Greetings

What a weekend we all had here at East Kilbride Golf Club. The 50th Club Championship at Nerston gave us a day and night to remember, as well as a Champion to be proud of.

Club Championship

The golf was absolutely outstanding and it took a play off to separate two magnificent golfers. One had youth on his side and the other had years of experience. After two rounds nothing could seperate “Keiran McVicar” and “Kenny Gallacher”. Into a fierce wind Kenny made a text book birdie 4 on the 36th hole to tie Kieran who was already in the clubhouse with a score of 3 under par.

A sizeble gallery joined the players for the 4 hole play-off which went right down to the wire. Both players had putts for birdie on the final hole, when Kieran missed Kenny “The Silver Fox" was left to hole from 10 feet, so becoming Champion for a seventh time, equaling the record of "John Currie". Kenny has had a fantastic last few years of golf capturing a Scottish title last year as well. He is without doubt one of the greatest golfers to grace the hallowed turf of East Kilbride.

Kieran’s golf was truly epic and he has grown and matured as a player in the last year, I am so proud of him. His awesome power makes him a very intimidating golfer to come up against and the complements about his play on the day from his playing partners were overflowing. Speaking of overflowing, the Championship Party Night was brilliant with a mix of young and old members dancing the night away. Kenny is now known as “The Prince of Prosecco” as he filled his trophy with the best Prosecco, well the one that was on special!

These nights and days don't just happen and there are many people to thank. During the day “Alex Fraser” and his band of assistants made sure the scoring, cards and scoreboards were up to date, so thank you to them. Past Captain “Alastair Renny” and “Gordon Russell” were very much instrumental in getting the band and night on track, get it? Instrumental? Anyway they did a great job. And our very own “Anne Roulston” has spent so much time this year trying to make our club social activities so much better and do you know what? She has! I personally want to thank her for going that extra yard to make sure we all enjoy our nights at the club. Excellent work!

The bar staff supplied us all with discounted drink and had to listen to our mumbling, so thanks to them. And the man in white, Brian for his buffet!

Course Manager, "Brian Bolland", and his team along with our greens convenor “John Friel” put in a lot of hard work last week getting the greens back after the essential aeration work that was carried out.

Lastly, thank you to all the players and the members who supported the day, without you all the day just wouldn't have the same impact.

All in all it was a great Saturday at the Club and many have said that the “Glory Years” are back so here’s hoping. We have a great club and great members, let’s work hard in the coming years to make it the most sought after club in the area. I'm already looking forward to next year's Championship, will Kenny win again or can someone wrestle the prize away from him? The only way to find out is to be there on Saturday, 11 August 2018.


Ladies and Junior Championships

A big good luck to all the competitors in this weekend’s Ladies and Junior Championships. We have some great players playing and fingers crossed for some great weather. I will be up to spectate and take some snaps, so be prepared!!

PowaKaddy Promotion

This is a cracking promotion from PowaKaddy this year and comes at a time where the PowaKaddy brand is stronger than ever. The manufacturing quality of these machines is second to none and the PowaKaddy Freeway FW7S is their flagship model.

With every FW7S purchase you will be able to claim a FREE golf bag from PowaKaddy. You can chose from a waterproof one RRP £209 or a Premium PVC bag RRP £199 (While stock lasts). So please drop me a line to secure yours now!

A Week in the Life of Your Golf Pro

I think you will all have probably guessed that I do love my job and hopefully you will all know that I spend a lot of time trying to provide you all with the best golfing services around. I know every single one of your names and try to learn a few things about you all individually. Why? Because I genuinely want to help and make your experience as a member or visitor a good one.

If you play on a Sunday then I won't see much of you because that's my day off to spend with my family. My wife works Monday- Friday and I work a Saturday so Sunday is our family day. I think sometimes when people see you enjoying your work then they may think that it's easy and I can tell you that it is a very time consuming job. It’s 11.37pm on Tuesday evening and I am writing this, I am enjoying it though, hopefully you will, please!!

With my recent joint venture with the club, the Golf Lab, I have been spending a lot of time in there to make sure that it is successful. This is the only way at the moment that I can show golfers how good the room is and basically pay back our investment. I love standing at the counter exchanging banter and finding out about what’s been happening with you all but at the moment I am going to have to spend less time doing this. I will always have time for every single person at the club and if you need me and don’t see me, then contact me via email or leave a message with my staff.

A few weeks ago someone innocently said “You’re never here!” and this is a common thing said to golf pros over the years. Some golf pros may spend very little time at the club and I can understand how some people may actually think this if they don't see me in the front shop. So I decided to keep a simple diary the next week to see exactly how much time I do spend at the club and how much time I work at home. So here you are:

“A Week in The Life Of Graeme Bell”

Monday, 31 July:

9am-1pm - Lessons & custom fitting
1pm-1.30pm - Returning emails to customers
1.30-6.15 pm - Lessons & custom fitting
6.15- 7.30 pm - Cover shop whilst member practices in lab

Home at 8pm

9-11.30pm - Returning emails


Tuesday, 1 August:

8am - Open shop
8.30-11am - Paperwork
11am-6.30pm - Lessons & custom fitting

Home at 7pm

9-12pm - Write newsletter and return emails

Wednesday, 2 August: Medal Day (flying solo - Stuart is away competing)

Shop opens at 7.30am

7.30am-4.30pm - Check golfers into the medal
4.30pm-6.30pm - Re-stock shop after busy day

Home for 7pm

9-10pm - Catch up on customer orders, chase suppliers and deal with issues for customers.

Thursday, 3 August:

8am-12pm - Shop work & repairing clubs
12pm-3pm - Lessons
3pm-6.30pm - Shop work & repairing clubs
6.45-8pm - Club fitting

Home at 8pm

9-10.30pm - Preparing for our PING G400 launch day on Saturday

Friday, 4 August:

8am-9am - Tidy up and restock shop
9am-2pm - Lessons
2pm-5pm - Club fitting
5pm-6.30pm - Shop work

Home for 7pm

9-11pm - Returning emails, doing club quotes and answering members questions

Saturday, 5 August: Medal Day & G400 member’s trial in lab

Open shop at 6.30am

6.30am-3.30pm - Check members into competition & show members how their drivers measure up to the new PING G400 in the lab.

The end of my working week, it’s been very busy!

At the club for 64.5 hours, worked at home for 10 hours.

This was a typical week for me during the summer and a lot of hours.