Well as ever the Masters delivered with the first ever male Japanese Major winner, Hideki Matsuyama, claiming the green jacket. His ten under par total was enough to win by one shot from Will Zalatoris.
Hideki’s career has been an interesting journey. A few years ago, the 29 year old rose to number two in the world rankings but since then putting problems had prompted a tumble down the rankings. Ninety-two winless tournaments followed and he was 25th in the world heading into the Masters last week….. but what a way to put an end to that streak!
We had all high hopes for Justin Rose but after his magnificent first round he was always treading water or sliding backwards.
The big winner in the Pro Shop’s Masters Sweepstake was John Book who had Matsuyama and ended up bagging £97.50 of credit to spend. Thanks as always to everyone who entered.
New Recruit
Phil and I were delighted to welcome Will Lord to the Pro Shop team on Monday. He’s a 3 handicapper from Ringway (well you can’t win them all 😉) and turns 19 very shortly. Please pop in and say hello.
Now that the Pro Shop team has grown, we’re be running an experiment for the next 2 or 3 months and will open for seven days per week. Over the last few years we’ve been open six days per week but we’re going to try opening on Sundays until 2pm and see how it works out.
As I’m sure you’ll appreciate for a small business and especially in these Covid times, it has to make sense financially to do so. Consequently I’ll sit down and look at the figures in June or July and see if the shop has made enough profit to cover the staff costs and go from there.
I’m super keen for us to offer you the members the best service possible so please support us and help make the Sunday opening trial a big success.
Rules Reminder
It’s been over two years since the rules of golf modernisation came into operation. Since then we’ve had the new World Handicapping Scheme (WHS) and one or two other huge changes in everyday life. So the lady captain asked me to send her the handout that the Greens Committee created which details the “20 Most Important Changes” to enable her to share it with the ladies section as a bit of a reminder. It struck me as such a good idea that I have piggy backed on her idea and included it in this week’s newsletter. Please click here for a refresher.
Archie Preston
Well done to the 14 person Hale team that beat High Legh Golf Club away in their first match of the season. It comprises of seven matches of mixed foursomes and the overall score was 5:2. The draw for the next round will take pace at the end of April. Interestingly High Legh fielded two juniors, their captain and vice captain, so perhaps we could deepen our selection policy for future matches.
Blossom
Thanks to Jane Perks for sending in this lovely photo of the damson blossom by the fifth tee.
