Krugersdorp Golf ClubNewsletter – October 2025

INTRODUCTION This year has certainly flown by at pace and one cannot believe we’re already approaching the end of October. In this newsletter we take stock of the last couple of months and share some updates and plans on various aspects related to our beautiful club. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

It has been an eventful few months at The Club with many golf days, improvements on the course and a TV production that will be aired on kykNET in October. With the change of season comes certain challenges like the poa annua grass that comes through but before you know it, we will be green and back to great putting surfaces. I have seen a positive change at the club with more golf days on our quieter days namely Tuesdays and Thursdays. This helps to bolster revenue, which is much needed for the improvements we want to implement around the course. Thank you to the members who often have to change their preferred playing times to accommodate these golf days.

Financial overview for the period ending 31.08.2025

The club’s finances are stable at the moment, and expenses are strictly controlled monthly.

Total income increased by 4% over the previous year for the 7 months ending 31 Aug 2025, while total expenses were well contained at 1% lower than last year. Bar Trading and Golf Cart and profits continue to significantly contribute to our bottom line with year-on-year increases of 5% and 20% respectively.

Some of the unserviceable golf carts were sold and 5 new petrol carts were delivered last week. We have also purchased 2 new scooters for the irrigation crew so as not to use golf carts around the course which we can earn revenue on.

Playing rounds have increased by 1% year-on-year and are expected to increase further over the summer period and through hosting more golf days, to boost our golfing income.

The club recorded an operating profit of R474 186 for the 7 months ended 31 Aug 2025, compared to a R20,809 loss for the same period last year and our cash/investment position is healthy at the moment. I however note that expenses are expected to increase over the summer period towards year-end due to increased course maintenance. Structural Change to Food & Beverage

The Committee has decided to change the Food & Beverage offering at the club. As of September, Rusty van der Walt will be co-ordinating the Bar staff, bar and food offering to members and visitors alike. Be on the lookout for new social events, food, and beverage offerings going forward. We wish him all the best going forward and hope to see more people enjoying everything our Wonderful Club has to offer.

Security Challenges

Uninvited “visitors” still pose a regular challenge at the Club. They gain access by breaking boundary walls at night to come and steal basically what ever has any type of value (eg cabling at irrigation satellite boxes) or even attempt to break into neighbouring properties. On one occasion they attempted to steal cabling that leads to the main sub-station at the pump house which we have now secured to prevent prolonged water shortage for the course. These damages pose a risk to disrupt the water supply we need to irrigate fairways at night. The repairs and preventative maintenance all add up and becomes costly.

Billies Van die Bosveld Departure

I would like to wish Darin all of the best going forward in his new venture with Srixon, I am certain he will make a great success. That being said I am sure everyone is missing his presence as well as the products he provided. With regards to the currently unoccupied space, the committee is looking into the best usage thereof that will both benefit the club and comply with our council lease agreement.

Events & Congratulations

We are proud to have hosted the Bushveld Tour’s Srixon Series at the club in the week starting the 6^th October. Huge congratulations to our very own Ruan de Smidt who walked away with the trophy! We also look forward to The Big Easy Tour coming back to Krugersdorp between the 10^th & 13^th November. Congratulations to Jurie Kok and Marius Kumm on being ranked 5^th and 8^th respectively on the Senior Order of Merit for Central Gauteng. We hope the putts keep falling in tournaments to come.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every member for their continued support of the Club and hope you enjoy your golf with us in the summer months to come.

OUT ON THE COURSE

Not only has the course been busy with players, but we have been in full action mode making numerous changes before the rains arrive to help these recover as quickly as possible. We decided to put together an extensive watering program throughout the Winter for the first time ever, just to help us recover quicker to avoid having the same dry conditions we had last year. This has made a huge impact and we are already looking much greener and healthier than we did at the same time last year, so we should hopefully stay green throughout the summer months and not see too much burning happening. Not only did we prepare for summer, but we also added some lovely new additions to present a course that is as aesthetically enjoyable as it is to play on.

