Welcome to the August/September edition of the Bondhay Newsletter. I am hoping that August will be much warmer and drier than what has been a strangely wet July.
The new Alan Hardisty Trophy will be taking place on 2nd September 2023, created to honour my Dad who has been at the club since 1997. The trophy is to recognise and celebrate his commitment and dedication to the club over the last 27 years. The format is a Single Stableford Shotgun with a free gift for everyone who enters. Entry is £10pp for members and £40pp for visitors. The prizes include a 7-day free membership for Bondhay Golf Club, a 50” TV, golf vouchers and much, much more. I want to thank everyone who has entered so far and to anyone that decides to take part. We only have a handful of tee times left. Please visit Pro Shop or our website to book. All welcome.
Prestige Award
I am delighted to announce that Bondhay has been named “Golf Club of the Year” by the Prestige Awards 2023/2024. These awards recognise smaller, independent businesses that are extremely successful and hard working on a local level.
It is an honor to be recognised for the quality of the Club and for the hard work of the teams in the Pro Shop, Greens, Hospitality and from the Management team. The staff have worked hard for the last 12 months and continue to surprise me with their unwavering commitment, dedication and support. The Prestige Award ceremony will take place later this year at Hazelwood Castle.
Memberships
At the beginning of this year, I made the tough decision to increase the membership prices by 15% with an increase also made to the visitor and society tariffs. This was to cover the general increase in the cost of living and operations — including a 600% increase in our electricity bill.
Interestingly, England Golf have recently published some statistics that relate to subscription prices across the UK. The average subscription price is £1082 with 33% of clubs charging a joining fee. The average joining fee is £1016. 36% of clubs offer a flexible membership.
Our 7-day membership is currently £1190 which includes your Yorkshire Union and England Golf fees and VAT, which we are required to pay on all memberships. We do not have a joining fee. This is equivalent to £22.88 a week or £3.27 a day. We also offer a number of membership options that offer something for everyone. I think you will agree that this is excellent value for money.
Online Booking for Members
In July we provided members with the ability to book their tee times on line with BRSGolf. You will need to register using your email address and your Bondhay membership number, NOT your CDH number. This sends an email to our Membership Team who will activate your account. You can book 8 days in advance using the on-line system or the BRSGolf app. You can still contact the Pro Shop or office and book your tee time if preferred, up to 9 days in advance. To register for the BRSGolf system, or to login to your account, visit www.bondhaygolfclub.com/book and select Members or select Member Booking in the menu.
Cancellation of a Tee Time
We are still experiencing problems with members booking tee times and failing to show up. This is unacceptable. This is particularly annoying when members have booked tee time on a Saturday or Sunday morning and then fail to show up without having the common courtesy to let us know.
I am now keeping a list of members and visitors who fail to notify us that they wish to cancel. Repeat offenders will lose the ability to book on line or book a prime tee time on a Saturday or Sunday morning.
Hole In One
A hole in one is a fantastic achievement and should be celebrated. All hole in ones at Bondhay Golf Club should be brought to the attention of the Pro in the Shop, following which you will be issued with a framed certificate and a bottle of whiskey and your name will be placed on our honours board.
Weekend Bookings
Visitors are now required to pay in full for any tee times on a Saturday and Sunday morning. This is to stop the number of “no shows” for prime tee times.
Policy Updates
I am currently reviewing and updating the following policies:
These policies will be updated and circulated to all members via email and available via a link from the website.
Course Measuring
On Tuesday 1st August, the Course will be being measured by a third party that has been recommended by England Golf. This is long overdue and will ensure that the course measurements are as accurate as possible for the benefit of all golfers. This exercise will mean that the slope index will need to be reassessed. Any updates will be reflected across club collateral and signage in due course.
Marshal & Club Etiquette
Most of you will know that I have employed a Marshal for the course. Melvin is employed on the course on most weekends and on busy days during the week.
I would like to remind everyone that you are required to be at the 1st tee, 10 minutes ahead of your tee off time. Please report to the Marshal if you arrive early as he may be able to bring forward your tee time. Please wait to be called forward to the 1st tee.
