Hello members, I hope you and your families are all well and safe and adhering to the "Stay at Home" guidelines. It's important to stay in touch with each other in these very strange and testing times. We all probably know somebody that is on their own through this, why not pick up the phone and give them a quick ring to see how they are? Just because they don't ask for help, does not mean they don't need it. A cheery voice or a nice text can go along way to keep people going. With that in mind, I want to thank all of you that have taken the time to send me messages and emails, it means a lot. The support you have shown both myself and the club in this time of turmoil has been fantastic, and will not be forgotten. To all those who have paid their membership fees, thank you so much. This really makes a big difference knowing we have your support, and that members of staff can still get paid because of it. We totally understand if you are not in a position to do that at the moment, its a difficult time for many of us.
Your Support Going Forward
Online shopping is one of the tempting things to help relieve some boredom at this time. When it comes to golf purchases online, before you click to purchase, just stop and think whether you really need to buy it at this time. I appreciate that you may be purchasing home practice equipment etc, but if anything else can wait until we resume back to normal service, then myself and my team would really appreciate the support through the pro shop. I have a fully stocked shop full of new golfing gear which sadly at the moment is sitting there doing nothing! It is going to be an exceptionally tough time for retailing when we return, therefore if we can rely on the support from our members it gives us a fighting chance going forward. Many golf professionals who have their own shop, will not survive this period sadly. With your help and support, we can try our hardest to make sure we do not follow suit. Thanks very much.
Q&A With The Professional Team
Over the next couple of days, we are giving you all the opportunity to fire some questions at myself and the professional team. Please feel free to email us with any questions you may have around improving your game, equipment advice or anything else golf-related. Over the weekend we will send out an update with selected questions along with answers and advice. Fire away..........but nothing too tricky, we are out of practice! Email me at: darren.everett@exetergcc.co.uk.
The Oscar Diaries
Many of you have sent some lovely emails, saying how much you enjoy reading updates about Oscar........comes to something when your 3-year-old is more popular than you!! What's he got that I haven't?........apart from the goods looks and a personality!! Anyway, jealousy aside, here is the latest instalment of The Oscar Diaries!
It is 6.52am, and Oscar bounds into our bedroom and jumps up on to the bed wearing his dinosaur pyjamas. "What day is it today daddy?", "It’s Wednesday buddy", "What grown-up day is it?", “ it’s mummy and daddy day again buddy” “ oh yeah, cos those naughty germs are not playing very nice with us are they?” Got to love how Oscar's little mind works. It’s nice that he is oblivious to what is really happening. Living in Oscar world for a few weeks may be a blessing! So it was Iron man who seemed to be the superhero in favour today. Who knew that Iron Man was so good at drawing rainbow pictures for the family and our neighbours! Iron man has super strength and special rocket boots. What I didn’t realise though, was that his main superpower is being pretty bossy! He kept telling daddy he was drawing outside of the lines, and grassing me up to mummy! Only a few flying missions, a couple of wee stops and a crucial battle with the bad guys put us off our stride. All in all, we had a pretty fun and productive time. After a morning drawing and painting, our table now looks very retro, and would not look out of place at a Greenpeace convention! Now I know what the spotty plastic table cloth sat in the cupboard is for......... sorry Leah! Everyone is very grateful though for their rainbows, and hopefully, it will bring some cheer to a very gloomy time. We went for our daily walk earlier and went to see my dad. Oscar had made him a special rainbow picture and wanted to see grandad put it up in his window. Watching Oscar give grandad the thumbs up when he proudly put it in the front window for the world to see, was priceless! Not being able to give my dad a hug though is heartbreaking. Seeing him through a window is hard, but it is nice to see him, and know that at the moment he is feeling well and staying safe. He is on a break from treatment which is just as well with what is happening currently.
With our visit over we bounced back down the road heading for home. We were supposed to share some sweets that mummy had packed for us, turns out that Oscar's idea of sharing is me holding the pot while he eats the sweets! Tomorrow I’ve put myself under needless pressure.......it is building paper aeroplanes day! I am frantically searching YouTube for hints and tips, on how to make this at least a semi-success. The fear of my effort flying as far as the end of a 3-year-old's foot, is going to lead to a restless night sleeping! Another day of lockdown complete!
How many? We have had some very good scores already posted in this week's putting challenge. If you have not had a go yet, then grab that putter and get to work! All you need to do is set an area with four markers roughly 6ft apart in depth and 2 feet apart in width. You can use anything for this, coins, cups or even toilet rolls like me!! Then measure 4ft back from the start of that area, and mark a spot to hit your putts from, I have used my headcover. The idea of the game is to hit your ball into the 6ft area then mark it with a coin, then hit another putt but try and only hit it a little bit past your marker. Where ever your ball ends up, move your marker to this spot. The idea is to see how many times you can advance your marker before you reach the end of the marked area! Let's get all the family involved! I am going to put up prizes for the best scores by a man, lady, senior and junior golf member. However you will need to send me a picture of you in action, along with a family member attempting it, plus your score to stand a chance of winning a prize! If anyone is isolating on their own then just send me a picture of your game set up, as I have in the picture. For the non-golfers of the family, I will give a FREE 30-minute golf lesson to the person with the best total. If there are ties for the best scores, players will be put into a random draw for the prizes. Have some fun with it, and have as many goes as you want. Send your pictures and scores to me - darren.everett@exetergcc.co.uk by next Saturday 4th April. Also indicate if you are happy for me to share your pictures on social media, to send a message out that as a club we are still united and engaged with each other! Good luck!
Fantastic response to our NHS Draw
I have had a fantastic response to our NHS Draw. Thank you very much to all of you who have supported it so far, it really is appreciated. If you have not entered yet then you still have until this Sunday to purchase your tickets. There be will some fantastic prizes to win! On Friday I will announce what the prizes will be. The cost is £5 per entry, and you can buy as many entries as you wish. The idea is that 50% of the money raised gets paid out in prizes, and 50% gets donated to the NHS. This initiative is being adopted by a number of Foremost PGA professionals, and as a group, we are hoping to raise as much money as possible, whilst giving our members the chance to win some fantastic prizes. Entries for the first draw close on Sunday 5th April. The draw will then take place on Monday 6th April. The prizes depend on the number of entries, but the prizes will be worth winning. The entry can be paid to me via bacs. We were using Paypal also, but I have been advised that they are not keen on this for draws etc. Bacs details : 77-10-05 - 33214768 Stay safe, keep smiling and keep in contact. Kind regards Darren and the team. | 
