Club news

From Gary Walsh, Golf Operations Manager: I hope that you are all safe and well and trust that you are looking forward to getting back out on the golf course. 

As you may appreciate, the beginning of 2021 has not gone to plan: the weather has been shocking and the severity of the restrictions in place are far beyond what any of us could have expected. 

At long last, however, we have had some great news and we can begin to focus on opening on March 29th. 

Booking will be available to all Members within their current booking times meaning 7-day and Corporate Members on GG membership can book from March 8th. 

Flexible and 5-day Members can book from March 15th; 25-34 year-old Intermediate Members can book from March 19th and 18-24 year-old Intermediates can book from March 22nd.

If you would like to change your category to receive longer lead booking times please contact us in the office.

The steps and dates as set out by the government are as follows:

• March 29: The golf club reopens for four-balls and takeaway food and drink;
• April 12th: Outdoor hospitality opens for groups up to six people on the patio and outdoor area;
• May 17th: The clubhouse opens for indoor hospitality for up to six people, 30-person outdoor hospitality and events can start to take place (with limited numbers);
• June 21st: All areas open without restrictions and large events can take place with no limitations.

Please note that these dates are based on the government guidelines and may change.

Elsewhere, we have plenty to look forward to: we are committed to providing our Members with the best possible experience at Mill Green and Get Golfing has continued to live up to its promise to make improvements at the Club. There has been a huge amount of work on both the course and in the clubhouse throughout January and February.

On the golfing front, we have also finalised the schedule for Mill Green’s first “Race to Le Touquet” (see below for more details).

All of the team at Mill Green would like to thank our Members for their continued support. Following the government’s announcement on February 22nd, we now look forward to reopening as soon as possible, and welcoming you all back to the Club.

Clubhouse news

We are now 10 weeks into our refurbishment programme and Site Manager Andy Kavanagh is confident that everything is on schedule and everything should be complete by the end of March. 

Over the last few weeks the team have completely stripped the walls in preparation for the decorators. The areas have been re-wired, plastering the ceilings to repair any damage caused during inspection and rewiring. 

The bar in the old restaurant area has been stripped while the new Players’ Lounge bar has now been built and both are ready to be decorated. 

Work has also started on the function restrooms — the storage areas have been removed and the walls separating the new ladies restrooms have been erected. 

Andy and the team will turn their attention to the bifold doors leading out to the terrace over the coming weeks and will meet with the structural engineer to discuss the removal of the wall which separated the old committee room and the Spike Bar. 

We look forward to providing you with further updates over the coming weeks as the structural work nears completion and the decorators begin their work. 

The Race to Le Touquet

This year we will be running our first “The Race to Le Touquet” where the winners of each section (Men’s and Ladies) receive an invite to Le Touquet at the end of September to play in the Singha Champion of Champions Finals. This is for the winners of each club’s order of merit. The format of each club’s qualifying events is:

• Both Men’s and Ladies’ events are played on the same day.
• Winners of each event at the Club receive prizes supplied by Singha.
• Points are allocated based on where each Member finishes in each event. 
• The number of points rises for each event as the season progresses.
• There are six events between April and September.
• The trip to Le Touquet includes travel, hotels (The 5-star Westminster Hotel), three rounds of golf (Le Touquet and Hardelot), an opening cocktail party, and closing presentation banquet.
• The finalists receive not only the trip but clothing and finalist prizes. The winners of the champions of champions wins an invite to Thailand courtesy of Singha to play golf and entry into an Asia Pro Tour Pro-Am.
• Both trips include, travel, golf and accommodation courtesy of Get Golfing and Singha.  

Historically, Club competitions take place on weekends so that all the different sections — Mens, Ladies and Seniors as well as our 7-day Members who are still working — can join in the fun. Five-day Members are also welcome to play but will have to pay the price of a Member guest green fee.  

Both the Men’s and Ladies competitions take place on the same day with the tee sheet interwoven. This will be followed by a fun prize giving and some special offerings from the kitchen and bar to help bring the day to a close. We would also  encourage Members to invite their partners, who perhaps don’t play, to come along and join in the post-golf fun.

The events are as follows:

• Saturday, April 17th: The Phoenix Trophy
• Sunday, May 16th: The Ascension Medal
• Saturday, June 26th: The Club Championship
• Sunday, July 4th: Independence Day 
• Saturday, August 7th: Summer Cup
• Saturday, September 11th: The Foundation Cup

Members will also have the opportunity to travel as a team to play at Le Touquet against the other Get Golfing Clubs. We will provide further details of this in due course. 

Subscription news

From Edward Richardson, CEO, Get Golfing: As promised in our email back in January, anyone who has continued to stay with us and pay their membership will receive a credit on their subscription for the period of March 1st to March 28th. 

