Dear Members,
We are nearing the time when we are to be able to return to play the game that we know you love, and like you, we are all of the view it can’t come quick enough!
It’s important to keep you informed that there are two issues we need to address before we can re-open Redwood Park Golf Club to ensure that you can start to enjoy golf again in a safe environment.
1. Course Maintenance and finishing coring
2. Meeting COVID-19 requirements
Course Maintenance
You will be aware that just prior to lockdown, our grounds staff were mid-stream with course renovations (specifically our major coring program). Whilst Dan and the team have been working hard to prepare the course since they have been able to be back on the course, our sand supplier was unable to deliver the last sand load prior to lockdown. Hopefully you will appreciate this was outside our control.
We are on the top of their list for delivery once we move to Level 3. This means a number of our greens remain “under renovation” and have unfilled cored holes. Playing on them without completing the sanding may be extremely damaging to those greens. Once we have sand available there is a minimum of a full day’s work to prepare the remainder of the greens for play.
Based on Dan and the team obtaining the sand on Tuesday, means the course is unlikely to be ready to open until later in the week.
This is not the desired outcome we all want and we are acutely aware of the desire we all want to get back out onto our much loved course.
COVID-19
We still remain in the dark until we receive the final “fine print” on how this will work to ensure we meet any requirements of opening. The Board are working with our staff and NZ Golf so when the course is opened we meet any of these recommended guidelines.
The current guidelines under COVID-19, Level 3 for the participation in recreation states “which does not involve interacting with other people, or equipment touched by other people.” This poses a problem for golfers and golf. The fine print being worked on will provide us all with a template to follow, so we can all enjoy the game we are passionate about in a safe way.
Some issues (but not all) we know we need to manage and overcome before when we re-open will be how we ensure compliance of social distancing, contact tracing and isolation of common touch equipment protocols.
We have had a large number of recreational walkers, including families and dog walkers, using the course during the lock down. Going forward we will need to manage these people using the course. We will need to update signs to inform these walkers.
We are currently working with a sign manufacturer to help manage these issues. These signs will not be with available until:
· we know what signs we need – covering social distancing, contact tracing, walkers etc.
· the lockdown level has changed so we can obtain additional resources.
NZ Golf website has been posting their updates - https://www.golf.co.nz/NewsMedia/Article.aspx?id=4192
We are working extremely hard to be ready to open the course as soon as possible, but do not have an exact time at present due to a number of uncontrollable factors as detailed above.
We will be giving members priority over green fee players once we are able to open the course.
Please remain patient and we will keep you informed of any updates in regard to getting back onto our fairways and greens.
Thanks and stay safe. RPGC BOARD