Update 18th May

RE-OPENING -The long-awaited re-opening of the course is upon us with play re-commencing on Monday the 18th of May. There have been a significant number of first-time applications for membership in the past week, all of whom are most welcome. Whilst everyone in the club is delighted to be back up and running, there are a few temporary stipulations to be observed.

All golf, no matter how casual, must be booked online in advance of playing. This is an obligation imposed on the Golfing Union of Ireland by the HSE. Failing to observe this jeopardises our re-opening and may lead to golf nationally or locally being off-limits again. The use of the course will be for members only at this time, which is a significant change for our club as we have always welcomed visitors paying “green fees”. However, non-members who wish to join will be very welcome and we will try and set them up with GUI numbers for booking golf as soon as possible. There will also be some changes on the course, the most obvious of which will be the lack of flagsticks on the greens. The GUI has specified that measures must be taken to ensure removing the ball from the hole is as “contactless” as possible and we envisage having another solution in place ahead of the return of competitive golf on June the 8th. These changes were all approved by a management committee meeting that took place via Zoom on May 14th. Please enjoy your golf and be part of the collective effort to keep golf up and running.

 

MONTHLY DRAW - January - 1st Liam Mullaney, 2nd Michael Simon, 3rd Margaret Egan.

February - 1st Margaret Egan, 2nd Mandy Toolan, 3rd Paddy Nangle.

Prizes - 1st place 70 euro, 2nd, and 3rd 40 euro apiece.

 

CONDOLENCES - Condolences to Liam Mullaney whose mother passed away last month.

 

Update 10th May

COURSE RE-OPENING - The GUI and ILGU have published protocols for how clubs can safely reopen on the 18th of May. The protocol document, although only a few pages in length, contains quite a bit of detail. Anyone planning to play in the next few weeks should have a read of it to see what is recommended.

Some notable points are :

-one person to a buggy

-don’t use rakes; use your foot or a club instead

-flagpoles not to be touched/removed, -practice green not to be used

-arrive dressed to play rather than changing in changing room

-stay away if you have any cold symptoms

-juniors must play with an adult

-the function room/bar out of use.

Although members of any club instinctively dislike recommendations from outside instructing them how to use their own facilities, the recommendations in the document are all “common sense”, and are aimed at keeping golfers safe at this time, which is especially important given the age profile in most golf clubs. The GUI note that course re-opening is conditional on people respecting the limitations that are in place to keep people well.

MEMBERSHIP PAYMENT REQUEST - We are all greatly looking forward to the course re-opening on May the 18th. The course itself is in great condition, both from the reduced traffic and also the fact that maintenance has continued throughout the period of closure, including pole-forking and sanding of greens.

This leads on to the point we need to make - the fixed costs for the club have remained virtually unchanged in recent months, but with no income coming in. The financial lifeblood of the club is the revenue that comes from annual subscriptions. Understandably, this money has been slow to come in this year as a result of the uncertainty about whether there would be any golf in 2020 due to the coronavirus issue.

The re-opening on the 18th of May, with competitions restarting on the 8th of June brings this uncertainty to an end. A re-organised fixture list will be compiled very shortly and distributed.

We appeal to all members to pay their annual membership as soon as they can. As stated above , the clubs fixed costs have remained the same, but without the vital membership revenue coming in. This money is absolutely crucial for the club to pay its bills including course maintenance costs. Please give consideration in the next few days to paying your membership fee to allow us to maintain the course in the same great condition it is currently in.

Membership fees can be paid by cheque made payable to Boyle Golf Club, posted or dropped in to the offices of Vincent and Lorcan Egan, Elphin Street, Boyle, or by bank transfer to the club account IBAN - IE 59 BOFI 905328 22439700.