Members Newsletter – April 2022

From the Food and Beverage Manager:

To all members,
Spring looks like it is finally here, and it is great to see more of you all starting to return to the course and meet in the clubhouse.
First and foremost, I would like to highlight a change in our opening hours for the month of April. As the nights are getting lighter and the mornings brighter, we will now be opening the clubhouse from 7.00am-7.00pm, this will be under review as the month progresses and I will adjust accordingly due to business demands.
Food will be available from 7.30am until 5.00pm. Please watch this space and listen out for updates with regards to new food items and offerings from the kitchen and bar for the summer.

As most of you have probably noticed, we have incorporated a new cafe into the driving range, as we believe we can offer a better experience up there. The cafe is still very much in its infancy, but I would like to create a more relaxed experience and will look to move some seating and parasols outside so you can enjoy a refreshing beverage. Currently it is open from 12.00pm until 4.30pm but as the same with the clubhouse, I will look to expand as the demand grows.

Within the clubhouse, Przemek and I have been looking to roll out a new bar menu, this will include such favourites as the club sandwich and chicken skewers, but we are keen to add more dishes and expand the menu with some of the favourites purchased from the specials board and lighter bites for the summer months.
I have been reviewing our drinks options as I am aware that a J20 is a standard product found anywhere, so I have recently been purchasing Fentimans drinks so please give them a try. It isn’t the finished article, but I am keen to bring you a bespoke drinks menu this year that you can all enjoy. For the cider drinkers, I am also looking at our draught options!

We have also seen further investment back of house in the kitchen from our parent company. We have on order a brand new chargrill, pizza oven, dishwasher, and glasswasher. Although you won’t see this, it is a sign of their commitment to really give us the tools to improve the standard of food and drink offered to you all.
As you may have seen around the clubhouse and on social media, we offered a Mother’s Day roast dinner at the end of March, launching a new concept of a sharing platter. We will be hosting this on the last Sunday of each month. We had great success last week with 81 bookings and feel that with our locally sourced butchers, providing quality joints that are perfectly cooked by our chef’s, it is a fantastic meal for you all and your family. For more information, please ask at the bar or speak to Gemma to book a table.

From our Ladies Captain:

The weather in March was a game of two halves with a very unsettled start and commensurate partial or full course closures.  However, the second half was much more settled, perhaps showing that we’re now well into the throes of Spring – just in time for the start of the competition season and of course Spring course maintenance. A big program of maintenance and improvement saw the course slightly disrupted for a week while the green staff worked hard to ensure that the course would be in the best possible condition for this year’s competitive season proper. Unfortunately, this maintenance delayed our first competition, The Australian Spoons, due to be played on 22nd March but now moved to 19th April – see Sarah’s messages on WhatsApp and in the changing room for full details.

The change to 10 minutes tee times seems to have been well received, though it has made some differences to start times and bookings for some Alliance, Mid-handicap, and Friendly matches so please ensure that you check the times carefully if you’re selected to play. The presentation by Linda Scrace on ‘A Mind for Golf’ was well attended on the 16th in spite of a big increase in COVID cases within the ladies section over that period. Thankfully, everyone suffered from only mild symptoms and recovered relatively quickly. That said I’m sure that, given the current infection rates in the Southwest, they won’t be the last to pick up the virus. Please take care ladies as even though the government seems to have concluded that the dangerous phase of COVID is over, it is still at best a disruption to your busy golf plans for the year.

Our first Stableford competitions for the year took place on the 26th and 29th of March with the following qualifying competitions upcoming for April:

Saturday 2nd April – Qualifying Stableford and County 4-some qualifier
Tuesday 5th April – Qualifying Stableford and County 4-some qualifier
Saturday 9th April – April Medal
Tuesday 12th April – April Medal
Saturday 16th April – April Stableford
Tuesday 19th April – April Stableford and Australian Spoons
Saturday 23rd April – Stableford
Tuesday 26th April – Stableford

