Members Newsletter – August 2022

The Men’s Section

Hello again, and I trust you are all enjoying your golfing summer on our fabulous-looking course. May I first take the opportunity to say to our extremely hard-working green staff thank you for making our course look like one of the best in the region.
July was the month of the club champs, and we were filled with a weekend of sunshine and amazing conditions to match the course on 9th/ 10th July. For the men, it was an amazing turnout and shows how the section has grown over the last couple of years, with more than 100 members participating with tee times from 06h30 to 11h30 on the Saturday.

In regard to our winners and club champions for 2022, Will Thomas became our gross champion winning for the second year in succession and our new emerging ‘talent’ with the handicap dropping like a stone, Andrew Thomas won the net event. Congratulations to you both on a marvelous achievement, and I look forward to presenting the trophies to you again at the prize giving evening.
The gross winning score was 148 by Will Thomas and the nett winning score by Andrew Thomas was 136.

A few other notable club champs’ performances which can’t go unmentioned was Dan Hayward shooting a gross 71 to do his best to catch our gross champion on day 2, and on day 1 Phil Green scaring all the nett participants with a net 62 to just fall short. And finally, whilst this is not one of the highlights for most, I have to say that after 14 years of hurt, I made the cut for day 2. It felt good!

Well done to all our winners and thank you to all who participated. Finally thank you to Michael Stephens for his support over the weekend running the event with cards, scoring etc – fab job.

The month of July has been tough for our league teams seeing our 2nd team unfortunately getting relegated to League 7 in the final game of the season, and our 3rd team after a sterling effort, missing promotion on the last game of the season with a 2.5 – 2.5 draw at Tracy Park. So close lads and hard luck.

Our 1st team are still fighting hard to try stay in Division 2 with the last game on 8th August, where a win will guarantee remaining in the division and a half may suffice. Good luck lads as it’s been a terrific effort in what is a very strong league.
Finally, I would like to say thanks to Pete Millet, Chris Chinnik, Chris Walker, and Leigh Jenkins for captaining the teams this year. I know it’s tough and your commitment and dedication is thoroughly appreciated by myself and the men’s committee.

Our next Captain’s Charity Day is on the 13th of August. Without stealing Sue’s thunder, this will be an invitational this year, with tee times from 07.00 -13.00. We wanted to offer the opportunity for members from other clubs to participate and support us and the charity without members being affected. The tee sheet looks fantastic thus far with only a few spots still available. Should you have not entered yet please do so, and as it’s an invitational please feel free to invite friends from other clubs into your 4 ball or as a full 4 ball.

A BBQ will also be provided on the day, but to avoid repeating myself I will let you read the details in Sue’s section along with all the other details around the day. (Take note of the wheelbarrow of booze, which I am sure will be a hit, which I ask you to please support, for a great cause). We look forward to seeing you on the day, having a load of fun and raising great funds for our chosen charity Springboard Opportunity group.

As always, Wayne Pearce our Men’s Handicap Secretary (aka Statman, has passed over some important information below for your golfing)
We are into the silly season with holidays etc so I would like to thank you all for getting your knockout matches completed in time. There were a few extensions that have largely been managed meaning we can stick to the current schedule.

Competitions overall continue to be well supported which is fantastic as the prize funds are increasing making competitions more popular and Club Championship was a fantastic event with a huge field! Well done to Andy Thomas and Will Thomas for being the best Gross and Net players at the club for 2022!

Also, another congratulations goes to Andy Thomas who after 3 events took home the Race to 54, which had a prizes of £200! This money will be paid to you card in the coming weeks (needs a cheque paying into the club bank first).

Cards are improving, however, there is a small ‘ask’ from me, it would be a great help if the final Stableford or Net score is shown on the card. I try to sort all the cards into order and not having this just adds a bit more time to a task that already takes about an hour, so I appreciate and thank you for your help in advance!

General play. We are getting a lot of general play cards that haven’t been finalised, I understand that there are several reasons for this however, this also generates an awful lot of work managing the GP scores. I have therefore implemented an automatic General Play Penalty Score as per England Golf Guidelines. If a GP card is registered but not entered after 5 days, it will automatically go down as Course + Playing HCP so please ensure you get your scores entered.

We are getting to the point in the season where we start to talk about Order of Merit so I thought I would post the top 3 as they are currently:

1st Dan Hayward- 87
2nd William Thomas- 49
3rd Chris Adamson- 39

This leader board is available for you to review and determine what you need to do to catch Hayward!

