We've been lucky that Golf has been allowed to come back to life in so many ways, which can make it hard to remember that other areas of life are still restricted. You can now watch the PGA Tour on TV, the European Tour has six UK based events starting soon, the Ladies European Tour starts again with Justin Rose hosting an entire series and we even had the first UK Pro event played locally at Sandwell Park on Monday just gone. As with our own club, each event and each slight change involves a huge amount of protocols to be considered. Fortunately, in the Pro Shop, we're used to coping with changes of one type or another - whether it's fluctuations in customer traffic, deliveries arriving early or late, diary changes, weather effects and a whole myriad of things that can pull us from one side to the other of 'normal'. Following the Prime Minister's announcement this week of further easing of restrictions, we'll be reassessing our guidelines for the shop in line with the golf clubs policies. Fortunately, my 2-metre social distancing sign and 'only 2 in the shop' sign got all weather-beaten last week and need replacing anyway. Good timing. The golf manufacturers are a little slow in coming back to life, especially considering golf has been played for seven weeks now and many are reporting low stocks and longer delivery times. Fortunately for us, we hand build almost all the clubs ourselves which means we can get the heads quicker than most. Having the experience, tools and skills to hand-build golf clubs is proving to be useful in more ways than one, as it already appears that there's a fair chance golf clubs could be arriving without the necessary care and attention having been taken. I received an order of wedge heads three weeks ago and then received the same two clubs again today. Friday this week will be 18 years to the day since I took up the position of Club Professional here at Brocton Hall, how time flies! Isobel Aspinall has been with me for more than 17 of those years and I know she'll be happier than most as the end of June approaches and she's allowed back out into the real world. Graham has been away with a recurrence of an old injury, a chronic bad back, since January but hopefully, he'll be able to get treatment and make a return before too long. Mike has been busy teaching over the past few weeks and is enjoying the variety of roles that a PGA Professional encounters. Katie's been working her socks off since golf returned and Simon's bank account is bulging with all the extra hours he's been doing in the halfway house and in the shop. In fact, when I asked what I should write about this week, he quite rightly gave me a long list of the things he's done - and how he should be getting much of the plaudits. Fortunately for us, many years of training has meant that Simon and chocolate make for a happy alliance! Thanks to my team for everything over the past 18 years and here's to the next 18. New into the shop this week is the ladies clothing range and men's Stuburt shirts and in the studio, we've added some cool new shafts from Canadian/Japanese shaft makers VA Shafts. |