Club News

From Luke Welham, General Manager: With the clubhouse finished, Get Golfing’s next project is to transform the patio area, which is scheduled for work in the autumn. 

In early 2022, we will also be presenting a redevelopment plan for both courses and the driving range. Ideas currently under consideration including enhancing the water features across the property, including the streams. 

We are happy to report we had a fantastic turn out for Captain’s Day. Luckily the weather was on our side and a lot of beer was drunk! So many amazing fancy-dress costumes on display…who was your winner for best dressed up group? Special thanks to all the staff who made the event a great day! 

Separately, it was great to hold a special event in June for Cianna’s Smile. Thank you to everyone who came down for the day to raise money for such a special cause. Cianna’s Smile is a registered, UK-based charity that raises awareness of Sickle Cell and supports families that are affected by it. All the money raised on our fun-filled afternoon for all went to an amazing local charity that needs our support. 

We hosted our second successful quiz night. We would like to give a special mention to Steve Western, who was an excellent quiz master on the night. Quiz night is a recurring event on the third Thursday of every month, so please visit our Facebook/What’s On page if you would like more information. Fresh food, including sharing platters, calamari and much more will be available, so feel free to invite your family along for a fun night.  

Course News

From Ross Cook, Courses Manager: June has been a month of two halves: we started with beautiful-but-not-too-hot sun that was perfect for growing grass and playing golf; then the second half of the month was very wet, including 73mm of rain falling over 36 hours — more than our average rainfall for the entire month.  

Since that rain event, we have had plenty of showers meaning our monthly total so far is 87mm. With more in the forecast before the month is out, it’s looking like being the wettest month this year. The low-pressure weather fronts that have brought all the rain have also swung in northerly winds, which reduce the temperature quite considerably. So much so that the summer solstice was colder than the winter solstice!  

The golf courses have been performing well this month, the rain of late May really helped us through the hot period in June and the courses took the three inches of rain exceptionally well.  

The downside to June’s weather was our ability to use the selective herbicide. We keep having to reschedule our sprays because it’s either too hot, meaning the spray could potentially scorch, or raining so won’t be able to dry it on the leaf.  

We have the tees, fairways, approaches and semi-rough all programmed in to be sprayed — it’s just a bit of a waiting game for good spraying conditions.  

The greens are getting better but are short of speed due to a machine breakdown and issues sourcing parts but that is all now resolved. We’ve done some shallow aeration and topdressing of 10 tons per course and verti-cut at -2mm to remove all the dead leaf tissue at the base of the plant. These tasks are all done to benefit ball roll.  

I’m sure a lot of you have noticed how thick and long the out-of-play areas are this year. This is another weather-related issue, last year we didn’t have sufficient moisture for the rough to grow, whereas this year it’s had more than enough. I have hired a tractor-mounted flail for two weeks to cut down some areas that are “in play” but I don’t want to go too mad, or we will lose the definition of the courses. This work will start in the first week of July.  

In other areas of the golf course, the digger has been busy re-levelling and spreading more than 40 tons of crushed tarmac onto the pathway through the 11th Waterloo woodland that got ruined when the tree work was carried out last year. We have also renewed our access pathway to the golf course on the driveway. I have hired a road roller to compact the material, so we won’t have any issues with lying water in these areas anymore. We will be moving back onto ditch clearing when we have completed our list of little snag jobs. 

Staff News

Staff development: At Get Golfing, we have a passion for high quality course conditioning. We invest a lot in machinery and materials to make our golf courses better places to play. We also invest heavily in our staff, with regular on-the-job training and a dedicated head-office manager to support each site’s course manager. 

As part of our commitment to the game of golf, we are also passionate about the career development of our greens staff. We see it as our duty to provide a nursery for great greenkeepers, who can go on to bigger and bigger roles in the industry, thanks in part to their Get Golfing training.  

This month (July 25th) sees the deadline for nominations for Get Golfing’s international green-keeping internship programme. Four greens staff from across the group’s sites will further their careers with work experience at one of Florida’s most prestigious resorts — Pelican’s Nest (www.nestgolf.com).  

Starting in January 2022, the internship programme is not only a way to escape our winter weather but a fantastic opportunity to gain work experience outside of the UK. Get Golfing will be paying for flights, wages, accommodation, and additional spending money while our interns are at Pelican’s Nest.  

In addition to these placements, Get Golfing is also organising a series of seminars and opportunities to work at tournaments for the rest of its green-keeping teams to help them increase their professional expertise. 

Community Outreach Programme

As part of Get Golfing, Sherfield Oaks is committed to becoming a positive force in the local community to improve the image of golf, and the facilities we operate, amongst the wider public.  

We are, therefore, preparing to roll out a range of activities aimed at offering local people, who do not perhaps play golf, the opportunity to use our facilities to improve their health and well-being. 

These include: 

• A partnership with the NHS Blood & Transplant service in 2021 to help recruit new and returning blood donors via a fun awareness campaign. We will also be offering our facilities as donor centres in the future. 
• Joining with This Girl Can in 2022 to launch This Girl Can Get Golfing, with the goal of introducing golf to girls and ladies in a fun and free environment. Events will be held throughout the year in a bid to boost female participation in the game. A video of our first event in Mill Green can be seen below.

• Rolling out a Get Golfing TAP — Targeted Activity Programme — at the club in 2021. This is a project that gives selected school students an opportunity to access golf and healthy food at our sites through a series of events and camps. Students will be drawn from those who are, for instance, eligible for free school meals, the pupil premium or are young carers, have special educational needs or are eligible for an education healthcare plan. Below is a picture from our pilot event at Mill Green last week.

• Further to the above, we will be rolling out an Education and Special Educational Needs programme in September through school sports partnerships, school games organisers and school sports coordinators, PE coordinators, headteacher forums, the Local Education Authority and Council Sports Development Officers. 
• Becoming a place that the local community can use to improve individual and community well-being at no impact to our core activity of golf. We will look to make our facilities available to non-traditional users, such as charities and local interest groups, at times when there is low usage by golfers. As a Community Hub, Sherfield Oaks will help to combat loneliness and inactivity in all age groups via golf, music, the arts and other sports activities. 
• Creating free social gatherings for members, visitors and local people, such as organised dog or nature walks and bird watching events, that make use of our beautiful landscape and help to bring people together. 

Proshop News

We have three great promotions this month from the Pro Shop. Remember all profits go back into your club.

New equipment: John Rahm’s win at the US Open was EPIC! Keep your eyes posted for the launch of Callaway hardware, bags and accessories on the Get Golfing Pro Shop. Coming soon in July.  

With a surge in interest in golf, we have several beginner’s sets for Men, Ladies and Juniors from Fazer & Benross. 

Demo days: Numbers do not lie! Our first Get Golfing demo days at Redlibbets and Mill Green have been a huge success, with many members seeing vast improvements through the latest technology. Keep your eyes peeled for more dates and contact me at [email protected] or 01474 554960 to book with the top brands coming to your club! Sherfield has demo days on the following dates this month:

• Cobra on July 5th
• Wilson on July 22nd

Top up your card: You can top up your club/levy cards via the Get Golfing Pro Shop without buying anything. Summer is here and beer funds are needed! 

Reviews

We have recently received some fantastic reviews at the club and thought it might be nice for our members to hear what some visitors have said about the club and course over the last few weeks.