Dear Kevin,
Thank you again for your email. I have been
having discussions with Laurence Pithie, our Regional
Course Manager, Matt Rolls the course Manager from Sherfield
Oaks and our new Course Manager who started yesterday, Spencer Hawkins.
Following my discussions with the above
please find my answers to your questions below.
Regards,
Robert Brewer
General Manager
01252 850850 (t)
01252 850851 (f)
-----Original
Message-----
From: Kevin Weston [mailto:k.weston@bcsconnect.co.uk]
Sent: 02 January 2006 13:06
To: oakpark@crown-golf.co.uk
Subject: For the attention Robert Brewer
Robert
As you may be aware, I have been a member at Oak Park
since the very early days (not quite day 1) and am particularly keen to see our
golf course back to its original condition and quality. I have had many
opportunities over the years to join more prestigious courses but have always
remained faithful to Oak Park.
It was therefore with great anticipation that I booked
a tee time on the Woodland course on Sunday 1 January 2006, hoping to see great
strides forward in the amount of maintenance and improvements on the course
since last playing it in August 2005 – and to start the New Year off with very
positive feelings about the course.
Having played 18 holes, I have left the course feeling
extremely depressed as to its current condition and extremely concerned as to
its immediate future and the likelihood of us playing on this within the
foreseeable months.
Some 4 months have passed since the greens were lost
and I would have expected far more attention to have been paid to the general
appearance of the course during that time – in theory, had you prepared good
quality temporaries, you may have been able to attract members back to the
course in greater numbers - within a few weeks of the accident occurring. [Oak Park Golf Club] When the greens problem occurred
in early August we did not have any temporary greens, nor had the club ever had
any to my knowledge, which meant that we had to create some very quickly and in
the most suitable places possible. The temporary greens on the Village course
are much better than the Woodland course due to the fact that the shaping of
the fairways is more sympathetic. Since all the temporary greens were created
they have had regular fertilising, topdressing and
cutting, unfortunately due to the restricted size of temporary greens and the
nature of the soil that they are built on, the holes are unable to be moved.
I am sure that you have been inundated with comments
and complaints since early August and I am keen not to become just another
member complaining for the simple sake of doing so.
I do feel, however, that as a long standing member I
should raise my extensive concerns with you at the earliest opportunity. I
therefore wish to raise the following issues with you and would welcome your
early response, on an item by item basis:
·
why have the scheduled works to the
fairway drainage lines not been carried out – these are particularly
excessive and I am sure will take many months to bed in [Oak
Park Golf Club] Our staff have nearly completed the 2nd fairway and
will shortly move onto the 4th. The 5th was scheduled to be completed in
December by a contractor but due to weather conditions in the early part of
December he has been held up at another job.
·
the latest repairs to the new greens
look less than adequate – those to the 8th look particularly suspect [Oak Park Golf Club] The 3rd green has been completed, the
turf at the 8th green has been stock piled and has not been laid, the turf
was laid out over Christmas to prevent it from rotting. This will be
completed shortly and additional work will be done to the 9th and 10th greens.
Major cultural work will also take place to the 8th and 12th greens in the
spring.
·
why are the temporary greens still
in such poor condition – when we played, two flagsticks were laying on the
ground as the holes were not sufficiently deep enough to retain the stick [Oak Park Golf Club] This appears to be a temporary issue caused
by leaves blocking the holes, this has now been addressed.
·
why have you not removed the
extensive amount of leaves from the course – in addition to those lying on the
course, you appear to have blown some into the worst positions on the course -
the piles of leaves on the left of the 10th are in the worst
possible position – surely with so few people playing the course it would be
possible to collect and burn these rather than leave them on the course [Oak Park Golf Club] The vast amount of leaves generated on this
course have been cleared from the greens and tees on a regular basis. The
removal of these leaves will intensify over the next 2 months. Leaves on Oak
Park have been an ongoing problem and one of the downsides of having such a
pretty and picturesque course for the majority of the year.
