Welcome to another exciting edition of the weekly newsletter bringing you all of the latest goings-on from around the club. Enjoy the read!
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Pro’s Christmas Fiddle
This coming Saturday we are hosting a Pro’s Christmas Fiddle which will be a Better-Ball Stableford competition open to all white and red tee golfers. The white tee golfers will have 90% handicap allowance and to allow for the lack of difference in course length, the red tee golfers will receive full allowance.
Entry fee is just £3.50 per person with all the money being paid out in vouchers and as always there is no priority on the tee for these events - they’re just for some competitive fun. If you need fixing up, please click here or call the shop on 01785 661485. We’ve got the Quality Street tins ready to open and a warming tot or two from your coffees - what more do you need to make it a Christmas event!?
Well, there is one more thing, the Christmas Raffle will be drawn during the day so if you want one of the remaining 20 tickets you need to be quick. First prize is a £350 custom fitted and built driver (or equivalent items to that value).
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Team Brocton is thriving!
This will be my last newsletter for 2019 - Like many of you I can’t believe how quickly Christmas has come around. On a personal note we’ve enjoyed a record year at the club with more golfers playing in the Tuesday Social and Pro’s Fiddles than ever, we’ve helped lots of new pupils to achieve their goals.
Mike has developed a new squad of keen juniors and beginner ladies and we’ve provided custom built equipment solutions to more golfers than ever, many of whom come to the club as a guest and begin their long term association with the club there and then.
We’ve also witnessed far less days with the course closed for bad weather (even with localised flooding), more juniors competing in events, many new members enjoying all the benefits, a smart new clubhouse decor, many first time board comp winners and some great team camaraderie both amongst the staff and the whole membership. Team Brocton is thriving!
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Staff party
We had our Staff party on Monday!
Thanks to the committee for looking after us and washing up and thanks to Justin and Shaun for the wonderful Christmas fayre and for looking after me with a Vegan option, they have a super busy period in the run up to Christmas and are working tirelessly every day. |
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We had a great night out with the greenstaff and amongst the things we had an excuse to celebrate was the fact that both Rich Quine and Andy Fellows have clocked up 25 years of service each to the club with Rich starting 6 months before Andy in 1994. I meant to find out what the total years of experience at Brocton Hall is amongst the greenstaff but I reckon between the 7 of them they are close to 100 years and every member and visitor I speak to holds the course in the very highest regard these days.
The newest recruit, Jack, even won the ‘Employee of the Year’ award at the staff party - you’ll know which one he is because he’ll be the one telling you about it!!
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Captain Pro match
The course was certainly cold at the weekend and playing very long on Saturday as we played our final Captain Pro match against Dave Spencer and Ian Price. In keeping with all the other matches we played off the stones and it was playing loooong!
It was a fitting finale as the sun came out as we teed up on the 18th with the Captain and I needing to win the hole to secure the match. No-one had told Dave Spencer however that it is customary to capitulate and collapse under the final hole pressure, as he made a seemingly easy nett birdie to claim the match - well done chaps.
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Mixed Competition
I was back out again dressed in 8 layers of clothes on Sunday and this time I was playing Greensomes with Brocton Hall royalty!
I partnered the effervescent Dorothy Pugh in the Christmas mixed competition along with John Hunt and Ann Topley (who’s a really nice golfer and hits the ball straighter than I can putt).
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The Captain, his wife Jane and father Roy met us at the halfway house for festive refreshments and the warm soup was much appreciated. It was the first time I’d played with Dorothy and she reckoned she had all the worry, being unable to sleep the night before! I was fine until I stood on our first hole, the 10th, waiting for the green to clear as I was going to attempt to drive it and then I realised that if I sprayed the ball 80 yards offline into some deep grass, I now had the responsibility of sending Dorothy with her 94 years of experience in there to play it. Fortunately for her health and for my reputation I had my best game with the driver for years and twice when Dorothy asked me where it had gone on a par 4, I simply said “Just grab your putter Dorothy, you’ve got an eagle putt!”. And what a putter she is!, by far the best putter I’ve played with for some time - her green reading was spot on, her pace control was spot on and honestly, there was no need to apologise as the flag kept our ball out from 40 feet on the 6th hole!
