Hello all,
Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Caren!!!
So how are you all this week?
I have been relatively lazy this week - I bought a giant inflatable net for us to use, which will come in handy for club junior comps and fun days. Apart from a bit of shopping, I have been resting on my laurels…..but I have also been making plans for next year's Get Into Golf days, and I have come up with a cracker! No I can't tell you, it's a secret….for now! You will all see soon enough, but as we are approaching the colder part of the year (yeah, I know, it sucks big time) I won't be organising anything 'til the spring. Once spring is here, I shall burst out of my hibernation cocoon and like a slightly bonkers butterfly, and will start all over again for 2016!
We are sadly without a Junior Organiser currently, but our Junior Section is absolutely bloomin' fabulous, and we have more recruits than ever. There are so many people to thank for helping us get this off the ground, we have done really well in junior matches, coaching programmes have been well supported and Luke's summer camp has been a hit so I need to thank the staff, the fantastic and supportive parents of these great kids, these great kids themselves and the junior committee. As the league matches slow down, we can now take a breather until next year. I really hope we can source a new junior organiser for 2016, but I offer my thanks to John Pajak for his help during 2015. We will do all we can to progress and do even more for our juniors in 2016.
In the meantime, I offer you Luke's report on his summer camp last week!
"This week I ran the second ever school holiday camp for juniors, the aim was to try and encourage some of the kids who have been taken part in Junior Golf Passport and On The Course Coaching to become members and start playing on the course.
The ten boys that took part were, Angus Bell, Sam Larthe de Langladure, Sam Rowland, Leo Smith, Fraser and Larry Hinds, Jed &Max Patterson, plus Ethan & Ewan Hunt who took part in a structured program which I created based on the more advanced exercises from the Passport scheme, and at the end of each day, we played nine holes on the course playing different strokeplay and matchplay formats. We all had a really enjoyable week and I am looking to do more camps in the school holidays next year, which I will be advertising soon."
Luke
Thanks for that Luke.
Paul has also been a really busy little bunny over the last few weeks, and has been here, there and everywhere! I would like to pass you over to Paul for his report on his and David Martin's day out at Chigwell for the PING Tour Day and also his report on the Seniors' Away Day at Oake Manor.
PING Tour Player Day
"As Caren explained last week, club member David Martin entered a national PING prize draw to attend a PING Tour Player Day and was amazingly pulled out of the hat! We drove to Chigwell Golf Club, North London, last Wednesday to compete in a four ball better ball competition against eleven other Professional Amateur pairings, with the added bonus of playing four holes with Tom Lewis, a young professional and winner on the European Tour.
We had a fantastic day, and played with the Chigwell Club Professional and his amateur partner, Sanjay, who is a Director of the club. The winning score was 41 points and David and I were pipped on count back for second place.
It was a wonderful experience for us to play with Tom Lewis for the first four holes and I should have beaten him! I didn't hole the putts and he nailed a thirty footer on the forth to beat me by a shot. Damn!!
Thanks to David who hit some wonderful shots throughout the day and was great company.
Seniors Away Day
On Thursday I was invited to the Seniors Away Day at Oake Manor Golf Club near Taunton. The forecast the day before looked as if it would be a washout, but amazingly we got away with the odd spitting of rain and a wonderful day was had by all.
48 seniors enjoyed the wonderful layout of Oake Manor featuring many lakes and rolling hills. My playing partners were the Captain, Geoff and Seniors Captain David Marval. The bowmaker competition proved popular and the winning team with a wonderful score of 85 (-13) was Mike Biggs, Bernard Archer and Clive Mackenzie.
There was a tie in the individual stableford competition. Tony Heaford had played brilliantly for a score of 41 points only to be pipped for the bottle of champagne by Franco Spallanzani.
Thanks to David Marval for inviting me and thank you to all the seniors section for their support."
Paul That looked like such fun! Well done guys.
I also had a good week - I visited my mother-in-law in the Forest of Dean, met a really interesting man called
Dave Harvey (the poet of the forest - Google him, what a character! By god could he talk in the language of the forest!), took Cam for a walk along the Very Hungry Caterpillar trail, walked a ferret on a lead (!) and fed the ducks at the Dean Heritage Centre in Soudley. Unfortunately no wild boars were spotted, unless you include me!
I learned how to ask how you are in forest speak - "ow bist o But?"!!!!!! but I don't think it's me really, I am a bit more Bristolspeak I think! I do love to hear about local cultures though, and I LOVE the Forest of Dean for its calming quietness and breathtaking beauty.
As I am about to depart on annual leave until 8th September, I wanted to remind everyone that, just because myself and Paul are away for a few weeks, it will be business as usual at the Pro Shop. Andy & Luke will still be available for lessons, custom fitting, advice and retails sales. Don't forget, we always price match and we are happy to provide demo clubs for you to try.
Click here to get in touch if you would like to book a lesson or a fitting with one of our professional staff.
I have also been busy behind the scenes compiling items for the Julian Trust. I am a terrible one for shopping, and if you open a food cupboard in my house, you will set off a mini avalanche of boxes and tins. I have been working with an employee of the British Heart Foundation (she's my Mummy!), collecting blankets, food and other warm stuff for the winter. She gets the blankets for me and I donate them to the homeless. My garage has about 20 blankets, two boxes of foodstuffs and some other bits and pieces. I am saving this until I get back from holiday, as they are items most needed for colder months, and then I shall take them to the shelter myself to donate them. I am also going to do a food drop at Christmas, taking warm food on to the streets of Bristol to help those who need the help most.
Finally I would like to report the club competition results: The Suspension Bridge Cup on Sunday was won by lovely
Mark Walker. Ladies also had a great day for their away day at Saltford. Thankfully the weather, despite dreadful forecasts, held off and a great day was had by all. Well done all!
Before I go, we are starting to get the Autumn/Winter stock in - there are already a nice selection of Sunderland of Scotland waterproofs in the colour of Cadbury's Dairy Milk purple, undergarments and woolly bobblers - take a look at the new range in store now!
On that note, next week will see an instructional from Andy and a little instructional from the beach in Spain!
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.....
Ceejay, Paulini, Andylad, Lukeski and
NickNick