·
ongoing maintenance appears to have
suffered – when do you intend to remove thistles, brambles, fallen trees etc
from around the tees, to the sides of most of the footpaths and along the sides
of some fairways – they are looking particularly untidy and overgrown in many
places
[Oak Park Golf Club] The
peripheral areas you mention will be dealt with in time but the priority is to
get the greens in a playable condition as early as possible. I think these
areas that you mention are particularily obvious at
this time of year due to the lack of foliage, but with our greenkeeping team now up to 7 full time members the
backlog of work that has built up over the past few years will gradually be
dealt with.
·
why are you spending time in
reshaping the bunkers on 12 and 13 – surely there are better things to be
spending your money on – ongoing maintenance around the course etc [Oak Park Golf Club] A considerable
amount of money has been spent reshaping, relevelling
tees and bunkers as per our planned works some of which came from consultation
with the committee. The 3 bunkers being renovated are the worst on the course
and are impossible to maintain due to their steepness of design. These are
being modified accordingly with this in mind.
·
I fail to understand why you have
reduced the size of the bunker on 13 – by making this smaller you will slow
down play, as more balls will now end up in the right hand woods rather than in
the bunker – realistically you should have made the bunker bigger to collect
more balls rather than less [Oak Park Golf
Club] This is being modified for drainage and erosion reasons (as per
previous item) this bunker over the years has spent much of the time out of
play due to flooding and washdown.
·
why
have you not been providing regular updates to the members – these have been
irregular and generic in wording – should you not be advising us on a
fortnightly basis as annual membership renewals approach [Oak Park Golf Club] I am at fault here and have definitely not
been updating the members as regularily as I should
have. I have notified timescales of all major works and plans but will endeavour to get information out on a more regular basis
going forward.
·
are you able to offer any indication
as to when we will be playing on the new greens – I cannot she how we will be
playing on these within the next few months [Oak
Park Golf Club] The Village greens are open to members only, when
being played, we are being protective of them during frosty and inclement
weather conditions. The feedback from the members who have played them so far
has been good. We are aiming to have the Woodland greens playable by Captain's
drive in on Sat 18th March 2006.
Whilst I understand that you have clearly placed your
greatest efforts on recovering the greens, you must not take your eye off the
need to maintain the course at all times. The overall standard of the course
will not just be judged on the quality the greens alone – surely you need to
offer a full facility that provides satisfaction on all fronts – regular
maintenance and course tidiness is essential at all times.[Oak Park Golf
Club] In the months after the greens problem we suffered staff changes,
shortages, and a lack of greenkeeping skill
to keep the course in an adequate condition. I feel that the course
has come on greatly since that period and this has been helped by the
supervision of Matt Rolls, the Course Manager at Sherfield
Oaks, the addition of a new Deputy Course Manager, Craig Earnshaw, who joined
us in mid December from the Langbourne Club and the
addition of Peter Reynolds and Mark Goodchild. Yesterday our new Course
Manager, Spencer Hawkins, joined us from North Hants Golf Club.
Spencer will be working closely with both Laurence Pithie
and Matt Rolls to ensure that the team has both direction and stability.
In February a new assistant Greenkeeper who
previously worked with Spencer at Liphook Golf Club
will join the staff and complete the Greenkeeping
team.
On a more positive note, I applaud Crown Golf’s offer
for full playing rights at Sherfield Oaks and thank
you for this facility The Sherfield Oaks course do
not have the same character has Oak Park and I am sure that all members will
want to be back playing the Woodland course as soon as possible. . I would have
hoped that this would have been a short term arrangement, but I can foresee the
need to continue playing there for sometime to come.
It has always been my intention to remain a member at
Oak Park, but I am now beginning to have my doubts!!!!!!!!!.
Please assure me that I have made the right decision
in remaining loyal to Oak Park and Crown Golf.[Oak Park Golf
Club] I have every faith that 2006 will be great year for Oak
Park Golf Club.
In conclusion I appreciate your writing, I
am more than happy to speak to members if they are at the club and I am sorry I
missed you on New Years day as I was at the club.
I look forward to hearing from you at the earliest
opportunity.
Regards
Kevin Weston