Hello my little candy covered sweetie pies!
Oh what another delicious week of delights to describe!
Let's start with club news!
The weekday medal last week was won by my buddy Alex Champion - great job Champs! Alex scored a gross 77, nett 69, and pushed new member Richard Goldberg into second place. Great golf boys!
The previous week, lovely Calum Mortimore (pictured right) won the weekday medal - scoring a fantastic gross 68, nett 64. Wowee!
The Ladies had their most fabulous Ladies' Open last week - enjoying lovely weather and great golf. This week sees the Ladies' Stableford on Tuesday as well as the Weekday medal, so plenty to compete in this week!
So flippin' 'eck here we go again - another rip roaring busy pile of madness!
Firstly I would like to congratulate our dear academy staff member Andy McGreevy. Andy is such a quiet chap (thoughtful I like to call it!) that very few would have known he sat his final exams in the last few months. Well……….. CONGRATULATIONS ANDY!! Andy has passed his final PGA exams and is now on the way to full PGA qualification following election to membership! I am so proud of you Andy, it is so lovely to have three fully qualified PGA coaches here. This means we really are a centre of excellence, well done guys.
This week also saw our delivery of GolfParc equipment. A little while ago I think I mentioned that I was very interested in purchasing some GolfParc items. This equipment comprises a portable golf hole, complete with plastic trees, bunkers, water hazard and a flag. Well thanks to the amazing funding we have received we have been able to purchase our very first "realistic" golf parc golf hole. This means that we can create a small golf hole experience for our disabled pupils, and indeed our juniors, wherever we want to. It folds down into two small bags and can be taken into special schools, education provisions and community groups. We are the first academy and golf club in the South West to own one - it is used heavily in Scotland and the South East, but not here so we are thrilled to be the poster boys for the equipment in Bristol and surrounding areas.
This week also saw Luke return from annual leave in blistering hot Spain, Andy headed up North for his week's holiday on the island of Mull and I dabbled in a few days in Devon and Dartmouth. Lovely jubbly!
We are starting a new series of Get Into Golf Beginners sessions for September, on the following dates:
Tuesday, 8 September
Thursday, 10 September
Tuesday, 15 September
Thursday, 17 September
Tuesday, 22 September
All these sessions start at 5.30pm for one hour, and they cost £25 for the whole series of five sessions. These are open to all beginners and are booking only, so please let your friends, neighbours or random strangers know! We love being able to introduce people to golf for a very low cost so it is well worth telling others about it! I already have two people signed up to these September sessions so it is worth booking early if you are interested as there are only 8 places to each session.
Click here or pay us a visit in the pro shop to let us know you are interested.
We are also running three more Inclusive Golf Sessions for September - on 5th, 12th and 19th at 12pm for 45 minutes. These sessions cost just £5 per attendee per session, and we welcome absolutely everyone. We have a vast amount of experience with special needs and we love to use it. We are also looking forward to our main Inclusion Festival in September.
Something else rather exciting is also taking place soon - we have been nominated as Best Inclusion Facility at the year's West Of England Sport Awards Ceremony. We won't win, I am sure we won't as I know who we are competing with, but it's a real pleasure to be considered worthy. I hope we get an invite so I can pull on a posh frock, quaff champers and eat sandwiches with no crusts ha ha. Do they come with chips I wonder?!
What's coming up for the academy? We have our first of the year Get Into Golf days in Portishead at the Lake Grounds on 25th July, between 9am and 3pm. Paul, Andy, Luke and George will be there coaching and hopefully introducing new people to our academy and golf club. Please do feel free to come along and try our inflatable net, Huxley putting mat, golf games and much more! It's always a pleasure to see all of you lovelies when we are on the road. Bring your children, grandchildren, whoever you like as all are welcome and it is absolutely FREE!
This week's thank you is to my guardian angel Mike Wilks - we absolutely sweltered a week or so again when it became so hot it was unbearable. The windows of the Pro Shop are painted shut unfortunately, so there is no air in the shop. Mike came to our rescue with our very own pro shop fan - Mike as always you spoil us, we love you xx
I have been in talks with the lads and our previous models to run a Ladies 125th Anniversary Fashion Show, and I am proud to announce that a date has been fixed. Ladies keep 1st April 2016 free - yes I know it will be April Fool's Day but it's all a bit of fun so if it all goes pear shaped it will just add to the utter madness of it all!
Finally we have taken on a young lad to help us over the summer. The Paul Mitchell Golf Academy would like to welcome Nick Ramshaw to the team, only until September, after which Nick takes up a position at Minchinhampton Golf Club. Nick is one of Paul's county squad pupils and was looking for some Pro Shop experience, and a pair of extra hands during the slightly eye poppingly busy summer is always welcome. Nick starts on Friday 10th, so please do say hello if you meet him!
So on that note - have a great week and enjoy yourselves
A silly little limerick to finish!
Was out playing golf just for fun
With Father O'Toole in the sun
When club from hand burst
Hit priest as he cursed
And I hit his first holy one
Caren, Paul, Andy & Luke