Greens

At this time of the year coming out of winter we always see quite a lot of poa annua grass coming through, as the seed heads are produced once temperatures increase, which does affect the smoothness of the surface, but as temperatures further increase to more than 28 degrees this grass becomes dormant and will disappear. We are however spraying a chemical to stop it from spreading and plan to do a light verti-cutting and dusting treatment in the coming weeks. We would however like to get a bit more moisture into the ground first as to not stress our grass, and that is why we have really been putting a lot of water down of late to get us ready for this process to happen. It is crucial to do this at the right time as our green base is still quite dry and adding sand unfortunately traps heat, so doing so before rain can result in burning spots which take months to recover. We do however know that the greens were slower and bumpier than usual for a couple of weeks but can assure you that this will improve once the treatment is done.

Paving We extended the paving at #1 to the Red/Blue tees, we joined the paving at #6 to create a non-stop pathway tee to green, and we extended the paving right of the 18^th Green creating a ramp up to the main pathway. All of these were done to areas that experienced high traffic and because of that had such bad wear creating dry patches that not only look horrible but are also not good for our carts

   Tee Boxes

We have built new slightly raised platforms at holes 1, 3, 5, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17 & 18 which will be mainly for the Green Tee markers but will also give us additional options for the Red Tees from time to time. We are also building a new Tee Box on hole 18. This tee, which is situated far left, about 270m from the green, gives us a great option for our Blue/Red Tees as an additional tee box, but will also create a great chance at a drivable risk & reward par 4 for the White Tees on the odd occasion. We have planted some beautiful Leopard Trees around this to create an amphitheater in years to come.

Bunkers

We have built two new bunkers on holes 13 & 14 which serve two completely different functions. The one on 13 is more of a visual aid when driving the ball, to help see where the left edge of the fairway is. Once completed it should really frame this fairway’s left to right shape. I tried to place it in such an area that it wouldn’t punish a good drive down the middle and also wouldn’t be in play for 90% of players especially during the summer months, but the main line did force us to bring it about 10m closer to the tee than we initially planned. The bunker on #14 is actually there to catch and assist any balls hit long and left, stopping them from running off into that bare and bushy area on the far left. By adding some trees behind that to hide the bush, planting a few indigenous Willows left of the green and completing this bunker I think we will have restored a beautiful part of the course that took a massive knock when we lost the original willow a few years ago.

Trees

This is a signature characteristic of our course that requires constant work. We have added over 150 trees and shrubs around the course to help us maintain our tree-lined holes. We carefully selected many different kinds of trees to complement each hole, including White Karee, Liquid Ambers, Sneezewood, Populus Simonii (Simons Poplar), Leopard Trees, Conifers and Indigenous Willows and a few variations of Acacia to name just a few. Some were planted in areas that were open after losing trees in the past, but we also planted conifers at the 10^th Tee to hide the staff area as well as the car park, and at the 18^th Tee to hide the wall creating a lovely green backdrop. Behind the 4^th Green we planted a row of Simons Poplars to also create a green wall hiding the dumping area in the future. We have also planted some Star Jasmine along the 2^nd Tee box, this will hide the wall itself and create a wonderful hedge that smells amazing.

Gardens

The team did really well restoring the gardens over the past few years. More recently they tackled the garden right of the 4^th green, the entrance gardens, and built a new garden to the right of the 18^th tee. In these we have decided to include as many succulents and aloes as possible and have also put a few Alaskan Tree Ferns at the entrance. These are not only water-wise options but will also become a beautiful array of color once all of the succulents and aloes start blooming.

Course Accessories

Over the past few months you would have noticed a number of additions and changes to  accessories on the course. We installed new fairway distance plates, fairway distance poles on both sides of the fairways, and recently a new set of tee markers which have all 5 tee options looking the same. Our dam fountains are also back in operation and a sandbag drop-off point above the 18^th green has been installed.  A huge thank you to the members who put their hands up to sponsor some of these, I think they really add to the experience of playing at Krugersdorp.

IN AND AROUND THE CLUBHOUSE

The Pro Shop

We had an amazing Footjoy fitting day early in September, putting some new shoes into the hands of many of our members. Thank you to everybody who came out to support this event. We added to our Ladies range and have put all of Footjoy’s new range into stock, so please do ensure you utilize the fitting option when looking for shoes with either Charl or Jodan. We have added a few new brands such as Black Clover and BEA Active into the shop, and will also be receiving some summer offerings in the weeks to come. Thank you to Calvin and team for presenting us with great quality equipment, apparel and accessories!

