Club news

From Paul Fileman, General Manager: It has been full steam ahead since we re-opened on March 29th, and I don’t think the course has ever been busier at this time of the year. We were all incredibly excited to see so many of our existing Members, new Members, and guests back at the course enjoying their golf again.  

The exciting news that the clubhouse and the golf course will now operate under the same management is a hugely positive one, I feel. I believe that the club will now go from strength to strength and provide all our Members and visitors even better levels of service on and off the course. 

As you may know, we also launched our retail website this month, which has some incredible offers available for Members, who will all be able to use their membership cards to gain discounts. Please remember, if there is something that you would like to purchase that does not appear on the site, let the golf office know and we will do our best to source it for you. You can find the Get Golfing retail site here.

We will be hosting a new Members event on May 18th from 14:00. This will include a golf clinic with our Club Pros Wayne and Russell, followed by a nine-hole team competition over on the Childerditch, including a “Beat the Pro” on the 3rd.  

This will be followed by a few drinks on the patio and a prize giving. This will be a fantastic opportunity to meet some new playing partners and have a fun afternoon of golf. If you would like to attend there will be a sign-up sheet in the Pro-shop for this event, pop in and get your name down. 

Lockers! We have several lockers available to hire. Prices for the year will be: 

• Small: £10 pcm. 
• Medium: £12 pcm 
• Large: £15 pcm 

We still have several gentlemen’s lockers that are still occupied but have not yet been claimed. The numbers are 18, 19, 25, 45, 53, 54, 57, 58, 63, 71 and 76. If these are not claimed the contents will be emptied to make them available. 

Clubhouse news

From Jayne Lewin, Clubhouse Manager: The weather has been kind to us this month and the patio has welcomed back familiar faces and lots of new ones who have been enjoying the sun, food and drink and the new music!  

Our aim is to bring a relaxed and enjoyable vibe to the patio, which we hope we have achieved. We are very hopeful that the restrictions will soon ease and we are allowed to open our doors for indoor table service from May 17th.  

Since re-opening, we have experienced change of ownership, which we feel is a very positive step for the club. Going forward, we are hoping to bring back the social element of Warley Park, starting with a ‘Soul Sunday’ event on the patio on Sunday, May 9th from 3pm. The event will feature music from the 80s, a BBQ and a range of drinks specials. We hope to see many of you there and please spread the word to family and friends!  

Any suggestions for future events are welcomed, please speak to Sophie or drop her an email via [email protected].  

Finally, I would like to congratulate Sophie on her new role as Events Manager, if you are arranging a function, party, celebration of life or anything in between, she will be more than happy to help. This leads me to say a fond farewell and the best of luck in the future to our colleagues Lloyd, Mandy, Amanda and Hannah, who are all moving on to pastures new. 

Competition news 

The first Race to Le Touquet event took place on April 25th with a strong turnout. It was a close competition but the winner John Flanders with 38 points pipped Luke Robinson to the post on count back, with our illustrious Club Captain Dave Datsun coming in 3rd place with 35 points.

There are some additional prizes in the Pro Shop for John, Dave and Luke along with a consolation prize for last place Wayne Griffiths (don’t panic Wayne, I won’t share how many points you came in with).

The next Race to Le Touquet competition will be the Vize Cup on Saturday, May 8th the remaining Competition Entry and booking will be the same as the All-Day Competitions and the entry fee will be £3.00 for all remaining Race to Le Touquet competitions. Just book your tee time via the normal booking system. Competition Entry will open 21 days beforehand, and you can enter individually via app or website. Entry fee will be taken at same time. Competition Entry closes at 11pm on the day before Competition date. 

From Keith Regan, Handicap and Competitions Secretary: Competition Prizes 2020 and 2021: Now we are nearing the end of Covid restrictions, I will shortly be contacting the Covid Championship 2020 winners from each section with details of how to collect their prize. This also applies to the 2020 Men’s Ordinary Competition winners. Prizes will be allocated for Competitions in 2021 and details will be sent to you soon. 

Competition Entry Fees: Seniors’ Competitions are all £2, Ladies’ Competitions are mostly £3, Men’s Competitions are mostly £3. Race to Le Touquet, which is open to both Ladies and Men, is £3. The Race to Le Touquet is sponsored by Singha beer, which will be supplying prizes for all these events. 

