Morning everyone, welcome to this week’s newsletter from a very sunny and warm Sandgate Riviera. Well, the rain certainly came last week and having visited the courses yesterday, it has certainly made a great deal of difference to the fairways growth and repair. The photos below show this. It really is looking good for our return. |
 | 4th Green
| Looking towards the watertower from the right side of the CL 4th. Malloy has left the greens a little bit longer during this time to help build strength in the grass structure. |
 | 15th Green
| Looking from the fairway at 15th up the green, its looking awesome. The fairway has knitted in nicely and will be one of the nicest holes on the course when we return. |
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Fact of the week In 1971, Alan Shepard – the first American astronaut in space – became the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon. Here’s what he said to the USGA after landing back on earth: “I shanked the first one; it rolled into a crater about 40 yards away. The second one, I kept my head down. I hit it flush and it went at least 200 yards.”
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There has been plenty of talk in the last week with regards to the lockdown and how it may be lifted in the future. There has been some documentation sent out by local clubs as to what they will be doing post lockdown and we have our set of guidelines ready to go. The reason we haven’t released these as yet is that we want to give you a definitive set of guidelines that doesn’t change when the regulations are lifted by the government. In short, we want you to have a set of rules you know aren’t going to change tomorrow. |
600x300.jfif) | The clouds are starting to pass through.
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I know you’re all excited to be getting back, and so am I, but we have to be mindful that things will be different. For us to go back to golf and be allowed to keep playing, following the guidelines we set out are essential, otherwise, it’s back to square one again. I will be putting some videos together as well for you all to watch about what is happening around the course. |
| World Handicapping System Update |
 | The handicap index calculation.
| Thanks to everyone who responded to the World Handicapping section I sent out last week. It is very interesting that even with all the promotion England golf does and references throughout the last two years from myself, there was still a few people who didn’t know what it was. In this weeks WHS section there is a small video here which talks about some of the finer details of the WHS and in particular how it will affect your current handicap and how your new index will be calculated. Click here
In addition to your handicap index you will have a course handicap on the day you play any given course. You will go to the course with your club given handicap index, and depending on which tees you play off you will have a course handicap for that tee on that course. Simples. The following video explains this in simple detail. Click here
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 | | Course handicap table. | At first this will all seem very complicated but a lot of this will be worked out for you with the software we will be using in the IG system. As for looking up a course handicap have a look at the course table below and lets go through a calculation together. Lets say my golf handicap index is 17.3 and I am about to play off the white tees. I look up the handicap index of 17.3 in the white column and go across to show my course handicap form the white tees on this course is 20. If I was to play from the Yellow tees I would have a course handicap of 18. These tables will be available at all golf clubs as well as on an App being developed for all courses within the IG App. |
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 | Friday night is quiz night.
| Thank you to everyone who joined me on last Fridays quiz night. With another good turnout of 14 teams we had a laugh and enjoyed what I thought was a slightly easier quiz for you all. This weeks quiz will be the last one, so I would like as many of you there as possible please, so we can go out with a bang. It’ll have questions on VE day in there as well so get your thinking caps on. Here is the Zoom link to the event below. Again if anyone doesn’t feel like they can get on to it, if you get in touch I will set up a dummy one for us to have a go at, so you can learn it before we start. James Cunliffe is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Quiztime with James
Time: May 8, 2020 05:15 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84121906573?pwd=TnlMcW8xQ0FjQzFVZXJ1R2VYazVEZz09
Meeting ID: 841 2190 6573
Password: 677620
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 | My box of tricks on the balcony.
| As some of you may be aware, I make ball markers from old coins I find. Now the lockdown has given me plenty of opportunity to make lots of these markers and I thought I would share with you some of the new designs I have put together. They are old coins that are layered with enamel paints, on average there are 8 layers and a yacht varnish over the top making each one unique. |
 | The finished products
| If any of you have any old pennies or half pennies lying around, I would be very interested in them. These are sold in the proshop and go towards the staff Christmas fund. They are £5 each or four for £10. Please let me know if you are interested in any and I can send them to you via the post or you can pick up in store when we re-open. |
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Top tour coach, talks Seve.
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In last weeks newsletter I put some bits in there from Phil Kenyon the putting coach to the stars. In this week’s newsletter I have put in a great video of Phil analysing my golfing hero Seve Ballesteros.
In the video he looks at:
· His favourite memories of Seve
· His unique stroke
· What made him a great putter
· How his stroke developed over time
· And much more
Click here for the video.
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TrackMan vouchers at Littlestone
When we get back to the golf course, I will be selling Combine Test vouchers for anyone who wants to take the test. You can buy them when the club re-opens again or you can reserve as many as you like for the duration of 2020. These vouchers are priced at £35 each or you can buy a 10 pack for £300. The Combine Test takes around about 45 minutes and will give you all the information you need to really improve. Just let me know by email or phone if you would like to take advantage of this great offer.
Click here to find out exactly what a Combine Test is and how it can help YOUR GAME NOW.
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A chance meeting with a legend of the game.
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 | The coaching legend David Leadbetter speaks on live webinar.
| As a PGA professional I get to do some wonderful things, I get to do my hobby for my living and I get to spend lots of time with like minded people. There occasionally comes along something that hangs in the memory and today was certainly one of those days. I grew up with Seve as a child and when I became a pro I read John Jacobs books all the time. I was lucky enough to hear John Jacobs talk once and he was a great coach. Taking golf to the next level in the nineties was David Leadbetter and today I got to meet him. I was able to get onto a PGA webinar talking all things golf and he had some very interesting insights into the game. I manged to video a small section of the webinar for you all to take a look at, a very clever man with some great insights into the game we all love. This section he describes what he thought about stack and tilt methodology and recalls a conversation Bob Torrance had with Paul Lawrie over it. Click here to view |
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Well that's all for this week and thanks once again for reading this weeks newsletter. Please try and join us for the quiz on Friday, it would be nice to get 20 teams this week. Next week we have plenty of vouchers available for coaching, that all the professional staff have put together, so please support these when they come out next week. Hopefully we will have some news about getting back to golf very soon and you will recieve a document outlining the changes to golf we have installed. Please make sure you read this document very carefully. Have a good week, stay safe and keep on trucking. James. |
What can you remember from the last decade? We hope you enjoyed last week's Silhouette Challenge; some were certainly easier than others. The end of 2019 also marked the end of a decade, but how much can you remember - on a golfing front - from those 10 years? Put your memory to the test with this week's quiz as we challenge you to recall some amazing feats in the world of golf. Good luck!
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