For a full Member, for example, the way this will work is as follows: When your membership comes up for renewal, you will receive a credit equal to the number of days that we are closed in March. This will be calculated by dividing the annual subscription by 365 days and then multiplying it by the number of days we were closed from March 1st. 

This credit will then be placed on your account when you renew and will be used to reduce your monthly direct debits over the next 12 months.

To help us manage this process, it would be greatly appreciated if Members did not pay their subscription all in advance.

Thank you to everyone who has continued to support the Club, we are doing all we can to ensure you have a wonderful Club and course to come back to and one that continues to improve over the coming years. 

PowaKaddy offer

As we approach the new season, we will be replacing our rental trolleys and we would like to offer our members first refusal on our PowaKaddy rental trolleys from 2020, at a special rate of £350. This includes the frame and a 36-hole lithium battery. They were purchased in July 2020 and are in excellent condition. If you are interested, please email [email protected].

Pro shop

Late last year we said that Get Golfing was developing an online replacement to the traditional, club-based pro shop to give Members access to a truly comprehensive range of golf equipment at very keen prices.

From early April, the Get Golfing Pro Shop will be open for business. As you will see from the spread of logos below, we have secured deals with a terrific range of suppliers. 

We will still sell the day-to-day consumables — such as balls, tees and gloves — on site but, in addition, we will now be able to offer you a wider range of products: from golf clubs, bags, shoes and clothing to lasers, logoed apparel and electric trolleys. 

Practically anything you can buy online will be available from our shop.  

The shop is connected to your Club Card, ensuring you receive the appropriate discounts in line with your membership, which are as follows:

The prices shown on the website for each item include your relevant discount. Practically all products offered receive a discount but there are some items where margins are so tight that we may not be able to give the full discount. Do not despair, however, as we are also committed to offering a price-match guarantee — so if the product is not shown or is shown at a price higher than you have seen elsewhere, call us and we will do our best to match or better it. 

One of the significant benefits, apart from pricing, of our website is that we do not charge shipping on any product. Orders received by midnight on a Sunday will be at the Club ready for collection by the following Thursday. 

All items purchased are paid for through your Club Card, so all you have to do is make sure you have sufficient credit on your card via our simple online top-up facility (which can be done at the time of purchase).    

As we know, your Club has had a challenging time with Covid and lockdowns, so please try to support us by using this service and we will use the profits from your purchases to invest in the Club.

Course news

From Andy Copeland, Course Manager: In 17 years working in the golf industry, I’ve never experienced a wetter winter but there is light at the end of the tunnel! Fortunately, with a drier and windier outlook, the golf course has massively firmed and dried up, so much so we have been able to cut areas that have not been mown since October. 

Our plan for the next few weeks will be to use pedestrian aerator and spike bunker banks, collars, approaches and tees. These areas will be fertilised and overseeded just in time for the warmer weather to kick start the growth. We will also be carrying out our spring maintenance plan on the greens, which will consist of solid tining all greens and hollow coring No.s 15, 16 and 17, as well as the putting green and The Romany’s greens. This is purely to give the greens the best start to a busy golfing season ahead.  

We have been working with an irrigation company to reinstall the electrical side of the approach irrigation. This will help maintain good grass coverage heading into and out of the summer months. This has been a massive bugbear for Mill Green over the past few years but, with Get Golfing’s knowledge and financial power, it will drive Mill Green’s golfing experience like we’ve never seen it before.  

With record high rainfall, it has been easy to establish where quick fix drainage can be installed to really help the course drain quicker than ever. 

We have new machines being delivered in March that will help us keep the courses in fine shape in every season. We will have blowers, leaf collectors and utility vehicles, on top of machines that were bought last year, (fairway mower, tees and approach mower and top dresser). 

Can’t wait to see you all back out on the golf course – from me and the team, keep safe and see you soon.

Captain’s update

From Chris Lane, Men’s Captain: Now that the Prime Minister has set out his Road Map, we can look forward to returning to Mill Green on March 29th, although England Golf said it was somewhat disappointed that we have to wait until then.

The good news is that it appears we can return to four-balls as soon as the course reopens. The first competition should be the Spring Meeting on April 10th, book in early.

As we are not having a hard copy diary this year, I urge you to check the diary on the Club website, all of the competitions and matches are detailed, including CBL and Foxes. 

The stroke indices have been changed in readiness for the course changing.

Finally, I hope that you and your families have been safe and well throughout this lockdown. The average age of the membership is such that many of us have had the first vaccination, some of you may have had both.

I am looking forward to meeting up with you all at Mill Green again soon and, in fact, come April 12th enjoying a drink outdoors as well.

Staff news

Get Golfing Apprenticeships: Despite the day-to-day challenges thrown up by Covid and the lockdowns over the past 12 months, you may be interested to learn that Get Golfing has been working to put together a personal development programme for staff. 

This includes engaging with the government’s Kickstart programme to help individuals aged between 18 and 25 to get a foot on the career ladder. 

