Greetings golfers,

Welcome to another edition of your pro shop newsletter bringing you all the latest goings-on at Banchory Golf Club, including my holiday farewell message, an update on the pitchmark debate, a reminder about our upcoming tribute act, and we talk slow play. 

Enjoy the read.

Farewell

Next week Claire and I head off on our annual leave overseas and we leave young Andrew in charge of things here in the Round Room. Andy will be editor in chief of our newsletter and will keep you all up to date with what’s going on – we may brighten up your day with some snapshots from the beach or poolside!

2017 Annual Presentation

This Friday sees the annual presentation of prizewinners with a dinner and prize giving at the Club. We will share some images in next week’s newsletter of the prize winners from Friday.

Pitch marks

The early feedback from our recent initiative on pitch marks has certainly caught the imagination and it would appear that not only are there more conversations around the club on the subject but there appears to be less marks being left untouched – great stuff and let’s keep the good work up.

Is slow play coming to an end?

The Rules of Golf are undergoing dramatic change at the moment as the R&A and USGA – golf’s two governing bodies – look to bring the game inline with today’s needs. Their Rules Modernisation initiative includes several updates that’ll hopefully bring about a faster speed of play and shorter rounds of golf; no one wants to be taking 4+ hours to play 18 holes.

Well now the European Tour want to do their bit and to be fair to them, they’ve been at the forefront of modernising golf with innovative events such as Super 6 and GolfSixes. This week they’ve introduced a new event onto the 2018 calendar – the 2018 Shot Clock Masters. As the name suggests, players will have a strict 40-second shot clock on each stroke in an aim to cut round time by at least 45 minutes. The punishment if they take too long? A one-stroke penalty.

Will it work? Let us know your thoughts.