Hey peeps!
Having a good week? I am celebrating the fact that summer is finally here and we can enjoy a bit of sunburn and a touch of dehydration. Yaaaaaayyyyy!
The August Medal is always a joy as the weather usually tends to be Ok for this comp. It was a bright and beautiful morning, which continued throughout the whole of the day. Many people saw the balloons taking off from Ashton Court - I admit I didn't see any on my way into work at 6.30am (Eeeek) but lovely Les Freeland showed me an awesome pic on his phone of one just coming over the road. I love the balloons but as I have a morbid fear of flying, I won't be partaking any time soon!
Anyway a huge field of our lovely lovely members (130) took their clubs and did battle on the most beautiful course and the results were as follows:
Division one
In first place: Jeff Pickering
In second place: Dave Pope
In third place: Clive Pulteney
Division two
In first place: Mike Matthews
In second place: Matthew Burman
In third place: Jack Davies
Massive congratulations to you all!
Next comps coming up are the Suspension Bridge Cup (normal starts, enter on the day) and the Sea Captain's Trophy on 22nd (start sheet online). Let's hope the weather keeps on going like this!
Our fabulous team of wonderful juniors set off to their next away Bristol & District Junior Golf League match at Knowle on Sunday. The team was made up of Nick Uren, Harry Kennedy, Fergus Cole, Finnian Smith and Freddie Light, with Willem Cole as reserve. These awesome kids went out and took the match to Knowle, with Harry and Fergus, on his debut for our junior team, winning their matches!
Our team ultimately lost 3-2 to Knowle, but it was so incredibly close and all these lads gave their very best. I am ever so grateful to these boys for their time and effort, I am very proud of them all. I would also like to thank Mark Kennedy for being the Team Manager for us - Mark you are a legend and we are really grateful to you.
So this week was a little bonkers to say the least! We start with the West of England Centre for Integrated Living Festival at Coombe Dingle sports complex last Wednesday!
The boys set out to work for WECIL for a day, as they were running a multi sports festival for disabled people to come and try sports they had never tried. I am always thrilled when we are invited to teach at different places.
The day was really well run, the boys had a really good time, and they were so busy at one time that there was a queue of wheelchair users waiting to take part and that fills my heart right up with fuzzy feelings of warmth and happiness! Some of the participants were very severely disabled but they all had a go and how blooming awesome is that?! Boys you did a grand job, thank you.
We also took our new GolfParc golf hole out and everyone who tried it loved it. Very impressed, well done Factory Eleven for making a really easy to use and efficient piece of kit for coaching disabled people and juniors. I hope to invest in more of these if we are lucky enough to get any Children In Need funding (due to hear in September, so not long to wait!) We hope to be invited to do more work in the future with WECIL.
We have also made a new link with the Physiotherapy Department at Southmead Hospital and look forward to coaching some of their clients. They are posting our details out to all their service users, which should bring some more people to the game. Exciting!
After the festival, I also took a call from Childrens' Hospice South West, who asked if they would be able to bring a few of their children up to use the driving range. I was so, so thrilled that we can offer them a little bit of fun time that of course I agreed. One lovely little lad came up with two carers, it damn near broke my heart and I have no idea how people cope with this, but he was absolutely gorgeous. They are now aware that we exist and will be bringing more children from time to time to go onto the range. I am honoured that we can help. I have also registered to run the Santa's on the Run at xmas, in aid of CHSW, so should be a laugh!
We also held our second annual Get Into Golf Day at Millenium Square by @Bristol last Saturday.
I had prayed for good weather, and although I am not particularly religious, the day was a belter! Someone likes me!!! Millenium Square has a whale exhibition (no I am not talking about the staff in their birthday suits!) so we had to share the space, but the Planetarium was a great place to plonk the gear and get everyone into golf. There aren't many backdrops more beautiful than this!
Busy, busy, busy all day! The lads again socked it to them and got loadsa brizzle peeps gettin' the 'ang of it. Proper job! So many people tried our golf games, and we also recruited a lovely lad with some special needs to join our inclusion group.
So once again I am ever indebted to Paul, Andy, Luke, James & George for all their hard work. It is utterly exhausting coaching people all day long without much of a break and in scorching weather, and I know how I have felt after doing just one Get Into Golf Day or one festival. To do two in a week must scramble the brain matter and the legs have got to be aching, so go and soak your poor little tootsies my laddos!
This week I also had the pro shop floor measured up for new carpet - nothing will be done until I get back from Edinburgh in the New Year, but in January it will be all systems go! Now I would like to pass you over to Andy McGreevy for a roundup of his beginner groups and an exciting new role he has!
This week I'd like to share with you the work I've been doing with my beginner groups in the academy.
This week saw a group of eager new beginners start their 5 introduction to golf lessons. I always find teaching beginners to be very rewarding as you can see real progress being made from one lesson to the next as they begin to understand and grasp the intricacies of this challenging game.
When teaching beginners you always start with basics like grip, posture and aim, and I always stress the importance of getting these right as they have a huge influence on the rest of your swing. For those of you who've been playing the game for some time but still feel there is room for improvement, I suggest checking these fundamentals as they can often be incorrect without you knowing and cause all sorts of problems later in the swing.
This week I've also been coaching away from the club at North Somerset Athletics Club. Some of you may or may not know that I started my coaching in Athletics when I was competing several years ago in the 60/100 metres. The club were looking to recruit new coaches so I decided to go down and see what it was all about. It was great to be back on the track and working with some hugely talented and fast youngsters. The club have asked me to coach an elite group of their under 20's sprint athletes which is a huge honour and something I'm really looking forward to. They've also asked to use my knowledge and expertise in physical profiling and conditioning to help keep their athlete's injury free, including a young girl who recently smashed the national combined event point's record that had stood for 11 years. A possible star in the making and a great opportunity for myself to work with an extremely talented athlete, something I am passionate about whether it is at elite level or complete beginner.
As always if you ever have any questions or perhaps you're interested in golf specific or personal training, come and speak to me in the pro shop, or click here to get in touch. I'd be more than happy to help.
Andy
Congratulations Andy, your awesomeness is showing!! I am so proud of him, what a great thing to be asked to do.
Luke starts his summer camps this week, so you will see lots of littlies around and about. They will have a great week and Luke will need a few Valium by the weekend, so anyone who can prescribe……….?!! Only jesting, they will all enjoy it and Luke will write a report next week to fill you all in on their progress.
Linda Meaton recently met Prince Philip at St. James' Palace last month. As Vice Chair of the Institution of Engineering Design, Linda was part of a select group being introduced to HRH before he formally gave the Institution a Royal Charter. Wonder if she told him a cheeky joke?!! I love Linda, what a woman!
Before I go, I would like to thank Lisbeth and Poul for the fab games they have given Cam. He loves them! Andy & I also had a game of Guess Who whilst we were waiting for the balloon fiesta traffic to calm a bit so we could depart. Andy won (boooo - ha ha) but I'm sure it's only because he went first ha ha (nothing to do with my complete inability to win any board games!)
On that note……..bye bye baby, baby goodbye…(bye baby…baby bye bye!!!!)
Cee, Pee, And, Loo and Nicky knack