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course UPDATE |
The 2010 summer period on Waiheke Island was the best and
longest for many years. The island experienced minimal rainfall, only 145ml,
from December 2009 through to the end of April 2010. However the rain
arrived in late April and in May we had rainfall of 150ml. Over the 6 month
dry spell our course was dry as a bone, brown hard fairways causing the ball
to travel far, but sometimes in very awkward directions. BUT...we now have
an amazing irrigation system and it worked absolutely brilliantly during
this whole period. Our Green's looked fantastic. Never before have we been
able to pitch a ball up onto the green during mid summer and seen it stop
and roll a couple of metres. The Green's remained 'GREEN' and playable right
through summer. During May the fairways returned to their usual lush
condition and now the whole course looks a million dollars. If your not out
there now playing golf now you are missing the best time of the year, the
course is just marvelous. Our irrigation system has been worth every cent
that was invested into it and it has allowed the club to come through the
driest summer for years scar free and we now have a course that something to
be proud of. The rains over the past few weeks have been long and heavy and
we have experienced some flooding, but amazing as it may be, after a day the
course is back to normal and playable again. The Green's become soft during
the heavy rains but also return to a playable condition very quickly. The
favorable comments we receive from visitors to our course certainly make it
all worth while. A special thanks too to our Green's Staff who have
certainly assisted in bringing our course up to it's present condition.
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BRIDLE TRAILS |
As you are probably aware the Golf Club signed
a Lease with Council on 5th October 2007 for the Golf Course property. This
enabled us to obtain funding for our new Irrigation system and to carry on
with the Golf Club Course Development Plan for the additional 9 holes.
Unfortunately Council will not sign off the Development Plan until the new
District Plan has been finalised and one item of contention in the plan are
indicative Bridle Trails through the Golf Course. These trails, shown on the
old Operative District Plan have never actually existed on the course, they
are indicative only and as such they have been removed from the new Proposed
District Plan. The Waiheke Horse Riders Club have appealed to the trails
being removed so the Golf Club has also had to lodge an appeal to ensure
they do not return. It must be noted here that no employee or member has
ever seen horses riding on the Golf Course at any time since 1973, when the
club started operations here. However, in June this year a key member of the
Riding Club and some other riders took it upon themselves to
ride on the indicative trails in an attempt to show that the trails were
viable and did actually exist. This group have continued to trespass
on the club property at regular intervals since June and on occasions have
had uncomfortable encounters with our Club Members. Relations with WIRC have
been somewhat strained over recent months and the Golf Club legal advisors
have been kept quite busy as a result. All we can say at this stage is that
the club will await the District Plan hearings and move forward using all
it's legal rights as Leaseholder of the property. So if you happen across a
couple of horses during your round, rest assured they are not the horses for
this course, but please don't fire abuse or balls at the riders, we need to
do the right thing here and work through LEGALLY
and we certainly don't want any one getting hurt, some of these
riders may be kids.
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