball run on fairways and faster greens in winter. The team have been focused on sodding any small bare areas before winter approaches.
As we do every autumn, the necessity to over-seed certain areas with Rye grass on our facility become important, and whilst we still have reasonably favourable growing conditions, we have already begun this process in the latter part of April. Our focus in this regard are the tee boxes that become bare from excessive play/traffic and little growth during winter. We will be over seeding the opening tees of each nine, along with the par 3 tees and driving range tees.
Autumn is also a time where we can focus on the eradication of unwanted weeds within the turf and one will have noticed some unsightly clover in our roughs as well as an infestation of crab/goose grass in high profile areas such as tees and approaches. These “goose grasses” creep into particularly high compacted areas and in times of drought. The rains have obviously spurred on the growth of these seeds
laying within the compacted zones from the dry season of September through to December of 2018. We will be spraying the clover out of the roughs in early to mid-May as soon as the rains move on. The reason we do so is that the spraying of herbicides is ineffective on the targeted weed if any water contacts the turf following spraying. The team have begun hand weeding the goose grass out by hand in areas such as tees and approaches and will be filling the holes with divot mix.
The spraying of our poa annua on our kikuyu areas has also been delayed after all the rains recently and providing the weather stays dry, conditions will be favourable to spray the courses in early May. Just a reminder that some discolouration in the kikuyu will result from spraying. We will be performing this on our closed maintenance days to as not to affect golfers. We are still very vigilant in the control of poa annua on our new greens and continue to scout daily for any visible poa annua heads as well as utilize chemicals in the prevention and control process.
We are pleased to have some positive feedback on our Oak tree at the halfway house, following a second visit from Dr. AT. Schoeman, who confirmed he is happy with the results so far following the first two treatments performed. We are still not in the clear and are continuously monitoring the health of our trees on the facility and removing and/or treating trees depending on the severity. The team have also been hard at work removing tree stumps on our courses and backfilling with soil and sod to provide better playing conditions in the rough areas.
Probably the biggest priority for us is the collection of leaves on our courses as it affects play this time of the year. We are doing our utmost to collect and remove as much as we can, as quickly as possible, with our blowers and sweepers, and we thank you for your understanding and patience in this regard.
Behind the scenes, the course management team have begun planning some very important winter projects coming up which we will continue to communicate in the newsletters going forward. Some of this work includes our annual equipment servicing, winter bunker projects, weeding of veld grass and environmental pockets and tree pruning.
Golfing regards,
Shaun Brits
Birds of Month
Photographer: Trevor Barnett
Left; Black Crowned Night
Heron.
Left; Black Sparrowhawk
Left; Peregrine Flacon
Members Renewal Advice
Click here to read the renewal advice
The Golfers Scorecard
April has proven to be an up and down month with the weather. Just as we thought we could pack away our umbrellas the heavens have opened up and graced us with one last period of heavy rains.
Whether you spent Easter with the families indoors or embraced the Royal Fairways, we hope that you had a festive weekend.
League Results
It was a fairly quiet month for our league players with the Better Ball league having a break. Great start so far for the Better Ball East side who are currently lying tied 1st on their log. Joining them is our Junior League players who are also sitting nicely, tied 1st.
• Mid Am A side vs Modderfontein (Lost)
• Mid Am B side vs Ruimsig (Lost)
• Junior League vs Randpark (Won)
Good luck to both our Scratch league and Senior Better Ball League Team who start their fixtures in May. The 1st Scratch League side as well as our Senior better ball B side are defending Champs and we know that they will make us proud once again this year.
Important Dates
3rd May: R 10 000 lucky Cash Draw (Meat Comp)
12th May: Mother’s Day
16th to 19th May: USPGA Championship
6th June: Els for Autism
Special Mentions
Just when we thought he couldn’t get any better, our 2018 & 2019 Club Champion, Kian Rose, now holds the title of the Top 16 Club Champs Knockout Champion for 2018. The future for this young man is undoubtedly super bright. Well done Master Rose and we look forward to seeing what is next!
As always the Masters Par 3 Challenge was very well attended and fun and games was had by all. We would like to thank all the members who kitted out their wives, moms , dads and kids as their caddies. Huge congratulations must go to our new Masters Par 3 Champion, Mr John (Chopper) Fell who
displayed a great short game talent on the day. Well played Sir!
March Rules Question
True / False
With the new rules coming into effect, the water hazards are still known as yellow and red water hazards.
Answer : False – All water hazards are now referred to as penalty areas.
There has been a lot of debate on whether the new rule allows the combining of strokeplay and matchplay formats on the same day. The Club’s ruling has not changed, and it is important to note that the new ruling is not an official rule and only is allowed if it is in the local rules.
The Club has not allocated such a rule due to the immense differences between the 2 formats.
For more information regarding this ruling please contact Jayde or Wikus.
