It is here at last, yes, the golfing year starts in earnest tomorrow with our Captains arriving at the club at 8:30am and driving in around 9am.
Dave and his team as always have worked really hard throughout the Winter and the course is beginning to show the benefits of this work. The 15th tee is now taking shape, the turf will be delivered on the 14th of April and then the root zone (the big pile behind the tee) will be added to the tee to give the final level before the turf is laid. It is anticipated this tee will be ready for play in June.
All bunkers are now back in play and work will continue throughout the spring and summer to improve those where it is necessary.
We know many members have purchased their own mini rakes, but we would encourage you to use the rakes provided by the club as these go deeper into the sand and create a better playing surface in the bunkers.
New Out Of Bounds have been introduced at the left hand side of the 15th Green, this is very much for the safety of members as the slope down to the brook is very unsafe underfoot.
We are having some issues with OOB posts being removed by intruders particularly along the 6th and 7th holes. As a reminder any ball coming to rest left of the path on these two holes is OOB (if your ball is on the grass edge along the left of the path then it is OOB). There are posts positioned at right angles to show where OOB ends. If your ball finishes on the path you may take full relief in accordance with the rules.
We would like to thank all those members who took part in the divoting at the recent England v Ireland match and to all those who continue to use the bags. Please take a bag out each time you play as this makes a huge difference to the course appearance and saves the Greens Team time.
The grass is just starting to grow and in a few weeks the cutting patterns will start to appear. The fairways on the back nine were deep tined this week and so for the next week or so we will be allowing members to mark, lift, clean and place on closely mown areas as this does not affect the ability to put in a qualifying score for handicap purposes.
Over the past few weeks we have received many compliments regarding the condition of the greens, these are nice to hear because it shows the investment in the programme designed by Gordon Irvine and delivered by Dave and his team has been worthwhile and we are only at the beginning!!!
Care of the greens is crucial and as always we remind all members to repair their pitch marks also please do not remove the ball from the hole by pulling it out with the flag stick and certainly not with your putter.
Approaches are also showing a big improvement and we ask to help this that members, where possible, try to avoid these areas with trolleys and buggies. Just a gentle reminder please do not take trolleys or buggies on the fringes of greens or between the bunkers and the green.
We would like to thank all the guys on the Working Party who do so much good work around the clubhouse and on the course.
To all those new members who are playing their first season at Bury, welcome and enjoy your golf. To the more long standing of us welcome back, we know you enjoy your golf.
Finally, to our Captains have a great day tomorrow and a fantastic year in office.