The Beaconsfield Niblick- Feb 25 :: Beaconsfield is a traditional Members club with a classic Harry Colt designed course that opened in 1914. The course is beautifully presented and complemented by excellent practice facilities. Visitors are welcome by prior appointment.

Beaconsfield Golf Club

Beaconsfield Golf Club
Seer Green, Beaconsfield
Bucks, HP9 2UR

01494 676545

From the captain

As you can imagine, February is a quiet month for news so this month’s message is mainly a few updates and reminders but I did get one lovely surprise this week. Unbeknown to me, sitting in the Captain’s in-tray in the office was a Christmas card from none other than the Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews - Ian Pattinson! Ian was a pupil at RGS and a member of Beaconsfield from the mid-60’s to mid 80’s and will no doubt be remembered by many of the senior members. He hasn’t played that often at BGC since but of course I will be writing to invite him to come and see how far the club, and particularly the course, has progressed since his time here. If you’d like to see his Drive-In at St Andrews it’s on You Tube here: https://www.randa.org/en/articles/ian-pattinson-drives-in-as-new-captain .

100 Holes - Big Charitee Off

You will by now have seen my email regarding our 100 Holes Challenge and I hope read it as well! This is going to be a major event so please do have a think about how you can help us – with 1 in 8 of us being afflicted by these cancers there are no better causes. Many thanks to Carl Banner and Graeme Waugh who have stepped up to participate (more welcome..) and to all the members who have responded already. Watch this space…

Du Pre

Following the 100 to 60 restriction being applied upstairs, the Board have been working hard on a revised proposal that will address this as part of the new Du Pre plan and also as an integrated element of our long term capital requirements. As soon as we have final details we will update everyone on what that is.

The Driving Range

There were some initial issues regarding building regulations, which have now been resolved and construction is now underway. The concrete is scheduled to be poured in early March and once the base is complete, the timber structure will be erected. The estimated remaining build time is six weeks so we hope can open the new Driving Range in April.

Lidgley Shield

On 8 March we have the annual club match against the Artisans and as they usually beat us we need to field a very strong team to correct this trend. The Artisans team are what we affectionately call ‘bandits’ so if you’re one too, make sure you put your name down for consideration!

The Course

The course in general and the greens in particular have never played and putted better during any winter in my 38 years at BGC. I think we may see the course reach an even higher standard this season and I’m sure we are all looking forward to the clocks going forward and the season kicking off with the Masters in April.

Green Fee Vouchers

Just a reminder that we will once again be offering Green Fee Vouchers and what a great way to invite all your golfing friends to come and appreciate our lovely course. The new vouchers will run from 1 April 2025 and an email will be issued soon with full information.

Happy Golfing,

Dave Booker

Captain's Charity for 2024/2025

From the Ladies Captain

We have a very successful Charity coffee morning where I spoke about the current activities of MSF. The lucky number draw raised over £600 thanks to the generosity of the ladies.

The match between the Ladies Captain's team and the Secretary's Team was very close. The Secretary's Team won by one match. Congratulations to them!

Ros Johnstone

Ladies' Captain's Charity for 2024/2025

Mixed Golf

Thanks for all the positive input and feedback regarding the mixed golf communication and the 2025 schedule of events. There has already been a healthy sign up for the mixed matches with just one exception namely our home match versus Burnham Beeches on October 5th. If you have yet to register your availability for one or more matches please do so as soon as possible – team selection is not on a first come first served basis so if you are yet to register you will have the same chance of being selected as anyone else. Closing date for signing up is March 5th. Soon after this date emails will be sent out for all matches confirming team selections and the website will be updated accordingly. However as our first match is on 16 March the team for this has already been selected and confirmed. We will also get the Good Friday Team Championship names confirmed as soon as possible as well.

Remember to put the 23 August in your diaries for the Mixed Invitation and invite your guests now. More details can be found in the diary on the IG app. Sign up will open at the beginning of May.

Simon Mouncer on behalf of the Mixed Golf Committee

News From The Junior And Younger Members

Our Junior golfers had their first competition of the year on 19 February. CONGRATULATIONS go to Ryan Lambert for getting 39 points on Wednesday. As it was the beginning of the season, there was an additional price for the best gross score and this was won by Nathan Baggett. Thank you to all the Juniors who played on Wednesday. We look forward to a successful & busy year of great golf !

As part of our ongoing commitment to safeguarding and ensuring clear communication, we will be moving to SPOND for inviting and tracking Junior competitions this year. SPOND is a secure platform designed to manage sports groups and events while ensuring compliance with safeguarding regulations. Now all Junior members' contact details (including their mobile numbers) are removed from the club’s directory.

Going forward, all competition invitations and updates will be sent via SPOND, so we kindly ask parents or guardians of our Junior members to accept invitations through the platform to confirm your child's participation. This will help us streamline our communication and ensure a safe and organized experience for all junior members. If parents or guardians of our Juniors have any questions regarding SPOND, please contact the office.

The BGC Junior SPOND group link: https://group.spond.com/DTZOP

In the coming weeks, we will be conducting playing in rounds with 11 prospective Junior applicants and we look forward to them joining our Junior section.

Happy Golfing!

Ingrid Creighton and The Junior Committee

Project Du Pre

We have now completed the review of design changes required as a result of the fire regulations to allow us to restore the upstairs capacity to ca. 100 and to make safe the egress from the flat and we are now just finalising the cost implications. The Board intends to undertake a final review of the designs and costs and will issue a full communication to members shortly.