Finally, Captains Day Invitational is around the corner and with a heatwave on the way, could be an absolute belter. Get your taxis booked, your pockets stuffed with cash and invite your family and friends for some food and drinks! We already have over 100 participants registered and around 7 tee slots left to go. As it’s an invitational please reach out to your friends from other clubs to see if they want to participate!

Happy golfing, good luck in any events you play and see you all soon on the course or the patio!

Lady Captain Newsletter

July has brought with it a mixed bag of weather ranging from torrential rain to record high temperatures across the UK.  The final major of the season has been played with Cam Smith taking the Open at St. Andrews. Closer to home it’s been a very busy month for golf at the Bristol and for our ladies in County and club open competitions.  Our Ladies Patsome open was played on 5th July.  Very nice weather allowed an enjoyable event and though entry numbers were low, everyone who attended enjoyed the day. Thanks to the seniors members who spotted for us on 3rd and 15th holes – very much appreciated.

Hot on the heels of this, quite literally given the hot weather, was the Club Championships, played over the weekend 9/10 July. The course was in beautiful condition and the 2 days of the event saw Cathy Baker come out on top as gross winner and Pat Grange as nett winner – a very well done to them and to everyone who took part.

The Lady Captain’s Cup was played on Sunday 24th July with Cathy Baker winning the gross prize and Annie Heatherson winning the nett competition – her first competition win at The Bristol.

In county competitions, Bev Hill and Cathy Baker won the afternoon prize for the Fraser Foursomes at Stinchcombe Hill and Rachael Paul, Bev Hill, Nicky Edwards and your own lady captain won the nett team championship played at Long Ashton Golf Course with Nicky Edwards winning a superb individual 3rd place overall.

We have run 2 fun-competitions during July. On 2nd July, a Wimbledon-style fun Bowmaker was planned but torrential rain and a course closure put paid to the golf; that said, the strawberries and cream were a very popular alternative. On 26th July, we ran a ‘game of 2-halfs’ team competition to celebrate our wonderful England Ladies Football Team’s progress in the Ladies European Championships. Sadly, the scoring proved too complex even for the polymaths amongst us and so everyone was declared the winner and tea and cake was administered to soothe the pain.  More events are planned for later in the year so book early to avoid disappointment.

Our teams have also been busy with The Bristol reaching the 4th round of the Annodata Challenge by beating Henbury Golf Club in a hard-fought home match. The Next round will be away at West Wiltshire Golf Club on 20th August. Our Alliance Team played 2 matches in July. On 17th July we played Worlebury away and in a tough match in very hot conditions the team came back with a well-earned 2 points. On 20th July we played Henbury B, also away. In a traditionally tough match, we came away with an excellent 4 points. There is still a chance that The Bristol will stay up this year, but the last 3 matches will be crucial – keep watching for the next match at home against Clevedon on 22nd August. The Mid-Handicap ladies played Bristol & Clifton on 21st July at home. In a tough match, the Bristol ladies drew the match at 5 points all – an excellent result – the next match is on 4th August at home against Chipping Sodbury.

Thanks to everyone who has volunteered to play – It’s very much appreciated by the hard-working team captains. Unfortunately, our only friendly fixture for July on 6th (away at Shirehampton) was postponed due to COVID, the match will be re-scheduled later in the year.

During August we have a packed program of events both home and away. As well as the next Captain’s Charity Day (see below), the Committee Plate will be played on Sunday 21st August and you have a chance to enter the Mercia Castle Cup, an individual county Stableford competition, on 20th August. We have the second of our two away days this year at Machynys Golf Club on 23rd August, where a group of The Bristol Ladies will be competing in the Machynys ladies Open – wish us luck. On 29th August we will play the Challenge Cup competitions (Bronze and Silver) at the Bristol – sign up early to avoid disappointment and don’t forget to pay Rachael your £10 for the relevant entry. Additionally, we have one Alliance fixture on 22nd August, One friendly fixture (at home against Mendip Spring) and two Mid-Handicap league fixtures; at home against Chipping Sodbury and away at Bristol & Clifton – good luck to everyone who has volunteered to play. Finally, our next round of the Annodata Challenge will be away against West Wilts Golf Club on 20th August.

This doesn’t include the County Summer Team Championship at Westonbirt on 4th August and the County Gross Team Champs at Cotswold Hills Golf Club on 17th August – as well as the plethora of club opens that the Bristol Ladies have entered this year… and breathe.

