Newsletter

Hello. I’m Kevin Breslin your club captain and a very warm welcome to you all. This is my 3rd year as Club Captain and it’s been an honour as always. 

We’re all certainly looking forward to better weather after a poor start to 2018 but Summer will be on us before we know it.

I wish you good luck for the season and hope to see you in the club or on the course soon. I’m always happy to play with any members should you like a game.

Your Committee 
 The WMGC Committee is an advisory, support and communication link between the members and the WMGC owner and Golf Director. We aim to create and build an exciting, challenging and enjoyable golf programme, with the members firmly at the heart of everything we do.  The WMGC Committee has representatives, elected by their peers, who have defined roles and responsibilities to ensure we provide the best possible experience for our members at WMGC.

 

to email the committee please use Committee@WestMidsGC.co.uk and we will all receive the message.

Golf Directors Report, Course & Rules update

2018 sees some exciting times ahead!  We have invested nearly £100k in the new 8^th hole opening on 1^st June (our 15^th Anniversary), at 666 yards off the Yellows (The Devil!) and 725 yards off the Blues, this will be the longest hole in the UK.  The tee starts off adjacent to the current 8^th tee which you may have already seen. The fairway plays alongside the current one and continues a further 200 yards past the current 8^th green to a new green. The hole has been built to a very high standard by a specialist golf course contractor, who has also worked on some of the top UK courses including Open venues Royal St Georges and Royal Birkdale.  Along with the new hole there will be some other minor changes to the layout to maintain the par at 72 and balance the length of the two loops.

We have suffered once again with the conditions thrown at us this winter, average rainfall is up by 34% and we have planned additional drainage works to localised areas of the golf course throughout this year. The course has deep drainage throughout the site and intermediate drainage has been added where needed, but we are finding that we are suffering with water holding in the upper profile of the soil, so we will be adding gravel banding to the surface which will help the water to get down to the lower levels. The main area that we will be targeting is the 5^th fairway at the green end.

At Widney Manor we installed a new Tarmac buggy / trolley path to a third of the course in 2016 and have recently completed the remaining two third’s of the course, which has been a total investment of £100k and has resulted in a very tidy look to the course.  We are currently decorating the driving range to bring it up to a high standard and are looking forward to the course drying up and getting some competitive golf up and running again.

CONGU Changes 2018—there are a number of CONGU changes this year, notably the Retirement of Club & Disability Handicaps. As a result of their low impact these have been removed and replaced by a new Category 5 for men and Category 6 for both men and women, providing a maximum Handicap of 54.0 for all golfers. Players will be able to maintain a Competition Handicap in all six categories. Upward adjustment for all categories will remain at 0.1 and downward adjustments for Net Differentials below Buffer Zones will be 0.5 for Category 5 and 0.6 for Category 6.

We have some new blood on the committee and they are working hard to improve the competitions & events side of the club and hopefully you will notice some changes very soon. If you have any ideas of your own please let us know, you can always see me at the club or email me on mark@wmgc.co.uk

I look forward to seeing you at the club soon! 

Mark Harrhy, Club Manager

Ladies Section

We are a small and friendly group. A warm welcome awaits new members of all abilities. We play Tuesday mornings at Widney manor and Wednesday mornings at West midlands.
We play medals, stablefords and fun competitions. Have a friendly competition against the Warwickshire golf club ladies every may and a mixed competition with the gents in July. We love to participate as teams in opens throughout the summer and have a group of ladies that play in the vets competitions. We’re looking forward to some nicer weather and a full 18 holes of golf with our first major being the Spring Shield on the 4th April
We are very social group and when unable to play golf due to bad weather etc we still come to the club for coffee, chat and occasional tai chi class!!
Ladies captain charity this year is Breast cancer care.

Seniors Section

The senior section is a sociable group who range from 50+. The group play various competitions on a Monday (medals, stableford and texas scrambles). We also play 14 matches against other clubs between April and August which we had great support with last season from the club and senior members. This year we hope to have a good turnout for the senior championship and the senior Ryder Cup events . If you are 50+ why not come and join us for a round on a Monday, all abilities welcome.

