With Easter now passed the golfing season is well underway. The sun is out, the courses are playing well and golfers have been out in force. Our New Flexible Membership is being well received with many taking advantage of its benefits. If there are any non-golfers out there who are considering taking up this wonderful sport now is the time.

We hope to see you at Cottesmore very soon.

We have numerous offers going on for our Golf Academy.

• Free taster Group Lesson available
• Half Price - first one to one Lesson (any level)
• Monthly Beginner Get Togethers on the Golf Course
• £299 membership with unlimited Golf

We have the complete pathway for you to learn golf efficiently. Click here to register your interest.

Our golf academy practice clubs are well under way.

Women in Golf Day at Cottesmore - a day of coaching to encourage women to Get into Golf on Saturday, May 17th. To register for any of the above please click here.

For Junior Academy please see below.

GET OUT OF PAIN AND OPTIMISE YOUR GAME!

Wednesday May 7th - 7:45 pm. 
Andrew Robson M.Chiro - Chiropractor
Members - Free 
Visitors - £2 to Captains Charity 

Achy back? Niggling shoulder? Throbbing ankle? 
You can read more on our website by clicking here.

Click here to register your interest in attending.

Good luck to Sam Smitherman who has his year 2 PGA exams this week. Sam has been working hard these last few weeks with his shop duties, managing the club's Golf Day Sales and coaching adults and juniors. With studies as well and tournament golf he really has stepped into the life of a club professional realising just how much there is to do and manage. Every minute has to be made use of to keep the cogs working on all aspects. Calum and Steve have both been there and come through the other side however I am not convinced that it gets any easier.

All three play in next week's PGA Kent Open at Princes. A tough ask for all of them given how busy all three have been. Watch this space.

One of the most common mishaps on the golf course is hitting a wrong ball. We have previously mentioned the importance of marking your ball so that it is easier to identify as your own.

Not including hitting the wrong ball from a water hazard; 
If a wrong ball is hit in match play the penalty is loss of hole. 
If a wrong ball is hit in stroke play the penalty is 2 strokes. 

The competitor must correct his mistake by playing the correct ball. If he fails to correct his mistake before making a stroke on the next teeing ground or, in the case of the last hole of the round, fails to declare his intention to correct his mistake before leaving the putting green, he is disqualified. Strokes made by a competitor with a wrong ball do not count in his score. 

If you have a rules query or incident on the course please feel free to contact Calum to discuss in the next Newsletter.

With Easter having past, the Summer Schedule is out with Summer Coaching commencing this weekend. If you have not registered contact Calum asap by clicking here.

During the Easter Holidays Calum hosted a Girls only Coaching day where seven girls aged between 8 and 13 attended a whole day of range and course coaching.There were others wanting to attend but with holidays and prior commitments a few apologies were given. With the feedback received Calum is now planning to put a girls schedule together. Please click here to register your interest.

A long ambition of Calum's was for the Junior Academy to form an elite team. With six places available Calum had an Elite Team coaching day (pictured below) on Good Friday where all performed well and had a great day.

The next step is to get team uniform and if there is anyone out there who would like to sponsor this please contact Calum. The Elite team will be meeting up at least once a month throughout the season.

Last Saturday saw the first Order of Merit event for those Junior Members with official CONGU handicaps. Nine players took part including all of the new Cottesmore Junior Academy Elite Team.

Josh Greig squeezed through as victor with a very creditable nett 71 off the white tees in a cold windy day. Richard Bailey and ten year old Jay Eggleton were second with nett 72s (with Jays containing a 10 on the 16th). It is clear that future events will be well competed and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.

The next event is the May Stableford on Saturday 18th May. To enter please email proshop@cottesmoregolf.co.uk or put your name on the list on the Junior Notice Board.

Men's Section

The Easter Handicap Cup took place on bank holiday Monday. As usual, this competition, a medal, was split into two divisions. Division 2 for handicaps of 19-28 was won by John Penalver with a magnificent nett 65. Once again the strength of the Junior Academy was evident with Richard Bailey scoring a nett 66 to finish second in this division. Terry Vanhinsbergh won the first division on countback from Yas Demir - both scoring a nett 69. 

