A Story of Me and My Dad 
 
After walking the dog over the public footpaths of Glen Gorse golf club for many years, my Dad got the bug and started to play golf when I was eight years old, going for evening classes to learn in the sports hall of a nearby school. Very soon my brother and I started hitting balls at the weekend with him on a playing field near our house where he eagerly passed on his newly found knowledge. Fortunately it was a very wide playing field.

He was the Librarian at what is now the DeMontfort University in Leicester, which explained the plethora of golf books which quickly furnished every space in our house. Before you put two and two together and assume that's where I got my writing from, he was featured on Central News after gaining a Master's Degree, in Comics. Actually he managed to write some pretty intense stuff about the Dandy and Beano and that was pretty cool for us as we were really into drawing and got to illustrate some of his pages. Anyway, soon after, we were playing on pitch and putt courses, watching the Lawrence Batley International and English Open at The Belfry and for the next eight years I spent every spare hour involved in golf and as a member of Glen Gorse before turning Professional.

I never bought a golf ball until I was off single figures, as Dad had trained the dog to seek out golf balls in the dark at the golf club and his organising skills came into effect as the garage was overloaded with ice cream cartons full of balls all sorted into brands, colours and grades from C Grade right up to 'Brannies', we had to eat a lot of ice cream. In fact, most of my golf equipment came from Whetstone golf club in Leicester where we used to exchange the balls for equipment when the garage couldn't take any more. The beautiful irony is that Dave Raitt, Pro at Whetstone and Assistant at the time, has a couple of talented golfing sons whom I now look after with their club fittings.

The kids I played with there are still amongst my best friends today, even though some of them are as far away as South Africa (and six of us turned professional) and of course I've got so many happy memories of many hours spent with my Dad. He would have turned 80 last week.

We were fortunate enough that after he passed away nearly a decade ago, an opportunity arose to plant a tree in his memory to replace a huge old oak tree left of the 17th fairway at Glen Gorse Golf Club. Ironic, as he hit the ball with what I would now honourably call a 'gentle fade', so the inscription under his name on the plaque reads 'Never knowingly visited this side of the fairway!' Thanks Dad.

Get Your Kids into Golf

Make no mistake about it, getting your kids involved in golf will be one of the greatest and most valuable gifts you will ever give them.

Today's kids need more than ever to get away from the computer games and get out and socialise with real people, not virtual people. Golf is by far the very best way to accomplish that and set your kids up for success in life.

Here is Why:

1. Anyone Can Play: Golfers come in all shapes and sizes. You don't have to be particularly strong, tall, lean or fast to succeed. Golf champions come in every shape and size imaginable. It's never too early to start, and unlike most other sports you can enjoy golf your entire life.
2. Minimal Risk: Unlike many other popular sports like baseball, soccer, and football, the chances of injury, especially serious injury, are almost non existent; golf is a non contact sport.
3. Safe and positive environment: The golf course is a safe place and facilitates mentoring relationships.

The Next Generation

Moving on a generation, it was Lewis's 17th birthday last Sunday, yes that's right 17, he was aged two when we came to Brocton Hall. A couple of years ago we all went for surfing lessons in Newquay and his birthday present this year was his own surfboard, which weirdly we picked up from a house in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. We visited Jeremy's Board Swap (please click here) where he collects used and end of range surfboards, attends to any repairs and sells them on for a modest fee. As he says, if you then find weeks, months or years later that you'd like a different size or style, you can bring it back, swap it for another board for a small fee and off you go again. 


 

New Club Rack

The seamless link is that it reminded me of the new club rack in the pro shop which has been gaining attention over the last week. If you have a club in your bag which isn't behaving, come and have a look at some of the ex-demo and second hand options that you could replace it with for very little Wonga. Obviously there's lots of options for custom fitted new clubs to do a specific job for you, but we can re shaft or retro fit many other clubs to fit a gap in your bag to suit every budget. Likewise, if you have clubs which you aren't using anymore and are gathering dust, bring them in and if there's any value in them I can refurbish them and look to sell them on for you, crediting your account with a percentage of the sale price. 

Please click here to request a fitting.

Bag Trade-in

Now's also a great time to trade in your old golf bag and trade up to a new one as Motocaddy and Mizuno are both offering you £20 for your old golf bag. 

There's a big range to choose from so come and have a look. 

FootJoy Apparel

Also new in the shop is the first drop of FootJoy apparel and next week we are due for our first large collection of Skechers shoes to complement our shoe wall bedecked with men's and ladies ECCO and FootJoy styles.  

Please click here to request a shoe fitting.

     


 

Modernising Golf's Rules 

How about those rule changes announced last week. I'm amazed I didn't hear any murmuring of such dramatic proposed changes with more than 50 new or adjusted rules, which on the whole I think are a tremendous boost for the sport. I was surprised at a couple of them, for example the fact that you could leave the flag in whilst you putt. I can understand that's a time saving exercise from long range instead of removing it, but I can't imagine Rory winning the Masters by leaving the flag in on the 18th hole as he rattles a fast downhill three footer against the stick.

Have your say here.

 

Tuesday Social Starts Soon

The Tuesday Social will be starting soon, either 21st March or 28th March. I'm not sure yet as we are due to have drainage work conducted to the 16th and 17th greens on the week of the 20th unless the weather is too foul to conduct the work, in which case it would be the following week. Keep an eye on your emails for a definitive date. The Tuesday Social is a club event, originated as a way for new and old members to be able to meet up and play nine holes in the evening on a day which is usually the quietest of the week.

We took it over after a year and marketed it through this newsletter and last year we had nearly 200 people playing in it throughout the year. I think this is the fifth year we've run it and I try to play with different people each week, which is made all the easier now as Katie helps me with the results. The format is nine holes off the white and red tees, stableford scoring, 90% handicap and an entry fee of just £2. We pay out 1/5th of the entrants in prize vouchers for the shop and run an order of merit too. Everyone is welcome to play and you can tee off between 3pm and 6pm, Justin usually has a special menu available and most people stop for something to eat.

This year we have been given special dispensation to be able to eat hot food in any of the bars, because it's become so popular, there have been too many people for the usual locations. We even have a dedicated Facebook page for you to check out the results on the same evening. Please click here to visit page.