Spring is here at last, the last month has seen the rain win more than the golfers but that didn’t stop plenty of hardy souls hitting the greens and playing well. Although wet underfoot the course has handled the spell of wet weather well thanks to the efforts of Michael Bing and his greenkeeping team.
Junior golf is back at Martinborough. A school holiday programme was held both weeks of the September holidays. It was open to all school age children with fun sessions to introduce golf to new players and improve the skills of those who are already playing. The programme was run by Hugh Wilson who is a member at Martinborough and through the Kiwi Golf Development Foundation he delivers golf lessons at schools in the region. More exciting is that through this new initiative the Martinborough Junior Open was held on Thursday 2nd October, this event was started back in 2007 by the late Bill Jones, and it is wonderful to see it return. We are also immensely grateful to the team at BP Martinborough for their generous sponsorship of this event. September was a busy month for competitions, the members only Men’s 36-hole strokeplay was held on Saturday 13th September. The winner of the gross senior division was John Warner; the gross intermediate was Davis Lester Clark and the gross junior Mike Charteris. John and Mike shared the best nett prize.
A big day for the ladies on Wednesday 17th September was the Wairarapa Ladies Open ‘Swing into Spring’. Last year was hugely successful even though the new clubhouse hadn’t opened, this year was even better with many players entering into the ‘spring’ theme with plenty of floral costumes around the course, unfortunately the wind was a bit of a problem on the day but there were still plenty of smiles back at the clubhouse. The winners of the Best Gross were Fiona McBride and Kay Wall from Otaki – gross 76.
Finally, the AB Martin Mixed Foursomes was held on Sunday 21st September, it was lovely to see the Martin family in attendance and the trophy was won by Emily Loughnan and Davis Lester Clark.
On the clubhouse front the Sunday roasts have been a major hit and have sold out for most Sundays. We are taking a break from the roasts but look out for the new spring offerings and we are highly anticipating excellent spring and summer weather to take advantage of the fabulous outdoor area.