Please make sure you enter early on IG.  Just a reminder that entries open 3 weeks before and close one week before the competition date.  With buggies now back on the course – book early to avoid disappointment.  Remember also that there is no entry fee for weekly competitions this year – as agreed in the AGM, only trophy competitions will attract an entry fee and offer prize money.  There was some discussion about running an impromptu cash 2s pot for each event – please watch the WhatsApp groups for more details. In addition to our regular weekly competitions the following matches and events are also taking place in April:

Sunday 3rd April – First Ladies Away Day- Farrington
Thursday 7th April – First Alliance Fixture – Landowner at home
Wednesday 20th April- Alliance – Farrington – Away
Saturday 30th April – Captain’s Charity Day

Our Bristol and District Alliance season starts on the 7th of April – please give your support to Barbara as she sends out requests for players.  Our Mid-Handicap League and Friendly fixtures start in May – please also offer your support to Sandie and Dot if you’re able to play and of course, to the teams who represent the Bristol Ladies Section: Go the Bristol girls! Finally, our first match in this year’s Daily Mail Foursomes will be in the second round of the competition, after a bye in the first round.  The match needs to be played on or before Sunday 24th April.

An important date for your diaries to finish – please don’t forget the next captain’s charity day on Saturday 30th April. The format is yet to be announced but the signup sheets should be available from the beginning of April; more details to follow once we have them.  If you’re able to support this event in the same fantastic style that you did for the Captain’s Drive In then that would be fantastic.

Unfortunately, Sally Stephens has left the Bristol Golf Club. I know you’ll join me in being sorry to see her go and also in thanking her for her hard work in a number of committee positions over many years. On behalf of the Ladies Section, I wish her happy golfing at her next club.  With Sally’s departure, Nicky Edwards has very kindly stepped in to take over as Interim Handicap Secretary for this season.  We are all new to the IG system and WHS, so please bear with us for competition results as Nicky learns on the job.  There is also now a vacancy for a volunteer to cover Handicap Secretary; shadowing Nicky this year and taking over next year. if you’re interested in taking on this opportunity, please let me or Nicky know.

Finally, thank you for all of the best wishes for a speedy recovery from my recent spinal surgery. I’m hoping to be back on the golf course for the late summer season – fingers crossed.

In the meantime – Happy Golfing everyone – enjoy the nice weather.  Sue

The Men’s Captain:

It’s nearly here.
After a frustrating month where the weather had not been our friend, we seem to have hit a period of what the doctor ordered weather-wise allowing the course to dry out. Touchwood!

The competitive golf season is well and truly around the corner, with the tees moving back, white tees in play very soon including that dreaded 1st tee shot off the back and order of merit competitions back on the agenda. Further detail of all of this later in the update.

As communicated with the men members, summer competitive golf brings two new exciting opportunities sponsored by the men’s committee.

They are:

• The holy grail of the ‘hole in 1’. Should any member achieve this in a Saturday competition of white tees, you will win £100 in cash. This will be unlimited.
• Secondly – the ‘race to 54 will begin’, which will provide one member the opportunity to win £200. As mentioned in the past, this competition will be based on the 1st person getting to 54 points – based on the best score achieved on each hole over white tee Saturday competitions excluding board and medal events.  If more than one member gets to the magic number on the same day the pot shall be shared.

As the season approaches the competitions to begin to ramp up and the opportunity to improve or in some cases increase that handicap becomes a reality. Please see all the important information from our men’s handicap secretary Wayne Pearce.

General Play:

I can confirm that from 2nd April subject be being back on the Grass tee’s, which is looking good, we will be accepting General Play scorecards again. If I can remind all members to submit their scores online and put their signed cards in the General Play box on the bar.

The first Medal of the year is approaching on the 9th of April, and we so far have over 60 entrants! It’s an Order of Merit event so for those that have submitted a fantasy team with Tony Crook, it’s the first event where lots of points are up for grabs!

The Winter Eclectic Stableford was won by Alex Moore and the Gross was taken by Paul Bacon so well done to you both, I will confirm shortly the prize and get it loaded to your cards.

The 2022 Singles and Pairs Knockout will be available to register from Saturday 26th March with the draw taking place on 15th April. You can register Online, Via the App, or in the Pro shop. Please ensure that your entry fees are paid prior to the draw otherwise you will lose your place.

