Thursday 3 October 2013

AGM

Just a quick reminder to members that our Annual General Meeting is being held in the Clubhouse this Friday at 7.30pm

Friday 13 September 2013

Winter Projects

Just a quick update on our planned winter projects for the course this year. We will be planting some more trees around the course hopefully in November. We will also be installing more drainage into the 1st hole and in front of the 10th green. But most importantly the 7th tee is being rebuilt, I'll start the 7th at the end of winter/start of spring to ensure minimal downtime from play and the drainage works should be completed before Christmas.

Bear

Thursday 4 July 2013

Summer has finally arrived and so has the new range machine

The new driving range machine has now arrived. This new machine has an in built vibrating tipper so there is no need to hit the machine to get balls out. We will be adding new balls and tokens shortly.

The weather looks amazing for the next week or two with temperatures increasing rapidly, great weather for golf.

Bear

Friday 14 June 2013

Captains Charity Day

Hi all,

Saturday 15th June is our Captains Charity Day so the tee will be closed from 9am to 1pm but their are plenty of tee times available after that over the weekend. To those playing in the competition please feel free to bring family and friends to the auction and Disco in the evening. Members who are not playing in the comp are also invited to the evening's entertainment !!!


Happy golfing and partying !!!

Richard.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Car Park

The Car Park has now had the white lines for the parking bays completed and is fully open and looking good !!! Also check out the updated fixtures list on the latest news page of our website !!!

Richard.

Thursday 16 May 2013

Good News!

The car park resurfacing has now begun with the tarmac expected to be finished by the end of next week. The line painting will then be booked for a dry day.

We have also just replaced our irrigation pump, this will provide a far greater coverage of water over the greens. All irrigation timers are now active with the first sprinklers coming on at 9pm.

We have also just purchased a new driving ball dispenser, which should be installed within the next month.

Happy Golfing

Bear

Saturday 27 April 2013

Twilight Rate

Hi all, well spring is finally here and the course is playing superbly !!! With the light evenings now with us why not take advantage of our twilight rate, only £18.00 after 3pm for as many holes as you like !!!

Thursday 25 April 2013

Course Update

Spring is finally here! The chipping green is now open for action and a number of flags have been installed, we will cut a short teeing area to chip off very soon. The fairways are booked to be sprayed with a weedkiller within the next 2 weeks so hopefully the daisies should not be around for much longer.

The car park resurfacing is now booked to start week commencing 13th May and as before all cars be will be directed to the grassed car park for the duration of the works.

Happy Golfing

Bear

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Car park update

The car park resurfacing works have been delayed slightly, we are hoping that work will begin as soon as possible depending on variations in the weather and constraints in the fixture list. If you have any questions regarding the resurfacing works then please feel free to speak to me.

Bear

Friday 5 April 2013

Summer Rules !!!

Winter Rules have now been withdrawn and Summer Rules are now in force !!!

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Greenkeeping Update

With spring now showing signs of starting we can now move onto preparing the course for the summer season. The greens renovations are now complete with an overseed and light topdressing coming up shortly when the soil temperatures increase.

The car park upgrade is now taking shape with the gas tanks now installed and fencing works started. We are planning to tarmac the entire car park on April 8th, please note that cars will be directed onto the grass car park for a short time while the contractors complete the work.

Friday 22 March 2013

Nice feedback !!!

Everyone at Merlin,

Played in the seniors match yesterday (14th March)
Just to say what an absolute joy the day was – the course was spot on - the company was exceptional (Jim & Keith) - the lunch
was superb – your staff are an absolute credit to Merlin.
More power to your elbow!!
Thanks

Neil from Killiow

PS I nearly forgot – What about the weather? the silver lining!!!

Newsletter

Merlin Newsletter 2013

Welcome to Merlin’s first newsletter.  I would like to wish all our members a happy new golf season and after 2012 being the wettest year on record, more importantly a dry warm year!  I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our considerable number of new members, I wish you happy and successful golfing at Merlin.  If you need any help or advice please don’t hesitate in speaking to myself Richard, Club Captain: Lenny Spark, Lady Captain: Mary Turfitt, Seniors Captain: John Curtin or for our junior members Zach Burrough who are all willing to offer advice and help to integrate you into the club and it’s many competitions.

