Good day golfers,

We are entering a busy few weeks here at Rochester & Cobham, with competitions coming thick and fast. So I want to start this week by updating you on some recent results and then a few dates for your diary regarding booking in for upcoming events.

Let's start with some recent results…

On Saturday morning we had the "Early Birds" competition, organised by Tony Evans, last year's winner. Tony defended his title bravely but lost out to the narrowest of margins (2points) to new member Keith Mills, pictured below far right, who had a whopping 41pts! I like to think the TaylorMade SLDR driver that Keith borrowed for the round had contributed to his win! Keith now has the honour of organising next year's competition.

Then on Sunday morning we had our "Course Backwards Texas Scramble" with 23 teams competing. With all the confusion first thing about "which tee am I off?" and "how does this work?" I'm amazed nobody got lost out there! But all teams returned a score and the winning team (pictured below right) shot a very impressive 58.6 to win by 0.6 shots!

A few important dates for your diary…

• Saturday 12th April: Monthly Medal (EGU Gold Medal) - There are still spaces available for this weekend. To book please log on to www.howdidido.co.uk or call the pro shop on 01474 823 658. 
• Thursday 17th April: Junior Open - The course will be closed until 2pm. 
• Friday 18th April (Good Friday): Drury Challenge Cup - The list will open this Saturday 12th April at 6:30am. 
• Saturday 19th April: Wood Cup - The list will open this Saturday 12th April at 6:30am. 
• Wednesday 23rd April: Mid Week Medal
• Saturday 26th April: Atkin Challenge Cup - The list will open Saturday 19th April at 6:30am.
• Monday 28th April - Friday 9th May: Flightscope is back! - Keep reading for more details.
• Saturday 10th May: TaylorMade Fitting Day - Keep reading for more details.

The Masters Sweepstake update

With the Masters now underway the annual RCPCG Sweepstake has now closed. This year has seen the biggest entry of all time with an incredible 152 teams and a prize fund of £1520! Quite staggering! I noticed yesterday while entering all the teams on to the computer a certain trend in selections, with Matt Kuchar and Jason Dufner amongst the member's favourites. Outside of our Sweepstake I've had a small bet on Dustin Johnson and Charl Schwartzel to win the coveted Masters jacket.

The Sweepstake leaderboard will be posted on the club website daily. I hope you enjoy the next four days as much as I will and best of luck to everyone that has taken part in this year's Sweepstake, may the best, I mean MY, team win!

Promotions of the week!

Titleist ProV1 Ball personalisation - ONLY 1 WEEK LEFT! Order 3 dozen personalised ProV1 or ProV1X golf balls and Titleist will print you a 4th dozen for FREE! That's £30 per dozen! Click here for more information.

Battery Trade-In - Trade in your old battery for a new lithium and get £25 off with our battery trade in! We are currently putting an order together for this promotion so please phone the pro shop as soon as possible to get your order in. Click here for more information.

Shoe Trade-In - Trade in your old shoes and get up to £20 off a new pair with our shoe trade in! Click here for more information.

Club Logo headcovers

Our eagerly anticipated logoed headcovers and valuables pouches are now in stock! We have driver, fairway, hybrid and putter covers in a variety of colours and styles! Warren has chosen the yellow and red putter cover to match the yellow and red stripes across the headcovers on his woods, and Mike has gone for the "Dancing" putter cover for his bag (seen on the left of the picture).

TaylorMade fitting day!

On Saturday 10th May TaylorMade is coming to Rochester & Cobham for a fitting day. We expect to have our appointment booking sheet available from next week so please make a note for your diary's and make sure you come along! In the meantime to register your interest please contact Warren by email at warren_wood@hotmail.co.uk or pop in to the shop.

Flightscope is back!

Warren has re-acquired Flightscope for a 2 week period starting from Monday 28th April and will be offering the use of Flightscope in all of his lessons, at no extra charge! This is a fantastic opportunity to see the precise feedback from Flightscope that will without doubt enhance your game. Warren found this to be a hugely beneficial piece of equipment with all of his custom fittings so far and an absolutely necessity to give you the ultimate custom fit. We were oversubscribed for lessons and custom fits during March so to try and avoid any disappointment we are trying to give you a little more time to book in advance this time round.

As mentioned above all lessons with Flightscope are at no extra charge however a custom fit with Flightscope will cost £50 for a full fitting, or £25 for a driver, fairway wood or iron fitting. This cost will be discounted off any purchases following your fitting.

Only the brave need apply!

Do you dare to challenge Steve Howard and me in a Captain Pro match? If you think you have what it takes then please take the challenge! We have various dates available, which are listed on the Pro's noticeboard outside the men's changing room, for you to put your names down. We now have our first challengers, John Grace and Bob Davidson, for Wednesday 16th April. Our second challenge, which is yet to be filled, is on Sunday 18th May at 8am.

Halfway Hut

For a trial period on competition Saturday's only, starting this Saturday in the EGU Gold Medal, in an attempt not to delay play, the halfway hut will remain closed. However, in a similar vein to the winter soup, complimentary tea and coffee will be available.

Bank Holiday Mixed Competition

On Monday 21st April we have the Bank Holiday Mixed competition, starting from 1.30pm. Please put your names down on the entry list, located on the "Mixed News" noticeboard between the men's and visitors changing rooms.

Mollie England Update

Mollie Lawrence finished a very creditable 19th last week in the Nations Cup in Ireland. She is away again playing this week and we hope to give you a more detailed report in next week's newsletter.

Junior Coaching Dates Confirmed

The following dates have been confirmed for Junior Coaching during the next 3 months:

Saturday 19th April: 1-2pm 
Saturday 26th April: 1-2pm 
Saturday 3rd May: 1-2pm 
Saturday 17th May: 1-2pm 
Saturday 31st May: 1-2pm 
Saturday 7th June: 1-2pm 
Saturday 14th June: 1-2pm 
Saturday 21st June: 1-2pm 
Saturday 28th June: 1-2pm

All sessions will cost £10 per person. For safety reasons I can only coach a maximum of 8 juniors per session, so spaces will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. Please contact the pro shop on 01474 823 658 to book each individual session. Golf clubs can be provided but please contact us in advance so we can make sure all equipment is available for the day.

BARRY BULLETIN

We are now going to summer tees as of this weekend however we will still be playing winter rules until approximately the end of this month due to divot repair work on the fairways over the next week or so. We are lowering the cut on the greens now the grass is growing more evenly. This should improve the roll of the ball on the putting surface. We hope to get the bunkers in play for this weekend, with the exception of the those on the 1st fairway which will be a little later this month.

Bag tags - Your new personalised membership bag tags are now available for collection from the office.

St George's Dinner - The list is now open behind the bar for the St George's Dinner on Saturday 26th April.