The Tickenham Divot

Member's Newsletter Jan/Feb/Mar 2008

Happy New Season
Thank you, to all who called in to our ‘Open House’ on Christmas Eve. It was good to see so many of you and share a festive drink!
We welcome you to a new season with our customary subscription request. Again, Standard, Mid Week and Full members with a minimum of 3 full uninterrupted years standing will be rewarded with a loyalty bonus, provided you pay by 1st March 2008.
We really do try to offer value for money. The annual cost of your golf is very much less than at other courses. Full membership was £385 in 1995 - now it is only £475!

Restriction Lifted
Juniors paying the greatly reduced fee will no longer be charged half a green fee to play on Sunday mornings. This now represents even greater value and shows yet again how we support and encourage junior golf at Tickenham.
New - 13 Counties Card
Play most courses in 13 Counties for up to ½ price with a County Card. This has increased incredibly from 6 to 13 Counties in 2008.
Remember, this is your benefit, you cannot have a County Card unless you are a member of an affiliated golf club.
Free - New Rule Book
Please ask us for your free new rule book.
The most important change from 1 Jan 08 concerns hundreds of Drivers which are banned from use because the ‘spring effect’ of the face exceeds the limits of the new rule. This applies to all golfers of all ability and in all forms of competition play.
There are lists of conforming and non conforming clubs at www.randa.org or you may view ours in reception! Please check your driver is legal. If you bought a Ping driver from us, you have nothing to worry about.
The R & A have also clarified some rules and reduced the applicable penalties in certain circumstances.

Tickenham Tigers
Again, in March, for the 7th year, we will be doing our bit to encourage young golfers and award up to two Junior Scholarship Memberships. We take selection seriously. Contenders are from the Tigers taking regular tuition, who complete the application forms.
We look for keen learners who through our help are ready to gain a handicap, enter competitions and really improve their golf.

Masters Junior Demo Day
Our 1st Junior Demo Day will be on Monday 7 April from 3-6pm when there will be lots of Masters Junior equipment available to try free.
You don’t have to be having lessons to try the equipment. All are very welcome, bring your friends.

Turf Update
A very big thank you for understanding the trolley ban during the Winter. This has made a difference and has enabled play at times when other courses have been closed. We have all the Spring work planned and are just waiting for the rain to stop!

St. Saens Trophy
Dates for this years diaries are Monday to Friday 2-6 June. The BBQ, tennis, badminton and boules are again on the Wednesday agenda at Sarah and Andrew’s Gite. Please ask us if you are interested in joining this gastronomic (and golfing) French trip.

Competitions
In In October, Nathan Moore, Marian Crewe, Chris Wise and Steven Wise were winners.
Tony Dyer, Tom Findlay, Maurice White and Steve Tanner were all winners in November.
In December, our youngest member, Nathan Moore was again a Monthly Stroke Play winner. We are pleased to see his handicap reduced.
Brian Crewe would not be out played by Marian, and won on 16th December. The Christmas Yellow (Pink) Ball winning team were Andrea Moore, Di White and Mary Ronayne.
Finally, Don Roper won the End of Year Stableford. Well played.

Holes in One
Steve Tanner joined this exclusive club after a superb shot on the 3rd hole, during a Competition on 24 November playing with Tom Findlay and Damian Govier. Tom chipped in for a 2 and Damian a 3 giving a total score of only 6 for the whole threesome. That’s tough to beat!

Match Play
Justin White beat Mike Donovan 3&2 in the final in the Summer Matchplay - well done. In order to justify the name of the trophy, we really ought to try and complete the matches on time before the winter!
The Winter Foursomes is under way - Remember it’s to be completed this winter.

New Handicaps
Congratulations to Alex Paul and Mark Webber for achieving handicaps.

Competition winnings
To remind you - All competition winnings from 2007 need to be spent by the end of Feb 08.

Excerpts from Newsletter Oct/Nov/Dec 2007

Excerpts from Member's Newsletter Jan/Feb/Mar 2007

Excerpts from Member's News  Apr/May/Jun 2005

Staff profile
Frazer Amey is the 6' 5" giant from Kent. He attended University in North Carolina and Merrist Wood where he gained an HND in golf studies. He has worked at Saffron Walden, Crews Hill and most recently at Long Ashton and The Kendleshire. He turned Pro in 1999 and qualified in 2004. His teaching experience has included groups in schools using the Golf Foundation Scheme, which will be very useful for expanding the 'Tickenham Tigers'!