The Captain’s Charity Day coming up on 13th August will be slightly different to previous events in that it won’t be a shotgun start and will allow (for this event only) the invitation of visitors to the club to participate – but not at the expense of members. The Main Committee has also decided to fund food following the event with members being asked to advise their BBQ menu choice at check in. There will be the usual raffle and beat the pro as well as other imaginative opportunities for you to part with your money, both before the event and on the course. We will also be running a ‘Barrow of Booze draw.  Every member taking part has been asked to bring a bottle or some cans of beer/wine/spirits. All of these will be placed into a wheelbarrow (or similar) and will be won by one ticket in a completely separate raffle event that you can enter as you check in. We really hope to see you on the day.

I’m almost out of breath trying to keep up with the amount of golf that has been played already and the events yet to come.  My apologies if I missed you out.  Finally, though I’d like to welcome Annie Heatherson, Jane Boyle and Kay Hocking to our handicap list – all obtained their first playing handicap at the Bristol in July and as well as welcoming them to the wonderful world of The Bristol competitions, I’d also like to thank all of the ladies who were involved in helping them get their handicaps. We have a number of new joiners to the ladies section and I hope to report on their gaining their handicaps in further reports. That’s about all from me, it just remains to say, take care and get out and enjoy the golf – there’s plenty to look forward to.

Sue

From the Seniors Captain

Well, that’s all the Majors for the season played now (including our club championship) and Christmas is just around the corner. Congratulations to Will Thomas and Cath Baker for their respective wins and well done to everyone who participated. It was great to have such great participation and great weather to go with it. Thanks also to those behind the scenes who made it run so smoothly.

We held our Seniors Captains Day in July and so far we have raised £813 I believe-bolstered by the auction of some 4 ball vouchers. Can I thank everyone for their kind generosity in both supplying prizes and buying raffle tickets and taking part in the extra things on the day. Very embarrassingly I pipped Peter Tilley in winning the event on the day – James, I owe you £20 of my winnings.

Starting with our matches we narrowly lost away at Knowle, we won home games vs Brickhampton and Naunton Downs, lost at home to Thornbury (full of high handicappers!) and had a hard-fought half at home to Mendip Spring.
This month we have home fixtures with Knowle, Clevedon, Stockwood Vale and Farrington and an away game at Cotswold Edge.

We have just had our Seniors Invitation Day, where we invited a senior from another club to experience the course and on 17th August we hold our Seniors Open. Again, I will be asking for your kind generosity for raffle prizes as this is another event where we look to raise money for Springboard. The cost for members is £15-there is coffee and a Danish before the golf and a 1 course meal after with prizes provided by the club.

I was fortunate enough to witness one of the best rounds I’ve seen played by a senior last Wednesday with Steve Baker-Green’s epic gross 74 (net 59 that day-not now however), culminating in a hole in 1 at 16, in a medal off the whites, which for many of us seniors is often a lay-up. Needless to say Steve won that by 8 shots.
Round 4 of our ASDA Stableford was won by Phil Mead with 42 points pipping Terry Ray by 1. Our June Medal was won by Mark Dee with a net 66 pipping Dave Rutherford and Malcolm Jones by a shot.

We have an away-day at Woodlake Park near Pontypool on Wednesday 10th August. So far I have 31 names for this-it would be good to get it to an even number as I am proposing a pairs better ball Stableford. Cost is £38 inclusive of prize fund. Please email me if you would like to go.

Slots are filling up fast for the Captains Summer Charity Event on Saturday 13th August so book your teams of 4 ASAP and if everyone can bring some booze for the grand raffle prize.

Happy golfing everyone

From Golf Operation Manager

Golfway Academy Coaching at The Bristol

The Golfway Academy at The Bristol now employs a superb team of highly qualified PGA professional coaches based at our recently refurbished range.
The team offer individual coaching, group coaching for ladies, and a fantastic junior golfer program which has seen numbers more than double since starting in April.
However, it has come to our attention that a number of unqualified persons, both members and non-members, have been coaching on our premises. Please be aware that coaching at The Bristol is the sole right of the Golfway team and such activity by others will not be tolerated, with non-members asked to leave the premises, and members who breach this rule may risk having their membership of the Club terminated.
The management do however accept that offering ad-hoc advice to partners, friends and family members whilst playing or practising with them is a natural part of the game, as is mentoring new members, offering advice on the structure and workings of the Club, and of course welcomes such actions by members.

Any member wishing to sign up to mashie Golf, please contact myself if you require any more information regarding this [email protected] .