Upcoming Competitions:

2nd April- Men’s Stableford
9th April- April Medal OOM Drawn (entry open)
Easter Stableford- 15/16/17/18th April
23rd April- Men’s Stableford OOM Drawn (sign up open 1st April)

Happy golfing and see you all soon. – Wayne Pearce

With the season approaching, this also means that the league golf season will soon start in earnest as well, as our 3 teams represent the Bristol.

I would like to say thanks to Wayne Pearce who has played a massive part in communicating with all eligible players to get them involved in supporting our captains Pete Millet, Chris Chinnick, Chris Walker and Leigh Jenkins in getting players informed and available. All I can now say is – Good luck and here is to a good season chaps.

Secondly, I would like to say a massive thanks to Mark Morgan, who has very kindly, provided a very generous and substantial donation for the league teams. This will be used to support the purchase of team shirts and means that all players for the league teams will be able to get a shirt for £10. I am sure you will all join me in saying thank a big thank you.

The Stags season opener got underway last Sunday and once again from everyone, thanks to Paul Anderson and Phil Lindo for arranging a good day, and I know you will be well supported by the men with the significant number of fixtures you have in place.

A few other points to mention reference our charity ‘Springboard Opportunity Group’.
The next charity day is scheduled for the 30th of April. The entry sheet will be out early in April and the format will be communicated shortly as well.
Tony Crook has also kindly decided to run his infamous Fantasy Golf League, which is £10 entry of which half goes to the charity and half to the prize winners. If you haven’t joined yet, please be sure to do so in order to support the charity, win yourself a few pounds but also get good value in taking a significant interest in how some of your mates are performing.

Until next time all.

Take care and see you all around the club soon.

James Adcock

From our Seniors Captain:

Well, what a transformation in the weather over the last couple of weeks and how great it is to actually experience the ball rolling again-much needed for short hitters like me.

May I take this opportunity to thank all the green staff for keeping the course in tremendous shape with the maintenance work this week was completed by Wednesday night and the greens already playing faster.

Our third round of the winter eclectic was won by Martin Daley with 36 points beating Phil Nunn on countback. It was a miracle that we got the round in as it didn’t stop raining all day.

Before this our Seniors Texas Scramble was won by Phil Nunn, Ron Lavis and Steve Baker-Green with a great net score of 54.5.

We had our first match of the season away to Thornbury this week and unfortunately, we lost 5-1 (made up of 2 halves). It feels like they may have recruited some seniors of the PGA tour with some of the scoring I heard about. Many thanks to Sam Graham for taking charge of this game in my absence.

We next have Henbury at home on Monday 28^th followed in April by Weston away and Cotswold Edge at home. Next up on our normal Wednesday competitions are rounds 4 and 5 of our much-disrupted Seniors Eclectic for the next 2 weeks.

Can I and on behalf of Sue as well thank everyone-both members and all the Club’s staff for their kindness and good wishes whilst Sue has been out of action. I am pleased to say that her operation for a prolapsed cervical disc was a success this week and she is already feeling a lot stronger in her left side. I know she is itching to get back out playing again hopefully before the good weather in summer ends.

We had our March Hare event at The Monmouthshire this week and thank you to all the seniors who played-we had 45 which would have been about 50 had it not been largely down to Covid.

In true Donald Trump style , it was all down to me that you had such fantastic weather for it😁. No tournament has ever had such fantastic weather😁.

It was won by Tony Mcnally with 41 points narrowly pipping Errol on countback. I was sorry not to be there but it saved me the embarrassment of last place- and thank you again to Tony Fitzhenry, Ian Lewis and Sam Graham for ensuring it all went smoothly. I am told the course was ok though the rain in previous weeks had led to changes in some holes and the greens weren’t as good as ours.

Won’t be long now and we will be back to our much-loved yellow and white tees and no mats-and qualifying competitions!

Please let me know if you would like to play in any of our matches. They are a great way to play different courses and hopefully enjoy the company of members of other clubs.

Currently I believe we have 30 visitors signed up for our Seniors Open on 17^th August. It would be great to have a good turnout from our members too-£15 but you do get fed and there will be good prizes.

See you all soon

Paul