There are many benefits to memberships at Merlin.  These include:
-Half price golf at our sister club Budock Vean in Falmouth.
-County Cards which can be purchased in the pro shop which allow you half price golf at other clubs in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset & Wiltshire.
-10% discount on meals and spa treatments at Treglos Hotel which are available to Merlin Members as is a 15% discount on Merlin Apartments to friends & family of members.
-Membership cards are available in the Pro-shop which provide a 10% discount in the bar and on most shop items.
-Other benefits include reduced buggy rates and the opportunity to sign in guests at a reduced rate.
-Remember we are also available for private parties, meals, functions and golf days etc.

Over the last year we have made several improvements to the Clubhouse: refreshing the bar, improving the showers and decorating the exterior and interior of the clubhouse.  We plan to tarmac the car park late March/early April which will certainly improve the look of our club.  Our apartments have once again attained a 4 Star gold award rating and the Food Standards Agency has awarded us 5 out of 5 rating.  Other good news is our member of staff, Alana, has had a healthy baby girl, Scarlett and is due to return back to work in April.

On the course few will not have noticed the erection of our own wind turbine to make us self sufficient in electricity and so far have saved the Carbon Emissions equivalent to 40 homes for a year, 17 cars on the road, 5 flights around the world and 253 60w bulbs for a year.  110 new trees have been planted this winter to add definition to the course and the 18th pond is being remodeled and lined. New batteries are being fitted to our buggy fleet which should solve recent problems with battery life.

The Club has enjoyed considerable success over the last year reaching the semi-final of the Presidents Cup, Lennie Spark & Gerald Smith winning the Lord Lieutenants Trophy which was hosted at Merlin, Katy Rule turning Pro and Carl Burley winning the Cornwall Diamond Jubilee Trophy for best Net score during County Week.

You can now get up to date information from our new improved website www.merlingolfcourse.co.uk or you can find us on Facebook. 

We have attached a questionnaire to this newsletter for any opinions you may have on Merlin or for future improvements.  We would appreciate it if you could fill this in and return it to the pro-shop. To encourage all members to participate one questionnaire will be randomly drawn to win a bottle of champagne

I hope this newsletter has been informative, happy golfing in 2013!!  Richard Burrough, Club Manager.

Sunday 17 March 2013

Greens maintenance update.

If the weather forecast stays as it is for this week then we will be bringing forward the spring renovations to the greens. I am hoping to tine on Monday/Tuesday (18th and 19th March) with topdressing being applied on Wednesday (hopefully). We will be using 18mm solid tines rather than the hollow coring tines we normally use this time of the year. I would hope and expect there to be far less disruption to play and a quicker recovery time than in previous years. 

The Bear
Head Greenkeeper

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Bears Greenkeeping Blog March 2013

Hello all.

Welcome to our new blog from the greenkeeping department. I will be updating this page regularly to keep you fully informed of all matters relating to the golf course and our maintenance operations.

I must start by thanking our members for your support and compliments throughout what has been the wettest year on record.The weather has had a detrimental impact on our maintenance regimes this year, but we are now in a very good position coming into the new season. During the winter we have been uncovering  and repairing several drains around the course to allow some relief for the usual wet areas, some of these will be GUR for a short time.

This winter also saw us planting trees around the course. We planted 110 Austrian pine pinus nigra nigra trees in strategic locations on several holes. We invested heavily in higher quality tree guards that seem to be withstanding the extreme weather, to this date all trees are still alive. We are looking at other areas around the course to establish tree copses next winter, if you have any ideas or suggestions on possible areas to plant trees then please feel free to speak to me.

I am hoping to seed and topdress the trenches from the wind turbine cables in the early part of spring when the soil temperatures are adequate for seed germination. The area around the turbine shed on the 16th will also be renovated in the spring and I'm hoping to get all GUR areas back in play early summer. As some of you may have noticed we had to re-build the 18th pond to allow the cable trench to run straight. We have purchased a new liner to install when the water level recedes.

We have begun the reconstruction of the car park. Over the next couple of weeks there will be new gas tanks and pipelines installed with new fencing enclosing them away from view. Once the tanks have been installed we will then be resurfacing the whole car park with tarmac and painting car parking bays. There may be some minor disruption to parking during these works but the end result will be well worth it.

This year we are using 18mm solid tines to renovate the greens instead of using hollow core tines. This means there should be less disruption to play whilst allowing a higher quantity of dressing to be applied directly into the soil profile. Throughout the year you may also notice an increase in the amount of dressing being applied to the greens, this will allow us to provide a far better putting surface and improve the greens surface drainage. I am currently looking to renovate the greens mid April but we may bring this forward if the weather is kind to us. I will post updates to this blog when any major works are planned.

Please feel free to stop and speak to me if you have any questions about the work we are doing to the course.

The Bear
Head Greenkeeper