Simon was at Birmingham Childrens Hospital last Friday for another minor operation and he's due there again this Friday - he was born with a cleft lip and palate and has now had 11 operations, some of them 4 hours long. It's always a very humbling experience to go there and Simon has come out of the last 13 years with a strong character and an amazingly high pain threshold - only 3 hours after coming out of theatre, we were on our way home and he didn't have any pain killers after 7pm at night - they would normally expect them to be taken for 3 days! 

It has always therefore been an easy decision to know who to raise money for and I've done so with the London Marathon in 2012 and the 100 mile London-Surrey bike ride in 2015. I'll be taking part in the Stafford half marathon again this year, if you'd like to donate to this great cause it would be greatly appreciated and you can do so in the shop or here.




Congratulations to the Captain and Lady Captain for a successful year in office, the ladies AGM takes place this Wednesday and the club AGM on Saturday followed by the new Captain's drive in at 10:45 on Sunday, plus there is a men's better-ball stableford competition on all day too. 

The Captains Swansong was won by Ben Gamble and Phil Jackson and it was another good event with a draw for partners and a dinner afterwards which is great for mixing up and meeting other golfers. 




Our media screen in the Pro Shop is getting a facelift this week - we'll have the same graphics on screen as you see on this newsletter and on the print adverts on the A-board and around the shop. Apparently someone will register a notice the 9th time they see the message so we now have 4 of those covered - please excuse us repeating ourselves to get a point across five more times in succession! 

Our revamped and restocked shoe wall is attracting attention, our revamped shoe wall is attracting attention, our revamped… Oh forget it, I'll just get 5 more screens and posters in the shop. 

Lots of equipment buzz around at the moment with the PGA Golf show taking place in Orlando. We've bene fortunate enough to have the Mizuno rep's fitting driver sent to us as the much talked about new driver isn't launched until next month. If you'd like to have a go with it and get in on the pre-orders, click here and we can book you in for a fitting. They've added every adjustment possible.

PLUS they use genuine shafts, not dampened down, high profit OEM versions. I've used the swanky previous model for 2 years and the new one looks and sounds even better.

Do you have a plethora of 2nd hand clubs taking up space? I use quite a few of them to re-build for juniors advancing to adult club heads and can take them apart and revitalise them, plus a blossoming second hand custom fitted department. If you can drop anything you no longer want into the shop, we'll look to sell it for you in return for some shop credit, or if they're in the 19th hole of life, I'm hoping to find a charity that wants them.




It's amazing how dry the course is now after a week of no drizzle, we tend to forget how lucky we are here in the winter. I do get reminded however, when nearby courses tweet that they are closed for fog, or frost and when they open they're on temporary greens or need to take a mat around to play from. Let's keep it in good condition, especially if you play when the frost is coming out the greens. I played this week and there were lots and lots of pitchforks on the front edges of the greens. 

Everyone says 'I always mend my own pitchmark and one other one as well', but almost every time I play, I end up mending other people's pitchforks as it's easy to forget once or twice in a round, especially if your ball lands on the front and you walk around to the back. I carry my clubs in the winter so I come to the front of every green instead of circumnavigating it with a trolley, maybe that's a good advert for carrying during the winter? (Oh, yes we have carry bags in stock too!!) 




In the workshop this week: 

Srixon Z765 2-pw - KBS Tour shafts 
Miura SIT driver - reshaft ACCRA Dymatch 
TaylorMade R15 - Reshaft ACCRA AC 
Odyssey putter - Super Stroke grip 
Srixon Z355 driver - Kuro Kage shaft
TaylorMade M2 fairway wood - ACCRA i-series shaft 
Wilson 8802 putter