Hello golfers,

As some of you may already know it is my 40th birthday tomorrow (Thursday, 8 September) and because of this I'm treating myself to 12 days off for a full programme of festivities, including some golf and maybe a few drinks to celebrate. As I will not be here to celebrate with you, and I know some of you have already suggested you would like to buy me a drink, I would like to invite you to my Captain/Pro Finals Day and belated 40th bash on Saturday, 8 October. Similar to last year, this will be a fourball better ball stableford competition off of 3/4 handicap, open to ALL members with an active handicap. Those that have played against Neil and I in the Captain/Pro matches will play for the prize table and those that have not will play for pro shop vouchers. It will be a 1pm shotgun start followed by a buffet, prize presentation and a few beers (I've booked my hotel already). The cost will be £10 per person including buffet and prizes, plus there will be a couple of extra sweeps on the day. The entry sheet will go up on the mixed board so please enter in your pairs and pay upon entry in the shop. If you can't join us for the golf, then please pop down in the evening to help me celebrate my 40th with you all.

  

Ryder Cup Sweepstake

OK next on to the Ryder Cup and the Pro Shop Sweepstake. This sweepstake is a little different to the rest as there will only be 24 players playing, as opposed to 156 in most majors, so we've changed it a little. There will only be 49 squares this a time priced at £5 per square. In return for one of those squares you will be drawn either a European player, an American player, Darren Clarke, Davis Love or a score line. There will then be £60 pro shop voucher prizes given for the European top points scorer, the top American points scorer, the winning captain and the correct score line. I tried this at Dereham last time and, although probably sounding a little confusing at the moment, it worked really well! So with only 49 squares to sell, please make sure you purchase your square before they all sell out.

 

On the Course...

Now on to competition news and we'll go back to last Thursday's Mid-week Stableford. On a day of fantastic scoring, 40 points was only good enough for fifth place in Division Two, Andy Patrick won Division One with 43 points with Mark Seeley second on 41 and Alex Reid piped Les Dukes on countback to claim third both with 40 points. In Division Two Brian Rivett's new improved putting stroke must be working as took the spoils with 43 points, beating Andy Klein on countback also with 43 with Robert Jones third on 42 points.

Andy Klein is another fitting success story of mine as previous to treating himself to a new complete set of Cobras (driver, fairways and irons), he was using second hand clubs that clearly didn't suit his game. Over the last year Andy has had a few lessons which has worked wonders. He was always capable of hitting some superb shots, but his bad ones were really bad. Those that have had lessons with me will always hear me mentioning "it's not how good your good shots are it's how bad your bad ones are that make the score". As soon as we started trying more suitable clubs, the bad ones were not nearly as bad, but also a lot less frequent and this score I would say has proven that theory so well done Andy, the first of many good rounds and I expect to see that handicap continue tumbling down.

On Saturday we had the Roll-up Stableford which was won by Paul Finch with 42 points beating Geoff Hall in to second with 40 points.

Last Friday the seniors competed in the Hodd's Salver against Royal Cromer and comfortably won by 10 holes. They now will have a fantastic day out to either Hunstanton or Sheringham in the next round for which I wish them luck.

 

Captain/Pro Matches

Back to my Captain/Pro matches now and a rare win for Neil and I against Martin and Jonathan Ling by three holes. Having played the night before against Angus and Mark, I eventually found a bit of rhythm and started to play really well on the back nine (it just goes to show what playing or practicing more than once a week can do) and with the Captain doing his bit when required, we ended up winning what was a closer match than what what the score suggested. As always the match was great fun and many thanks to Martin and Jonathan for the challenge.

Talking of Jonathan Ling many thanks to him for doing my window signage out the front of the shop. I'm sure you will all agree it looks fantastic so if you ever need any signage done then Jonathan and his company, Effective Imaging, are the company to do it.

  

Lynx Fitting Day

We have a Lynx Golf Fitting Day coming up on Friday, 7 October 11am - 3pm. I'm sure some of you remember Lynx back in the early to mid-90s with both Fred Couples and Ernie Els using their equipment to great success, well they are trying to make a comeback and having seen and tried some of their latest equipment, there is no reason why they can't be successful again. So if you fancy having a try of the latest Lynx equipment, then click here to book yourself in on our fitting day.

Ok I'm off and I'll leave you all in Oli and Tom's capable hands for 12 days... I'm back on Tuesday, 20 September so I'll see you all then. PS. I forgot to mention good luck to the Stenson team on Saturday in their final against Woodbridge at Diss. I hope to be there in the afternoon, but as I've said to some of the team, I'm out Friday night for my birthday so it all depends on recovery, but anyway come on lad you can do it.