Hello golfers,

After a great break at Butlins in sunny Bognor last week I'm back, refreshed and raring to go again. The main issue that seems to arrive whilst away is the complaints of the very heavy long rough making the course too tough and slowing down play. Whilst all very true, it is all part of the long term rough management programme and members will be happy to know that due to the weather and rapid amounts of growth, the rough management programme will be starting sooner than we envisioned.

From next week, the green staff will start to "flail" and collect the rough using a piece of machinery called "charter house turf tidy". This will cut the rough right down to ground level and by collecting the cuttings, starves the plant. This encourages the plant to grow back less dense and finer. We will look at spraying herbicides and over seeding the rough with finer grass species at a later date to control coarse grasses. This should leave us with a long wispy grass to give the course some definition but because the grass will be less dense you will be able to find your ball no problem at all. For more information about this please see Danny's outside noticeboard.

 

Course Strategy

In the short term, while the rough is up, it might be a good time to look at your course strategy. How many of you stand on a tee and reach for the driver? In my experience of playing with you I would say on 15 of 18 holes the majority of you would reach for the driver off the tee. I would, if I were playing strokeplay, probably only reach for my driver on three or four occasions in 18 holes, I remember Tiger in 2006 Open at Hoylake only taking his driver once in 72 holes. This is because, although I'm a pretty good driver of the ball (especially with my new TaylorMade M2 driver), if I do make a bad swing with the driver the ball will go a long way off line so it's not worth the risk on a lot of the holes, I just want to hit the fairway to give myself a chance of hitting the green with my next shot, even if it means a longer second shot, it's better than losing a ball. You might be saying it's OK for you, you can hit an iron off the tee and still reach the green in two and yes that's correct, but I need to. Most of you don't need to get to the par four greens in two or par fives in three because you have handicaps and therefore if you get a shot on the hole you can take three to get it on the green on a par four and still walk off with a nett par, providing you two putt. So before you start complaining about the rough, yes it is tough out there at the moment but the scores below would suggest there are plenty of good scores out there, and if you hit it in the rough hit a provisional ball and let the following group through whilst you look, but please think about your strategy and after all, it's the same for everyone and "that is the examination paper of the day" as Peter Aliss once said!

If you are still struggling however and would like to book a playing lesson to discuss course strategy in more details, please click here to get in touch.

 

On the Course...

OK on to competition news now and we have a lot to get through as I missed last week so I think will just do it in list form...

Men's Mid-week Stableford - Thursday, 25 May

Division One - First place - Kelvin Gillies (41 points), second  place - Barry Manser (38 points) and in third place - Rob Allen (38 points).
Division Two - First place - Fred Simeons (42 points), second place - Matt Gee (40 points) and in third place - Richard Smart (39 points).

Mixed Foursomes - Saturday, 27 May

First place - Heather and Ivan Harvey with 39 points, second place - Anne and Mike Amos with 38 Points and in third place - Sue and Angus Smith with 36 points.

Mixed Roll-up Stableford - Sunday, 28 May

First place - Mark Morgan (45 points), WOW all Mark's hard work over the last 18 months is paying off. Second place - Ray Pope 41 points and in third place - Paul Finch (40 points).

Spring Bank Holiday Team Competition - Monday, 29 May

Mixed Team - First place with 98 points; Peter Aldred, Jayne Standen, Terrie and Barry Collingwood.
Men's Team - First place with 108 points; Wally Perring, Alex Reid, Clyde Leggett and Brain Chadd.

Men's Mid-week Stableford - Thursday, 1 June

Division One - First place - Ben Leuty (39 points, OCB), second place - Chris Duffy (39 points) and in third place - John Cater (37 points).
Division Two - First place - Richard Smart (38 points), second place - Ray McWilliam (37 points, OCB) and in third place - Colin Laws (37 points, OCB).

Men's Monthly Medal and Drughorn Cup Qualifier - Sunday, 4 June

Division One - First place - Kevin Woods (Nett 66), second place - Josh Manser (Nett 70, OCB) and in third place - Tommy Hunt (Nett 70, OCB).
Division Two - First place - Howard Thornton (Nett 67), second place - Donald Blair (Nett 71, OCB) and in third place - Andy Elliott (Nett 71, OCB).
Division Three - First place - Leon Sears (Nett 70), second place - Noel Thomson (Nett 75, OCB) and in third place - Mark Allen (Nett 75).

Ladies Divisional Medal and Hannah Lock Spoons - Wednesday, 7 June

Division One - First place - Pauline Phillips (Nett 76) and in second place - Christine Knappett (Nett 79).
Division Two - First place - Kim Potter (Nett 74), well done Kim in your first ever competition! Second place - Maureen Duckett (Nett 75).
Division Three - First place - Maggie Hart (Nett 73), well done Maggie on your first ever overall win, much deserved. Second place - Vicki Peake (Nett 81).

Suffolk Amateur

Good luck to all our members that are playing in the Suffolk Amateur this Sunday at Diss.

 

Upcoming Events

We have plenty of events for you to get involved with this week, including:

• Friday, 9 June - NSPGA - 1:00pm - 3:00pm.
• Saturday, 10 June - Men's Invitation Day - 12:45pm - 1:45pm.
• Sunday, 11 June - Open Eclectic (Postponed till Sunday, 30 July).
• Tuesday, 12 June - Senior Beaumont Trophy match - 9:45am - 10:45am and GY Ceiling Society - 12:30pm - 2:00pm.
• Wednesday, 13 June - Ladies Peugeot LGU - 9:00am - 11:30am and Men's League match - 4:00pm - 5:00pm.
• Thursday, 14 June - Men's Mid-week Stableford - All day.

Click here to get in touch for more details about any of our upcoming events this week.

US Open Sweepstake

In shop news don't forget to get your US Open sweepstake square which starts next Thursday, 15 June. £2 will get you a player who, if he does well, could win you over £100 for your pro shop account!