Lapa Vibe

The atmosphere in our Lapa Bar remains a popular attraction at Krugersdorp Golf Club. The introduction of background music and additional promotions and events such as the Ace Draw on Wednesdays will no doubt add to the lovely vibe. Our Captains Draw evening remains very popular and some lucky winners were able to walk away with serious spoils. Congratulations to Michael Ford and Tom Lugg who walked away with R40,000 (July) and R10,000 (September) respectively. The big winners were Piet Eloff, Martin Lippinkhof and their families who pocketed R176,090 in the Joker Draw in July!

Maintenance & Improvements

Among numerous general maintenance items attended to, we are in the process of renewing the contract for all the equipment in the bathrooms and change rooms so very soon we will have brand new equipment installed. The access control at our main entrance has been changed, with the introduction of tags member can purchase to gain easier access. Visitors and those opting not to purchase a tag will continue to have their licence disk and card scanned.

LEAGUES

Although there’s a bit of a mixed bag of results, are league teams are generally doing pretty well.

With one game to go for the season, our Scratch League team is lying in 7^th position in the C Division and will need to bring that win home in the last game and hope for another favorable result to avoid relegation.

Our Mid-am teams are looking really great this year. With two games left, the A Team is top of the B Div log, while the B Team is lying second on the D Div log, with one game less played than the team on top. Finish strong, guys!

Our Betterball A Team (the youngsters) unfortunately ended 9^th in their division and will be relegated to join the B Team (the “toppies”) in the D Div next year, where they finished 4^th. Some healthy internal rivalry to look out for next year!

Our Ladies are lying 3^rd on both the Sunday League C Div and Weekday League C Div, with one game left to play. Solid year, well done!

THE LADIES ROCKIN' IT!

The Krugersdorp ladies have been busy over the last few months and, despite the chilly winter weather, the support for our special competitions has been overwhelming, both on the golf course and for our various charity drives throughout the year. Without the support from members, none of this would have been possible – thank you sincerely.

Special Days

Our Mixed Open, with its Superhero theme, was extremely popular and wonderfully supported. With all the superhero outfits on display, it truly was a “super” day!

Ladies Open Day – Christmas in July was held on a cold winter’s day.  Even so, it was a memorable day for those who braved the weather, with plenty of prizes and fun all round. Many thanks to our sponsors.

June is always a highlight for the Ladies Section, with our annual Captain vs Vice Captain competition. What an incredible day this was! Along with the fierce competition, it was filled with friendship, camaraderie and lots of fun. In the end Cornelia thoroughly enjoyed lifting that special trophy on behalf of the Captain’s team!

The annual Ouens vs Vrouens competition was another highlight. This year, the Vrouens emerged victorious – well done, ladies!

Captain’s Day carried a Farmers Day theme, with authentic farmer outfits (and even a horse rider!) and a menu to match. It was a day of tough but good-spirited competition and lots of fun.

On Women’s Day, we hosted a committee challenge. The men’s committee was a little too strong for us this time, but one ladies’ team managed a win – which certainly made our day! We are already looking forward to the next challenge.

Charity Drives

Our charity drives these past few months have also been an enormous success. Thank you to all who contributed

·       Fora Animal Shelter – grateful for all the donated clothes, which they sell to raise much-needed funds.

·       Mandela Day Charity Drive – proceeds went to the Wings of Inspiration Care Centre, a shelter for abused women and children. In addition, we collected groceries for the centre during August and September.

·       We have introduced the Ladies Piggy Bank: every time a player hits a ball into the water, it’s R5 in the pot. At the end of the year, the total will be donated to a charity of our choice. We’d love for the men to join us in this project – after all, it’s for a great cause!

Other exciting initiatives

Keep an eye out for our Wheelbarrow Raffle coming soon – tickets will be just R10 for a chance to win a wheelbarrow filled with goodies. Our R100 Club will also return, with only 100 tickets available at R100 each – the perfect chance to win some extra money for your Christmas shopping! The monthly mini draws remain very popular. At the June Captain’s Draw, a record tickets were sold!  The more we sell, the bigger the prize money, so thank you for the amazing support.

IN CLOSING

We believe in open communication at Krugersdorp Golf Club and will endeavor to issue more regular newsletters like these. This is however not the only communication channel. Please make use of our web-site (www.krugersdorpgolfclub.co.za) and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to get all the latest news and happenings at the club.

As we head into the festive season, we wish safe travels to all our members planning hard earned breaks. To those sticking around, be sure to book those rounds and keep the swing grooved!