We had a great time and a great game, scoring 77 gross (42 points) including level par for the last 7 holes which was magical to be involved in and when I got home Katie thought I’d been drinking.
Another classic night followed as 140 people revelled in the Christmas meal and Carols along with the Brocton Hall choir. Well done to John Golder who has organised the mixed events superbly for the past 4 years and passes the baton onto someone else now - a hard act to follow but John leaves the new organiser a healthy and vibrant mixed section. Apologies for spilling the beans with the results before the evening, in order to print the cards out I entered everyone on the computer and didn’t realise the results got emailed out automatically. Well done to Ron Painter and Colleen Painter who won by two shots with a fantastic 40 points with really tough pin positions…
Thanks to you all for your support and friendship throughout 2019, it really is greatly appreciated and I think I can speak on behalf of all the staff at the golf club when I say we feel as though we belong to a welcoming, huge family. Like all families, there will be ups and downs but the team spirit is terrific and shines through and as I always say - “There’s a lot of nice people in golf”.
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Doing our bit…
As you know I don’t like to spend too long in the Pro Shop without a change and next year we’ll be updating some areas of our stock, in particular we’ll be ceasing selling plastic tees as soon as we run out of the current supply. We’ll be replacing our plastic bags with paper ones and we’ve already been recycling all our plastic packaging throughout the year. I’m even having some golf club boxes designed out of recycled cardboard and starting to use paper packaging tape instead of sellotape.
Our re-usable coffee mugs have been a popular product and we’ve now sold out of the smaller ones and we’ll be looking for more options so we can quit with the single use plastics.
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Our Motocaddy offer is still running Until Tuesday, 31 December, if you purchase a Motocaddy Lithium trolley from us you will be entitled to a FREE Motocaddy golf bag worth up to £219.99. The bag you get is dependant on the trolley you buy, but it really is as simple as that! Pop by the shop and we'll talk you through Motocaddy's fantastic range to see which trolley suits your needs best. |
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Last minute gift ideas…
Whilst the Christmas delivery date may pass, the Motocaddy promotion is still on until Christmas Eve whereby you can choose a free trolley bag with the purchase of a Motocaddy Lithium trolley.
We have a biggest ever clearance sale impending with a range of items which we’ll be clearing out as the newer models will be on their way in the New Year, as soon as I get chance to collate them and I’ll send a message out with the details. This will include:
1 Powakaddy C2i Lithium fold up trolley 1 set of Ex-Demo TaylorMade 760 irons 1 set of Ex-Demo Titleist T100 irons 1 set of Ex-Demo Mizuno JPX Forged irons 1 set of Ex-Demo Mizuno JPX Tour irons At least 30 older models of fairway woods Our Ex-Demo driver heads from Callaway, Taylor Made and Mizuno 6 Odyssey putters 100 different grips Seasonal ladies and gents clothing 1 Mizuno waterproof bag All our 2nd hand clubs Some Titleist golf balls
If there’s something you’re after, let me know and I’ll see if we have anything in store to suit that maybe in the sale.
Happy Christmas and we’ll see you at the club soon.
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How old is your waterproof jacket? A recent survey indicated that 60% of golfers are wearing one that is over two years old and if you’re one of them – or if you’re struggling to remember when you bought yours – it might be time to consider upgrading this winter. |
| Lots of today’s jackets come with a two or three-year waterproof warranty, which means that if you’re part of the above stat your jacket’s best days may be behind you.
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| We have plenty of options available in the pro shop, including FootJoy’s HydroLite V2 rain jacket, which is 15% lighter than the original HydroLite with a ton more stretch to keep you swinging freely! |
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