BGC – Captain’s Message – 12th May 2025
Good evening,
It’s been fantastic to see so many members out on the course making the most of this incredible run of weather we are enjoying. The sunshine clearly brought out some sparkling golf at the weekend, with some excellent scoring across the board. Congratulations go to Ronnie Forrester, who produced an outstanding net 50 to win the Gent’s Handicap Medal, and to Oliver Healy, whose superb net 23 points secured victory in the Junior Monthly Medal. Well done to both on such impressive performances and deserved wins.
Course construction progress in the last month has been good, and Team Niblick have benefitted from the period of good weather. For once we really need rain, but this is unlikely to happen on any scale before next weekend which has required additional watering on the newly seeded areas.
The updated position on the incomplete course areas is summarised in the following paragraphs.
Holes 1,5 and 9
The new first fairway has been seeded out along with a major part of new fairway 9. The lower part of fairway 9 and removal of the road need to be completed but this cannot be done until the heavy machinery in use on the NFM scheme goes off site. Construction work will move soon to the unfinished part of fairway 5 and the plan is to have that area seeded out by 30 May.
Those bunkers which are ready for the capillary concrete process will be completed around the middle part of June and the remaining bunkers will be completed in early July. This work requires the bunker banks to be properly established before the capillary concrete process is carried out.
Hole 8
The path which leads to the current temporary tee will be removed by 14 May and the area shaped and seeded out. The remainder of the fairway is progressing well, and we are delighted to say that the complete hole will be brought into play on Thursday 15 May.
Path to the third tee
A re-routing of the path between the second green and the third tees has been agreed, and this work will be carried out in the next fortnight. The plan was to tackle this job before now, but Graeme Webster decided that the favourable weather conditions made the construction work on holes 1 and 9 a higher priority.
Natural Flood Management Scheme
Work on the NFM scheme is nearing completion and will run until the end of this week.
JBA, who designed the scheme, were on site last week and, subject to some minor modifications, are satisfied with the work carried out.
Course work timetable
Once the remaining areas are seeded out, progress is down to the weather and careful management by David McBride and his team. The grow-in of fairway 1 will provide a good early guide to overall timescales though it is great to see the 1st fairway, seeded out recently, already with grass beginning to appear. The timetable for this part of the process is undoubtedly tight and our working assumption remains to have the new holes in play by mid to late July.
A Word of Thanks
We’d like to extend a sincere thank you to all our members for their increased vigilance in repairing pitchmarks. It’s been very noticeable across the course and is making a real difference to the quality and playability of our greens. Your efforts are very much appreciated.
You will have noticed that the new greens are currently showing some minor scarring from pitchmarks. This is due to the lower levels of thatch in the younger turf, which makes it less able to absorb and recover from impact in the same way as more established greens. This is entirely normal at this stage of their development, and the situation will continue to improve as the greens mature, and the root structure deepens.
Please continue the great habit of correct pitchmark repairs will really help the new surfaces settle in as smoothly as possible.
Thanks again for your continued care and pride in our course. It doesn’t go unnoticed.
Other matters
The new access to the Club at the top of Thorn Road should be completed over this week but looks set to cause a little disruption. The Secretary will update as and when required, however we ask for your continuing patience while this happens.
In the meantime, I hope you are all enjoying your golf and may this spell of exceptional weather continue!
Stuart Craig
Captain