(Continued fom the February issue of the Monthy Newsletter)

HISTORY OF ST. ANDREW'S GOLF CLUB - PART II

As recorded by two of our members, John Sellier and Gregory Wight.
We start off part two with the Committee's decision to seek an alternative site for the Golf Club after a warning from the Acting Governor of their uncertain future.

As an indication of the crisis facing the Club at the time, the Committee met again a week later on 20 January 1930. The mattler of the meeting by Committee members, Hutchinson, Sellier and Henri de Boissiere with Colonel De Boissiere arose and it was reported "that the area in question was covered in bush and Col. De Boissiere was prepared to sell the parcel of land for -20 per acre". The Colonel estimated the area "to be about fifty acres". It was agreed that an arrangement be made for the Committee to closely inspect the land in question.

It has to be assumed that the Committee was impressed by what they saw on their visit to the site because at a meeting on 3rd February 1930, the Secretary was instructed to ask Col. De Boissiere whether he would be prepared to give the Club an option to purchase an additional 50 to 57 acres if they agreed to buy the 50 acres which he had indicated he was prepared to sell. At a meeting held on 13 February 1930 the Committee "asked Mr. Macgillivery to survey the land suggested by Col. De Boissiere for a Golf Course".

On 3 March 1930 the Secretary "placed a map of the land at Champs Elysees before the Committee". Messrs. Sellier and De Boissiere were requested to meet with Col. De Boissiere for a discussion on the price of the land but they asked to be excused as interested parties (J. D. Sellier & Co. were Col. De Boissiere's Legal representatives and Henri de Boissiere may have been related). Donald Mc Bride and Geo. de Nobriga agreed to meet with Col. De Boissiere.

On 28 April 1930 the Committee appointed a Sub-Committee to deal with the "establishment of a Club" at Maraval comprising Messrs. George de Nobriga, Frank Haynes, Robert Sellier; B. H. Rose and the Secretary, Henri De Boissiere. They were asked to report within one month.

On Thursday 22nd May 1930 the Committee agreed to adopt the Sub-Committee's recommendation of forming a new Club and acquiring land at Maraval for the purpose. Unfortunately the report does not appear in the Minutes and is therefore not available.

On the 10th of June 1930 the Secretary reported to the Committee that he had a very unsatisfactory response to his circular letter to Members in respect to the proposals for the formation of a new Golf Course in Maraval. Howevre, in retrospect, it should be noted that only few circular letters ever get a significant response from persons receiving them.

In spite of this setback the Committee persisted and finally, at a Meeting of the Committee on 22 September 1930, it was decided to adopt the report prepared by Messrs. Geo. De Nobriga and Frank Haynes (copy attached) and place their proposal before a Special General Meeting of the Club to be held on Monday 6th October at 8:30 p.m. at the Queen's Park Hotel.

The meeting was duly held and (50) members attended. The only question recorded was asked by Mr Mc Bride who wanted to know "when Government would require the Golf Club to give up the Golf Course at St James?"

The Colonial Secretary who was present was unable to say when the Club would be asked to give up the land in question. Mr Mc Bride then moved and seconded by Mr D. Fraser that the Committee, acting as Trustees of the Co. to be formed, be authorized to purchase 90 acres more or less of the Champs Elysees Estate at Maraval and $ 1,000 be advanced to Col. De Boissiere from Club funds. There were apparently no dissenters. Those present reads like a "who's who" of Trinidad Government, Business and Commerce of the time, and many of these family names remain prominent in Trinidad and Tobago today as per the following listing:

It is not easy because of the passage of time to select the individuals who should be given the credit for ensuring the future of St Andrew's Golf Club and therefore golf in the north west of Trinidad (i.e. Port-of-Spain). However; it would be fair to say either my father; Robert Sellier; or his golfing friend, Henri De Boissiere, or both of them first mooted the idea of Champs Elysees Estate, Maraval. Much credit must also be given to Messrs. Packer Hutchinson, B. H. Rose and Donald Mc Bride who took his time to join the group but in the end his support was invaluable. Finally Messrs. De Nobriga and Haynes, who did all the hard work of getting members to put up their precious hard-earned cash in the middle of an international recession, is remarkable.

