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.
The weather has finally started to change as we would expect for November!! It may now be months before I see some of the members when they come out of hibernation for the 2016 season!
However there are still plenty of you hardened golfers out there who continue to play over the winter and last weekend saw week 1 of the winter cup competition. We had a good turnout with 51 playing on Saturday and 27 playing on Sunday in the poorer weather conditions.
I have been adding all the scores into the Club Systems software this week as we attempt to utilise the system for the winter league for the first time. This should make things easier in the long run and allow everyone access to the scores and their handicap updates as per the normal golfing season.
We have decided to make a slight change to the individual weekend competitions from the original rules that we sent out. We will now run a separate individual competition on both Saturday and Sunday each week, with payouts on both days for the top 3 players in each division (Scratch - 12 & 13 - 36). The payouts will be decided by the admin staff and may vary depending on the entry on each of the days.
We have decided to run the men's winter cup from the white tees par which is 70 for the New and 71 for the Old, so the Par 5's will all play as 5's regardless of the location of the winter tee. As a result we are giving the ladies an additional courtesy shot on each course which takes their total courtesy shots to 3.
Any questions please feel free to call or pop in and I can hopefully answer your queries!!
This week's results are now available on both notice boards, both websites www.moraygolf.co.uk and www.johnmurraypgapro.co.uk.
Click here to view this week's winter cup results.
Talking about the winter, we will be running a winter package for those of you who are keen on working on your golf over the winter season. You can take 3 x 45 min lessons for the reduced price of £75 which must be taken by the end of March.
If you have been struggling with your game this season, why not come along and have a chat with me about your game? This costs nothing and I'll even throw in a FREE cup of tea or coffee!!
Elsewhere in the world of golf, Scotland's Russell Knox who is a relative local from Inverness joined the world's elite when he won the WGC - HSBC Champions in China.
The 30 year old who is now based in Florida, but hails from Inverness triumphed by 2 shots from a star studded field. He is the first Scotsman to win a WGC event and picked up a cool 1.4 million dollars in the process!! It's always great to see someone from the area have success and hopefully inspire the up and coming juniors in the local area.
Phil Mikelson has dropped long term coach, Butch Harmon this week after 8 years working together. Mickelson says he 'needs to hear new ideas from a different perspective' after struggling with his game since his Open Championship/Scottish Open Double back in 2013.
I have been waiting patiently by the phone all this week. I must have given him the wrong number!
Harmon reportedly charges £1000 per hour for private tuition...I better go and revise my tuition prices for next year!!!
We have been working hard on some new ideas for the 2016 season and hope to have some exciting new events planned for the New Year which are all about having fun on the golf course!!
Win a set of Titleist AP1 Irons for only 1p!!!!!!
We are about to start selling tickets for our Christmas Pro Shop Raffle. The format is the same as last year. You pull out a raffle ticket and whatever the value is on the ticket that's how much you pay! If you pull out number 1, you only pay 1p for the ticket. The most you will pay for a ticket is £5 for number 500 so it's surely worth a go?
We will have the following prizes up for grabs:
1st place - Titleist AP1 Irons 4-PW
2nd place - Titleist 915 Driver
3rd place - Titleist Cart Bag
4th place - SkyCaddie Aire II
5th place - Cleveland Wedge
Note: Prizes can be exchanged but must be used within 60 days and cannot be credited to shop accounts to be used at a later date.
TaylorMade Launch New PSi Irons
This week saw the launch of the new TaylorMade Psi Irons. These new irons have many features of an easy to hit distance iron in face slot & speed slot technology, tungsten weights in the longer irons for easier launch and distance. However they also have a forged construction in the shorter irons and a dynamic feel system for superior sound and feel which appeals to the better player.
These will retail at £699 for 4-pw steel and will be joined by the new PSi Tour which will be available early in 2016.
Anyone wishing to try these can do so as we have a number of iron heads and shafts to suit all players.
Click here to learn more about the PSi irons, or click here to view a video from TaylorMade.
This week's Quiz questions have been supplied by our Mastermind genius, Hamish Cameron.
Hamish can't make the quiz due to revision commitments so the quiz will be delivered by an ex-Captain on the night!
The quiz is on Thursday night and starts at 7.30pm sharp!
Just a reminder for everyone that the current catering hours are as follows:
Monday - Thursday - 11.00am - 5.00pm
Friday - Saturday - 10.00am - 7.00pm
Sunday - 10.00am - 6.00pm
There are some fantastic cakes now available to go with our growing offering of hot drinks. I offered my services to try out the cakes and can say that they are all my favourites!! The bar now also has vanilla, caramel and gingerbread flavoured syrups for any coffee lovers!!
A reminder to members that the catering is available for functions throughout the winter for anyone looking at holding any birthday dinners, Christmas parties etc. Paul our Chef is happy to cater for anything you may need.
They will also be offering a Christmas Menu which will be available from 1st December and all through the month.
George was playing in the Hon. John against Bob. They were all square on the 17th tee with Bob having the honour. Inadvertently when he teed and played his ball he was just ahead of the Tee Markers. As Bob's drive was well down the fairway George immediately required him to cancel the stroke and play from within the teeing ground incurring no penalty. Did Bob retain his honour or was George next to drive?
Bob retained his honour. (Rule 11-4a). But In Stroke play if you play from outside the Teeing Ground there is a 2 stroke penalty.
