Club News

From Paul Fileman, Golf Manager: At long last the sun has made an appearance and the course is looking incredible, the greens are beautiful, and it truly feels like summer is here. The work on the front nine has now been completed and we just have to wait for Mother Nature to take charge and get the grass growing. Here, I am hopeful that the hydro-seeding will speed the process up and we will have the front nine in play very soon. In the meantime, the Childerditch has been in superb condition, and I am very happy to hear so many people complimenting the course condition — hats off to Dom and the rest of the greenkeeping staff who do an outstanding job.

What a month of sport the country has had, with the football, cricket, rugby and golf! At Warley Park, we have been no less busy on and off the course, with a further Race To Le Touquet competition — The Ford Laidlaw Stableford — played on Sunday, July 18th, which saw Ash Patel triumph on 38 points, followed close behind by Tina Roast on 37 and Tom Hone on 36. 

The table now stands with Luke Robinson in first place, with a total of 28 points. To see the full leader board please click here! 

There was an incredible turnout for the Men’s Mid-Week Club Championship on Wednesday, July 21st with the winner on the day being Sam Oakes. 

The Ladies’ Club Championship and Van Blerkom were close fought affairs, with Kim Sparks winning the championship for the 11th time, narrowly defeating our Lady Captain Liz Brown. 

Ladies’ Club Championship  

• 1st: Kim Sparks — 84, 88, 172, +34 
• 2nd: Elizabeth Brown — 89, 88, 177, +39 
• 3rd: Christine Wilkins — 92, 93, 185, +47 

Van Blerkom 

• 1st: Karen Powell — 71  
• 2nd: Jeanie Hughes — 73 
• 3rd: Elizabeth Brown — 73 

Well done to the Youth Shield team, who defeated Wanstead on the 17th at Upminster. Now on to the semi-finals! Congratulations Luke and the rest of his team, keep up the good work and fingers crossed you will bring the silverware back to Warley Park. 

Social Scores: While the front nine is in its current condition, if you wish to submit a Social Score you will need to play either the Childerditch as a 9-hole on its own or the Childerditch plus holes 10-18 on the Warley course as qualifying holes. 

As you know, July 19th saw Covid restrictions lifted, which means that, at long last, rakes can be used! You can also now remove the pin when putting and the ball washers are back in service. It is, however, recommended that you carry hand sanitiser to use on a regular basis while playing —bring your own or we have some for sale at the front desk. Full details of England golf guidelines can be found here. 

SafeGolf: We have achieved the SafeGolf accreditation with the thanks to Richard Collier our Welfare Officer. SafeGolf is a partnership of golf bodies across Great Britain and Ireland committed to promoting a safe and positive environment for all those participating, working and volunteering in the sport of golf. It was established to help golf respond to the issue of child protection in sport. Its mission is to safeguard the welfare of children and young people, as well as adults at risk, in the sport of golf. 

SafeGolf is, firstly, a website – www.safegolf.org – through which anyone with a concern about the welfare of a player, or the behaviour or practice of a coach, volunteer, organiser, parent or a player, can contact the lead safeguarding officer at their national governing body. 

Secondly, it is the safeguarding standard England Golf will promote to all their affiliated clubs to ensure all clubs provide a safe and positive experience to children and young people while playing golf. The PGA are also using the standards to apply to all their PGA professional coaches. 

Quiz the CEO: The Q&A with Ed Richardson will now be taking place on Thursday, August 5th. This will be an opportunity for you to hear directly about Get Golfing’s future plans for Warley Park clubhouse and course. There will be a complimentary drink on arrival and tickets are available here. Booking is advised as numbers are limited.  

Happy golfing everybody. 

Course News

From Dominic Rodgers, Course Manager: Climate warming or climate change? I will let you discuss that one but, after facing the summer droughts and record-breaking temperatures of the last two years, what I can tell you is that this summer has seen non-stop rain and warm temperatures. 

The result is that the grass has had perfect growing conditions throughout the season and I am not sure I have ever seen the coverage and density of grass on the course that we have had at the end of July. 

Our mowers have been out cutting daily to keep on top of the growth and we have been able to enhance the presentation with diamond cutting of the fairways and approaches. We have also been supplied with a new machine that is providing a cut between the fairways and the semi rough to improve the definition.  

While we have been busy cutting, we have also managed to get all the new greens over-seeded and their surrounds hydro-seeded. Although we haven’t needed to use it much yet, all the new greens have had an irrigation system installed should the weather change. 

The new 8th and 9th tees are going to constructed by a local contractor who is renowned for his work across Essex. They will be commencing this work shortly.  

We are also busily compacting and levelling all the drainage lines and topping up any low spots with soil and seed. All the drainage lines have been seeded but this whole process of compacting, levelling and seeding will be on going throughout the year.  

To help us with all this work we have taken on a new greenkeeper: James Finch has previously worked at the Warren Golf Club and recently volunteered for all seven days of preparations for this year’ Open. 

