As some of you are probably aware, our greens staff have been working extremely hard over the past 6-8 weeks prepping the course for the start of the season. As you can see from the pictures, there has been a few changes that look really quite different from the tee.

3rd Hole (White tee) - The tee has been raised up, made bigger and has been levelled off. This has been on our list for some time, and is now being implemented.

As you can see from the picture, it has been raised up quite a lot, and turned slightly to the left, so that the tee shot is aiming you straight down the hole itself, allowing for better alignment.

16th hole (lake) - The lake has been cleared of reeds and debris, and this makes the lake look a lot larger and therefore brings it into play more (not that it needed to be!) and we have also tidied the area in front of the White tee and defined the out of bounds area with a hand built fence.

17th hole (pond) - Again this has been cleared out and defined, which brings it into play more off your tee shot. Before the work was done, you would have hardly noticed the pond, but now it is definitely more prominent!

On another note, I was out playing yesterday, and while the course was magnificent for the time of year, I saw far too many unrepaired pitchmarks for my liking. Please help the greens staff with their work by repairing your own pitchmark plus at least one other. This will help the greens recover quicker allowing for a better surface. Please ask your fellow members and your guests to do the same please, it is very much appreciated and very much part of the etiquette of golf.

If you would like to join us on Saturday 11th April 2015 for a day at the Grand National then please see the notice boards in the golf corridor. Places are limited so they are on a first come first serve basis. The cost of the trip will be just £35 including transport to and from the race course & Admission.

For more information, or to reserve your place please contact Matt on 01253 832567 or matthew.mustow@village-hotels.com

Last Saturday was a 4 man Texas Scramble, the weather was good with little wind, there were some fantastic scores put in. As you can see below, 80% of the scores were in the nett 50's! When I was looking, I was thinking everyone had done 9 holes! Well done to the Winners: Steve, Dave, Dave and Duncan who shot a fantastic gross 60 to win with a score of nett 54.6. Any more of this, and there will be new handicaps issued!

Texas Scramble Results - Saturday 7th February

S O'Keeffe, D Neville, D Nelligan, D Whitehead  60 - 5.4 = 54.6 
G Brooksby, C Prewett, S Norwood, P Crisp  62 - 6.8 = 55.2 
S Whittaker, M Sinnett, J Moseley, P McGrath  62 - 5.6 = 56.4
D Woods, V Lang, P Morgan, P Clayton  62 - 5.4 = 56.6 
J Astbury, S Barrow, R White, M Walsh  63 - 6.0 = 57.0 
R Shore, R Woodmason, P Shore, A Berry  63 - 5.9 = 57.1 
S Johnson, C MacDonald, J Park, A Baird  63 - 5.3 = 57.7 
R Hutchinson, J Evans, T McCord, C Forrest  66 - 6.3 = 59.7 
B Sarjantson, F Blyth, A Maunder, R Birnie  66 - 5.6 = 60.4 
P Oldendorp, H Oldendorp, B Crossley  72 - 6.6 = 65.4