Finally, congratulations to the Warley Park Senior team, who won at Rochford Hundred by 6pts to 5pts in the Essex Golf Union Championships. The team was selected after four trials and a squad of 20 players. We are all proud of you. Their next match is against Belfairs to be played at Warley on May 11th. 

Aces high

Congratulations go to Louis Howard who aced the 18th on Saturday, April 17th. Taking a 7 iron off the yellow tee, this is Louis’ first ace since he began playing golf at the age of seven years old. The day before, one of the ladies, Tina Walden, also scored an ace. Congratulations, Tina!

Captains’ update

From David Datson, Men’s Captain: Like me, I am sure you very much looked forward to the Clubhouse re-opening last month and seeing all our lovely bar staff again. 

Our Norman Plum team played against Frinton on Sunday, April 11th. Sadly, the overall result was a loss by 4 points to 2 points, but my sincere thanks go to Mark Downing, Dave Oakley, Simon Hall, Doug Barrett, Ash Patel, Ciaran McAreavey, Doug Carrington, Ian Debelius, Rodney Hall, Chris Baker and Craig Griffiths for joining me in playing against Frinton.  

A special mention must go to Mark, who suffered a debilitating nosebleed part way through the round but insisted on playing through to the end. Despite being 3 down with 4 to play, Mark and Doug Barrett managed to pull it back to all square going down the last, when Mark’s nosebleed restarted. I watched him manfully putting one handed (holding his handkerchief to his nose) for birdie on the 18th to try to win their match, which ended in a very creditable draw. 

It would be terribly wrong of me to seek personal glory, so I won’t draw attention to my fantastic eagle on the par–4, 4th. There should be a photo to record this magnificent achievement and if anyone wants to buy me a large glass of Zinfandel rosé I will gladly talk them through my sublime 9 iron, drawn into the heart of the green with a short hop and skip straight into the hole! 

Course news

From Dominic Rodgers, Course Manager: The weather in April proved to be a bit of a mixed bag. The beginning of the month saw us welcome you back in glorious sunshine and temperatures of around 22 degrees. The grass was bouncing out of the ground and was flying from our mowers, which were working overtime.  

Aesthetically, the course was looking good with diamond cutting and definition being created between the fairways and semi–rough cuts. Then, without warning, the temperature plummeted to below freezing at night, which led to early morning frosts and even snow flurries on April 13th! This, naturally, has slowed some of the growth on the greens.  

As a result, we kept the greens a little longer than usual to protect them during the cold snap. However, at the time of writing, we have just double Verti–cut the greens and lowered the height of cut on them to their summer heights. You will see a marked increase in the speed of the greens, I hope.  

We have a few exciting projects planned for the end of April that will improve the playability of the course. Before and after photos will appear in next month’s bulletin, but keep your eyes peeled and see if you can spot them before then.  

We are working to continue to improve the presentation of the course alongside our usual aeration, fertiliser, and topdressing programme. During early May, we plan to spray the fairways and semi–rough areas for broad leaf weeds, clover and daisies.  

On behalf of the greens staff, I would like to welcome all the new Members and to all our loyal existing Members, it has been great to see you all back. 

Pro Shop news 

We have had a great start for the new Pro Shop, with well over 600 Members across the sites, logging in to see what we have to offer.  

We would like to encourage all of you to sign into your exclusive Pro Shop and get your special Member discount on a variety of new products, such as the current golf ball promotions we are running. 

1. Buy 2 dozen Srixon AD333 for only £34.99 less your discount. 

We can also announce that you are now able to top up your Club Card via the Pro Shop without having to purchase anything — i.e. you can add (beer) funds to your account from the comfort of your own home! 

Pro news

From Russell Killington, PGA Pro: I hope you are all well and enjoying your golf. With the season well under way, I would just like to remind you that the free group lessons for Members have now started. They are every Monday from 2.00pm to 3.00pm and alternate weekly for men and ladies. Sign–up sheets are in the golf office for future dates and numbers are limited to 10 people per week, so get in quick.  

From Wayne Selley, PGA Pro: It has been so nice to you all out on the golf course over the last few weeks and I hope you have all blown away the cobwebs. I must say there were a few strange tee shots of the 1st tee (fore right! fore left! oh…) but understandably so after being locked up for three months. 

