In this letter:
Chairman’s Report
From the General Manager
Golf Course Report
Golf Operations
Fauna and Flora
Water Status
Waterberg MTB Encounter
General
Important Dates
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Elements Private Golf Reserve Newsletter June 2018
I would like to once again thank all
the Owners who attended the AGM
in June, and to welcome Thomas
Robbertse to the Board. Thomas has
taken over the property portfolio
from Thys, who is now taking a well
deserved break.
We were presented with a hotel
concept at the AGM which was very
well received, with a number of
suggestions which the developers are
incorporating in their design. We
have agreed that the developer can
continue with a due diligence process
to confirm their estimated costs and,
all things being good, we will then
proceed to an MOU stage.
The idea behind the hotel is that the
rooms will be supplied with a bar
fridge but will have no catering
facilities, so that they do not
compete with the Lodges which will
soon be developed on our Reserve. All
meals will be served by our
clubhouse, which will obviously be a
financial windfall for the catering
budget.
Winter is well and truly upon us, but
our fairways are ignoring it and are
still in great condition, thanks to the
efforts of our greenkeepers and golf
management team and the water that
we are pouring onto the fairways.
News of the condition of our course
is spreading and our weekends are
still well attended, even in the heart
of winter.
The 9th is now surrounded by water,
and the dam level slowly inches
upwards as we continue to pump
water into it. It appears that there
is no leak and all it needed was some
water.
Finally, a big thank you to Chris
Elfick, Norman Kok, Conradt Meyer,
Gerhart Meyer, Gerrit Eloff, Jan
Labuschagne and Wayne Hinsch who,
despite having served on the Board
last year, (and in some cases for 2
and 3 years), agreed to provide their
valuable time in Managing our
Reserve for another year. I think the
vote of confidence that the Owners
have in their abilities was
demonstrated by the low attendance
at the AGM which we all decided to
take as a positive sign…..
Chairman’s Report
Winter has set in good and proper.
We have experienced several
mornings with severe frost. Good
news is that the course is holding up
well, as predicted, and the fairways
are still as green as can be
expected. It’s hard to believe that
the winter solstice has already
passed and spring is on its’ way.
Two significant events took place
during the month: The Liberty
Waterberg Mountain Bike race was
hosted and the Annual General
Meeting of the Body Corporate was
also held, both with only positive
feedback.
Following the meeting a
presentation was made on a
proposed hotel development on the
Hotel stand behind the Clubhouse.
If this proceeds, it will represent a
huge step forward for Elements,
and both parties will work closely
together in an attempt to make it
happen.
From the General Manager
There have been no changes to the
course since the last report in the
May newsletter. It remains in great
condition and is fun to play,
especially now that there is a little
more run on the fairways.
The greenkeeping staff members are
focusing on attention to detail as
usual during the slow growing winter
months.
Three of the wild grass beds near
the 18th green complex have been
cleared out and prepared for
planting new wild grasses and some
small trees, which will be done in the
spring. We have wild grasses hiding
the beautiful rock walls behind two
of the tees on the first hole and on
the practice putting green which will
be removed to expose the rock
features.
This will also be completed in the
spring. All the damage to the rock
work between the cart barn and the
driving range together with the 11th
hole is going to be repaired.
The 9th/18th dam continues to fill
steadily and is now 71cm deep. It is
filling at a rate of 1.0 million liters in
20 days. At this rate it will take
almost one year to reach capacity
without any inflow from rain.
Perhaps early rain will be kind to us
and fill the dam overnight!!!
Golf Course Report
Rounds of golf played once again were
on target, with 778 rounds played
against our budget of 800. Rounds
played year to date are 3,290 against
budget forecast of 3,300. Green fee
revenue is 9% below budget and this
is the result of the mix of players. On
the positive side, more rounds are
being played by members and member
guests than forecast. Golf cart
revenue per round is spot on budget
forecast.
Merchandise sales have continued
strongly and are currently 11% ahead
of budget.
The months of July and August are
typically the lowest of the year and
then rounds pick up again from
September onwards. Elements has
the perfect climate to play winter
golf, so don’t be put off by the cold
weather. Come and enjoy a relaxed
round or two in these perfect
windless winter conditions. We know
you will enjoy every moment.
Golf Operations
Member36%
Member Jnr2%
Member Guest35%
Member Guest Jnr
13%
Group 8-3614%
TOTAL
James Kingston, former South African Open
Champion and current player on the Senior
Tour, with Gavin Hart, Chairman of the Board.
“To catch the reader's
attention, place an
interesting sentence or quote
from the story here.”
