For many years now we have been running Club Draw which has relied considerably on collection of cash contributions for the monthly draw, £1 per share, but the numbers have dwindled due to the difficulties of collection and time this takes for the committee. This is a good source of funding for the club and could be much more effective if everyone paid by standing order and a few more joined in. Please complete this standing order form and return to Pat O'Keeffe c/o High Elms Golf Club, High Elms Road, Downe Kent, BR6 7JL. Please make an effort to support your club and join in this draw. 70% of the donations are distributed in prizes and everyone stands a good chance of winning.

A small proportion of Mytime season ticket charges covers your Membership of the High Elms Golf Club. The Club 'HEGC' is responsible for registration of players with National Unions, allocation and maintenance of players handicaps, organisation of internal and external competitions and a number of social functions. If you have just joined or wish to play golf more competitively, please talk to any committee member or put your name on the lists which are going up in the Clubroom notice boards. To obtain a Handicap, you need to submit 3 cards to the Handicap Secretary and an official CONGU handicap will be issued to you after assessment. To play in Club Competitions or represent the club in matches, a minimum of one further Qualifying Round is required. Please read Competition Rules as they will give clear advice on competition procedures.

Captains Report 2008 by Warren Yon
Captain 2008

Click on link to see report of this year Captains Drive In.

Please read this notice about Supplementary Scores from the English Golf Union.

Alastair McGregor
Handicap Secretary


HIGH ELMS NEWS

Dear Members, I would like to update you on several things that have happened since January at High Elms Golf Club.

There are now regular monthly meetings between myself, Nigel deGruchy, David Walls, and Jon Dummett. These meetings are concentrating on updating the agreement that exists between the Club and Bromley Mytime. Your section committees have received the first draft and have fed initial comments back to the Exec. Nigel and I have also had a very positive meeting with Steve Price, the Chief Executive of Bromley Mytime, Paul Brivio, Operations Manager of Bromley Mytime and David Walls. It has been agreed that members may book one tee time up to 14 days in advance. There are no block bookings. If times are not used by members then pay and play golfers will be booked in. It is also up to each individual member to cancel any times they do not wish to use and to give as much notice as possible to the Pro shop. This also applies to the use of buggies. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of your co-operation with the booking rules.

You may know that John Featherstone recently tendered his resignation as the Club Treasurer. The Executive has considered the matter and considers it appropriate to co-opt a replacement for John on to the Executive. The position of Treasurer would of course be subject to election in the normal way at the next AGM. Any member wishing to express an interest in being co-opted on to the Executive for this purpose is invited to contact me The Executive has already had informal discussions with one potential volunteer but wishes to extend such opportunity to any other member who might be interested.

A course walk took place with Michael Weekes, Course Manager, and representatives from the Ladies and Senior Sections. Before the walk we held a meeting and Michael presented us with the planned works for the course. The main improvement will be the replacement of all the winter mats. The old bases will be dug out and new astro mats will be put in place, before this happens there will be another course walk to site the new mats. Other improvements have been the cutting back of hedges, the new buggy path from the 12th to 13th. GUR being marked and the out of bounds markers. The course walks take place in the week if there are any members from the men's section who would like to be involved please let Jim Colleary know.

The new score cards have now been printed, and some of the local rules have changed. Please see below changes in red.

High Elms Golf Club Local Rules
Boundaries and Out of Bounds
1. All fences and walls forming clearly definable boundaries to the course.
2. 1st hole -The mown practice area RHS of hole is out of bounds.
3. 2nd hole - behind green onto the practice area.
4. 4th hole - LHS of fairway beyond line of markers is out of bounds
5. 5th & 6th holes - Bridle path is out of bounds, 9th & 10th holes marked area to left of 9th fairway, left of 10th fairway Deleted.
6. 13th Bridle path to RHS and marked area LHS both out of bounds.
7. 14th hole - Fenced bomb hole to left of green - out of bounds.
8. 18th hole - Fenced bomb hole to LHS is out of bounds and forms part of the boundary.

Ground Under Repair
1. All temporary or wintergreens shall be treated as ground under repair and a drop must be taken. Nearest point of relief not nearer the hole.
2. a) Temporary plantations, where marked are to be treated as GUR. The ball should be dropped at the nearest point of relief, without penalty.
3. b) If a ball is lost in a temporary plantation another shall be dropped keeping the GUR between the flag and ball, without penalty.
4. c) In the case of a lost ball, your marker must agree that the ball is in all probability in the plantation. Relief must be taken without penalty and dropped as in (b) above.

Obstructions
1. Staked trees, telephone or electricity poles are deemed immovable obstructions-Rule 24-2 applies.

Other Relief
1. Relief, one club length and drop, may be taken, with your marker's agreement, for balls lying on, man made paths, sprinkler heads.
2. For balls lying in divots on the fairways a finger roll may be used in non qualifying competitions.
3. A ball striking any telegraph wires on the course must be played again.
4. Stones in bunkers are movable obstructions-Rule 24-1 applies.

Etiquette
1. Please do not take practice swings on any tee.
2. Please do not pitch onto the practice green.
3. Rake all bunkers after use, replace divots and repair pitch marks during your round.
4. Golf buggies and carts should not be taken near or on the putting greens, tees or GUR.
5. Please avoid slow play-players searching for balls should signal to the following players to play through.
6. Single players have no standing on the course and should allow matches of any kind to play through.

Lightening
In the event of a thunderstorm one continuous blast from the klaxon will be sounded, signalling the end of play. In our opinion you should place all golf clubs back in your bag steel umbrellas should be put down and you should return to the clubhouse immediately. Two short blasts will be sounded when it is safe to continue.

Green stakes to the side of the fairways are 150 yards to the centre of the green.