Please continue to repair your divots and pitch marks and rake your bunkers.
I am in the process of writing the term and conditions for all memberships. These include course etiquette and the dress code. Our marshal has the authority to remove anyone from the course who is not dressed appropriately or who uses abusive or threating language or threatening behavior. This type of behavior and language will not be tolerated at Bondhay Golf Club.
Fishing Ponds
We have now started work on renovating and securing the fishing pond. A chain link fence will stop unauthorised access to the lake. Our intention is to renovate the existing pegs and to replenish the fish stock before opening the lake to our members and visitors.
Halfway House
I have decided to bring back the halfway house in the orchard adjacent to the 9th Green. The footings will be in place in the next few weeks. It is likely to be completed in early 2024.
Trackman
Trackman is coming to Bondhay Golf Club. Last week I had a meeting with a representative from Trackman. I have now signed the contract to equip our 8 bays on the driving range with the latest Trackman technology.
The driving range will be painted over the coming weeks and new lighting, heaters, signage and flooring will be installed. The rear of our current kitchen will be opened up and will serve food, alcohol and refreshments to the customers of our driving range. A new seating area will also be created at the rear of the kitchen which can be used by any customers waiting to use the range. Please be patient with us as we carry out the work on the driving range.
Between 24th and 29th September, Trackman technology will be fitted to the driving range. We will need to close the driving range on a number of days to ensure that the staff can work safely. You will be able to use the range from the 30th Sept. Trackman will conduct checks over the following 3 weeks with an official launch day in mid-October.
I hope that you can see and appreciate the changes that we are making to the Club. All of these things take time and money.
We have recently seen an increase in the price of food stuff and drinks from our retailers. This will an increase in price of drinks, both soft, tea and Coffee, and alcoholic drinks by around 20p. This is likely to take place in the next few weeks.
Please continue to support the club by using the shop and the clubhouse.
Lisa Hardisty
Managing Director
I’d like to extend a big THANK YOU to all participants and raffle prize donators for this year’s Captains Charity Day in support of Alzheimer’s Society. The day it self-raised £653.00 from the Raffle and £1793.33 in total. Thank you!
My Captain’s Away Day is at Tankersley Park Golf Club on Friday 8th September 2023. This is open to all sections and has a prize table of over £2,000. My aim is that every player will get a prize. The Pro Shop are now taking bookings. The first tee time is 10:00am. The cost is £60, which includes a bacon cob and coffee on arrival, 18 holes of individual stableford golf, followed by a 2-course meal and prize presentation. I would request that everyone please bring with them a small raffle prize, as all money raised from the raffle will be donated to Bluebell Wood Hospice. Don’t worry if you cannot make the day, any raffle prizes can be left with Mackenzie in the office or in the Pro Shop.
I shall look forward to seeing you all around the club.
Carl Hough
Club Captain
We are now well and truly in the serious Competition season! It is nice that we have had a number of different winners of the competitions so far. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them.
All of our YLCGA White Rose and Weekend League competitions have now been completed. There are still a few matches to be played by other clubs before the closing date at the end of July (at the time of writing). In the White Rose we will finish in the top 10 of 43 clubs. There is still a good chance that we can finish in the top four in the Weekend League and qualify for the finals, fingers crossed. I would like to thank Sally for running the White Rose competition and Laura for running the Weekend League competition.
It was my Lady Captain’s Away Day at Elsham Golf Club on the 21st July. There were 17 of us, made up of lady members and friends and I would like to thank everyone for making it a great day. The weather was better than expected, we only got wet playing the last couple of holes. As usual there was plenty of drinking and we kept the coach driver entertained with the singing. Congratulations to all the prize winners, particularly to Sue Clark who was the overall winner with a great score.
Enjoy your golf!
Mel Clark
Lady Captain
I think it’s fair to say that a massive transformation is underway at our Golf Club, be it on the course, driving range and clubhouse. At our recent committee meeting many of the projects were presented and discussed. The next 12 months look really exciting for all our members.
Feedback to the Club is key to understanding members requests and thoughts. Comments posted into the Suggestion Box on the notice board are communicated at every committee meeting, which is also attended by Bondhay Directors and Management.
