Hi everyone,

I hope you have all had time in the glorious warm weather last weekend! Here's what's been occurring at the GC!


 

B&C's Ladies played the Australian Spoons last Tuesday, 3 May. The winners were Alyson Matthews and Sue Wilson with 33 points, with Anne Archer and Dorothy Bastable in second place on 33 points (OCB). In third place was Veronica Shorttle and Jo Harrison with 31 points. Many congratulations to you all!


The May Medal and Ladies' Medal took place last Saturday, and started off with a most grey and overcast looking day. It perked up somewhat and was very muggy, which led to a short suspension of play due to a thunderstorm (boo). 

Anyway after 25 minutes we restarted and soon bright sunshine was again our friend. 

The winner of Division 1 was Stuart Palmer with a nett 67, and in second place John Flaherty with nett 68. 
The winner of Div 2 was Mark Wilson with a nett 68, and taking the second position was Alex Light with nett 68. 

Many congratulations to you all for weathering the storm and doing so well, and a special thanks to Alex for being my weatherman on the course and keeping me updated with the storm alerts!

   

At the May Medal, the club's very own Oli Nevin got a hole in one at the 6th! Well done Oli, drinks are on you then!

On to the next instalment of the Pro Shoppers!


 

This week saw a session with the children from Belgrave School on the chipping green - six pupils, including my son, spent an hour with Luke being coached on all things short game last Thursday. What a great way for the GCSE class to unwind!

They will be having another two sessions after half term, so we hope for continuing good weather! We also held an inclusion session here, and all attendees really enjoyed it.

Paul ran his first junior coaching session last Sunday and a whopping ten juniors turned up. We even had a new girl golfer which is absolutely brill! The next session is on Sunday, so we look forward to coaching you all again.

Now I have some very sad news to tell you. Our Head Assistant Pro Luke has decided to leave our academy for pastures new. I know many of you have grown very fond of him and this will be undoubtedly a loss. He will be leaving in early June, and I have therefore decided to do a little picture montage of some of the best moments of his time here with us at the PMGA and B&C. We wish him every success for the future.

 

 

Luke will be sadly missed by everyone here at B&C, and we wish him all the very best of luck in his future ventures.

I did receive some good news this week. A young pupil of mine won the British Schools and Colleges Individual Girls Championship at Trevose last week. 

She has been coming for lessons since February, and just needed a little bit of advice to give her a confidence boost after being stuck on a four handicap for almost eighteen months. After a successful start to the season, she has almost reached her short term goal of a two handicap. 

Well done to Caitlin Brand Evans!

It was an all B&C semi-final in the Gloucestershire Ladies County Championships and congratulations go to Becky Gibbs for defeating Alex Saunders. Becky then went on to win in the final, well done Becky. Commiserations to Alex who has been showing some great form in the early season, even with the odd injury or two.

Jimmy Mullen closed last week's Turkish Open with a seven under par round to finish in twelfth position on the Challenge Tour. He has a busy month or two ahead as he plays on invites provided by his management company. That round of sixty five will give him a lot of confidence.

I went back to school last week when I attended the annual England Golf Coach and Manager Training Camp at England HQ, Woodhall Spa. We had some fantastic workshops and presentations from world renowned leaders in their fields. We had experts present from the world of sports science and medicine, strength and conditioning, motivational interviewing, psychology, motor learning, sports governance and practical sessions with some of the best golf coaches in Europe. It was a long couple of days, but really good to spend time with other England Coaches, share ideas and best practice.

Disappointingly, the Captain and I lost our first Captain Pro Challenge together against James Wadsworth and David Battrick. Well played chaps! 

The Captain hit the best chip and run I have ever seen from the fourteenth fairway to the fifteenth hole (who put the Captain on the fourteenth fairway from the fifteenth tee?). With a six iron, he bumped the ball into the rough on the bank just short of the green and ran the ball up to the side of the hole for a very near eagle. 

Peter and I have another big game this Friday lunchtime and hopefully we can get a positive result this time?


Now I will hand over to Luke for the last words in this newsletter.

"After five great years at Bristol and Clifton GC, I have decided to move on and seek new challenges. I would like to thank all the members and staff of the club, in particular Paul and Caren for all their support and encouragement. 

I wish everyone all the best for the future and if you would like to keep in contact, my email address is lukefraserpga@gmail.com.

Regards 
Luke Fraser"

On that note, have a great week.

Caren, Paul, Luke and Andy