A special thanks go to Dave Salmon, Ian Jones and Mike Frei who donated their hard earned two's money to the Captain's charity.

The first 200 club draw was done after the competition - first prize of £75 was won by Trevor Pigram and second prize of £25 was won by Neil Highgate. Thanks to everyone who purchased squares and better luck next time. £100 was raised for Rainbow Trust.

Just to clarify to everyone that the Men's Invite to Guests will take place on Saturday 24th May and not Sunday 25 May as featured in the fixture list. Please bring along a guest on what should be an excellent round of golf followed by a hot buffet. The cost of entry is £40 per pair and places are limited so please register early to avoid disappointment.

All knockout matches need to be completed by the respective deadlines to avoid elimination from the competition and don't forget to enter forthcoming competitions on the PSI. There is no guarantee that late entries can be accommodated as tee times have to be booked in advance with the pro-shop so do please register before the closing date for each competition that you wish to play in.

Vet's Section

A reasonable day for golf on Tuesday, despite the heavy overnight rain which made the course very wet in places. The early rain soon cleared to give us a breezy but warm late morning and early afternoon. The 40 of us who played the Graham May Trophy produced a wide range of scores with the winner's score almost double that of the tail enders. The winning scores were good but still slightly lower than expectations with the course and greens in such good condition.

Honourable mentions go to Mike Pearson with 32 points, Dave Middleton and Bernard Smith with 33 points and Trevor Wiramanaden with 34. Peter Swann was third with 35 points, followed in second place by the ever consistent Tom George on 36 points. The winner, of his first ever golfing trophy, was Peter Allanson with 37 points. Congratulations to you all.

Matches - We played Wildwood away last Thursday on a lovely bright day, on a course that was in very good condition despite the greens having been sanded a few days earlier. Unfortunately, we lost the match 4-2 largely due to some high handicappers who had a knack of sinking very long putts.

Our first home match is this coming Friday against Chipstead and I hope it will be our first success of the year.

Sign up sheets are now on the board for the away matches at Sweetwoods (Weds 28th May) and Cranleigh (Weds 4th June). I will be selecting the teams, in the next few days, to play Slinfold at home on Friday 9th May and Mid Sussex away on Monday 12th May. I will advise all those selected by email.

Members - Peter Stopford is now back home following his mild heart attack last Tuesday. He is still awaiting the prognosis on his future activity but hopes to be back with us soon.

Many thanks to the early risers, Mike Pearson and Russell Watt for card duty and Bob Imrie for clubhouse duty. Hopefully, it was not so early that they heard the dawn chorus in all its glory.

Next Tuesday is the Jim Richardson Trophy competition. This is a drawn pairs St. Andrews greensome and all tees are booked until 9.18. The remainder, from 9.26, are spare and available to any members who wish to play. Please organise your own groups and book a time via the Pro shop.

I hope I have not omitted any news although I seem to have forgotten why I am out on the golf course at the moment. Although I still manage to produce the very occasional good hole which leads me to the following quote 'Golf: an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle'.

 Ladies Section

A very close match against Reigate Hill was decided with the final putt on the 18th green - unfortunately, not in our favour! However, a great effort from all involved on their first fixture this year; special congratulations to Liz Baguley, who played in her first match for the club.

Shirley Vance was the winner of the Monthly Stableford with a score of 37 points - well done! My thanks to Pat for covering for me with prizegiving and notices last week.

We are looking forward to the Spring Meeting on Thursday 24th April which is followed by a meal -don't forget to bring along something yellow or orange for the charity raffle - thank you.

This is your last chance to enter a team for my second charity quiz night this Friday, 25th April. If you can't make this one, then the entry forms with the dates and details for the next one are in the pro-shop.

Heather has send out an email with the times for the 8 of us competing in the Coronation Foursomes on Sunday; for those playing on Thursday, the draw sheet is up in the changing room.