This is my last newsletter of 2016 and I've loved writing these articles for you to digest, hopefully you've enjoyed reading them and found them interesting. I recount to anyone who works with me that, first and foremost, we are in the entertainment and leisure industry - golf is merely the vehicle for you to be entertained, however I make no apologies for the odd blatant sales pitch in these pages as retail is the next sector we're involved in and I've got to make the time invested pay!

But there's an odd tale here - you may be surprised to know, or you may have got the inference over time, that I hate retail. That's right, I loathe the retail industry for all of its shenanigans, false advertising and commercialism - there are so many TV adverts recommending expensive laptops or cameras as the ideal kids Christmas gift - how nuts is that! I guess you can tell with the proliferation of warm story-telling adverts like Lewis' and Sainsburys, where they sell themselves rather than a product, that the same sensitivity to retail is felt by the big brands.

That's not to say I don't have an accurate perception of what makes the world go round - to the extent that I keep a detailed daily spreadsheet of weather and course events related to the Pro Shop takings so I can historically see what trends are happening to aid future planning, after all - if you're going to do something, do it properly.

But as golfers we are lucky to know that's not what golf is really about. As my perceptive 13 year old, Simon, always tells me when I try to talk him in detail through my latest round - 'Dad, no-one cares!' (If I carry on, I'm then met with an accusing stare and a very dead-pan 'Dad, now no-one likes you')

As a group of people brought together by this frustratingly, mesmerising mermaid that is golf, we know there's a lot more to it than that. Yes, you turn up to play in the cold rain and the dark but only as promised in order not to let your friends down. You get stranded without a partner only to suddenly become the hero by making up a 4-ball with strangers who you may have known your whole life four hours later. You play below your handicap and the next time you visit the club it's almost as if's more 'your' club than it was before, your favourite place to park is unoccupied (yes, you all have them!!), the grass smells fresher and you wonder if everyone who smiles at you knows that you've just reduced your handicap? You have a shocker on the course which plays on your mind for days until you next visit the club and the deer are grazing on the practice area, the 17th green looks stunning as you drive by and the first person you meet played worse than you and they start talking you through their round, reminding you starkly that 'no-one cares' and you go out and have some great banter on the course and in the bar, what a great day in the end!

That's what I like about golf, about golf club memberships, about golfers and I like to be able to use the retail side of our golf life as a benefit. You can see that in the shop as the biggest areas of our outfit are all related to service and providing a solution rather than selling - club-fitting, shoe-fitting, personalised embroidery, coaching and coffee.

   

I first started this newsletter in 2005 as a way to show you what we've been doing at the golf club during the weeks that you may not have been here, I've certainly had many remarks over the years that people remain connected with the club when they might otherwise have lost touch. We have 500 members at the golf club yet the circulation for this newsletter is now over 3000 so I endeavour to relate to all golfers in some way. I've never missed a single week and reckon to have written over 550 of them by now and I must have used nearly a million exclamation marks! The recent survey in my newsletter was filled in by far more people than the national average including many much busier clubs than ours so it's brilliant to see the proof of our reach.

Thanks to Isobel, Luke, Lewis, Harry, Simon and Steve who have helped us in the shop all year and to all the staff and committee for a good year and thanks to all you crazy golfers who've graced us with your presence - surely the best 'presents' there can be for Christmas! 

Have a good 'WinterFest' and a Happy New Year, as for us we're off to surf in the Great Barrier Reef now - over and out. (Drops the mic horizontally and swaggers away)