The new practice nets are ready to use in the walled garden after a great effort by Ned Edwards, Anthony Dell, Roger Edwards and all the green staff. Thanks for your patience whilst a proper long term solution has been planned and produced.

The Tuesday Social was played in great weather with 38 entrants this week. Top of the pile was Matt Perrin with 21 points. Other scores:

1st Matt Perrin 21
2nd George Johnson 20
3rd Fred Parr 20

Only two weeks until we embark on our crazy 24 hour golf challenge for charity. The format has slightly changed to allow more of you to join in with the fun as we raise money for the Birmingham Children's hospital, Macmillan Cancer Research and the Captains Charity. Nathan Lamey is joining us to complete the whole 24 hour challenge so we'll now be playing in two twoballs and therefore have more slots for you to join us and enjoy the fun. It's open to anyone to play, you just need to let us know which slot you'd like. So each time we tee off the first we can be joined by up to two amateurs in each group. The tee times will be:

Thursday 2nd July
6pm
9:30pm

Friday 3rd July
1:00am
4:30am
8:00am
11:30am
3:00pm

It wold be great to have all the slots full and we'll be playing full handicap stableford and having some matches and challenges along the way. Please join in to keep us awake or motivated and we'll be stocking the halfway house with refreshments for anyone involved.

Anne Rees has already donated some of her lovely shortbread for us, we'll have some slow cookers full of chilli and stew - anything else you feel we may need would be greatly appreciated. But the main thing is your time and donations. We have a board in the Pro Shop where you can make a donation and have a go at guessing our total scores, how many balls we'll lose and how many birdies we'll make and there'll be a prize for the correct guesses.

Click here and let me know which time you'd like to caddie or play with us. I've set up a JustGiving web page for donation to the Birmingham Children's Hospital. Thank you.

 

The Men's June Medal this weekend is sponsored by Srixon Golf and they are providing a FREE pack of golf balls for every entrant! Where possible we'll match your game to the best ball for you and with Srixon they are best suited to your swing speeds in the following way:

Slower swingers 70MPH+ - SOFT FEEL ball - green packet
Average swinger 80MPH+ - AD333 ball - blue packet
Average swinger 80MPH+ - AD333 Tour ball - grey packet (More spin than the AD333 model)
Faster swingers 90MPH+ - Z-STAR ball - gold packet
Fastest swingers 100MPH+ -Z STAR XV - silver packet 

 

The Captain and I played two of our matches last week and so far remain unbeaten with three wins from three, the Captain has played particularly well!

I'm at Luffenham Heath in Rutland on Monday attempting to get through to the second stage of the Open Championship qualifying. There's 120 golfers looking to get one of a dozen places into the second round which is 36 holes at Woburn in my neck of the woods. Luffenham is a great course and when I was a junior golfer in Leicestershire we used to play there for £5 for the day. There's just 250 members, a helicopter landing pad and some great holes.

If the USGA's mission was to get people talking about the 115th US Open, it has already been accomplished.

Seldom before has a major rivalled the Masters - whose story is able to evolve over eight months rather than the eight weeks which separate the season's first major from its second - for pre-tee-off hype, all of which stems from the decision to hand Chambers Bay its first crack at hosting a major championship. It was a decision made within a year of the course's grand opening in 2007.

Without doubt, there's a degree of trepidation involved on all sides. Even the suits at the USGA, who you sense revel in the spotlight, must be anxious knowing that their actions from now until Sunday night will shape how this championship is remembered.

All of this sounds dramatic and that's firmly the intention, for a dramatic test lies in store. This course, whose first and 18th holes will switch from par-four to par-five on the whim of a collection of businessmen, looks freakish. And it is long - there was briefly talk of 8,000 yards, which is truly absurd and has gladly been put to bed - and undulating, the latter best summed up by the par-three ninth hole which might one day play uphill, another downhill to the tune of some 100 feet. Those who've played Chambers Bay say that it is brutally difficult and could be borderline impossible should the powers that be let the greens run too fast or place the pins where they simply can't be accessed. Some of the tees are also on slopes, Robert Trent Jones declaring that golfers should be able to cope with sloping lies from their very first shot.

Peter Uihlein, who won the US Amateur Championship here in 2010, recalls aiming away from flags and even intentionally missing greens in order to give himself the best chance to salvage par. That week, big-hitting Uihlein found a magic touch around the greens and many will see that as the blueprint for success this week. The same week Patrick Reed as an amateur recalls winning a hole with 'a solid 9'!

I'd fancy a big hitter like Dustin Johnson, Rory or a strategist like Brandt Snedeker to do well and Jordan Spieth played in the US Amateur there PLUS his caddy used to work as a caddie at the course so they will have lots of local knowledge between them.