Club news

From Dan Lucking, General Manager: Welcome back! (I’ve waited a long time to say that!) March 29^th will be a date we remember for a very long time after another, and hopefully final, lockdown. The whole team cannot wait to welcome you back to Pyrford Lakes.

If you have been keeping up with our progress on social media or popping over to the course for your prescribed daily exercise, you will have seen how busy we have all been! A massive thank you to our hardworking green staff and ground work contractors.

Taking full advantage of the situation, we have been able to refurbish every bunker on the course and construct a handful of fantastic new additions. 

While the ground works and major construction has been completed, our teams will still be on site for another 6-8 weeks finishing off the rubber crumb base, putting in new sand and hydro seeding the areas around the bunkers. 

Tony, Pete and the admin team have done a fantastic job putting together a helpful document outlining the effect these areas will have on qualifying competitions, check the news section on the app or website for full details.

The 18^th lake bank project will also take a few more weeks to complete, with that in mind we will be asking everyone to take particular care around the clubhouse. 

Please use the main entrance to check-in, and once finished, please walk off the 18^th straight around into the car park, keeping the rear of the building clear for the contractors’ massive machinery.

Lady Captain: Lastly, I would like to thank Marrion Weller for her time as Lady Captain. Marrion will be standing down shortly, but her time in post has been very productive. This does mean we will be looking for a successor! We have grown our membership exponentially over the last 12-14 months but the ladies’ section has only increased in small numbers. If you are passionate about golf and keen to help the Club, I would love to hear from you.

Clubhouse news

A quick reminder, for the first two weeks (March 29th-April 11th) while the golf course, range and check-in areas will be open, we are still restricted to takeaway food and drink only. Outdoor gatherings and table service on our patio will not be available until April 12^th. (Don’t worry! it’s not long before you can be relaxing after your game, with a fantastic meal and a beverage of your choice.)

While seated service is not possible, we will have a fantastic new takeaway menu so you can take full advantage of the easing measures. Order before or during your round from our check-in team or directly from our drinks buggy (don’t forget you can WhatsApp your on-course order and we will drive it out to you!)

Captains’ updates 

From Tony Brunt, Men’s Captain: Hi folks, I intend to employ as much brevity as I can in this episode, so that I don’t interrupt your frenetic preparations for your return to Pyrford Lakes, all 18 holes’ worth of them!  

For those who are super new to the Cub and those not including the fairways in your daily exercise routine, the 6th is now a fully fledged water hole! What….!!!??? 

My carpet has just about had it with my gap wedge, so it is time to get back, how I’ve not smashed any light bulbs I don’t know!  

We’ve organised weekends in April with four friendly fivers, two cup competitions and three club Stablefords! In the week we have many Member–only “Mixer” events to sign up to. Please check on the IG app or website for booking details, any issues please contact me or the event contact for help. There are also various KO series to sign up for, including pairs events, please get involved and Get Golfing! 

Recent months have seen a significant extension to the work refurbishing and upgrading our course from last year’s start. As such your admin team feel it appropriate to highlight rules of golf that cater for the areas of upheaval and to invoke local rules to accommodate specific pickles one might get into.  

Let’s face it, we all want fairways and greens but often find hills and bunkers… Pete, Dan and I will put together a set of playability rules for our competitive games and underline Club requests to limit damage to newly created surfaces that need time to grow/recover.  

Please look out for details of this, we’ll make it available via email and hopefully in the club at check–in. We want to get our golf back to normal as quickly as possible, so competitions will be qualifying from our first event (Saturday, April 3rd). This will also help those playing for handicap, which is basically all of us!. 

Welcome to the many new Members joining the club, no doubt you are raring to go! To get up and running you’ll need to get a handicap sorted. For those transferring from another club, you may well be able to also transfer it. Please email our handicap administrator Pete Smart at [email protected] with your details so he can set the process in motion.  

For everyone needing to submit three cards, please do so as soon as possible! Mid–week mixers and friendly fivers are perfect for this, we have lots of Members to help complete and sign cards. Lovely. We ask that new handicap players complete three club competitions before they compete for the glory of winning a cup competition. The sooner Pete can process you, the sooner you can start your campaign for greatness. 

If you are wondering what comps are coming up, there is a diary function on the website. You may have noticed that external events or matches are not included, neither are non-golf-centric events. Yet! Dan will be adding these events in due course, we’ll let you know when it’s been updated. In the meantime, club matches, club events, and other noteworthy activities will be placed on the noticeboard by those responsible for organising them. 

Finally, I believe Dan will be updating us all on the new online shop scheduled for launch in April. I’ll leave the details to him but this new addition to our membership benefits will enable us to check our levy card balance online. This is a welcome first step on the road to a fully online digital, itemised levy card. We can now watch our competition winnings grow via our mobiles, wonderful! 