While we have had some disruption to golf this season, I am sure you will agree with me that the wait will be worth it and I for one can’t wait to play the new holes! 

Clubhouse News

From Paul Westerman, Clubhouse Manager: Firstly may I say thank you to all the staff for the warm welcome to Warley Park, I will be looking forward to getting to know the membership over the coming months and hope that I will become a familiar face to you all.

It has most certainly been a baptism of fire for my first month with the Euro’s keeping the bar busy and the lifting of restrictions along with numerous events making this an incredibly busy month.

We will very soon be putting together some exciting members and guest events and in time introducing an updated bar menu to improve on our already excellent options.

Please feel free to approach me with any ideas you may have that will help improve your customer experience.

Captains’ Update

Men’s  

From Dave Datson, Club Captain: Well, what a fantastic month July was for me, with my Captain’s Day, The Committee Cup, presenting the prizes to the Ladies on their Club Championship, playing in and presenting prizes in the Midweek Club Championship. The weather has been lovely and the course is benefitting from the sun and some rain.  

I am impressed with the work that has been done on the front nine and looking forward to later in the year when it will have all settled down. August should be just as good for all of us playing the course. 

I have my Captain’s Charity Day coming up on Friday, August 20th. The format is ham, egg and chips at midday, 18 holes, then prizegiving. Grateful thanks to my very good friend Andy Jackson of AJ Scaffolding Ltd, who has sponsored the prizes, so if you fancy playing, please let me know when you see me or email at [email protected].

Ladies 

From Liz Brown, Ladies’ Captain: We are now in the full swing of summer golf and we are still playing in county matches, invitation days and opens at other clubs and generally enjoying golf in the sun. The course renovations are looking exciting for when we come off temporaries. 

The Ladies’ Club Championship was a huge success, Kim Sparks was the worthy winner and Karen Powell was the handicap winner of the Van Blerkom. It would of course be lovely if we had more entries next year. All attending enjoyed a glass of fizz afterwards to celebrate the winners. 

We had a great turn out for the Fun Team Competition, the winners were Jeanie Hughes, Sue Allen, Karen Powell and Mary Skinner — it was great to see her back from a broken wrist. 

Our Ping winners were Kim Sparks and Brenda Chisholm, congratulations and hopefully they will progress to an area qualifier. 

Some of the girls entered the Silver County Open meeting at Chigwell and I am delighted to report that Warley Park Ladies won the team prize, well done to Delray Bussey, Chris Wilkins and Maryann Hansen. Delray also came second in the singles competition. 

On the same day, Tina Waldon and myself were at the Coronation Foursomes area final at The Wilderness Club in Kent. Unfortunately, we did not win with 35 points, the winners came from Stock Brook Manor with an amazing 42 points. However, we had a wonderful day. 

Seniors

From Steve Abbott, Seniors’ Captain: Another busy month, with two matches, two Golfer of the Year Competitions, and my Guest Day.  

The two matches were away and, unsurprisingly, we lost both, although the Warren was only by one point. The first of the competitions was won by one of our low handicappers, Colin Brown (12) and the second by one of new members, Kevin Sanford (29). It is good to see a variety of winners, playing off very different handicaps.  

My Guest Day was a big success with a field of 80 (plus one coach!), playing in teams of four. We were blessed with very good weather and, thanks to the generosity of many, Roger Tallentire in particular, we raised a magnificent £606 for my charity, Brentwood Theatre Trust. 

Congratulations to all the winners, particularly Martin and Stan, who cleverly invited two recently departed Warley members as their guests! 

Ross Jones’ Update

Get Golfing takes the conditioning of all of the golf courses at our sites incredibly seriously. We want to ensure all our members and visitors have the best playing conditions possible. We are also aware that lot’s of our sites have had some large projects taking place on their golf courses, and our Head of Course Maintenance, Ross Jones, here shares a few videos explaining some of the processes the team uses to improve your course.

The work the teams all put in across all the sites to present our courses in such great condition is outstanding. Why not visit our other nearby sites like Redlibbets or Mill Green and check out the courses there in person?

Community Outreach

From Stuart Williams, Community Development Officer (Education, SEND and Communities), Get Golfing:  

Our focus is to utilise our beautiful site and clubhouse to host social interactions ranging from Dementia coffee mornings to school art competitions, Music performances to Memory Walks as part of our Community HUB (Helping Unlock Barriers) programme. We want our local communities to feel welcome at all our venues and just meet up with friends and family for great social interactions. 

Along with some of Get Golfing’s national partnerships and programmes, such as with This Girl Can, NHS Blood and Transplant, The Great Dog Walk Together, we are pleased to announce a partnership with The Alzheimer’s Society and its battle to beat this horrendous disease. 

Taking place in September, you can join us on the day, donate to the charity and enjoy a beautiful stroll around our lovely site that starts and finishes at the clubhouse. The Get Golfing Memory Walk is family and dog friendly, so why not gather a group together and join us for a great cause? 

