It has been a while

It has been a while since I have had the time to write a full weekly newsletter.

I went on holiday on the 25th July and returned on the 5th August. Wednesday 6th was Seniors Open and Saturday 9th August was Men's invitation day. Tom and myself arrived at the golf club at 7:30am ready for 88 golfers to register and pay for a shotgun start. Prize table needed to be done; nearest the pin and long drive boards needed to be put out.

At 8:30am, Chris Ellson popped into the shop and said 'Ian, do you want to have a look in to the trolley shed - I think it may have been broken in to?' 

He was right! Now, there was a new problem. We now had to find enough golf clubs for people to play with, who had theirs stolen, as well as administer the competition. 

A combination of golf instruction, phoning the Police, registering the incident, photographing the shed and speaking to Tim, took us all of the way to 2-3pm. Oh, and I forgot, the cards for the invitation needed to be checked, twos checked and prizes exchanged for the winners.

At 3pm, the Police eventually arrived; I think they got told off for not coming round sooner. That took the best part of an hour. So with the time 4pm, this left Tom and myself two hours to set systems in place to help the unknown numbers of people who might have had equipment stolen. 

To cut a very long story short, there were about 32 claims in total ranging from 1 piece of equipment, through to everything (including trolley, bag, clubs, waterproofs etc.). Some business has come my way, for which I am very grateful to those people who have persisted with their insurance companies and made it clear that they did not want to buy their golf clubs from Direct Golf etc. and wanted to buy them through myself.   

As we speak, there are still some outstanding claims to be settled. But I can promise you this; The first 4 days after the break in, I have never worked so hard and the work load was constantly rising. No sooner had we started to get on top of these claims, it was then Luffenham's Pro Am, Mixed Open, Tuesday Night Finals and Mens Open. The summer holidays are over, the children are back at school - where on earth did the summer go?



After the Miracle at Medinah, this years Ryder Cup had a lot to live up to and had us all wondering how USA would respond. For late September in Scotland, the weather was fantastic for all 3 days, meaning the course looked is superb condition.

I'm sure everyone will agree with me, that the crowds were fantastic for all 3 days with masses of spectators turning out to support their respective team. The view from the first tee on Friday morning was incredible, instead of heavy rough shaping the fairway - it was spectators! Glad it was not me striking the opening tee shot - a few people may have been in danger of having a sore head.  

After the morning fourballs, USA had the advantage winning two and halving one - not the start Europe would wish for. However, the response was quite stunning - winning 3 halving 1. We all know how the rest panned out for the coming 2 days, winning and retaining the Ryder Cup in style on Sunday.

A few turns along the way on the single matches made it even more exciting, especially how McDowell managed to turn his match around and Rory McIlroy's very quick start reaching 5 up through 6 (as well as being 6 under par at this stage). 

Watching the aftermath and the player interviews, it was clear that McGinley was very popular amongst the European team, who all praised his professionalism and commitment to the team, not just over the 3 days but for the last couple of years since his announcement as European captain. 

On a side note, Tom and I decided, to make it more competitive between us, we both independently noted down the individual match results. There was obviously the odd same prediction, but many that were different. I got off to a fast start getting 3 - 1 ahead before Tom's predictions came back strong. To cut a long story short, the score was 6-5 to myself heading into the last match for which Tom had predicted a Dubuisson win and I had him to half with Zach Johnson.

The camera had cut away from them on the last year and started showing the celebrations commencing, so at that stage we both assumed they halved the last hole for a Dubuisson victory, which as you would image had Tom celebrating as it would have tied our own prediction score. 

However, his celebrations were cut short when we discovered, Zach Johnson had rolled in his birdie putt to half their match - for which I had predicted before play! So, no need to mention how happy I was! This felt better than a European Victory. 

You may have missed this bit when watching the ryder cup - look at McDowell's reaction: Click here to have a look.



Sir Anthony Wharton Trophy (Sunday, 28th September)

1st - I Moss, D Cunningham - Playoff to be played to decide winner 

Ladies EG Medal Trophy (Tuesday, 30th September) 

Winner - Mrs F Sharman