No doubt you were all glued to The Masters and Hideki Matsuyama‘s win. The most interesting comment I heard from Butch Harmon was that an averagely handicapped golfer, making the greens in regulation, still would not break 100 at Augusta. This goes to show how difficult and demanding those greens are. 

There are many ways to hold the putter — right below left, left below right, the claw grip and a few strange ones from the likes of Bryson Dechambeau, Matt Kucher and the new sensation Will Zalatoris. They have the putter shaft extended up the left arm, which is used as a brace to keep the shaft steady. I’m still baffled that this method is still allowed and was not banned along with the belly putter a few years ago as it was classed as anchoring the putter to your body.  

For me, one of the most important aspects of the putter is the grip and its thickness. Golfers sometimes find it hard to prevent movement in their wrists during the putting stroke. A thick putter grip has a wider area for your hands to wrap around, encouraging a smooth pendulum swing and helping you control the face of the putter. A thick grip does this by preventing your wrist from hinging during your putting stroke, which is caused by using a putter grip that is too small. 

We have a good selection of putter grips in stock that can be fitted while you wait, and we are offering 10% discount in the month of May for any grips fitted. 

To help knock of those couple of strokes on the putting green, I am also offering half-price putting lessons in May. So, if you want to book then please call on 07813822842. 

WHS news 

We thought you might be interested in this information about your World Handicap System Index and Course Handicap — they are not the same thing! 

In the new world of WHS you have two numbers you need to remember:  

• The first is your Handicap Index, which is the exact calculation of your handicap. This is equivalent to what was your CONGU handicap. This number — usually expressed to a decimal point — is the average of the best eight of your last 20 scores — in terms of the score differential. So, if you are asked, ‘what’s your handicap?’ That is your Handicap Index and that is how we compare each other now. 
• The second is your Course Handicap. Whenever you play on a golf course, wherever you are, your index willchange, and you will have a different Course Handicap. It looks at the difficulty of that golf course for the scratch and bogey player and works out what your Course Handicap is based on the slope rating of the golf course you are playing. Your Course Handicap can change depending on the course, or even the tees from which you are playing. As we mentioned above, your Course Handicap could be vastly different to your actual WHS Handicap Index depending on the course you are playing. For example, say you are playing your home golf course: the white tees have a slope rating of 145, the yellow tees are 125, and the red tees are rated at 95. You are going to have three quite different Course Handicaps over those golf courses. You are going to lose shots on the red colour, you aregoing to gain a few on the yellow and you are going to gain quite a lot on the whites. 

It is all about the difficulty for the two players – scratch and bogey – playing that golf course. We are not comparing Course A to Course B. We are comparing the same golf course but for two players of different ability. 

Course Handicap 

Your handicap is no longer based on playing one single course. It is recalculated and that is why we call it a Course Handicap. It can change for every course you play. 

There are many ways you can check what your Course Handicap is going to be on any course. You can do it via the My England Golf app, IG Member app, via the club boards, or you even manually work it out if you know the calculations.Your Course Handicap is of primary importance because that is how we work out where you are going to get your strokes. 

So, if you know what your Handicap Index is, you will choose the right tee for your game on that day, work out your Course Handicap, and go out and enjoy your round of golf. 

Playing Handicap 

You receive a Playing Handicap during club competitions, but it does not affect the score that goes forward for handicap purposes. The playing handicap is purely for competition purposes. You may find the score you record — because that score is based on your Course Handicap — will be different to that shown on the results sheet. 

That is to be expected. It is going to be slightly less if you play a medal, for example, because that format comes with a 95% allowance. Do not worry too much about the Playing Handicap, it is purely for competition results purposes. If you are recording your gross score, we will use your Course Handicap to work out your new Handicap Index. 

Social Rounds 

The idea of WHS is you have more opportunity to return scores for handicap purposes. It is not limited to competition scores or to scores played at your home golf club, as it was with supplementary scores. 

You can now return a score in general play whenever you wish, either home or away. So long as you play a measured golf course and pre-register your intent to score before you go out to play, you can return a score from anywhere. 

My England Golf App and IG Member App 

These useful apps have a range of features – primarily the ability to look at your handicap record. You have full access toyour scores and they highlight which scores are included in your handicap calculations. 

They also show your handicap trends. They have a Course Handicap Calculator, which allows you to select the golf course you are going to play, the relevant tees, and will do the calculation for you. They tell you what the Course and Slope ratings are and reveal, based on your Handicap Index, what your Course Handicap is.