Refreshing balance...
Club News updates from Captain
Good evening everyone,
As I’m sure you’re aware, the Scottish Government are now moving to phase 2 of the relaxed restrictions. Scottish Golf recommendations can be seen in full on their website https://scottishgolf.org/phase-2-guidance-for-golf-clubs-and-golfers-in-scotland/
What does this mean for us?
Social distancing remains the same which means the clubhouse, locker rooms and toilets will remain closed.
The guidelines now allow us to move to 3 or 4 balls. The committee have decided, to simplify the setting up of competitions and for casual bookings etc that we will be allowing a maximum of 3 balls at ten minute intervals as of next Wednesday the 24th of June. We shall remain at 2 balls until Wednesday and bookings shall remain in place until then.
Unfortunately to allow us to change the draw sheets and booking sheets to 3 balls we will have to delete the casual bookings already made from the 24th onwards. Players who have made bookings will have to re-book their tee times once the booking sheets have been amended. We shall inform everyone as soon as the changes have been made and bookings can then take place.
Start times on Mondays and Wednesdays are to change to 7 o’clock as from Wednesday.
We shall also be allowing visitor bookings but with restrictions on Saturdays and Wednesdays to ensure our members have priority on these busy days. Visitors will only be able to book after 2pm on these days.
The practice putting green has been opened again but be aware that the green has recently been sprayed as have the greens on the Corbie Hill course.
The lottery draw is proving to be very popular and I would like to ask our members to encourage family and friends to take part. Standing Orders of £5 a month or £60 annually can easily be set up to to the following account :- sort code 83 20 17 account no 14011435.
Thanks once more for your support.
Stephen Thomson
On behalf of the committee.
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
We hope everyone is keeping well and is in good health.
We are probably approaching the end of the initial part of lockdown and golf is likely to commence soon but we will continue to follow the SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT’S advice which at the time of writing is to “stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives”.
During this difficult lockdown period the committee, whilst focusing our main efforts to ensure a safe and secure future have also adopted a holistic approach to all areas of the club and thought it prudent to update you with some of the work that is being carried out.
The fantastic work Jim and his team have done over the last few years with the on-course experience it was felt necessary to try and progress the other side of the business to a level befitting the work already being done.
Obviously the COVID-19 outbreak and the consequent closure of the club brought finances into sharp focus and I wish to make special mention to our Treasurer Paul Dixon who has carried out a power of work in this regard to try and ensure we are as suitably protected as we can be.
All existing contracts that the club have been reviewed and mitigation been put in place where possible to try and protect our financial position. We have also made use of a free software program which has allowed us to collate all contracts and make them accessible in a central location thus reducing the endeavours moving forward with regards to renewals etc.
As you will be aware from previous updates we hope to have member accounts live on VMS soon and will forward details of how to top-up accounts in due course but again this was an area where we thought we had to progress as it provides many benefits including the potential for competition play even with the clubhouse closed and means no sums of money need be handled or kept at the club during times of closure.
Tee times are also an area of focus and will have to be adopted if we are to maintain a satisfactory level of social distancing once we can resume playing golf, this can be done on the App or contacting the office prior to arrival.
Another area where a lot of work has been done is the area of Marketing, Commercial activity and increasing our online presence. Part of the attraction in the VMS software system was the inclusion of a hosted integral website.
As our VMS focal point Eddie McDonald has been spending the last few weeks to try and get this new website up to a level where we can make it live. This new website is directly linked to VMS so any booking made via the website will directly link to the booking sheet and will allow us to receive payment online for both visitor bookings and our Open competitions which will greatly reduce the administration in these areas.
The website will also include a “Members Area” which can be used to access upcoming competitions and book tee times etc so in addition to the aforementioned options for booking a tee time there will also be an option to do via the new website also which in turn should capture members who do not make use of the App etc. All App users can access this content with their ScottishGolf logon details.
Obviously, the new website is still under construction but the web address to preview it is: https://fraserburghgolfclub.org/
you may have to copy and paste the link.
I would encourage all members to logon and preview the work Eddie has done up to this point. Options for content are under review but it will give a flavour for what’s on offer.
As part of his work for the website Eddie has also been researching the History of the Club and has included several interesting articles in the Club History page, A rich and varied history which we should all celebrate.
He has also amassed a great deal of press clippings from as far back to when the club moved from its original location at the links to our current location in 1891 and James Braid’s visit in 1922. The intention will be to integrate as much of this as possible onto the website.
I along with the rest of the Committee want to express a special word of thanks to Eddie for his work on this as building websites doesn’t form part of his day job!
Certain areas of the clubhouse has also seen a bit of a “freshen up” so thanks to Debbie and partner David in this regard also.
The new “Corbie Links” lottery is progressing, and we hope to share details on this very soon.
We appreciate your continued support, Stay safe, Stay Healthy.
Stephen Thomson
Captain
On behalf of the Committee
We hope everyone is keeping well and coping with the lockdown.
Just a quick update as we see things so far.
Recently it has been suggested in the media, social media and websites that there may be a relaxation shortly in the restrictions enforced during the current lockdown.
It does look promising that we may be able to resume playing golf in the not too distant future, albeit still with quite a number of restrictions in place. At present we can only speculate when this will happen and what these restrictions will be. You will all have seen in the media various dates being spoken about when we can resume but these have still to be confirmed. Also Nicola Sturgeon did say yesterday that Scotland has still to see the peak in cases and that any lifting of restrictions will not take place until we see a downturn.
We have been in contact this week with Scottish Golf and they, like us are waiting for word from the government when any lifting of restrictions can take place.
In anticipation we are are at the point where using VMS, we will be able to book tee times which looks like will be compulsory and we will also be able to credit our accounts to allow us to run competitions without having to handle money or enter the clubhouse. We will be giving instructions how to credit your accounts within the next couple of weeks.
The R&A have issued guidelines as to how we may come back out of lockdown but these have still to be confirmed. This will give you an idea of how things may play out over the next month or so.
https://www.randa.org/News/2020/04/Golf-in-the-UK-under-COVID-19-restrictions
In the meantime we have been looking at various ways of generating much needed revenue during this time of uncertainty. Next week we will be rolling out a monthly lotto style fund raiser where we have a £5 monthly draw with 50% going to the prize fund and 50% to the club. Full details how to enter to follow shortly.
We would also like to remind members that any donations to help out during these difficult times would be much appreciated and if you feel able to help out in any way you can contact Debbie in the office most days or contact any committee member.
Once again these are difficult times never seen the likes of before.
We appreciate your continued support, stay safe, stay healthy.
Stephen Thomson
Captain
on behalf of the committee.
