Hello golfers,

Welcome to our newsletter, in this week’s mail we are out on the course with the greenkeepers hard at work, we announce the winners from our raffle, our shoe sale gets underway, and we celebrate the successful junior section. Enjoy the read!

Working in all weathers

As we experience some very cold days, spare a thought for our green keeping staff who have been working wonders over the last few weeks, especially in the construction of the causeway by the 9th green. I took these pictures at 8am with the lake still frozen solid whilst Andy and Lee were stood in the water continuing with the build. If you don’t play much golf during the winter, you could be forgiven for not realising how much labour intensive work is undertaken during the colder months as once the grass starts to grow, much of the evidence of machinery and traffic has usually disappeared.

And the winners are…

We drew the Christmas/New Year raffle on Saturday in the clubhouse following the American Greensomes competition. Thanks to everyone for having a go and congratulations to the winners:

• 1st - Mark Hudson - Driver including fitting
• 2nd - Martin Hunt - Lithium golf battery
• 3rd - Ellie Treadwell - Pair of golf shoes
• 4th - Gary Murphy - Yardage Gapping session
• 5th - Peter Collier - Half hour lesson
• 6th - Chris Llewellyn - Island Green base layer
• 7th - Steve Hood - A dozen Titleist velocity balls

Our next event for you will be the US Masters Sweep which isn’t that far away, less than 80 days!

A range of benefits

The simulator has been busy all week with everyone loving the new set-up, graphics and playability with the following sessions, all costing just £40 with a range of benefits and don’t forget, if you have pro shop credit you can use that as well:

Yardage gapping: Now is a perfect time to book in to have your yardage gaps measured by hitting shots on the sim. You can enjoy a coffee, use the actual ball you use on the course and let us do all the hard work for you, your job is just to hit shots. You’ll get a full report on your yardages and any recommended adjustments in with the fee.

New club fittings: There are lots of new drivers coming out onto the market in February from TaylorMade, Callaway, Mizuno and Cobra and we’ll be busy conducting fittings to find out what spec you’d need once they arrive. The full £40 fee comes off the price of any club purchase.

The final countdown

The Captain's swansong is due to take place on the 20th January and this year it will be a better ball stableford event with only 4 clubs allowed per person, one of which must be a putter. The entry fee is £15 which includes a £5 donation to the Cerebral Palsy charity fund set up by the previous Captain. It also includes a light meal (jacket potato and fillings) in the bar afterwards with a short presentation around 4:30. The entry sheet is online or in the shop and tee times and partners will be drawn at random between 10:20 and 12:00 noon. The field is limited to 88 players. These informal winter events are great fun before and after the game - what better way to raise money for a worthy cause?!

Check the rules

A few golfers were disqualified from the Greensomes competition at the weekend, some for playing a stableford, when it was clearly displayed as a stroke play event this year and more for not entering their handicaps on the card. Competition rules dictate that scorecards must have the comp name, date, player name, handicap and markers and scorers signatures. It’s the player’s responsibility to make sure that all these are in place - every competition.