It's unashamedly a heart-warming family newsletter for me this week for a few reasons. Katie has organised the Pro's Day Party Night for us, Lewis will be running the shop on Saturday, Simon will be running the Halfway House, it was our 19th wedding anniversary on Tuesday during the Social Golf and my 'long-lost' Best Man and his partner will be joining us for the party night.

Thank you to all the members who played in our Ladies Pro's Day Last Wednesday - we had lots of fun at the halfway house supplying drinks and nibbles and it's great to see the support we receive and the Texas Scramble format seemed very popular. I'm glad the weather was good and we'll look to do the same next year for you.

The winners were Dorothy Pugh, Mary Robertson and Gill Bloxham with there were plenty of other prize-winners enjoying the day.




This Saturday we have the Men's Pro's Day followed by the culmination of our events - the Pro's Day Party Night, open to all. There's currently 80 people coming along to swing their pants to 'The Long Tones', a 4 piece cover band and it promises to be a great night and the first social event at the golf club for many members. If you'd like to join us it would be great to see you there. We have a hot and cold buffet and band for £20 with a 7 for 7:30 start time and the dress is smart casual. Click here if you'd like to add your name to a table. 

For the first time this year on the Pro's Day, we won't be having the 'double your money' Par 3 challenge - you've all got too good with coaching and easy to hit hybrids and we lost too much money last year!! 

Instead we'll be playing SPEED GOLF on the 17th hole off the original tee location. We had a practice on the Tuesday Night Social to make sure it was going to work as planned and it turned out to be great fun. The Texas Scramble will be played over holes 1-16 and 18 and the 17th will have a prize for the best and worst times at Speed Golf. From the normal tee location, 17 seconds was the best time and 1 minute 34 seconds was the worst on Tuesday. 

When you get to the 9th tee you you'll be met by my 13 year old, Simon, who usually likes to help out at the halfway house helping to provide free drinks and nibbles. This year I asked Simbon to staff it all on his own so I could be on the 17th hole which he was happy to do and, boy, has he has run with the idea!! 

When you get there you'll be met by 'Simons Snack Shack' complete with his own custom made banner, full menu, some props and pictures of him stood with various celebrities who may or may not have visited the Shack. Please accord him plenty of thanks for providing the service for you. 

It's especially poignant this week (and he'll curse me for telling you) as we're at Birmingham Childrens Hospital on Wednesday as he goes for a pre-op assessment before his 11th operation and he's a bit nervous about this one as he's more aware these days than before. He was born with a cleft lip and palate and his first operation was when he was 3 months old and lasted over 4 hours, his last one was 4 years ago to transplant a bone from his hip into his gum. Whilst we all understand it's only cosmetic, in total he's been in theatre for nearly two days and now enters the stage of orthodontic treatment. One of his teeth inside his gums is growing at 90 degrees across the roots of his other teeth and the surgeons can't believe he doesn't suffer headaches - I guess one of the advantages of what he's gone through is his high pain threshold, along with his unfazed attitude to everything which enables him to relish challenges like the Snack Shack.


 

Thanks to Graham aka 'Nobby' and for organising the BGA golf day at The Warwickshire on Sunday. We had a great day and the presentation night involved a few invented drinks to be supped from the trophy. Who knew that Guinness, Tia Maria and Port tasted just like melted raspberry ice cream! Congratulations to Stu who won a cheque for 2 Million BGA pounds - which at the current exchange rate equates to £1.38.


 

Also on the winners rostrum this week was Paul Broadhurst who won for the first time on the US Champions Tour. He holed a 6 foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach to clinch the title and pocket a cool $300,000. Fresh on the back of his win in the Seniors British Open at Carnoustie. Name-Droppingly I texted him on Monday to exclaim 'Only you, Ben Hogan and Tom Watson have won at both Pebble Beach and Carnoustie - Sweeeet!' to which he replied minutes later but that remains Tour Rules! 


 

Tuesday Golf winners this week - played over 8 holes: 

20 Geoff Wheatcroft £13 
19 Nathan Cooper £12 
18 Rich Nicholls £11 18 Neil Johnson £10 
17 Pete Horsley £9 
17 Nigel Metcalfe £8 
17 John Nicholls £7