Dear Member,

I hope this letter finds you and your family in good health and managing well through the current difficulties.

Resumption of Golf

You will by now be aware that the Scottish Government has published a ‘roadmap’ that details a number of phases through which we will gradually move out of lockdown and return to relatively normal life. From this Friday (May 29th) and subject to final confirmation from the First Minister, the Golf Course will reopen for play.

I am writing to you now to set out the new rules and regulations which are largely determined for us by the Scottish Government and Scottish Golf
You will be able to book a game on either the CorbieHill or Rosehill Courses on the Scottish Golf App or by ringing the office from tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12 noon. Please do not try to book before this deadline. Preferred method of booking should be done via the App or Website as this will help guard against overwhelming the office staff. Only those with a confirmed booking in this way may play on the course. We cannot permit ‘walk-on’ games for now.

If you or anyone in your household has any symptoms of COVID 19 or you are ‘shielding’ as defined by the Scottish Government or if you have a cold or flu-like symptoms you should not play golf.

Before setting off to the course, please use your own bathroom facilities as the Clubhouse and the on-course toilets will be closed. You should bring a drink, some food, a small towel and some hand sanitiser.

If your clubs are still in the locker room, you must contact Debbie in the office to arrange a specific time on Friday at which she will provide access to you for this purpose only (please do not use the toilets during this visit as this would represent a significant infection risk).

When parking your car at the club house, please observe social distancing. You can change your shoes from your car boot. If you would otherwise be unable to play without an electric cart, please book one through the office. The putting green will be closed for now.

Please wait in the car park until you can see that the group ahead of you have cleared the first tee and during play, please ensure that you maintain a two metre distance from your playing partner at all times.

The Committee have decided that in order to avoid any confusion, for the time being play will only be permitted in two balls. Solo players are of course also welcome but there should not be any three or four ball play for now. This situation will be kept under constant review.

Play should proceed without delay but at all times staying well away from the group ahead if they are on the tee or the green. You should look for a lost ball on your own. Subject to the usual rules, if you cannot find it please do not return to the tee but rather drop at the nearest point of relief. Do not pick up ‘finds’.

There are no bunker rakes and you should sweep the sand with your feet or club. To avoid slow play, please take a preferred lie in bunkers by placing within one metre. You will find that the hole liners (cups) have been lagged to ensure your ball is easily retrieved.

There will be no competition play for the time being. If you are recording scores please mark only your own card during this time.

You will see during play that all ball washers have been removed and that all benches have been taped off. The on-course toilets will remain closed for now.

At the end of play, please do not shake hands. If you have taken out a buggy please return this to the store entrance and ensure you leave as you find it, taking your rubbish home with you. A volunteer will ensure it is deep cleaned before storage.

You should return to your car and leave the car park without undue delay.

If you follow these guidelines, we will all be able to enjoy our great game without interference.

MEMBER ACCOUNTS

We have also now achieved another significant milestone within the VMS system in that member accounts are now live after a successful final sign off with ScottishGolf yesterday.

This will prove a great help to the club in the current climate and in the future with no cash handling, no access required to clubhouse for closing competitions etc and a real time saving for all the volunteers who help administer the competitions. It will also allow us to take visitor fees up front and collect “open” competition monies prior to the event, again an area where the club has lost out on lots of income in the past.

With the above in mind can I ask members in readiness for the resumption of restarting competition golf currently penciled in for the 13th of June to commence the topping up of their accounts.

Topping up can be done in one of several ways:

1) Via the app and using a preferred credit/debit card
2) Via Calling the office and providing credit/debit card
3) Via the website in the Members Area
4) When the time allows, a Cash transaction at the office

We are currently assessing which is the most time and cost efficient method for top up moving forward and will communicate this is in due course but please be assured that options 1,2 & 3 are no different to providing details for any online purchase and is equally as safe. Our merchant services provider “Stripe” has PCI service provider level 1 credentials which is the highest grade of payment processing security available.

There is an element of credit built into each member’s account which will allow for one game with a zero balance but it is a members responsibility to ensure their account is topped up as required to ensure no disruption to their play.

There are several pre-determined top up amounts laid out which are £20, £25, £30, £35, & £100.

We intend to use the coming days & weeks to allow for a rescheduling of our fixture list and allows time for entry into VMS. This also allows a period of time for the membership to have their account topped up in readiness for the resumption of Competitions. All of the above timelines are subject to change.

Good luck on Friday with your game and I hope we get a great summer for golf.

Yours sincerely,
Stephen Thomson
Captain
On behalf of the Committee

We hope everyone is keeping well and continues to be in good health.

The latest update from the government on Monday has given us a glimmer of hope that we may be able to resume golf in some form in the next few weeks but again as it currently stands the advice from the Scottish Government remains the same, Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

We saw the excitement build hoping to get back playing potentially this week and saw a few tee bookings being made but hopefully the first Minister will provide more clarity on Thursday as promised.

With the above in mind and all the current uncertainties it was agreed at last night’s committee meeting that all booking of tee times have been disabled until further notice and will be made active once we have a few more definitive answers from the government and governing bodies. This is true of the APP and the newly launched website. Details of the latest guidance can be found at the following links:

The time in the coming weeks will allow us to get a few things progressed. It will allow the green-keeping staff to continue to ready the course for play. We should all congratulate the green staff and Jim in particular for the current course condition as its looking immaculate and in first class order considering Jim has been on his own since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. This additional delay also provides them time to collate a plan on how we get back on the course in a safe and efficient manner.

It also gives us time to implement further enhancements off the course also, we have seen the launch of the new website which we believe will provide great benefit to the club and accelerate and grow our social media presence

We also plan to have the “Member Accounts” live soon which will assist us greatly in the post lockdown environment where if permission allows we can potentially be setup for competition play without the use of the clubhouse facilities which as I’m sure you would all agree may be closed for some time. This also benefits with the reduction of cash handling etc. Details of how to top-up etc. will follow in due course once they are active in the system.

The “Corbie Links lotto” is getting closer to launch after receiving the necessary licensing yesterday and are currently finalising the bank details and will announce more details in due course.

I’d like to finish on a more sombre note in that as has been previously mentioned in updates, the club stands to lose a substantial 5 figure sum this financial year due to the impact of COVID-19 despite the mitigations that we have already put in place. Those losses may continue into the next financial year if both the course and clubhouse facilities are not able to operate to normal capacity by the end of September.

We have applied for and been refused two grants that were potentially available to Golf clubs, one being the business grant from the government which we didn’t qualify for due to our rateable value and the latest one where an application was submitted for assistance from the Creative, Tourism & Hardship fund which again came to no avail.

It’s unfortunate in that when golf stops the bills and expenditure do not. We still have many costs to the club in terms of course maintenance, utility bills, wages for the 2 staff that have not been furloughed and several other areas which all require the money to be spent daily. It is likely that once the course re-opens we will need to bring back more of the greens staff but will generate little additional income if visitors are not able to travel or use the clubhouse facilities.

We are not in the fortunate enough position to have an endless supply of finance and as already described latest forecasting.

We had planned to make several improvements over the coming year, which have had to be placed on hold or cancelled entirely.

It is to this end we are reminding all members that donations are readily welcomed to help us with the potential deficit we face.

It’s possible with a decent level of support from the membership that we can potentially both lessen the deficit faced and make some improvements to the facility as a whole.

Stay safe & Stay healthy

Stephen Thomson

Captain

On behalf of the Committee