Richard Cottrell

Chairman of House

A Note from the Treasurer

A year ago I updated you in relation to our visiting societies activity and in particular our decision to significantly increase our prices by over 25%. I am pleased to report that the number of society rounds in 2024 was nearly 200 less than in 2022 (when that number peaked at 1800 rounds). Our income from society activity increased by 5% in 2024 notwithstanding the decrease in societies. We have agreed a further price increase of 8.7% for our 2025 rates, a nearly 40% increase in 2 years. We expect numbers of rounds over the year on our society days of Tuesdays and Wednesdays to stabilise at this level or slightly lower.

Pete Muir

Treasurer

Course Update and Rainfall

The greens renovations are underway in preparation for the season ahead. The surfaces have been deep spiked to encourage drainage and deeper rooting. This has been followed up with a hollow core to remove the heavier native soil which has been replaced with pure sand-a process known as soil exchange. Next we used a shallow solid tine followed by more sand which helps to maintain healthy levels of organic matter (thatch) within the surface. All three aeration practices combined with the sanding will continue to promote firmer surfaces. The final part of the renovation saw the greens over seeded with a pure bent grass mixture which will be repeated throughout the summer. We have also carried out renovations on the tees and approaches over the last few weeks.

Alongside this, further spring preparations are well underway including the clearing of the trees adjacent to the tenth green and the eighth hole. General tidying such as path topping, cleaning and the replacing of signs has also been completed.

Lee March

Course Manager

A note from the Green Committee

As well as offering Lee and his team thanks for all the hard work over the Winter months we just wanted to add our thanks to those members who have helped maintain the condition of the course over the Winter. The hard work that Lee and the team have, and are, undertaking to constantly improve the course is really helped by those members who have carried over the Winter, avoided the areas marked with Blue and White posts and repaired divot and pitch marks around the course.

This added effort on the part of the members really helps the greenkeeping team to concentrate on getting the course to peak condition as early in the season as possible rather than having to spend too much time and effort dealing with Winter damage. While the ground remains wet and susceptible to further damage let’s keep up the good work undertaken by most members over the Winter.

Garrett Cotter

Greens Chairman

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Chris' Corner

Dear Member,

I hope you are well and enjoying your golf!

We have been getting lots of new stock in, from all of our leading club manufacturers. We have now proudly started stocking CALLAWAY Clubs. The NEW ELYTE woods and irons have arrived and are ready for fitting. Tom and Adam have both hit the driver and expect it to be a popular one this year!

TAYLORMADE have now introduced their yearly Golf ball promotion, they are now running a 4 for 3 offer on personalised golf balls, this proves to be a very popular promotion every year. The price is £135 for TP5 or TP5x balls, please contact us in the pro shop for further information on this brilliant promo!

As some of you may recall, last summer we had a representative from GOLFCLUBS4CASH come over and take some of your (very) old golf clubs, in exchange for credit that goes onto your pro shop account. We are now happy to announce that you are able to do this from the comfort of your own home! Below is the link to access the trade in form, that once filled out with the Manufacturer names and condition of the clubs, you will receive a quote! If you are happy with the quote received, simply drop the clubs off to us and we will take care of the next steps. Once the return has been completed, the credit will go onto your BGC pro shop account, just in time for you to get your hands on one of the new drivers we have in stock!

The Golf Team / Welcome to Beaconsfield Pro Shop

Chris, Adam and Tom

Tom's Top Tips

In the Bag...Putting Greens

Course maintenance should have finished by the time this article is published, with lots of work on the greens to ensure they are in excellent condition for the spring and summer, so I thought I would talk about what you can and cannot do on the greens.

Ball on Putting Green

When your ball is ON the putting green, we all know that you can mark, lift, clean and replace the ball. A couple of reminders when you are doing this:

You must replace the SAME ball
You can mark the ball with a ball marker in any position around the ball so long as it is right next to the ball BUT you must replace the ball so it is in the same place where it was lifted - I have seen people who try to ‘nick’ an inch or two when replacing
You must remove the ball marker before putting

If there is a ’spare’ hole on a green, you get relief if the ‘other’ hole is on your line of play when your ball is ON the green. Just pick up the ball and replace it in the nearest place where the other hole is no longer on your line, the same distance from the flag.

The other very useful rule on putting greens is that there is NO PENALTY for accidental movement of the ball on the putting green. If you accidentally move the ball with your practice stroke or it you drop a club on the ball and it moves, just replace the ball without penalty.

Ball or Ball Marker on Putting Green Interfering with Play

If someone says that your ball marker on the green is interfering with play, then you must move the ball marker – normally by measuring one or two clubhead lengths.

PLEASE remember to replace the ball marker by reversing the measurement. I normally turn the ball marker upside down to remind myself that it has been moved.

If you forget, and play from the new position, this is a TWO STROKE penalty in strokeplay or LOSS OF HOLE in matchplay. I watched a girl lose a hole in a match last week when she did not replace her marker! I hope BGC members would remind their playing partner or opponent to replace the marker!

Improvements on Putting Green

You are allowed to remove sand and soil and repair damage on the putting green no matter whether your ball is on or off the green, for example, you can repair a pitchmark on the green whether your ball is on the green or not.

However remember that you are not allowed to repair a pitchmark on the fringe that is on your line of play. The exception is that if the pitchmark was created by another person AFTER your ball was at rest, then you can repair the pitchmark.

Janet Beal

Trophy Roll Of Honour

Click here to see all the Winners for the Trophy Competitions

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