What a weekend of Sport with upsets in the World Cup rugby with Japan taking the spoils, the Solheim Cup as USA staged the biggest comeback in the events history and the PGA Cup, which is the Club Pro's Ryder Cup, as the GB&I team won in America on the very last putt for the first time in the events 27 year history. 

All the hoo-hah about Suzanne Petterson not giving an 18" putt seemed to overshadow the event somewhat and whilst her attitude on the next hole was shocking, the American, Lee, broke the first rule of matchplay - never assume a putt is given!

Pro's Day

Many, many thanks to everyone for playing in my Pro's Day and for joining us at the party on Saturday night. 

We spent £1,000 to put on the three events and it's heartwarming to put in lots of effort on our part and then to see the support we receive and watch everyone enjoying themselves throughout.

   

   



The club was freakishly quiet last week with less than 30 people playing most days (including Sunday) and all four of the events in the diary were organised by the Pro Shop, including the Tuesday Social, so it was a good week to host the events. 

Ladies Day

We started on the Wednesday with the Ladies Day. 

The severe weather warnings were ignored and didn't transpire which allowed 39 ladies to compete in, for many of them, their first Texas Scramble event. Katie and I spent the morning in the halfway house providing Tomato soup, coffee, biscuits and just a little bit of wine followed by the presentation in the clubhouse. The ladies winners were: 

Mens' Day

Then on Saturday we had a real family affair for the Mens Day. Lewis took the entries in the shop, Katie oversaw the final plans for the evening party, Simon ran the halfway house refreshments and we even had Rudy the dog standing guard over the crisps! 111 golfers took part and played a three ball Texas Scramble. 

The first three hours were played in thick fog which actually seemed to make it easier for them to hit the 9th green compared to when they can see the green. Unfortunately exactly 33% of the competitors managed to hit the 9th green which is by far the worst percentage I have encountered. 

The challenge involves staking £10 or £20 on the 9th tee, if their tee shot finishes on the green, I double the amount and credit their shop account, if they miss the green they still get their original stake as credit on their account. So, this year I've put an extra £410 onto peoples accounts!! 

There were some dubious shots that skimmed over the water to get on the green, some dubious old bits of furniture that were used to achieve the feat and some very excited golfers managing to hit the green after years of attempts! - You all know who you are!! Well done to everyone who had a go. Peter Bright Jnr hit a glorious shot that never left the pin and finished 2 feet away. I commented that it would be a long time until someone beats that shot and the very next player, Steve Trotman, knocked it closer! 

We supply everyone with beer, wine, tea, coffee, soup, nibbles and biscuits and usually don't crack open the beers until nearer lunchtime but this year lots of golfers took some dutch courage before teeing off from early on so I may resort to soft drinks or really strong coffee next year! 

We went off the original tee on the 17th hole as well on Saturday - maybe I should have had the challenge there too! 
Mens Winners: 

Then onto the presentation and party at night and 75 people joined us for some food and the band FREEZE which came on first for an acoustic set, followed by two more sets of full on rock finishing at midnight. Thanks again for everyones support and it was great to see a mix of new members and established members joining in.

Tuesday Social Golf 

I reckon we have another two weeks of Tuesday Social golf to play before we run out of light, this week 25 people played and the scores were: 

1st - Bill Whittle 19 points £13, 2nd - Anthony Dell 18 points £11, 3rd - Rich Egan 18 points £9, 4th - Mick Dilworth 17points £8, 5th - Josh Smith 17points £7.


 

Loyalty points

Check out your emails over the next week, we'll be sending out your loyalty points from your shop accounts as the vouchers are available to use for lessons. From October 1st we'll be offering 30 minute appointments as well as the usual 1 hours slots. The shorter slots are ideal for many elements of the game and also ave you battling the elements for very long in the search for progress! 

The cost will be £25 with myself and £20 with Luke. For juniors with a CONGU handicap, the 30 minute sessions have been available all year at a reduced rate of £10 and this will continue over the winter.

The coming months are a great time to work on your game and we've already seen a big increase in the number of golfers wanting to assess their equipment and replace their worn out clubs. 

Do you think clubs won't make much of a difference?

Take a look at the wedges below where I have been asked this week to replace the heads in order to get more spin on the ball - I think we have got a chance here!!

   


 

Next weekend, Saturday, 26 and Sunday, 27 September, is our end of season sale weekend. We have lots of bargains to be had as we clear some of our inventory to make way for new lines. Some of the items included in the sale:

Selected Mens and ladies shoes up to 30% OFF 
Various trolley bags up to 30% OFF 
Reduction on many putters. 
Bridgestone glove prices slashed to clear. 
Shorts, shirts and sweater clearance. 
Range of grips to go at a big discount. 
Ex-Demo club clearance.


The coming weeks are where we see a lot of the 'fun' competitions at the clubs as the medals finish, and there is more to get involved with than ever before. Additionally the course is looking the best I've ever seen it at this time of year.