Mr De Nobriga, who was so instrumental in promoting the land purchase, was determined that a golf architect should be involved in the course design and, through personal contacts in London, got one of the best golf course designers in the world, H. S. "Harry" Colt to do the job which so intrigued Mr Colt that he agreed to do it for nothing. Incidentally, H. S. Colt was responsible for many famous courses on both sides of the Atlantic including Wentworth, Sunningdale and St Georges Hill in the United Kingdom and the famous Pine Valley in the United States.

The Company sold some of the peripheral Champs Elysees property to help finance the new course and part of the property that was unsuitable for Golf. This area was sold after World War II and is now St Andrew's Terrace.

It took four years to arrange the finance and then build the first nine holes which were all on the south side of Golf Club Road and nearly two years to build the Club House. The second nine was completed in 1938. Therefore, the Club was 39 years old when its members acquired their own freehold property and (43) years before its members no longer had to share their Golf Course with tram cars, grazing cattle, mounted constabulary, football, cricket and, not to forget, horse racing.

According to the Minutes of a Special General Meeting of the Club held on 22 October 1934, it was proposed that the members of the Club approve the proposals set out in the agenda attached. There was some discussion and on a motion proposed by Robert Sellier and seconded by Clifford Trestrail, the members unanimously agreed to the Committee's Agenda with an alteration to the tenure from five to ten years and also to change the commencement date from July 1934 to 1st January 1935.

So it came to pass the members of St Andrews Golf Club after 43 years of playing golf on land leased from Government now determined their own destiny through a Company controlled by members of the Club. In another article, we will attempt to trace the Club's relationship withMaraval Lands Limited and the move to its fourth location further north in the Maraval Valley

Our General Manager, Maria Nunes, and our Course Superintendent, Vedath Singh attended the annual Golf Industry Show and Educational Seminars in February which was jointly hosted by the NGCOA and the GCSAA.

In 2004 St. Andrew's Golf Club joined the US based National Golf Course Owner's Association, NGCOA, as a means of keeping abreast with the latest developments and trends in the golf industry internationally and in December 2004 Vedath joined the international chapter of the Golf Superintendent's Association of America, GCSAA

General Manager's Report
The NGCOA Solutions Summit education conference ran concurrently with the Golf Industry Show. The conference attracted more than 1,000 golf course owners, operators and industry officials with 31 educational sessions.

On February 8th I attended four pre-conference sessions: Brand Building, Vendor Relations, Human Resources and Chart of Accounts. With our logo just having been re-designed I was pleased to see that our thinking was very much in line with the ideas being suggested in the Brand Building session in terms of encouraging clubs to look at what were the distinguishing features of their course and to focus on using those to "brand" their course in the minds of members and visitors alike. The idea being that the "identity" of a golf course is comprised of more than a logo.

Educational Conferences
The highlight was the session on Golf Course Revitalization which was very relevant to the issues we currently face and was presented by Ty Butler, Vp, Sr. Project Designer, Robert Trent Jones II, LLC; Mike Dasher, President, Dasher Golf Design. The other seminars I attended were: Getting to the Heart of Customer Satisfaction, Tournament Roundtable, and How to Start, Improve and Certify Your Caddie Program. 

The closing session of the Golf Industry show was a panel discussion on the State of the Industry. This was truly worthwhile as there was the stellar panel of Jim Awtrey, Executive Director & CEO, PGA of America; Tim Finchem, Commissioner, PGA TOUR; Mike Hughes, Executive Director, NGCOA; Steve Mona, CEO, GCSAA; and Fred Ridley, President, USGA. They hosted a very informative discussion which looked at what had been achieved in this last year to promote the health of golf, as well a looking at the critical issues facing the golf industry like the impact of equipment technology on older courses.

Course Superintendent's Report (to be featured in the next newsletter) 2006 Golf Industry Show. The February 2006 Golf Industry show is scheduled to take place in New Orleans. In 2007 the Club Manager's Association of America will be joining the GCSAA and the NGCOA in hosting the Golf Industry Show.

