Hello golfer,

It’s all about golf competitions this week with lots of good results including the final major sweepstake standings. I hope you enjoy the read.

Captain and Lady Captains Charity Am-Am

Well done to everyone involved in the Am-Am on Sunday with plenty of volunteers and all sections of the club working together to raise funds for those less fortunate than ourselves.The Cerebral Palsy charity was bolstered by over £8,000 from the day as a full field of 38 teams took part.Many local clubs donated rounds of golf for prizes and there was a huge list of raffle prize donations and auction items.Auctioneer Ben Gamble hosted a very entertaining and successful event at night, what a perfect man for the job - like Ant & Dec all rolled into one - great job Ben.

Any unclaimed prizes are available for collection in the Pro Shop.

15th Anniversary Professionals Day competitions and night

Wednesday 13th September is my Professionals Day for ladies and Saturday 23rd is the men’s event. We’ll have full details of the formats soon - the ladies event is a 3-ball and the men’s event is a 3-ball Texas scramble. We’ll have some refreshments on hand at halfway, some hole prizes on the course and then on the Saturday night it will be great to see lots of you at the club as we celebrate the event and also 15 years at Brocton Hall.

The plan is to have a BBQ outside on the terrace by the lake and we want you to bring your gazebos and marquees and set them up along the lawn. I wanted a format this year which enabled us to wander around and not be constrained to a table and for those of you who remember a similar event at the club a decade ago, it’s a great way to use the space. We have a band lined up for some entertainment and it’ll be great to see lots of you there for a special night.

From 2019 however, the US PGA will be held in May in place of the Players Championship which moves back to its original date of March. This is to ensure that there is a major event each month:

• January - Hawaii
• Februay - Phoenix Open
• March - The Players
• April - The Masters
• May - USPGA Championship
• June - US Open
• July - The Open

This will also allow golf to continue featuring in the Olympics and allow the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup to have more time to play without affecting the Fed Ex cup playoffs. Seems to make sense to me although it will be weird to have The Open as the final major of the year in mid-July - talk about the changing seasons!

US PGA Championship sweep results

1st - Justin Thomas - Stu Hunter & Joe Phillips - £50 each

T2nd - Francesco Molinari - David Moodie & Brian Sumner - £20 each

T2nd - Patrick Reed - Simon Wells & Phil Birch - £20 each

T2nd - Louis Oosthuizen - Karl Horvath & Mary Robertson - £20 each

• Worst score round 1 - Jimmy Walker 81 - Bill Stewart & Ali Dawes - £10 each
• Worst score round 2 - Danny Willett 79 - Steve Burgin & Geoff Wheatcroft - £10 each
• Worst score round 3 - Jason Day 77 - Brian Sumner & Eddie Saunders - £10 each
• Worst score round 4 - Lee Westwood 75 - Bill Whittle & Will Hall - £10 each

Coaching and competition update

Junior coaching commences again in a few weeks - full details will go out to the junior section shortly.If you have a junior golfer who is keen to have a go at the game aged between 7 and 13, click here and I’ll include you on our database. The sessions run Saturday mornings and Monday evenings.Any junior can also book an individual junior lesson at any time which is just £10 for half an hour, and remember you can come along and practice whenever you like too if you’re a member.

We had 16 players in 2 divisions for the Junior Ian Macfarlane competition on Monday.

Division A (Congu Handicaps)

• 1st - Ellie Ashley-Brown 68 nett
• 2nd - Alex Dommett-Pelaez 70 nett
• 3rd - Harvey Hall 71 nett

Division B (club Handicaps)

• 1st - Finlay Musker 47 points
• 2nd - Edan Dollochin 33 points
• 3rd - Max Hunter 26 points

The previous Friday we had the Pegasus Trophy which was donated by Mary Allen in memory of her husband and previous junior organiser, David. The competition is a greensomes stableford where a congu handicap player partners a club handicap player. We had 20 players in total making 10 teams.

• 1st - Tom Andrews / Kerr Dollochin 42 Points
• 2nd - Owen Mills / Alice Higginson 41 Points
• 3rd - Harvey Hall / Ben Goodall 40 Points

This is the only time the juniors play in this format and some commented that it was strange having someone else hitting their ball.

Thank you to all the helpers: Christine Davies, Diane Ferriday, Mary Richards, Diane Bell, Andy Poole and John Perkin.

Join the Tuesday social

We had gorgeous weather for the Tuesday Social this week and 50 golfers took part. The winner was Tim Nicholls on 19 points and all the scores can be found on the Facebook page.

We had a few new names on the sheet this week which means we’re approaching 150 participants this year which is great to see. Many of you stay for a drink afterwards and the kitchen was very busy with bar meals and Tuesday night specials this week - thanks for all the support Tuesday nighters!