July 2010

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In this month’s Purdis News:

• Help keep your course in tip-top condition
• Top prize for Purdis’s Andy Savage
• County ladies’ honour for Purdis pair
• Great wins for Ipswich ladies’ teams
• Tough going for juniors at Gorleston
• Seniors keep the club flag flying
• New competition and barbecue event
• Annual ball tickets go on sale
• Mystery course visitors identified
• Highs and lows of course bird life

Don’t forget to check out the new gallery for all the latest club photographs at www.ipswichgolfclub.com

Help to keep your course looking great

You will, hopefully, have recognised the improvement in the condition of the course after the much-needed sun and modest rainfall.

The greens are progressing well in smoothness and pace, but some fairways have suffered excessively and work to repair the damage has been agreed.

To supplement this work, a “divot party” is planned for Wednesday, July 7, at 5pm. Please look at the list on the noticeboard, asking for volunteers.

Your help in observing the following guidelines would also be greatly appreciated:

Bunkers 
Before leaving a bunker, players should carefully fill up and smooth over all holes and footprints. A rake should be used if there is one to hand. These should be left in the bunker, handles facing the tee and accessible for the next user.

Repair of divots, ball-marks and damage by shoes 
Players should carefully repair any divots they take. They should also repair damage to the green caused by the impact of balls landing (including those of other players). On completion of the hole, damage to the green caused by golf shoes should be repaired.

Preventing unnecessary damage 
Players should avoid causing damage to the course when taking practice swings or hitting a club into the ground, either in anger or for any other reason.

Players should ensure no damage is done to the green when putting down bags or the flagstick.To avoid causing damage, players should not stand too close to the hole and should take care when handling the flagstick or removing the ball from the hole. The head of a club should not be used to remove the ball. Players should not lean on clubs on the green, particularly when removing the ball from the hole. The flagstick should be put back in the hole properly before the players leave the green. All notices regulating the movement of golf carts should be strictly observed.

Andy’s handy win in county matchplay event

Congratulations to Purdis member Andy Savage for a fantastic victory in the Suffolk amateur matchplay championship last month.

This prestigious event, for the President’s Mashie, was held at Ipswich Golf Club. On the way to winning the title – for the first time – Andy beat Danny Western of Gorleston 4 and 3, and Ian Kitson of Woodbridge 5 and 3.  In the semi-final, he beat John Maddock, a previous winner, and in the final beat Luke Thompson of Rookery Park 4 and 3.  Well done to Andy, for a tremendous achievement. 
 

The previous weekend, also at Purdis, the county amateur strokeplay championship for the Todd Cup was won by Patrick Spraggs in fine style with rounds of 69 and 71, two under par for the day.  He beat Paul Barnard of Ipswich by one shot.   

Paul helped Ipswich win the team championship with Nathan Howe and Graham Wardley. They will represent Suffolk against the other county team champions at Woodbridge on September 11 and 12.    

County ladies’ honour for Purdis pair

Helen Bray and Sarah Howe were picked to play for Suffolk in County Week in mid-June.  Both played well against stiff opposition.  Sarah was given the task of playing number one in the singles matches and acquitted herself ably against top-class players. 
 

Great wins for Ipswich ladies
 

The ladies’ Stearn team played their preliminary round at Diss on June 7.  The team was Rosalie Skinner and Viv Parker, Kay Anderson and Vanessa Law and Trudi Laws and Tricia West. 

This was a 36-hole competition of foursomes and the team played very well with Kay and Vanessa having to go down the 37^th hole to get a result.  It was a nail-biting time with our tee shot going into the bunker and Diss landing behind a tree, just managing to get it out.  Our girl had trouble getting out of the bunker, then Diss went into the bunker with their third shot. 

Ipswichclinched the win with a long putt. What a cheer at the end!  The team, overall, won 2-1 and will be playing the next round on July 5 at Flempton against The Suffolk. 

Congratulations to the team and thanks to their caddies. 
 

The Cranworth team played their first round at home against Diss on June 24.  The team was Suzanne Lambon, Jean Tibble, Angela Key, Gloria Lee, Joyce Pearce and Sylvia Bloomfield.  This was a 36-hole competition – 18 holes of foursomes in the morning and 18 holes of singles matchplay in the afternoon.  There is a strange way of scoring – one point is won for the front nine, one point for the back nine and three points for the game. 

Sylvia was a wild card and really proved her worth.  The team worked very hard and the score was 33-12.  Congratulations to them all and thanks to their caddies. 

In the Weston, Ipswich beat Rushmere 4-1 at home, having already been victorious 5-0 in the away leg.  This is a league competition with the top two clubs from the divisions going forward to play the final.

The ladies’ invitation was held on Tuesday, June 22, when about 30 members and their guests played 18 holes aggregate stableford.

The result was: 1. – Gloria Lee. 2. – Helen Bray. 3. – Gloria Rockliff, 4. – Jackie Salmon, 5. – Joyce Caracciolo.  The front nine was won by Chrissie Grainger and the back nine by Wendy Brook.  The two nearest-the-pins were for the guests.  The day ended with a very good meal and everyone said they had enjoyed the day immensely.  It takes a lot to organise such an event and thanks go to all who helped make it go smoothly.

Tough going at Gorleston for juniors
 

The Purdis team of Ed Banyard, Josh Cottrell, Tom Hope and Lottie Whyman were up against tough opposition when they travelled to Gorleston on June 5 for the second round of the Junior Club Team Championship.   The result was a win for Gorleston by 110 points to 103. 

Congratulations to Tom Fowler who has been selected for Suffolk under-12s against Cambridgeshire. 

Forthcoming junior competitions: 

July 28 ­– Friendly match at home against Bury St Edmunds 

August 4 – Edmonds Cup 36-hole strokeplay

August 5 – Suffolk Junior Strokeplay Championship at Haverhill

(Closing date July 23 – entry forms on juniors’ noticeboard) 

August 9 – Ipswich Junior Open

Seniors keep the flag flying

Congratulations to the last Purdis men’s team left in a county competition this year. On June 4 the Beaumont Cup team (seniors with handicaps 13 to 24) beat Beccles by 21 holes which saw them safely through the second round. 

All four pairs won their matches with John Walker and Jack Greenaway seven holes up. Richard Mason and Arthur Lilley were also seven up. Colin Potten and Richard Coleman won by three holes and Roger Tibble and Alfred Reeves won by four holes. 

The reward for this emphatic win is a home draw against Woodbridge in the quarter finals.

Sign up for golf and barbecue

A new club event will be held on Friday, July 30. This is a“three clubs and putter” 10-hole competition with a barbecue to follow. See the main noticeboard – you can enter in any combination of four – eg mixed couples, all male, all female, all junior or adults and juniors (stableford – yellow and blue tees). 

There will be prizes for the best man, lady and junior score. Tee times will be from 3.30pm – pay in the pro shop (vouchers for the barbecue will be given).

Please encourage non-golfers to come to the barbecue.  There will also be a putting competition (open to golfers and non-golfers) which will be overseen by assistant professional Ryan Wingate. 

Annual ball tickets on sale

Tickets for the annual ball on Saturday, October 16, will be on sale on Saturday, July 3, in the lounge from noon until 1pm and thereafter from the bar.

Mystery visitors identified

One of the most common questions last year and this spring has been “What was that bright yellow butterfly?  I’ve not seen one here before.”

The species in question is the brimstone. The males are bright, sulphur-yellow and the females are lime-green. They are one of the few British species to hibernate as adults over winter, normally deep in clumps of ivy. When they emerge again in spring, the female lays her eggs on buckthorn bushes. These plants were rare in east Suffolk, but in recent years there has been a scheme to increase the number of bushes, orchestrated by Butterfly Conservation (a charity devoted to protecting and helping our butterflies).

Here at the golf club bushes were planted at the 5^th and 15^th holes, as none were present. It took at least five years for them to get to the right size for the butterflies, but they are now used every year, hence the gradual increase in sightings of the brimstone.

The highs and lows of course bird life

The hobbies returned to nest again in 2009, this time being more successful than 2008, raising three chicks. These birds showed very well at the end of summer generally in the area of the 9^th and 11^th holes, with the adults regularly seen bringing in food. The warm, dry weather probably helped with the successful fledging, their main foods being fast-flying birds such as swallows and also large insects such as dragonflies (they also had a good season thanks to the sunny weather).

The annual British Trust for Ornithology nestbox survey for 2009 revealed that for smaller birds it was not such a good year. Twenty-six nests were found in the surveyed boxes, 21 being blue tit and the other five occupied by great tits. The blue tits laid 184 eggs, but only 110 young fledged, with six nests failing completely. In 2008, there were 20 nests of blue tit, producing 127 young with four failures, slightly better than 2009. The great tits laid 39 eggs, but only 20 young fledged, with two nests failing. In 2008 there were six great-tit nests, one failed but they raised 35 young, much better than 2009.

Most of the abandoned nests had very small chicks in them. It seemed that the adults couldn’t find enough food to feed them. The spring period at the time in late April was very sunny, warm and dry, prompting the trees to break into leaf earlier than normal.

This meant the annual flush of caterpillars feeding on this new growth was also early, so possibly by the time the young birds were hatching the caterpillars were fully grown and had started pupating. 

The survey for 2010 has just been completed. Once the data has been collated I will put together a report, along with information on the sightings of note so far this year – there have been some exciting discoveries. 
 

Neil Sherman, conservation manager