Hello Golfers, 

I hope this finds you well and you have managed to take to the course a little this week. Unfortunately we have now lost the opportunity to play any golf in the evenings after the clocks went back last weekend. Therefore it's all about the weekends and any time you may find through the week to get out and feed your golfing addiction. I actually love winter golf and have learnt to make the most out of it and use it as a great way to improve my game ready for the summer seasons. In this newsletter I am going to share some of my secrets to enjoying winter golf so hopefully it will rub off on you to and you will be able to keep your golfing enjoyment going this winter. 


 

Autumn Equinox and Prestercott Trophy 

The last white tee competition of the season was played on Saturday as the Autumn Equinox and Prestercott Trophy were played for. The Prestercott is for handicaps 24-28 and the winner of the Prestercott was Ben Cogavin.

The Autumn Equinox and the best score of the day belonged to Jon Warren who returned an excellent nett 67, also winning Division Three (pictured here). Division One was won by Tony Potter with a nett 69 and Justin Powlesland won Division Two with a nett 71.


 

New Menu now available in the Clubhouse

We now have a new food menu available in the clubhouse 7 days a week. Chef Tom has devised a scrumptious menu full of homemade food at superb prices. The menu includes some classic dishes as well as some newly designed dishes from Tom, plus an extensive choice of sandwiches, baguettes and jacket potatoes. Tom is also doing Sunday roast lunch which are available on Sundays from 12-3:30pm and are priced at a superb £6.95 (after member's discount). The restaurant is open to non-members so it would be great to see many of you sampling Tom's brilliant cooking and bringing your friends and family up as well. Tables can be booked in advance for Sunday lunch by contacting either Tom or Nicola.


 

How I have learnt to love winter golf

As we approach winter we often engage in conversations with our customers regarding how much they hate winter golf and that they are going to put their clubs in the garage for a few months! Although I can understand why they think like this, the reality is that winter golf can actually be as enjoyable as summer golf, even if it will be a little colder! 

Consider this. In the summer we take the playing side of golf for granted as we have until around 9:30pm 7 days a week to take to the course and play. When winter comes around most of you will leave home in the dark to go to work in the mornings and then return home in the dark to sit in front of the TV until bed time, before repeating this process for the rest of the week. Therefore when it comes to weekends surely you should be mega keen to get the clubs out and take to the course? Now unless the rain is torrential and the course unplayable there is no reason not to want to go out and play some golf in your precious free time.

The key to then enjoying your winter golf is having the right equipment to battle the elements.

This includes simple things such as carrying a rain glove to help maintain a good grip on your clubs, having a good set of waterproofs to keep you warm and dry, wearing shoes that are waterproof to keep your feet dry and of course wearing warmer gear such as base-layers and beanie hats when the temperature drops. 

Now with the correct essentials the rest is pretty simple. We all appreciate that when it comes to winter the course can present a few tricky playing conditions whether it be temporary greens due to frost or a bit of a wet soggy lie to chip from. Therefore we mustn't beat ourselves up too much when we don't quite produce the results we are looking for from our course play. But see this as a challenge and try to learn how to cope with the varying conditions. I am going to run through a few ideas to help you cope with those tricky winter playing situations. Inevitably we will have a few days where the weather dictates that we are unable to play outside on the course, when this is the case there are some alternative ways to keep your game in shape over winter without having to brave the elements.

Indoor Putting

A great way to keep practicing in the winter and without endangering the lights is to practice your putting on the carpet. You can use many things to putt to, but an indoor putting machine is great fun as the incentive is to hole the ball in to the cup and watch the little arm fire the ball back to you! This becomes very addictive and you can create a competitive edge to practice by challenging yourself to hole out as many in a row as possible and set a personal best target which you then aim to beat the next time you practice. Also great fun for all the family, even non-golfers love having a go.

Check your basics

We are always trying to educate golfers on the importance of good basics in golf. One of these basics is good alignment. Many golfers hit the ball off line and then automatically blame their golf swing when in fact it is their alignment that has caused the ball to fly off line. By using a set of tour sticks you can easily check your alignment and try to create some good habits that become ingrained and easy to take straight to the course. This can be done both inside or outside as you don't even have to hit balls to check this.

Book a Winter Game Improvement Package 

I love winter as it's the time I get to work on my techniques. Due to my busy work load I don't get to play very much golf in the summer so when I do I need to have a fairly simple, reliable technique that I can take to the course and put in to play. Winter is then the time I assess my playing from the summer and work out a plan of action based on improving my techniques through practice but also allowing me to test it on the course through our winter season of golf. Every golfer has different types of golf game that requires different levels of improvement. We can build a winter game improvement package for you built around what would best suit your game and meeting the expectations and goals you set yourself. Come and talk to the team about how we can help your game this winter.

Use the Indoor Simulator 

Sometimes the thought of playing on the course in the winter just doesn't appeal. This is where you can take advantage of our superb indoor golf simulator facility. Our GC2 launch monitor and simulator is the most advanced on the market. It is yard accurate so the data you get is real data and relevant to how you hit the ball out on the course. It helps you understand how far you hit every club and is the perfect practice environment especially in the winter months.

It also has the facility to play golf on some of the world's best courses such as Pebble Beach and The Belfry. For more information please ask the pro shop team.

  

If any members have any practice balls, or spare golf balls at home we would be more than grateful to use them in our junior sessions.

A chipping game - Just a quick fun, warm-up game that you can do in practice or before a round of golf to check where your short game is at. Calculate the number of holes on the putting green and choose the same number of balls - from the same spot and same club hit each ball to a different hole. If you hole the chip you award yourself 2 points, if it is inside one club length 1 point and beyond that 0. If you could achieve 4-5 points every set of 5 balls you would save many shots on a Saturday - test yourself next time you have a spare few minutes and let me know how many points you get! 

Please be aware that the main days I will be coaching are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday. 8.00am - 8.00pm. Sessions can be booked on other days if possible and talked about with me in advance. I will notify of any changes to the days when needed. 


Coaching deal - 2 x 45 minute sessions - £45. Limited offer
Juniors - Sat 31 Oct between 9am-12 noon session time depending - please note the sessions will go ahead regardless of the weather in our indoor simulator.