This year we would like to combine the annual dinner and dance (Saturday 2nd December) with a short, tightly controlled presentation evening. As always we will ensure the event is keenly priced to get maximum participation and if last years bash was anything to compare with a great night out is on the cards.
The social side of golf is something we would like to help develop over the next year or so and your support would be really appreciated. Shortly we will be embarking upon next year’s golf and social calendar and we will keep all informed with hopefully many new events and competitions to get involved in.
The par 3 course complimentary usage over the summer months has gone down really well with the full members and has proved a beneficial alternative, offering a quick round of golf or valuable short game practice!
And finally I would like to welcome Phil Bonewell to the committee. Phil will take over as Handicap Secretary replacing Roy Cullis who will be Bondhay Gents Captain 2024.
Mark Highfield
Secretary
As Lisa mentioned in her update, Hole In Ones haven’t been celebrated quite as they should in previous years, which didn’t make sense to us. It is a fantastic and rare achievement that deserves a place in Club history. That’s why we’ve introduced the issuing of an official certificate on achievement and the presentation of a bottle of whiskey. This was previous at a cost to the achiever and then claimed back via insurance, but this will now be issued by the Club.
It seems like an enternity since a new website was first mentioned. The sheer amount of tasks in terms of our general overhaul of club collateral unfortunately meant that the timeframe got stretched to compensate for other tasks. I’m pleased to say that I’ll be running a soft launch of various aspects of the new website over the coming month or so, after much hard work in development. A number of new pages and improvements have already been launched, including a news/blog section, easy online booking, fixtures and event listings.
From the Fixtures or Events pages of the website, you can see which events are available for you to enter online. Simple complete the application form and a member of our team will be in touch to confirm your tee-time and send you a secure payment link to collect the entry fee.
Phase 2 will see the roll-out of an online shop facility where you will be able to browse and purchase the best that the Pro Shop has to offer. We have a fair bit of internal admin to do before this can be launched, but it’s certainly something to look forward to.
A members area was originally outlined to be part of a new website, but upon further planning and investigation I have made the decision to omit this on the basis that the investment in a private area would not be worth it at this time. Memberships and bookings are handled by the newly implemented BRS app or website and fixtures are available to all via the golf section of the site. I will open further consultations on this with the committee in the future to best explore how a private area will best serve our members.
Club Fixtures have until now been posted to our social media channels on a monthly basis, but you can now view the full year’s schedule over at www.bondhaygolfclub.com/fixtures. Alongside this, online applications have been enabled for major competitions, such as the Men’s Open and Alan Hardisty Trophy. Where an online application is available, it will be listed as ‘Online’ in the entry column under Fixtures and have its own listing on the Events page.
In a highly satisfying update, the Academy Course scorecard has finally been modernised, including an extra player column and a useful course layout map. An update to the Devonshire Course scorecard will be confirmed once the remeasure is complete.
For the society golfers reading this, our usual Winter Special is back for the upcoming off-season! For as little as £35 per player you get to start the day with a bacon cob and coffee, followed by 18 holes on our stunning Devonshire championship course, before heading back into the Clubhouse for a hearty plate of pie, hand-cut chips and peas. For more information or to book your day, contact the Office or Pro Shop team.
October sees a return of non-golf events to the Club as Sheffield United, Leeds United and Rotherham United’s ex-goalkeeper Paddy Kenny brings his evening of football career tales. Tickets are priced at just £25 which includes general admission and a supper of pie, chips and peas. Meet and Greet is just £10 extra including a private meet with Paddy and signed photograph. Tickets are available to buy in person at the Club or on our website.
And finally, you may have seen on our channels that Mackenzie (Clubhouse Manager) and I have signed up to take part in the Alzheimer’s Society’s Memory Walk at Clumber Park this coming October. Our grandfather, Alan Hardisty (recently retired Managing Director of Bondhay) was diagnosed with vascular dementia last year so we have seen first-hand the effects of this unforgiving disease. A JustGiving page has been set up to collect donations and I’d be beyond grateful if you can spare anything—even a pound—for this amazing charity. Click here.
Josh Clarke
Marketing Manager