I look forward to our return with controlled desperation, playing golf, sinking a few therapeutic pints (after the April 12th!) and competing for ‘talking time’ after months of solitary! We’re nearly there! 

Seniors 

From Ray Jupp, Seniors’ Captain: Hi Guys, hope you are all well, and looking forward to playing golf again, this lockdown has been a lot worse than last year for everybody, with dark wet and cold days, and long cold nights, (at least the sun shone and kept us warm last year). I expect we all know someone who has fallen to Covid and, in some cases, lost their life, hopefully now most of us, if not all, Seniors have had their first jab, so we can look forward with a lot more confidence for the future.

The golf course we will be returning to is quite different to the one we left, especially the front nine. Our new owners have and are still doing a fantastic job of bringing our course bang up to date. You will find more bunkers in strategic places, so the longer hitters we have will have to think a bit more on the tees. Some of the old bunkers have been removed and filled in, so there are quite a few areas that need seeding, which I expect will happen as we go through the year. The biggest change is to No. 6, where there is now a lake instead of a sand shelf, so it will concentrate the mind on the tee. There could be a few GUR signs on the course for a while until the works have been completed.

Our first Seniors’ roll up will be a Texas Scramble, just a friendly little game to get us back into the swing of things. We have lost three members who have moved away. Peter Middleton and Greg Warne have moved to pastures new, and Paul Johnson has joined Hampton Court, good luck to them in their new ventures.

Course news 

From Rich Covey, Course Manager: Following on from my last course report, I’d like to say that the full course bunker renovation programme has been a success, with only minor tweaks needed to a few areas before we can say the construction side of the renovation has been completed. 

Most of the bunkers to this date have had drainage put into them, have been rubber crumbed and a revetted edge has been installed around those that need one.  

We will be continuing to install rubber crumb in April, as well as putting new sand in the completed bunkers, which will be started once our contractor, 1st Golf, has completed work on the 18th lake bank. 

As you can see from the pictures, the lake bank on No. 18 is nearing completion, with concrete blocks and gentle slopes being installed. Once this is finished, the blocks will then have stone fascias glued to them to give golfers a great visual from different areas around the back 9. 

As well as being extremely busy with project work, the greenkeeping team, back to full numbers on Monday, have been working hard to prepare the course for your arrival as you can see from the photos below. 

Competition news

The 90s league is starting up again on May 20th (Rabbits) after a delayed start and a cancelled 2020 season due to Covid. The 90s league is a summer league running through until September, it is in two divisions according to handicaps. 

• Tigers: 0-14 
• Rabbits:15–28 (higher handicaps may play but will play off 28) 

Matches are played on a home and away basis, in a ‘four–ball, better–ball’ format to decide the league winners at the end of the season. The match on the day consists of teams of eight players, four pairs from each Club. Games are usually played on a Thursday with an approximately 13:30 start. There is a meal afterwards, Covid permitting. There are six Clubs (all opened in the 1990s) in the league, with a total of 10 games scheduled plus a Championship Day (this year held at Pyrford). 

This league has been running for 25 years during which Pyrford Rabbits have been fortunate enough to have won it 10 times (a record we would like to build on). 

If you would like to play in any of these games or would like more information, please contact: Tigers — Pete Smart or Rabbits — Phil Moody.  

New Members

If you are new to the club and looking to transfer your handicap or achieve your first handicap this information is for you!  

If you hold a current handicap index please email [email protected] with the following information:  

• Exact Handicap Index; 
• EGU (CDH) Membership Number; 
• Will Pyrford GC be your home club for handicap purposes?   YES / NO 

If you do not hold a current handicap index, please submit three 18–hole cards played at Pyrford. Please be sure to indicate which tee is used and clearly detail who has marked your scorecard. Please also provide details of any lapsed handicap previously held, particularly within the last two years. 

Please send any handicap cards or questions to [email protected] 

REAL GOLF 

We are all excited about the return to golf and we would like to officially welcome and introduce REAL GOLF to you.  

Richard Ellis and the team at REAL GOLF will be running their focused schools at Pyrford from April. You can find out more about their sessions and schedules via the links below.  

Richard, who has also filmed a useful swing tip to help get your golf off to a good start, says: “We are excited to be a Pyrford and look forward to welcoming you to the REAL GOLF experience: Our Putting School & Chipping Masterclass is a great way to take charge of your game and lower your scores.” 

Link for more info & schedules – https://real-golf.org/pyrford-golf-club/  

Pro news

From Andrew Blackman, Head Golf Professional: Firstly, I sincerely hope you and your families are safe and well. I imagine one or two of you are a little excited about the return of golf. It will be great to be back out on the course and back to some sort of normality, sharing a few laughs with your friends and maybe losing a ball or two!

