SPR Golf Day, 8 September 2022, Letchworth Golf Club

The 2022 SPR Golf day was a brilliantly inclusive day for novices and experienced players alike.

Having had a break for a number of years it was great to see it reintroduced in the calendar this year at Letchworth Golf Club and thankfully we didn't even get too wet!

The day was split between those who played a full round on the Heritage Course, and a group of beginners who hadn't played at all or much before. This was a great way to mix and include the experienced with the novices and introduce more new players to the sport. 5 of the 6 novices were women making it brilliantly diverse too.

The experienced group played a round of 18 holes in teams of 3, led off by Mike Bessell. The course proved an enjoyable and suitably challenging outing for the established golfers.

The best individual was Simon Mallinson with 35 points, ahead of two others on 34.

The team prize (where the best 2 of 3 counted) went to Mark Long, Mike Bessell and Simon Mallinson, thanks to strong individual scores from each.

The longest drive was won by Tom Carruthers.

The nearest the pin was won by… no one, rather embarrassingly…

The novices group, under the instruction of the assistant professional coach, started on the driving range learning to hit it as far as possible (great fun but harder than it looks!). This was followed by sessions on the chipping and putting greens. After grasping the basics they worked in teams to compete again each other in some fun games in each aspect of the game.  After a break for lunch they then got a change to experience a taster of real golf by playing two rounds of the 6 hole par-3 academy course, playing a texas scramble format in teams (going off the best placed ball in their team each shot).  The prize for the most enthusiastic novice went to Lucy Greenwood, who has promised to keep working on her game so watch out next year!

Thanks to Mike Bessell, Paul Stewart and Damian Harrington for making it happen and for Mike's brilliant organising and hosting on the day.

Do look out for the chance to attend next year.

Lucy Greenwood