Excerpts from Member's News  Apr/May/Jun 2004

Welcome back!
It is not wholly appropriate that I should liken myself to Richard the Lionheart or Alexander the Great, but I am going to nonetheless.
I have made it a personal crusade to convince you the time is right to come back to Tickenham. From my position, here in the ramparts of Nailsea, I have been advised to give up and leave you to scavenge for golf among the savage competitors. As a man of principal I just cannot do that.
It is a personal kick in the teeth that I may have lost you as a customer. It just doesn’t seem right. If we let you down on service then we should be bending over backwards to put it right. If we let you down on quality then we should be investigating every blade of grass. If we have done nothing wrong then we should be keeping you on our database.
We announce an improved membership structure to enable you to compare our fees directly with other clubs. Subscriptions have been reduced by £40 across the board.
Making direct comparisons, golf at Tickenham really is tremendous value.
Give us another chance to welcome you back to Tickenham.
Maurice

Excerpts from Member's News  Jul/Aug/Sep

Sarah wins top award
Sarah Jarrett, Nicola Lawrenson and Katie Huffman finished first, third and fifth, respectively, in the latest crop of graduates from the Professional Golfers Association European Centre of Excellence and that even though there were only eight women all told among the 200 students.
Awards were presented at the Belfry. Sarah, who worked as a freelance computer programmer for 10 years before she turned professional back in 1997, collected the coveted Whitcombe Cox Trophy along with a £3,500 cash prize for the Titleist Trainee of the Year.
Sarah suspects that the female graduates' results owe most "to our determination to succeed in a male environment".
Teaching golf was what Sarah always longed to do during years spent staring at a computer, but she has come away from the PGA's three year course well versed in other areas such as retail business, equipment technology, repairs, rules, tournament organisation, golf psychology and sports science (as well as playing!)
She has spent the last few years at Tickenham under Andrew’s guidance and has fulfilled her ambition to teach the game.
Away from the women, the most eye-catching result on the training course belonged to Malcolm Edmunds, 58, from Cornwall, who finished sixth. In Edmunds' case, the PGA decided to drop their upper age limit in order to give this former officer in the Royal Navy the chance of the second career of his dreams.
AWARD WINNERS.- Trainee of the Year: 1, S Jarrett (Tickenham GC) £3,500; 2, R Adby (Newcastle-under-Lyme) £2,500; 3, N Lawrenson (Emirates Dubai) £1,500.



Excerpts from Member's News  Nov/Dec  2000

Staff Profiles
Who and what is Andrew Sutcliffe? Landlord to the Club? Boss to the staff? Familiar figure on the course and behind a counter? I asked him plenty of questions and made pagefuls of notes but came away with one major impression. He may be all of the above and more, but first and foremost he’s a professional golfer. Not that he plays much nowadays, since having surgery twice for a back injury, but his life revolves around Tickenham Golf and he still enjoys the occasional game. What’s more his standards are very high, for the club as well as for himself, so watch out if you fall below them! I can’t begin to imagine fitting punishments for golfing crimes – hours stuck in a bunker perhaps?

Andrew remembers watching golf on television when he was ten, being taken to play with his father and beating him (which may not have gone down too well!). He joined a club and acquired his first handicap straight away, and from then on took the game so seriously he spent all his spare time (and some of his not so spare time) practising for what was obviously going to be his future career. The winters were spent financing his golf in unusual ways like making eccles cakes, selling cars and footwear!

A long amateur career at county and national level included all the top events. He even played in the French and Irish Opens while still an amateur. By 1979, he was down to scratch and by 1980 had turned professional and gained his card at the European Tour School at the first attempt. He spent three winters on the South African circuit and three years full time on the European Tour, but back problems restricted his career.

So now he was looking for something else to do in golf. He found it in France. In Normandy, where he redesigned the beautiful and idyllic golf course at St. Säens, He then stayed on to see it built, organise contractors and market the business. He tells me his pupils included the Rouen professional Ice Hockey team, which should have been an interesting experience, given the slight difference in footwork!

Building courses for other people was all very well, but his ambition now was to own his own course and business – so back he came to the UK to look for land. And here it was, in Tickenham – which may sound simple, but wasn’t because he had an uphill struggle with the Council and Planners at every stage. Tickenham Golf graduated from a driving range and potting shed in 1992 to the course and clubhouse (opened in 1994 and 1996). Three holes were lengthened last year and the clubhouse extended this year. So the business has grown and (we are happy to say) facilities for the Members have improved year by year.

But what of Andrew himself? Over and above being a professional golfer and a member of the highly prestigious Professional Golfers Architects Association (involving designing and building courses to a particular standard). He flies airplanes, likes to drive fast cars and drove rally cars for two years, likes wine and cooking (preferably both at the same time) and once or twice a year goes salmon fishing. And he keeps bees. He told me about queens and drones and swarms, but I have to admit the image of him halted at traffic lights in his Porsche, enveloped from head to toe in Martian-style bee-keeping outfit, with a swarm in a cardboard box struck me as a little eccentric!

Although he does little teaching himself these days, his advice is always available and he aims always to provide the best. The best teaching, the best kept course, the best service and the best staff (who sometimes find it hard to live up to him). Not a bad vision for a man with an injured back who has come a long way in a short time! If progress continues at this rate Somerset’s "hidden gem" won’t be hidden any longer. Mary