If you would like to help us run the event by marshalling or serving refreshments as we raise funds to fight this terrible disease, do please get in touch with me here.  

More information will follow in the September newsletter. 

Our national partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant continues this month with the recruitment team heading to our Hampton Court Palace site for their awareness campaign on August 14th. They will be visiting Arkley in September and Pyrford Lakes in October. 

Please remember it is about more than just blood, with people also needing stem cells, tissue and platelets. For more information visit NHS Blood and Transplant. 

Girls just wanna have fun: Our Mums & Daughters sessions that have been piloted at our Hertfordshire site took place in beautiful sunshine in July and saw more than 130 girls attend during the week. 20 ladies and girls had a super session delivered by the coaching team at the Club as part of the mums and daughters’ session. This great program creates a great social event that sees everyone making new friends, enjoying hitting it further than mum and finding a new sport that they can enjoy together.  

This Girl Can Get Golfing will be rolled out across all sites in the next 12 months. 

If you would like more information about Girls Golf Rocks please click on the link- Girls Golf Rocks – England Golf 

Music is Healing: As part of the Community HUB (Helping Unlock Barriers) programme, Get Golfing is partnering with Music24, which will have free use of a room in the clubhouse at its Hertfordshire club to run its monthly music therapy sessions. 

Music24 is a registered charity offering music therapy and other music-related activities as a creative outlet for people who are socially isolated and vulnerable. It works with various groups across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire who face difficulties, such as those living with dementia, neuro-disabilities, learning disabilities or mental health illnesses. 

We hope to partner with similar charities at all our sites in the future and if you know of any local groups who need a free space to operate out of, we would be happy to help. Please contact [email protected]   

Also in September we will launching our Adopt a School program where we identify a local special, primary and secondary school to help unlock their student’s potential. We will host a series of golfing, music, art and drama opportunities on our sites to allow their students to shine. There is a lot of fantastic work happening throughout the all our sites at the moment and we look forward to expanding this further throughout the rest of the year.

Pro News

From Russell Killington, PGA Professional: Firstly, I would like to announce the winner of the free 30-minute golf lesson from the August draw. Congratulations go to James Rygate and Pam Oldham, who were both picked at random by Paul Fileman on July 26th. James and Pam can contact me directly to arrange their free lesson. 

July finally brought us some sunshine and warm temperatures at last and I was fortunate enough to spend one of those days at Royal St. George’s watching the Open Championship.  

It is great to watch world-class players in the flesh and see how many types of different swings there are out there that bring success. You will notice, however, that no matter how different some of the swings are, the basics of a good grip, posture and alignment are the one thing these players will all have in common and these fundementals are often the most neglected by club golfers.  

If you have any doubts or questions on your setup don’t hesitate to contact myself — [email protected] or phone: 07813822842 — or Wayne for help. 

I also enjoyed watching the players warm up on the range. This is something so many of you should try to make a habit of doing before your round of golf. It well help loosen up your muscles and you should work only on your tempo and timing rather than any big swing changes just before you go out. The best players in the world would not dream of going straight from the car or the spike bar to tee and neither should you. So next time you are going out for a game try to find 10 minutes beforehand and buy a token for the range at the golf office and give it a go.  

From Wayne Selley, PGA Professional: We still have spaces available for our junior summer camps, which are on every Tuesday of the summer holidays and run from 9am to 2pm. For more information, please phone on 01277 224891 or 077813822842. 

I also enjoyed watching the Open Championship and noted that the players were lucky that the weather did not throw in a couple of days of rain and high winds, which would have tested their ability to control their ball flight. 

The key to playing in the wind is to take a smoother, more controlled swing. This will help you strike the ball more solidly and put less spin on it. You should be thinking about swinging about 75%-80% of your normal speed. 

If you set up to the ball thinking you are just going muscle it through the wind, you will likely send the ball way up into the air and watch it drift forever as it veers away from your intended target. Playing into the wind always take more club than you normally do and the opposite for when the wind is helping you. 

The main point I want you to come away with is to stop thinking you have to fight the wind, it’s a battle you will lose every time. Think more about working with the wind, focusing on hitting with a smooth tempo and hitting the ball solidly will yield better results. Also, it is OK to be realistic and accept that it will be harder to score in windy conditions. 

Proshop News

From Nicholas Darby, Golf Retail Sales & Operations Manager: We are pleased to announce that we now offer Callaway clubs and apparel in the Pro shop as well as Titleist and TaylorMade soft goods. Click here to view. 

If you can’t find a specific product from any of our brands, please contact [email protected] and he will be happy to assist you.

We have also launched our Pro Shop Sale area. Grab a bargain with some discontinued merchandise on the website today! 

Remember the profits made by the Pro Shop are reinvested into your club. 

Reviews

We have received plenty more fantastic reviews over the last month, here is a selection of our favourites: