First of all, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and belated New Year greetings to you and your families. It is great to see so many of you back here playing golf.
January has been extremely busy with more golfers than expected playing daily. Weather conditions for most of the month have been dry with temperatures very pleasant, and the Bermuda grass remains dormant with no growth due to cold overnight weather.
I have been able to complete my projects as planned. New steps have been built next to green 13, and on the ladies’ tee on hole six. This will make it much easier to get up and down especially during wet conditions. On hole 13 the lake edge has been cleaned and trimmed, allowing golfers better visibility to the green. On hole four we have cleaned out and cut the bushes on the right side of the fairway, so that you can now see your ball land from your tee shot and this also improves the aesthetics of the hole.
The new tee on hole 11 is finally open for play. The 419 turf has been regularly top dressed and fertilized over the past few months, and I’m pleased to report the turf is knitting in well. The new tee offers players a challenging tee shot. From a maintenance viewpoint the addition of the larger tee offers us the opportunity to rest the other smaller tees which are constantly being worn out due to high season play.
In 2023 we will endeavor to push all tees with regular Vertidrain works and topdressing. The general density of turf, and grass coverage is vastly improved since we started to push the tee surface during the winter of 2021/22. The solid tines (12mm) we use are penetrating the surface to a depth of 15-20cms, improving air circulation, helping water infiltration, and reducing compaction, and we will continue with this program. During the May closure all tees will be “hollow-cored” overseeding with Poa trivialis which was delayed due to the high temperatures and lack of rainfall during early autumn. I’m now pleased to report that overseeding has been completed, and for the most part germination has been good. The recent rains have helped tremendously.
This month one of the biggest Members events of the year is held on Friday, February 17th, which is the Captain’s Day carried over from 2022 and please remember we have two other important events to look forward to during the month of March – St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th and Bob Naify Trophy on the 31st March 2023. We hope to see you all attending both events!
Many new members have joined the club in the last two months, please give a warm welcome to all of them. The five different membership options are proving to be very popular, and we are delighted that the members competitions are being so well attended, played in a good spirit carried onto the terrace after the matches.
The club has also seen some new staff members joining us in January. Silvia Viroulet has started as a caddy master and is a very good addition to our caddy master / pro shop team, with Toñi Toro being promoted to Golf Shop Manager. In addition, Marina Sempere has joined the management team as Director of Finance and Administration. She will be a great asset to us, and we wish her all the best in her new role.
Don’t forget to check the Restaurant El Olivo section for more news on the F&B department. Remember we have a new drinks menu with an extensive wine list, many lovely cocktails and some fine sherry wines which are perfect to enjoy with our Iberian ham and cheese platter.
The new spring 2023 clothing collections are now arriving at the pro shop, so please stop by to check them out. We also have a variety of Solheim Cup merchandise available which is proving to be very popular.
The week from the 13th – 19th February we had the Solheim Cup trophy displayed at our club and there were different events organized by our lady ambassador Catherine Shiels during the week.
The tournaments were a huge success. We had a mixed tournament on Tuesday February 14th and a Ladies tournament on the 16th, both of them followed by a delicious meal and a prize giving at our beautiful terrace. ¡Thank you Catherine for all your hard work!
Hopefully, all of you had time to take your pictures and share them on social media with #solheimcup #vamosgirls #marbellagolf.
I hope to see you all here at the golf club and thank you for your continued support of Marbella Golf Country Club.
Monty Bordelon
General Manager
