One of the challenges that Luke is taking on as part of his apprenticeship is ‘change’ management.  We have jointly agreed that it would be good for this change programme to not only be good for the club, but also be:

• better for members
• better for the committee
• better for the environment
• raise money for charity in the process

Even though the benefits of the change Luke is suggesting are very obvious; motivating people to change the habits of a lifetime is no easy challenge.

The goal – within 12 months persuade members to enter their scores digitally on their mobile phones as they go round the course, rather than on a piece of card.

He has persuaded the management that:

Members would benefit:

1. by saving time ie fill the card in once digitally rather than twice, once on paper, then once digitally on the terminal
2. less queuing up to use the clubhouse terminal
3. a contingency should the clubhouse terminal go down
4. accurate point scoring, as the system does it for you rather than you having to work it out

Committees would benefit:

1. cards more readable (digital)
2. leader boards easier?
3. other – Luke is investigating potential benefits with the Committee

The environment would benefit:

1. less trees cut down
2. less energy required to print the cards
3. less petrol used delivering them

The charities would benefit:

1. because the club will incentivise the change – Luke has negotiated £100 for the men’s charity and £100 for the ladies charity if he hits key milestones
2. ladies trained on mobile phone card entry after the game rather than using the terminal ie for the ladies, data is entered via a mobile phone not the terminal.  NB Paper cards can still be used as you go round – but 100% conversion from terminal to mobile within 12 weeks – earns the ladies £100 for MNDA
3. ditto for men – 100% conversion within 12 weeks earns £100 for On Course Foundation
4. effectively the terminal becomes redundant apart from emergency / exceptional use

This gets Luke to stage one – everyone can enter scores on their phones and the only habit broken is the more recent one – using a clubhouse terminal.

Stage 2  – direct score entry on your mobile as you go round, rather than double entry – Luke is discussing this with Dick, Sue and the committee and another charitable incentive will be offered by the club.

This is an exciting initiative and is on England Golf’s radar!!

Good luck Luke!!

Please also give a warm welcome to Mia and Amber who are supporting Sarah and Luke in the clubhouse.  Both have made a cracking start and have already made a positive impression with the members!  Mia will be off in June and back in July - she is doing a spot of travelling 🙂

PR GC Captains End of May 2024 Message.

Fellow Members;

I hope you are all enjoying the better, warmer weather that is now with us, and let us hope it continues into the Summer.

Most regular players are well aware of the Competition "cut off" dates, but if you have not already made arrangements to play your adversaries, you only have six days left for the first/preliminary rounds.

The Course is looking in sparkling form, and the majority of people I talk to, are pleased with how it is playing. The management have purchased several new items of machinery including a fairway mower, and this has massively improved the time scale for keeping the fairways short. Many of the greens have been "verticut" and this will pay dividends very shortly. The new apprentice, Tom, began work on the 8th May and I would ask you to say "hello" and make him feel welcome, when the opportunity arises.

As usual, my reminder that we all need to protect our course, by doing the regular things "rake bunkers, replace divots, and repair pitch marks" and of course courtesy to all our greenkeeping team, who are working hard to make our golf as enjoyable as possible.

Results.

April 15th saw a Texas Scramble played between mixed teams from both PRGC and eleven service veterans from my On Course Foundation Charity. The weather held off reasonably well and a really enjoyable day was had by all concerned. We will try and arrange a further date for the vets to come to us again later in the year, and it should be noted that two had travelled from Herefordshire.

April 23rd, St. George's Day, was a great success and Al will be putting it as a regular event on future calendars. We had more than thirty players including several from our Ladies Section who all played a simple stableford, but with only three clubs and a putter!  The overall winner was our Pro Shop Manager Luke Viney with 40 points, closely followed by Melinda Pooley with 39 points. Everyone enjoyed the Roast Beef lunch and it was great to see some former players and members join us for that. And of course a St. George's Flag was flown for the whole day, on the new flag pole.

Mens Away Trip 7th/8th/9th May to Staverton Park Hotel & Golf Club. This away trip had not been held for a number of years, but again turned out to be a great success. Twenty-three male players took part, including four guests from Ayrshire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. This large hotel with over 240 bedrooms was a great venue and guests were able to avail themselves of the spa and swimming pool, as well as the golf. All players were put in mixed teams each day with the results as follows:- Away Week Champion - Pete Smith with 97 points, Runner Up & Guest winner, Simon Stinchcombe with 96 points, Third on count back Mark Stinchcombe with 92 points and fourth on count back Neil Terry with 92 points. There were also daily prize winners and team prize winners and nearest the pin and nearest the pin in two winners. The golf, food and cameraderie were all superb.

Other Results:-

Men's April Stableford - Graham Blackwell with 40 points. Seniors April Monthly Club Stableford - Mike Smith with 39 points.

May Men's Club Stableford - Robert James Curness-Blane with 42 points.

Grandads' Cup - Pete Smith (again!) with 41 points, & the Rocking Horse!

Mike Jefferson Memorial Trophy - bogey competition - Neil Martin with plus 5.

Well done to all our winners.

Future Events.

Friday June 7th - Captains Charity Quiz Night, with questions organised by our very own Al Bowyer. Tickets are now available from Sarah and staff at the bar, Sue Pomeroy and myself. All welcome. Teams of 4, 5 or 6 and ticket cost £17.00 each.

Saturday June 8th - The Club Monthly Stableford.

Tuesday June 11th - Seniors Monthly Club Medal.

Tuesday June 25th - Septugenerians And Octogenerians trophy match. (more details to follow.) Including Lunch.

And both Seniors Friendly matches (Dave Orford) and CBL matches (Steve Sargeant) continue almost every week. With CBL matches in particular Steve has asked me to put out an urgent call for players with an 18 HCP or less to come forward and offer to play; we need twelve players for each match, so please contact Steve directly {svsargeant@aol.com} or through myself.

Please also look on the notice boards in the Men's changing room for further events and up to date details of our board competitions.

Finally a gentle reminder that all your Committee members and organisers are fulfilling these rolls on a voluntary basis and need to be treated with respect and courtesy. A smile and polite chat go a long way!

Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy your golf.

Kind regards

Dick Pooley, Club Captain.

mob. 07785 996511, land 01494 269615, email "richardpooley5@gmail.com"