Jayde Rademeyer
Ladies Golf
April has been a relatively quiet month for the ladies at Royal with many of our ‘regulars’ going away for the Easter weekend. The Tuesday ladies held their Masters Easter Open Day on the 9th April which was very well supported by both members and visitors and an enjoyable morning was had. The lower bar looked awesome all decked out in Masters colours and thanks to our hospitality team, headed up by Chervon Werth, for going all out to make the day special.
The Masters Par 3 Competition held on Wednesday 10th April was a resounding success again. Huge congrats and thanks to the golf department and the food and beverage department for making this such a fun, well organised afternoon and evening. If you missed it this year, make a note not to miss it in 2020.
Our league teams had mixed results this month. Our Silver 1 team beat Parkview 4 – 2 at home, our Silver 2 team lost 2 – 4 to Houghton at home and our Bronze team went down 2 – 4 to Dainfern, away. The next fixtures for all three weekday handicap teams is on Thursday 9th May. Our Sunday league ladies did not have a fixture in April with their next game being scheduled for Sunday 19th May.
The temperature has dropped considerably over the past couple of weeks and as we all know, both courses have had an absolute soaking. Our wonderful course staff, under the expert guidance of Shaun Brits, work around the clock to try, often under the most trying and impossible conditions, to enable the members and guests at Royal to play golf and we are most grateful to each and every one of this great team!
Good luck to all the Royal ladies travelling down to Southbroom to participate in the annual Southbroom Ladies Classic tournament that will be held in the second week of May. Anne Barrow and Trish Anderson are the defending champions, so let’s hope that they can do it again! Hopefully there will be a lot of sunshine between now and then – between Easter Sunday and 14h00 on Tuesday 23rd April, a total of 335mm of rainfall was recorded!!
Keep dry and warm ladies and look forward to seeing you all on the course or around the Clubhouse.
Kind regards
Wendy Huddy
Greg Jacobs Golf
Greg’s Day
The Golf Shop’s monthly golf day will be held on the 15th of May and Srixon will once again be here with a sleeve of golf balls for each player who enters the competition. Bring all your friends and come and enjoy the day with us. We’ll even buy your half way lunch!
New arrivals
New Nike Air Jordan shoes have arrived in two styles. This shoe is really out there and retro but the comfort is unsurpassed. Come in store and try a pair on!
Specials
We’ve got some great deals on Titleist equipment. Up to 30% off on selected products. Amongst other 1 set of AP3 in regular or stiff.
Upcoming Events to take note of
Titleist will be hosting a demo day with their latest equipment on the 11th of May. Be sure to book a fitting if you’re interested in some of the new technology.
The Teaching Pro
This year’s Masters was quite inspiring! I must admit I did not think Tiger would come back and win another Major after all he has been through but I’m glad he did as it is great for golf. Now the question remains can he get to Jack Nicklaus’s 18 Majors?
The thing that struck me is how well he managed the pressure whilst all around him, self destructed, hitting balls into the water. The shot that I enjoyed the most was Tiger’s shot into the Par 3 16th hole - that shot sealed the deal for him.
One technique to help you cope with pressure is to develop a good pre shot routine. The pre shot routine helps you maintain consistency and gets your body in the same place at address all the time.
Here is an example of the pre shot routine I like to teach. Start behind the ball looking down the target line. I like to get my wrist and arm angles set by holding up the club in front of me. I am wearing a training aid called “The Secret” on my right wrist to ensure I get the correct wrist angles.
When you reach the ball you can lower the club a bit, but make sure you keep the arm and wrist angles. At this point you can keep both arms bent and relaxed. It is important to feel loose and relaxed as you approach the ball.
The final step is to get into your posture. Notice that you still have the correct wrist and arm angles. The hands for this fairway wood shot are just slightly ahead of the ball. Now you ready to go and make the best swing you can.
Develop your own pre shot routine to be the best you can be under pressure, just like Tiger.
Royal Retreat Wellness & Performance Centre
A reminder that the next monthly AimPoint clinic at Royal JKGC will be held on Wednesday 8 May. Book now to avoid disappointment - either before or after you have voted! I had the privilege of spending an afternoon with Tyrone Ryan – our very own RJK Golf Ambassador and Sunshine Tour Player. Once again the putting facility at Royal was the perfect setting for me to do AimPoint Express Green Reading with Tyrone followed by his Personal Calibration to accommodate for finger thickness and arm length. We noted his various cross over points by using the patented Personal Calibration strip with excellent results and improved confidence on the line of putt. Now its practice, practice, practice and I look forward to receiving feedback from Tyrone on how it is assisting him on the greens.
Sandra van den Bergh: E: [email protected] | C: 0832911183 Twitter: @svdberghgolf | Facebook: Aimpointgolf South Africa Certified level 3 AimPoint Instructor | Golf Conditioning Specialist | Certified Pilates & Gyro Instructor | Registered Biokineticist
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