RESULTS OF SOIL AUDIT

by Vedath Singh - Superintendent

Carlos Baynes successfully defended the title in the Championship Division of the AMBL/Tatil Open Golf Championships in dramatic style when he chipped in for a birdie on the final hole. Baynes started the second and final day tied for the lead with Patrick Boocock and one shot ahead of teenager Robert Llanos and 2005 BEWIL Champion Mitchum Jasper. Baynes took a two-stroke lead after the first nine holes, with two birdies on the front nine, but then bogeyed the 11th to open the door for a Boocock fight back. Boocock birdied the 15th and Baynes bogeyed the 16th for the players to be tied with two holes to play. After both parred the 17th , their second shots on 18 ended up on the right fringe in close proximity to each other. "Sexy" went first and chipped in Baynes which left Boocock just shaking his head. Patrick then gave his shot a good roll, but slid by. Baynes finished with a 2nd Day score of 71 to win by one stroke with a two-day total of 146. Robert Llanos finished third on 150.

In the Ladies Category, young Victoria Seenath registered her first win in a TTGA Event, after a fine 74 on the opening day. On the second day, she held on to beat defending Champion Tracey Clarke by 4 strokes. Maria Nunes grabbed the Ladies net prize with one under 143 for the two days. Ray Roberts took the Senior Category with 152, ahead of Teddy Grell by two strokes. Junior golfers grabbed two of the first three spots in the Men's First Flight, with Jonathon Low taking first place from Reynold Deonath by 2 shots. Pint-sized Sirron Melville was third.

With the AMBL/Tatil postponed from January because of the bad weather, Pat Suraj was still in town and was a runaway winner of the Super Seniors with a 2-day total of 144, nine shots clear of defending champion Asraph Ali, with Robert Grell back in third. The sponsors were well represented at the Presentation function and committed to supporting this tournament again in 2006.

The 17 th Annual Carnation T&T Ladies Open Golf Championship was held from April 8-10 this year. It was the first time ever that the championship flight was played over three days off the white tees. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd flights played on Saturday and Sunday off the reds.

As the tournament had to be postponed from its usual spot, in our golfing calendar we had fewer overseas entries. This year, as always, we were supported by the ladies of Suriname and Aruba. For the first time, we welcomed two players from the Bahamas.

Great golf was played and for the first time the winners in each of the flights were members of our club. Everyone enjoyed this very successful tournament and we are grateful to the continued support of our sponsors.

Winners Row at Carnation: L to R
Patricia Inglefield, Ladies Captain, Martine de Gannes, Judy Stewart, Catherine Clarke, Chris Cape and Rhonda Richardson, Consumer Relationships Marketing Manager of Nestle.

On Friday March 18 we hosted the Jaguar Unleashed Golf Tournament. This Texas Scramble Invitational Tournament was played by teams of 4 with 3 drives counting on each hole. A vibrant red Jaguar sat perched on the 7th Tee Box just begging to be won by the first Hole-in-One and eighty-eight golfers tried their luck but no one was successful.  

The first 5 teams won prizes with the 1st place team winning G2 Drivers. Champagne flowed in the evening and a good time was had by all.

Jaguar Unleashed Golf Tournament - March 18, 2005
Winning Teams
1st -Ray Roberts, Mel Rundle, Robert Lazzari & Ian Stone
2nd -Rasheed Ali, Jean de Meillac ,Steve Anderson, David English
3rd-Penny Mendonca, Jacqueline Niles, Bob Delaney, Cheryl Lee Kong
4th-John de Gannes, Stephen Mackay, Haven Allaha, Desmond Allum
5th- Allan Abraham, Bill Ramrattan, Talin Rajendranath, Klaus Cronberger

Nearest the Pin
5th Haroon Joseph - 7th Patricia Inglefield - 11th Ash Ali - 15th Klaus Cronberger

The Cotton Tree Foundation Charity Golf Tournament was held at St. Andrew's on April 13. President George Maxwell Richards, Patron of the foundation, gave a short speech of support for the foundation to open the tournament at 8:30am.

8 South African Cricketers teed off among our own cricketers past and present: Brian Lara, Desmond Haynes and Ian Bishop.

At the presentation of prizes and auction Nikki Crosby had the crowd in stitches of laughter. The auction of a bat signed by Brian Lara and Sir. Garfield Sobers with the dates that they had each won their record titles went for $20,000. The President was once again on hand to support the foundation and presented the top three prizes.

