Mougins, October 2015
Dear member,
While writing this newsletter we are all still in
shock of the aftermath of the terrible storm we experienced Saturday evening
and night. More than 200mm (8 in) of rain fell
on the Cannes region in two hours causing havoc and killing more than 24
people. Our thoughts are with them and those close to them.
Golf
Course.
With this unprecedented weather, we
were very lucky at Royal Mougins. Nothing but material damage to the course and
the hotel. We lost the pedestrian bridge at the 6th green and
unfortunately the majority of the sand from the bunkers has completely washed
away. This has now been assessed by our experts and the insurance company and
we are going to start the programme of repairing them. We could not do anything
before everything was assessed.
We will start with the greenside
bunkers and then move to the fairways. Your patience has been greatly
appreciated and while the fairways only had a few dead fish on them the rest of
the grass areas escaped compared to the other courses on the Riviera. Rest assured that we are doing everything to
repair and restore as soon as possible. One piece of good news for the bunkers
is the arrival of our Course Architect this Sunday, Rick Baril of Von Hagge, to
look at Phase 2 for the bunkers and the overall Masterplan for the Grassing
Lines and the new Irrigation system. He will spend a few days with Turfgrass,
our new Irrigation Consultant and the Course Manager to assess all areas.
Fairways held up very well and were
dry 2 days after the flooding. We will continue to topdress these for
consistency and drainage. The 13th fairway continues to improve and
has improved no end compared to last year especially given the record heat we
had this summer. While the 13th is our weakest fairway, we had less
die back this year. Overseeding through the Autumn will continue.
The planned spiking on Tuesday the 6th
was performed as planned. This worked out well despite the inclement weather.
The greens were heavily topdressed after and we will continue to do so on a
weekly basis as this will improve surface roll and texture of the grass for the
future. We do apologise for any small inconvenience but this light topdressing
from now on should not affect play at all and will only help to improve
conditioning. During this time last year we were suffering from one of the
worst outbreaks of Dollar Spot and thankfully we can report that there is no
problem this year. We are going into the winter with much stronger greens and
the Greenstaff must be commended for this.
Our tree management programme has
started and some of you might notice the removal of certain trees and shrubs
that have grown over the past 15 years and completely obscured the view and
playability of certain shots. An example of this is on the 5th Hole
where the scrub was blocking the view to the right side of the green. This has
now been cleared. Our aim is to open the holes back up again by bringing the
course back to the original planting where we can. We are focusing on some of
the dangerous trees on the course and will then move to the line of sight trees
and those that affect shade and light around greens and tees. We have
contractors working on the larger trees but a special thanks must go out to
Remy and his team for the work they have done.
Fall
is the spring of winter.
Once again we ask for patience as we
restore the bunkers and take into consideration the works that will be
performed on these during the winter. This information shall be presented in
the next Newsletter.
Restaurant
Please note that our restaurant will be open for
dinner all throughout the winter time from Tuesdays thru Saturdays. Please
check the blog or ask our team for special theme evenings with live music. The
Bar will stay open every evening till 8pm. We’ll be looking forward to seeing
you all through the winter period.
Spa
As of October the 15th we have entered into
a joint venture with Christelle Tortorici of Groupe Thalassotel. Farah and her
team have done a more than great job over the past almost 2 years. Exactly the
reason why we wanted to keep her on as manager and ‘face’ of our Spa.
Unfortunately Farah has declined this offer which decision we have to respect.
I wish her nothing but success in her new venture. Seeing her go is a setback
for our Spa and Royal Mougins.
Christelle Tortorici will contact you soon with
special offers as members will of course continue to receive certain discounts,
etc.
The new brand will be SODASHI which today is only used
in France at the Spa of the Four Seasons George V in Paris. The Spa will be
open year round 7/7 from 10am till 8pm.
"Sometimes the most productive thing you
can do is relax."
AS/RMGC sports
teams
As our Club has but a few very low handicap players
who are also willing to participate in the several teams, the need to find a
solution arose as we as RLGC wanted to be present at the several competitions.
Therefore some time ago, upon request from Hans-Peter
Franklin (Club Captain), Christian Simonsen,
Stéphane Damiano and the entire AS Board, we (Rattan Chadha and the
management) decided to offer the possibility to attract a maximum of 10 very
low handicap players in order to play in the teams and represent RMGC in any
important competition. This to further develop the sporty side of the club and
have a RMGC presence where there was none before.
The deal (as is common practice in other clubs) is:
-
Low handicap
-
Preferable under the age of 35
-
Yearly fee of 1.500,-
-
Obligation to play in the first or
Mid-Amateur teams
-
Costs for competitions to be paid (in
part) by the AS
-
Authorization to play RMGC
-
Maximum duration 3 years but to be
renewed each year after evaluation
-
Have to remain in good standing and
respect RMGC rules & etiquette at all time. If not player will be excluded
immediately and loose right to access and play RMGC
-
Represent RMGC in style
Obviously these players will not receive a membership. If they pay the annual AS fee they
can play internal competitions as well. However they would be excluded from the
prize giving (as they are not members).
The deal will be activated for these 10 players,
identified by the AS Board and the captains, on a trial bases. More players
won’t be accepted. Obviously these players were and are more than eager to
accept. They are mainly younger business men who adore golf and we wish all our
teams lots of success in 2016. It will be good for the image of our Club.
We keep moving
forward, opening new doors and doing new things,
Because we’re
curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
Golf
It’s not yet 2016 but please note that the Rattan
Chadha Cup will not be played around Easter but on April 23rd and 24th.
Last but most certainly not least we extend a warm
welcome to the following new members:
Mariette Deiters
Pieter Deiters
Denis Cohen
Melissa Overbeek
Edzard Overbeek
Ole Lien
Henrik Fugsland
David Reuben
Sabine Benguigui
Patrick Benguigui
Wishing you a great (hopefully) Indian summer and
winter wherever that might be. Know that your RM team is doing its utmost to
offer more of everything in 2016.
Best regards,
Jurgen Wondergem
General Manager
Success is often the result
of taking a misstep in the right direction.