I would like to thank all members who took part, and or, helped in making the Festival such a success this year, I do hope we can build on this and make it even better next year. Any suggestions as to how we can involve more players from other clubs would be very helpful. I would also like to thank the Green keepers, the Pro shop and the Catering staff for all their help.

With best wishes and good golfing

Chris Watmough
Chair High Elms Golf Club

Thought you would like to know that Colin Tait was successful at the Regional Finals for the NAPGC and came second in Div 1 Section held at Laleham G C. He came in with 38 points playing off 12 which was a very good effort losing out to an 11 handicapper with 41 points. He has therefore now qualified for the National Finals to be played on the Eden Course, St Andrews on Sunday 27 Sept 2009.

Well done Colin and good luck at St Andrews!

Read report of NAPGC Qualifier.

This years mens, ladies and seniors results are now recorded on howdidido web site. You need to register at www.howdidido.co.uk/high-elms-golf-club to see them.

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Ladies Section

The Ladies Section of High Elms Golf Club meets every Sunday and Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. We currently have a membership of approximately 60 ladies We are members of the Penfold League and play in the Pearson Trophy. During our golfing season, we also play several friendly matches. If you are thinking of joining a new club or indeed thinking of taking up a new hobby, the Ladies Section of HEGC would welcome you. As you will see from our website there are varying levels of membership to suit your requirements. If you would like a friendly chat about the Club, please email me at Sharon.HEGC@googlemail.com with your telephone number and I will call you back.

Sharon Assemakis
Lady Captain

Dawn Bell sadly lost in the fifth round of the Three Feathers competition (Bronze division), going down 3&2 away to Angela Darby at Langley Park. It was an excellent achievement by Dawn, following in the footsteps of Carol Sutherland who also did well in this competition two years ago.

We are doing OK in the Penfold League but need some good results as we work our way to the finals and the Championship in September. Likewise, the midweek ladies are now well into their Triangular series with Birchwood and Chelsfield Lakes.

The next big competition is the Lady Captain’s awayday at Dulwich & Sydenham on July 30th when we play for the Rose Bowl and the knockout (ladies and mixed) competitions are building up nicely.

All club competition results are now posted on the HowDidIDo website www.howdidido.co.uk, as are the updated handicaps. It is now also possible to print off your own handicap certificate from the site, once you have registered – which is free. If you haven’t looked at the site, it is well worth a visit.

Read about the Ladies Rose Bowl at Dulwich & Sydenham.

Click here for Ladies Winter 2008/09 Eclectic results.

The Monthly Medals (from February) are now no longer administered by the LGU and the organisation has been taken over by the English Women's Golf Association (EWGA). There will no longer be a Main Day and an Alternative Day - each medal will be separate and anyone can play on any medal day. There will be no Silver and Bronze divisions for medals any more. The player with the best four nett scores at the end of the year (31st December) will qualify for one of the Regional Medal Finals. This means that the EWGA Medals will be run as separate competitions (one midweek and one weekend) but the scores will be combined to find the winner of the Club Medal prize. This may sound a little complicated but I am sure things will become clearer as the year goes on.

If you have any queries, please email me on sarlane@aol.com or call me on 07765 515899 and I will try to help.

Sarah Lane
Ladies Competition Secretary

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Seniors Section

The Seniors Section of High Elms Golf Club meet every Wednesday, when we have been allocated preferential Club tee of off times in order that we may play as a group. Currently we have an active membership of approximately 50 over 60's in the Section. Apart from the Monthly Medal, Stableford and seasonal in-house Singles and Pairs competitions, we play eight Friendly matches throughout the Summer season visiting Addington Court, Mitcham, Poult Wood and Shortlands In addition we hold two 'Away Days' when arrangements are made to visit golf courses of the Captain's choosing for our own 'Society' Days. The Club also participates in the Kent County Cup and Invicta Veterans League, in which we were founder members and champions six years running. The Section is always encouraging new membership and should you be considering joining a Club or perhaps learning the game, a cordial welcome will be extended to you by both the Captain and members on a Wednesday morning. Why not come along and join us at 9.30 am.

AUGUST RESULTS
A Medal: L Tutt 71, D Williams 72, M Hobbs 73
B Medal: D Wilmot 71, H Stone 72, H David 73
IVL Beckenham (H): Lost 3-0
Charlie Grigsby: M Clark 39, R Pigott 38, D Burley 38
Mitcham (A): Lost 1½-4 ½
Stableford: M Burton 38, F Goulding 38, M Hobbs 38
IVL Birchwood (A): Lost 3-0
Captains Cup: H David 33, J Barret 32, T Brewer 30
Nearest the pin: Malcolm Burton

Click to view Summer Eclectic Results.

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Juniors Section

The Junior Section of High Elms Golf Club meets every Wednesday during April and September.

We play for 20 trophies throughout the year, and one of those is played at an Away Course chosen by the captain. A variety of formats are played these include Stableford points, Texas Scramble, Flag Competition, Stroke Play, Greensomes Stableford and a Single's Matchplay Knockout. We also have a Junior Open that is open to other clubs. There are two sections A and B, in which section A is handicaps 0-24 and is a Strokeplay competition, and section B is handicaps 25-39 and they play Stableford points.

I would like to thank the committee, because without them there would be no junior section, and I think sometimes we need to remember all the work they do and they don't get paid to look after us, so lets keep the behaviour levels up and a high level of etiquette. Next I would like to comment on the younger juniors, it was pleasing to see a greater deal of younger juniors coming through last year, and hopefully we can get some of the younger talent playing in more competitions next year.

We would like to encourage getting some new members in and should you be considering playing golf and joining a junior section, why not come up to lessons on Saturdays and Sundays then you can see if you like it or not (call the Pro Shop for times).

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