COTTON TREE FOUNDATION CHARITY TOURNAMENT
April 13, 2005
1st Place - Petrotrin - Jeremy Matouk , Michael Montano
2nd Place - Eastman Associates/Terminex - Sean Boyce , Ray Jaggernauth
3rd Place - Paramount Trading - Anwar Ali , Sonny Maharaj

THE GAME OF GOLF STARTS AT THE GOLF HOLE

There are several aspects of this crazy game that we love and, in spite of so many disappointments, somehow we keep coming back for more. Amazing!!

We all expect every time we tee it up, today we are going to tear up the course, because we are very human and have had so many positive thoughts about our game since we last played, we have satisfied ourselves that we are really are quite good, granted we made some errors last game when we topped the ball on the fairway or missed a one foot putt (we didn't really try but today we will), but that won't happen again, I mean we saw on Golf Channel what we did wrong and we have done it successfully so often before, not today, we are not going to make those stupid mistakes again, so off we go, and we drive off on the first hole...

Maybe we hold it together for a couple holes and even have some good pars and hit some great shots, then something happens and we have the dreaded triple bogey...again...just what we knew we would avoid and couldn't happen to us again. Damn...Why did that happen?

Let's take a look at our game.

We knew when we stood on the tee that we had to hit it good, a nice long one, so we could be in striking range of the green so that our second shot would not be too long, and we could hit it on the green for two, giving us a chance for birdie or at worst a par. So we try to hit it hard.... mistake.... the ball goes where it wants, long but left, we now have 200 yds to the green, not exactly what we had in mind. Anyway we have hit great shots before so we can do it again, we must get on the green, so we pull 3 wood and crush it! Great shot, but it's over the green...l hit it so well! Anyway, we will just chip it close and sink the putt. We are not putting too well, just missed the four footer on the last so have to get it inside two feet to be sure to save par...pressure building up.

So we check it out carefully, read the grain, consider the slope, remember how we hit it last time, get a quick thought from a lesson we had last year choose a club, make a couple practice swings and proceed to duff the shot as the connection between the brain and the hands somehow broke down!!!

We realize the we just froze, the pressure of having to get the ball so close to be able to make the pull just killed us!!

What the hell went wrong? We practice on the range, we hit balls till we are sick, we watch Golf Channel, we listen to all the big golfers at the club about what to do and we still mess up.!! What's wrong??

Maybe it's our whole approach to the game..?? Why is that, now could that be?

Let's take a look.

Hit the ball from the tee ...long... hit t on the green, close to the hole...make 2 putts easy par. Except when we don't hit this longdrive, or don't hit it close or on the green, we dead!

The aim of the game is to get the golf ball in the hole. Right?

Maybe we should start from the bole and work backwards to the tee? Lets look at it.

If we could make the 5-6ft putts, then we don't have to get so close to the hole, so we don't have to hit tne green every time, so we don't have to hit the long precise drive every time either; hey maybe this makes sense, may be the game really starts at the hole, with the putts??

When we start the juniors off at the game, we first take them to the putting green and get them to putt. When they learn that, we try them with the short chips, then the longer ones, the irons then the woods last. Of course, all want to blast the woods but we try to hold that off awhile. So why should it be any different for us?

Let's get our putting in sync. So let's practice our short putts (say a putter length) until we are so good that we can't miss, (say we do about 40 without mssing one, if we miss we start over). Then we move out a bit till we are comfortable with the six footers (we will never make all). Once we have that covered and we know we can make the putts, then we know we don't HAVE to put the pitches and chips so close, because we can now make the putts, we ease the pressure there, (we need to practice the short game too). Then, because we can chip and putt we don't HAVE to hit our second shots so near the green, so less pressure on our approach shots, then we don't HAVE to hit such a long perfect drive because the rest of the game wiil get us to the hole, so no pressure on the drive.

Just get up and hit the ball towards the big green, or somewhere in that direction, it's that simple. The rest is that easy too.

This thinking makes the game of golf much easier and much more realistic because it really is a game of correction, we are constantly correcting the direction of the golf ball until it reaches its destination, so we just can not hit perfect golf shots unless we hit it directly into the hole every time (a perfect round of golf is a score of 18).