Thank you to all those who had online coaching throughout this lockdown, brilliant dedication and some very funny moments too, amazing what you can do with a rolled up piece of paper to help your game!

My coaching diary is open for bookings and filling up fast, take a look at some game improvement classes through April. There are a few spaces remaining so please contact me if you’d like to take part. All lessons delivered will be performed under government guidelines, social distancing, sanitising etc and open to Members and visitors.

Short Game Master Classes

During the lockdowns I am sure some of you have watched tips online regarding short game shots around the green. With that in mind, I’ve devised some Short Game Master Classes so you can ask questions that relate to you and help you become a proficient chipper and pitcher around the greens.

There’s lots to chat about and practice during the class with lots of interaction to aid your learning and help reduce your scores. The classes run for 2.5 hours and are for a maximum of five people.

There’s nothing to lose apart from shots from your handicap. Please book early by email [email protected] or call/txt 07977 652798. The cost is £60 per person to include refreshments and ProV1 practice balls.

• Saturday, April 3rd: 3pm-5.30pm (max 5 people)
• Tuesday, April 6th: 3pm-5.30pm (max 5 people)
• Thursday, April 22nd: 9.30-12pm (max 5 people)
• Sunday, April 11th: 10am -12.30pm (max 5 people)
• Friday, April 30th: 3pm-5.30pm (max 5 people)

Getting Back to Golf

For the first two weeks in April on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’m offering a discounted price for a 30-minute coaching session of £25 to help you ‘knock off some rust’ and get in the swing of things again under supervision. Times will be available all day but I’m expecting the uptake to be quick so please book early.

Sand School

Want lower scores? Come along to Sand School and learn how to make more sand saves with good knowledge and technique. Max 5 people, 1 hour session, £15 per person, please book

• Wednesday,  April 7th: 1.30pm-2.30pm
• Tuesday, April 13th: 12pm-1pm
• Saturday, April 24th: 3pm-4pm

Hybrid Hype

What’s all the hype about Hybrids? What are they for and why the Pros use them? Join this FREE Members’ clinic (£10 for visitors) to find out how to use hybrids for maximum effect. Please book your place.

• Thursday, April 8th: 10am-11am
• Saturday, April 17th: 1pm-2pm

Junior Golf at Pyrford

Gus Mottershead and Andrew Blackman will be starting Junior classes on Saturdays at Pyrford GC starting in April, with a maximum of 6 juniors per class (Ages 5 – 17). Spaces available, it’s not too late to register.

Timings for the classes will be:

• 09:00–10:00 (Ages 5-11)
• 10:00–11:00 (Ages 5-11)
• 11:00–12:00 (Ages 5-11)
• 13:00–14:00 (Ages 12-17)
• 14:00–15:00 (Ages 12-17)

The dates of the classes will be:

• April 3rd
• April 17th
• April 24th

Price for the four-week course is £50

Gus Mottershead is a fully qualified PGA Professional who teaches juniors with a fun and skills-based learning philosophy. He built up his experience at Hampton Court Palace GC starting a junior programme from scratch two years ago that is now a thriving junior section with lots of enthusiastic kids playing the game that beforehand they had never considered.

To sign up for the junior classes please contact Gus directly at [email protected] or call him on 07507682969 or Andrew at [email protected] 07977 652798.

Seniors and Ladies Clinics

Seniors and Ladies group classes will continue again from Tuesday, March 30th for the Seniors and Wednesday, March 31st for the Ladies. These classes are very relaxed and a lot of fun! We will continue to pick different aspects of the game weekly to work on to aid your enjoyment and scoring.

• Seniors will run every Tuesday from 10am-11am to include tea/coffee, coaching and balls, and will cost £15.
• Ladies will run every Wednesday from 10am-11am to include tea/coffee, coaching and balls, and will cost £15

Open to Members and visitors on a roll-up basis as we are no longer restricted on maximum numbers.

So there are a few things to whet your appetites for when you come back to our great game! Remember, one-to-one lessons are always available and the best way to progress and achieve your goals. What’s your goal for 2021? I’m always here for a chat about your game and to discuss your goals.

Feel free to sign up to my emails on game improvement and special offers at andrewblackmangolf.co.uk and follow me on Instagram and Facebook. I hope to see you soon around the club and, to all our new Members, feel free to say hello and join in with the classes, an excellent way to meet new people!

Developed exclusively for our members, the Get Golfing Pro Shop has a comprehensive range of golf equipment to cater to all your golfing equipment needs – whether you are a scratch golfer or a beginner, we have the right products for your game.

In addition, as a member of a Get Golfing club, you can pay with your Member Club Card to get the best discount. We will then deliver your purchases to your club for free, so there is no waiting around for deliveries at home and a good excuse for a few holes!

Finally, best of all… every penny of profit the shop makes will be invested back into your club!