Competitions

Order of Merit

Congratulations to Franco Ziccardi for winning the Winter Order of Merit, his score of 180 pipped Giles Fellingham by just 1 point to win it. This is a Stableford competition run during each Summer and Winter period over 10 different days, with the top 5 scores of each player being added together to find the winner. The scoreboard can be seen below. The Summer Order of Merits (Midweek and Weekend comps) start on April 4th & 29th respectively.

 Spring Shield

In April we have the first of the Majors this year. It’s the “Spring Shield” and is played from the Blue tees in a Stableford format. It’s £5 to enter which includes the Nearest the Pin competitions on all the par 3s. The date is Sunday 15^th April and will be drawn to determine tee times for entrants from the sign up form. The tee times will be split into two sections 7am – 8am and 8am – 9am, so get your name added to the form which is on the board in the shop.

The draw for the tee times will be made on Sunday April 1^st (PM). You MUST have paid your £5 entry fee before then or you’ll not be provided with a tee time and therefore you could miss out. Pay your £5 to a member of Staff so they can tick you off as paid before the draw is made.

Stroke play Supremo

This medal competition starts up again this year in April. Round one is on Saturday April 14^th and you have a further five rounds over the following months to finish in the top two of any of the rounds to automatically qualify for the Stroke play final later in the year.

Singles & Doubles

Sign up for the Singles and Doubles competitions is up in the club house. Add your name(s) to the form and on Sunday April 1^st the draws will be made on who you’ll play in the first round of each of the knockout competitions. The Singles matches are full handicap whilst the Doubles are 90%. Each competition is played off the White tees until the Semis which are played off the Blues along with the final.

Eclectic

There will be an Eclectic competition over the Winter period this year which we’re going to trial to see how well it works and get some feedback on it. It’s similar to the Order of Merit in that you participate in the competition over several rounds but rather than the best 5 rounds being added together the leader board is against the best net score on each hole over all the rounds you play in. Have look at the Competitions Book for dates.

Team Games

Besides the standard Stableford and Medal competitions we run throughout the month there are also Team and Texas Scramble events so if playing in a team is appealing then check the Competitions Book and get yourself signed up when they come along.

If you are looking to join a team or are a team looking for others to join you, why not post your request on the club Facebook page.

Par 6 hole opens Friday June 1^st

On Friday June 1^st the newly built 8^th hole opens at West Mids, replacing the present one. It’ll be 725 yards off the whites, 666 yards from the yellows and 565 yards from the reds.

It will be a special day for us at West Mids so come along and join in the Festivities.

This years chosen charity is The Lily Mae Foundation. A local charity, based in Balsall Common, that supports parents and families that have been affected by the death of a baby.  The Lily Mae Foundation aims to help change public perception of stillbirth and neonatal death by continuing to commit to their charitable objectives.

The Lily Mae Foundation was set up in July 2010 in memory of a very special little girl. It was formed to create a lasting legacy to not only Lily Mae’s parents and family, but also to many others who were not fortunate enough to meet her.

The National Charity SANDS report that today, 17 babies will die; all the tragic victims of stillbirth or neonatal death. This statistic is showing no signs of decreasing and for every stillborn or neonatal death there is a family that is devastated following the loss of their baby.  This shocking statistic, the loss of 6,500 babies every year, is something the public is not generally aware of. Most people think stillbirths don’t happen in the 21st century. Stillbirth and Neonatal Death are taboo subjects, yet stillbirth in the UK is 10 times more common than cot death.

Despite its frequency, there is little public perception of the frequency of Stillbirth and Neonatal Death. There has also historically been a lack of funding for research into Stillbirth and Neonatal Death.  Donations to The Lily Mae Foundation will be used to help and support Parents and Families that have been affected by the death of a baby.

We at West Midlands Golf Club aim to hold a charity fundraising day later in the year to raise money for this fantastic local charity and we urge you to support it with us as best you can.

That's all for our first edition of the Newsletter, please do get involved by entering the competitions or posting on our Facebook group, or visiting the club to one of the shows, which are listed below.  Thanks for your time in reading this, and best wishes from all of us at the club.

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