The game then really starts at the golf hole, by making the short putts. It does NOT start on tne tee box as we like to feel. So let's change our practice schedule so that we can put some more time where it matters most...WITH THE SHORT GAME. Let's learn to get the golf ball up and down, from around the green, learn the various chip and pitch shots, how to run the ball to the hole and how to stop the ball near the hole. When you have mastered that, then you will soon see the long drives and strong second shots will come, and the whole game becomes so much easier and much more fun.

Mental pressure too is one of the main concerns of the game, so we must try to make it mentally easy, maybe if we don't take it all so seriously it will help us too.

The primary thought is that we must always remember: THIS IS A GAME, LEARN TO ENJOY IT. Both the good times and the bad. SMILE.

In any round of a handicap competition, the competitor must ensure that his handicap is recorded on his score card before it is returned to the Committee. If no handicap is recorded on his score card before it is returned (Rule 6-6b), or if the recorded handicap is higher than that to which he is entitled and this affects the member of strokes received, he is disqualified from the handicap competition; otherwise, the score stands.

Note: It is the player's responsibility to know the holes at which handicap strokes are to be given or received.

Q. In a stroke-play competition, the Committee issues the scorecards containing the competitor's handicap in addition to his name and the date.

The Committee mistakenly records a competitor's handicap as seven instead of six and this affects the number of strokes received. The error remains unnoticed until after the card is returned, but before the competition has closed. What is the ruling?

A. The competitor should be disqualified under Rule 6-2b. It is the responsibility of the competitor to ensure that his correct handicap is recorded on his score card before it is returned to the Committe

This tournament was the success it was in no small part through the efforts of volunteers Angela & Lloyd Hodgkinson, Max Sobrien, Amoy Chang Fong, Ralph & Maria Chan, Eddie Kidman, Arthur Foster, Pauline Raynor, Julie Chatoor, Kelsey Lou Hing, Martine de Gannes, Sharon Arneaud, Bridget Andrews, Nigel Aqui, Gregory Lym, Sigrunn Lillelokken and Patricia Inglefield.

The 2005 Trinidad and Tobago Open provided the most exciting finish for many years when Dion Gonsalves dethroned Trevor Levine of St.Kitts after four playoff holes.
The large crowd gathered at the clubhouse were keen onlookers for a full hour as the two players came down the 18th five times on the fourth and final day to settle the issue. In the end, Gonsalves, who finished runner up in 2003, held his nerves to win his first T&T Open title.

Gonsalves set his win up with scores of 67 and 69 on the first two days. Carlos Sexy Baynes stormed back into contention on the third day, but he shot a 79 on the last to finish three strokes back in third. Teenagers Simon Merry and Ben Martin tied for 4th spot on 292, five strokes off the lead.

In the Seniors Category, Arjoon Samlal shot a second day 71 to take the lead and then hold off Teddy Grell and Ray Roberts respectively, winning by 4 shots. Pat Suraj flew in from Canada and fought off back trouble to win the Super Seniors by five shots from Peter Hale.

Ahamad Ali edged out Reynold Deonath by one shot to take the Men's First Flight. Third place gross went to Haafiz Hassanali Jnr., who recorded a 19 under par net score of 269 over the four days.

Playing off a 14 handicap, young Hassanali recorded scores of 78 and 80 on the second and third days. He is now playing off nine.

The event was again well supported by the sponsors with newcomers this year in Baptist International Centre, which provided massage sessions for the players.

PRIME PLAYING TIME IS:  

SATURDAYS/SUNDAYS
6 AM - 8 AM & 12 NOON - 2 PM

WEEKDAYS/PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
12 NOON - 2PM

Only full playing members and qualified juniors (17 handicap or better) may play in prime time.

Members are reminded of the following:

•  When booking a tee time the names of all players must be given.

•  Bookings may be made no more than 2 days in advance.

•  Members must confirm with the starter before going to the tee.

•  No more than 2 tee times will be given to any one member.

An Adult playing with a Junior gives up his or her seniority.

St. Andrew's
Golf Club
P.O. Box 3403
Moka, Maraval
Trinidad, W.I.

Office:
868-629-0066
868-629-6187-8

Fax:
868-629-0411

Starter/
After Hours
868-629-2314