During the last month it was
definitely clear that winter is upon
us, with regular morning frost on the
course, windy days and cold nights.
Crested Francolins, Helmeted Guinea
Fowl and Natal Spurfowl are regular
visitors on the golf course, as well as
a resident mob of Banded Mongoose.
There were regular sightings of a
Lizard Buzzard around the 8th, 9th
and 18th holes; he seems to have
claimed his territory for the coming
breeding season.
Other bird sightings during the
month included Bronze Mannikin,
Cape White-Eye, Black-headed
Oriole and Lilac-breasted Roller.
A few exceptional sightings around
the estate were of an African Civet
These nocturnal animals are most
active about an hour or so after dark
when they search for insects, mice,
reptiles, frogs, and birds, and they
will, on occasion, even scavenge and
eat fruit.
Fauna and Flora
Borehole 18 has been equipped
with a 7.5kW pump capable of
delivering 9,000 litres per hour.
The tee piece has been fitted and
the pipe line linked into the
pipeline from the 8th borehole to
the 9th dam. A meter has also
been fitted. The borehole is
currently pumping successfully
into the 9th/18th dam.
During the month the 9th
borehole, which is the strongest
on the property, gave trouble.
The hole delivers 250,000 liters
per day and it is critical that it
works continuously. The pump was
pulled and fortunately the fault
was a minor one. This has been
repaired and the pump has been
reinstalled. It is functioning well
again.
Borehole 16 is also faulty and will
be pulled immediately, now that
work on 9 has been completed.
All the equipment required for
Waterberg has been ordered and
paid for. This includes the
upgraded transformer from
Eskom which has a lead time of
three months. The installation of
the changes to this pump station
will be scheduled to take place in
advance of the delivery of the
transformer.
All the equipment for the
Newburg installation has been
paid for and ordered. The longest
lead time is on the reservoir
which has to be manufactured,
and this is 4 to 5 weeks from
date of order. The installation
contractor has been reserved
from 9th July to equip the
borehole, which will take
approximately one week.
In the meanwhile the trench,
which is 50 cm deep, is almost
60% complete. As soon as the
pipes are delivered they will be
installed, which will coincide with
equipping the borehole. Once the
piping has been completed the
cable will be delivered and laid in
the trench, and the trench will be
closed immediately. Current
target is to have this borehole
operational by the end of July.
The borehole serving the hide
dam is doing well and the dam is
filling by up to 1.5 cm per day.
With the reeds having been
removed, the dam is currently
looking good and attracting game.
Water Status
The Waterberg MTB Encounter
hosted on the 8th, 9th and 10th June
was once again a huge success. 190
entrants enjoyed the track,
entertainment and facilities at
Elements. We again partnered with
Sondela, who provided the food
service while we provided the
facilities, accommodation and bar
service.
Food service was available to 200
participants at the dinner on both
Friday and Saturday nights. Official
feedback from both ASG, the
organisers, and through social media
was 100% positive.
We have made our services and
facilities available for the same event
again next year.
Waterberg MTB Encounter
Important Dates
01 November 2018
27 & 28 April 2019
SAGES Cansa Day
Club Championships 2019
The new Slope and Course rating
system will go live on Monday, 3rd
September. Every club has the
responsibility to communicate these
changes to all members during
August.
Salient points in the new process are:
Handicaps as we know them
will disappear.
Players will have a Handicap
Index based at their home
club.
Every time another course is
played, players will be
required to swipe their card,
choose a tee colour to play
off, and the system will issue
the player with a Course
Handicap for that round.
All references to gender have
been removed from the
system.
All tees will be known by only
their colour.
Standard colours are yellow,
white, blue and red.
On courses that have 4 sets
of tees such as Elements,
SAGA has rated all four sets.
Players will be able to choose
whatever set of tees they
want to play off and their
Course Handicap will be
provided accordingly.
On courses that have 4 sets
of tees such as Elements,
Women’s Golf has rated the
front two sets of tees for
lady players.
The stroke index theory has
been completely revised. In
the past it was based on the
most difficult hole, which was
stroked as 1, and the easiest
hole as 18.
The revised theory is that
par 5 holes will have the
lowest strokes, followed by
par 4 holes, and par 3 holes
will have the highest
strokes.
Odd numbers are allocated to
strokes on the front 9 holes
and even numbers on the back
9.
Strokes will in future be
evenly spread throughout the
course and grouped into
clusters of 3 holes.
Each set of three holes on
the first 9 holes should total
as close to 27 as possible and
each set of 3 holes on the
back 9 holes should total as
close to 30 as possible.
Our proposed new strokes
have been agreed to by SAGA
and will be reflected on the
new score card.
General
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