John Murray

Greetings from John Murray
Moray Golf Club - PGA Golf Professional

I hope you've all had a fantastic week on and off the golf course and welcome to another exciting edition of the Moray Pro Shop weekly newsletter, bringing you up-to-date with all the latest news and gossip from within the walls of MGC.

Shop news

Click & Collect

Can you believe we are into November already!! I hope you all enjoyed Halloween and got into the spirit by dressing up for the occasion or like me locked your door, turned your lights off and turned the TV up!!

This weekend it’s bonfire night when the world goes mad for fireworks and sparklers (unless you’re a dog owner that is). Then its only 7 weekends until Christmas!!

I personally can’t wait to hear the Christmas carols start playing in every shop and seeing the Christmas decorations going up everywhere nearly 2 months before the big day…that was sarcasm if you couldn't tell!!

We shall vow not to play any annoying Christmas songs or put up any shop decorations until December.

However if you are an early Christmas shopper, then we will be fully stocked with lots of Christmas ideas for your loved ones and remember if we don't have what you are looking for in-store, we should still be able to cater for all your golfing needs through our online (Click & Collect) site by clicking here.

Shop Deals

We are offering FREE golf ball personalisation on all Titleist and Srixon Golf Balls in time for Christmas. Prices are available from £19.99 per dozen.

Click here to order your Titleist Golf Balls

Click here to order your personalised Srixon Golf Balls

Golf event

Hickory Golf Anyone?

Derek and I were given a couple sets of hickory clubs last week to try out on the course for a few holes. Funnily enough I’ve never actually hit a proper hickory club before and was really looking forward to giving it a try!

We played the 6th, 7th and 8th holes on the New Course and I have to say it was great fun! I was surprised how well you could actually hit the ball when it came out the middle of the club face. However you definitely could tell when you didn't hit the sweet spot and the loss of distance and direction compared to modern day technology was very evident on these shots as you would expect.

We may not manage something in 2017 as we are running out of daylight but we will certainly be looking to add a hickory event into the diary for 2018…watch this space!

Check out a couple of our on course videos to see how we got on.

Click here to watch Hickory Club Testing

Click here to watch me hit a Mashie Niblick!

Tour news

Rare American Tiger Returns from the Wild!

Tiger Woods has announced that he will return to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge at the end of the month.

World number 1, Dustin Johnson believes it will be “good for golf” What do you think?

This will be his first competitive event since February’s Dubai Desert Classic and he will certainly have the worlds eyes casting over him to see if he can be competitive again and whether he can stay healthy and injury free this time around.

Course news

Winter Rules in Play

Winter Rules have now taken effect on the courses. This means that mats are in play from the fairways or if you prefer you can take the ball to the nearest side of the fairway and play the ball from outside of the intermittent red lines which are now visible. Once you pass the blue stakes either side of the fairway (around 20-40 yards from the green) you are ok to play the ball as it lies

We have just received a new stock of winter mats which are available for £9 each.

Competition news

Winter Cup Begins!!

It's that time of year again! This weekend has the first winter competition of the season played over the New Course. There is a £3 entry fee to join the winter cup and then £3 per competition afterwards. We also run a magic 2’s sweep each day and there are weekend prizes as well as the overall prizes at the end of the year.

Click here for a full fixture list and to view the winter cup rules and regulations.

Entertainment

Quiz Nights

Next Thursday we have our 4th quiz night of the season and this week our quiz master is Bill Duncan who will be hosting the night. The first round will commence at 7.30 pm. Come along with some friends and test your quiz knowledge or just use it as an excuse to having a few mid-week beers!!.

9 November - Bill Duncan
23 November - Joe Macleman
7 December - Ian Hamilton
21 December - Pair of Pro's
11 January - Pete McLeod
25 January - John Watson
8 February - Bruce Casburn
22 February - Ian Strong
8 March - John Ellwood

Prize Giving

The 2017 annual prize giving will take place this Friday evening in the clubhouse. Our resident secretary, Stevie Grant will taking to the stage to announce the winners and I look forward to congratulating all of you who are picking up some silverware on the night. The prize giving will commence at 7.30pm.

Race Night

We are running a Race Night on Friday, 17 November at 7.30pm

It would be great to see some of you down at the club supporting the event and I will be there on the night to make sure everything runs smoothly

We will be selling horses in advance at £3 each. Please see us in the shop or the bar if you would like to buy any in advance of the night and remember to give your horse a good name!!

We are also offering members the chance to sponsor a race. We only have 8 races available for sponsoring and all proceeds will go towards our junior golf development fund.

If you would be interested in sponsoring a race, the cost will be £50 and you will be included in our race night brochure, be given a reserved table on the night (if you can attend) along with refreshments and a slot in my newsletter to promote your business.

Click here if you would like to sponsor a race or reserve a table for the night.

Shop opening hours

The new shop hours will be as follows:

Monday - Friday 9.00am - 4.00pm
Saturday & Sunday 8.00am - 4.00pm