Nevil Bland

Hello Golfers,

Welcome to another edition of our newsletter, in this week’s mail I report on a weather affected Anniversary Pro-Am, I say a big thanks to our army of helpers, and we are off to join the boys in Canada.

Enjoy the read!

Pro's news

Brocton Hall 125th Anniversary Pro-Am

Well, firstly can I apologise for causing everyone to get extremely wet at what seemed like a Winter Pro-Am last week. There was a time on the day before where we considered cancelling the event due to the forecast but as Matt Rowley from the PGA pointed out, that would be a major debacle if the weather turned out to be slightly better than expected and some people would turn up anyway. I've never been so pre-occupied and anxious for two days about golf to the point of being ill, but as it turned out it was much better than it had been a couple of days earlier where we had 2 inches of rain and the course was more than playable until after the last group teed off. The green staff have been very impressive lately, coping with flooded bunkers and constant downpours almost daily. Even though the playing conditions were horrendous on Friday, a lot of people who have played the event for years commented that it was the best they had seen the course.

As the rain continued our focus was to get everyone through 9 holes but the rain kept abating and allowed us to find some dry spots on the greens which were still a good surface. It was good to see that the winning scores were made up of a mixture of early and late tee times and the scoring stayed consistent throughout the day, validating continuing the event.

Huge thanks to Matt, Andy and Mike from the Midland PGA who put in so much physical effort, without any break for food all day and also to our volunteers including junior member Max who single handedly ran the Halfway House all day and raised over £100 for the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Also thanks go to our ball-spotters John and Pete, and a massive thanks to Andy Wicken who spent 12 hours ball spotting and squeegeeing for hours on end. My staff including Katie, Mike and Graham worked their socks off and if anyone is after a full body workout, we can confirm that a 4 hour squeegee session is all you need, as 48 hours later I've got aching muscles in places where I didn't even know muscles existed!

The great British battling attitude broke out amongst everyone we spoke to on the course and we had so many great comments about the day, the course and the catering - thank you to everyone for your understanding in difficult conditions and for your support. This is the 16th year that I've run the Pro-Am and many times I'm asked if I see the PGA's involvement as good value for money - we've had a couple of bad weather days in all that time and I can honestly say that on these days especially, they are as professional as anyone in the Association.

The winning pro score was 66 (-3) from Matt Cort and Richard O’Hanlon. Richard had an interesting day as he’d travelled up from Newquay, visited Robert Rock for a lesson in the morning and then noticed the shaft in is sand wedge had broken. He came into me with 40 minutes before tee off and asked if I had a spare wedge he could borrow. ‘I can do better than that’ I said and set about re-shafting the wedge with fast setting epoxy and the exact same shaft and grip, took it out to him on the 1st tee and the first shot he hit with it nearly went in the hole! As Richard said in his winner’s speech - there was only one club in the country he could have received that service.

I'm going to reflect and consider whether to run the event again next year as it’s a lot of worry and pressure, but rewarding afterwards and it’s great to see the support from sponsors, players and volunteers.

Interestingly the winning Pro scores were similar to when the weather is good but the team scores were 30% worse so it just goes to show how much better the professionals are at coping with wet and windy conditions. It was certainly a battle out there and as I collected the advertising banners off the course the next day, I counted 8 broken umbrellas in the bins!

Saturday was Simon’s, our youngest, 16th Birthday which he spent in Toronto. He and Lewis flew out there last week to stay with Katie’s sister and we’ll be joining them after the Pro-Am. Here’s a scary picture of them hanging off the CN Tower which was the tallest free standing structure in the world until the Burj Kalif in Dubai was built. After this photo was taken, they were convinced to turn around and lean forwards off the edge!

For every occasion

On the course, strutting down the high-street or enjoying a well-deserved holiday; no matter what we’re doing we want to know that the sunglasses we’re wearing look great. If we can find a pair that looks the part in all of the above scenarios then even better...

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The most beautiful shot in golf

If we were to ask you this question what would you say? We think some of you would say the ‘Tiger stinger’ but a good proportion would say the pitch shot that takes a couple of bounces before stopping to a halt. It looks sensational but how on earth do you play it?

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Mastering this shot takes practice and a little coaching, so book in with us and we will give you all the guidance you need.

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Video of the Week

It's Europe vs USA once again as up-and-coming Scotsman Robert MacIntyre takes on American superstar Rickie Fowler in the European Tour's 14-Club Challenge. The question is, who came out on top?

Get out and get golfing!

Brocton Hall Golf Club
Sawpit Lane
Brocton
Stafford
ST17 0TH

Phone: 01785 661485

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