Gents Open
Thanks to everyone who took part in our Gents Open on Saturday 13th July, as always a great event and the weather was kind to us this year. Congratulations to past Captain Murray Hood, winner of the trophy with a fine nett 65.
Speakers Evening
Tickets are now available from the clubhouse bar at £40 per person. Should be another full house so get yours quick.
Captain's Day Medal
Please note that this has been moved in the calendar, now taking place on Saturday 27th July. Captain's night will now take place on Saturday 3rd August.
Course Convener report - June 2024
Like me, I’m sure most of you have been finding the course a bit tougher than usual. I am obviously speaking about the thickness of the rough. I have never bought so many golf balls as early in the season as this year. So what are SLC doing about it is the question I’m sure you're asking? I am in constant dialogue with the course maintenance staff.
Firstly, let’s look at the positives. I played yesterday (Wednesday 5th June) and the greens are as good as I have ever seen them. I recently played 4 courses in Portugal, 1 of which was previously was used for the Portuguese Open and the greens on all 4 courses were nowhere near as good as ours are at this time.
After the wettest winter and now the wettest spring we have seen for many years, the course is unbelievably dry. Clearly we are seeing the benefits of replacing all the old collapsed clay drainage pipes, as well as new drainage that the course maintenance staff felt was needed over the last few years.
SLC are currently implementing a new ordering system for materials, and like all new systems are experiencing some teething problems. This has caused the delay of required materials, namely stones to fill in open ditches and sand for bunkers. However, the sand has now been delivered and the stones will be on site very shortly.
Rough:
It is not only extremely long in places, but also thicker than I have ever seen it. There are a few reasons for this:
Firstly, the wet and hot spring weather we are experiencing is perfect grass growing weather. 2 days after a cut, it looks like it hasn’t been cut at all as its growing so quickly. When I played on Wednesday this week the rough was just cut or in fact being cut as we were playing. It was very playable, albeit still difficult. I know that come Saturday it will be as tough as ever. If you think back to this time last year, the rough was just perfect. This was due to dry weather in the early months of the season.
The extra thickness in the rough that we are seeing is caused when it is not being cut short enough regularly. This all started when the course was left untended for several weeks during the first national lockdown. It’s clearly not being cut short enough every week now, which only adds to the problem.
Our cutting equipment is not of the highest quality. When the grass is dry there is no issue. When grass is wet, the cutter struggles to perform. It continually clogs up (as pictured blow) and stops cutting through and only flattening the grass into the ground. The maintenance staff must then take time to clear the blades before restarting the cut. This can turn a 2-day job into a 3- or 4-day job. This time is clearly not available if all other weekly tasks are to be completed. Personally, I would rather see fantastic greens before shorter rough.
Actions:
Our Open competitions take place within the next few weeks, and I’ve been assured that every effort will be taken to ensure we and our visitors have the same great golfing experience we have had in last few years. Extra resources and machinery will be in place to make this happen.
We will continue to ask SLC for upgrades to existing machinery, however in the current financial climate this will be a difficult request to fulfil.
Sharing best practice with other courses was discussed and a few ideas for improvement have emerged and these will be investigated further.
As much as it is difficult and extremely frustrating for us all, please be patient. Our course maintenance team have done a fantastic job over the years, and they are still doing it under very difficult constraints.
If anyone has any questions on what I have detailed above, please contact me at any time.
Best regards
Dougie Borland
As part of the club's ongoing Junior programme we recently applied for and were successful in achieving Scottish Golf's SafeGolf accreditation, a fantastic achievement and an important step in ensuring the wellbeing of our young golfers at the club.
Our thanks to Safeguarding Officer Brian Barlas for his hard work in attaining this on behalf of Langlands.
Further to recent email communication to our membership, we are still seeking additional volunteers for our Junior coaching events that will re-start in Spring 2024. As part of our SafeGolf accreditation it is important that all volunteers have undergone the necessary background checks and online training, so if anyone can spare a few hours next summer please contact us via email to register your interest, or if you have any further questions.
Pace of Play
All members are reminded that it is their responsibility to play at a reasonable pace; you should always:
No-one enjoys slow play, so please consider these points and we can all get the best out of the game we love.