We will be looking to hire between three to five staff on a six-month contract through this programme to help us on the course and in the clubhouse. 

The goal is to help some of these individuals find long-term jobs and careers within the golf and food and beverage industry and to that end we will also be introducing apprenticeships towards the end of the year. Hopefully some of the Kickstart candidates from earlier in the year will progress onto these apprenticeships.

Get Golfing Internships: Finally, the condition of our golf courses is paramount to benchmarking Get Golfing’s progress and critical to our delivery of that goal is the motivation, education and professionalism of our green staff. 

To encourage their career development, we have launched an internship programme with Pelican’s Nest Golf Club, near Tampa in Florida. Four staff from across our group will benefit from a three-month training and life experience programme with the highly experienced management of this 36-hole, Fazio-designed private Members’ club. Get Golfing will pay all their travel, accommodation and wages during their internship. Applications from staff will be assessed during the third quarter of this year and we will let you know who the lucky beneficiaries are in due course.

Pro news

From Mark Day, PGA Professional: I wrote about goal setting back in November and thought it might be a good time to remind you about it, now that — fingers crossed — we’ll be back playing soon.

Sometimes the theory of goal setting gets in the way of actually doing the goal setting. So, I thought I’d share with you this week a walkthrough practical application of goal setting.

Join me now (if not now then when you have some time). All you need is a pen and paper to start with…

Let’s start by writing a challenge statement: A challenge statement is a call to action that provides a clear, concise goal for you to work towards and helps you understand the aims and terms of the challenge.

Here are some golfing examples:

• I want to break 90 for 18 holes before May 2021;
• I want to play 9 Holes in less than 40 within five weeks of getting back to play;
• I want to drop five shots off my putting average in the first 12 weeks of getting back to golf;
• I want to score average on par 5s below 5.5 within my first 10 rounds back to golf;
• I want to lower my personal best round, at my home club, by two shots in a competition before September 2021.

Take five minutes now to write your challenge statement. Go with your first instincts, trust yourself, you can always change it if you like.

Now think about developing a plan:

• Schedule your games;
• Schedule your practice sessions (off course and on course);
• What resources might you use to help you? (training aids, practice games, game planning, stats app, mobile phone etc);
• What skills will you need to upgrade? Technical, tactical, physical, mental, social;
• Consider nutrition: how will you keep yourself fuelled over 18/9 holes?
• Any new equipment needed? GPS watch, new driver/putter/wedges, download stats app etc;
• How will you track your journey? What will offer me objective information to consider with subjective information? How will I measure my progress?
• Who will support me?
• Take five minutes now to start shaping your plan. Just dump it all down, don’t limit yourself, whatever comes to mind. We can always filter through later.

Why you should write a challenge statement and develop a plan:

Writing a challenge statement and designing a plan allows you to start predicting based on your assumptions. Remember, my assumptions based on my knowledge and experience as a player and coach may be different to your assumptions, so that’s where regular communication is really important.

Writing a challenge statement and designing a plan allows you to be intentional with your actions both on and off the golf course. This helps you focus on what’s important and not get distracted by what’s not. 

Writing a challenge statement and designing a plan will help with feedback as you get curious about what works for you, when and why? The difference between your predicted outcomes and actual outcomes provides a nice space for you to reflect on and continue or adjust your plans accordingly. This is “Performance by Design”.

So as far as I can see, there is only one thing now to do …

NOTE: Be kind to yourself with this. Setting your challenge statement that means shooting your personal best score in competition within a week of getting back may not create the long-term motivational climate to help you play better golf and have more fun.

To celebrate getting out of lockdown I’d like to offer all newsletter subscribers £10 off their first session in 2021

Simply go to my website www.markdaygolf.com and schedule an Adult One-to-One 30-minute or 60-minute lesson using the code WINTERWONDERLAND to instantly get £10 off your first session. 

The code is valid until April 30th, 2021, and I’ll help you set your challenge statement for 2021, design a plan and take those first steps towards playing better golf and having more fun on the course.

From Jack Grogan, PGA Professional: I hope everyone has been keeping well over the last few weeks since we all had the chance to see each other. I know it’s been a very difficult time for many but it looks like the road to normality is being laid out and, hopefully, we will be able to return very soon. 

Watching the last couple of tour events on TV has given me a real bug to get back on the golf course to play and, more importantly, help others improve and get back to enjoying the game that we all love.

Once we return I hope to run some free engagement events to help you shave some shots of your round and continue to improve. Talk to any golfer who hasn’t played for some time and they all agree that it’s the shots around the green and the ‘feel shots’ that are the hardest to get back. I will, therefore, be running three clinics on putting, chipping and pitching.

We will cover posture, technique, ball position and the mechanics of each shot. This will allow you to have a variety of different options and shots to play when you are around the green. They will also allow you to gain a better understanding of how different shots can be played and used efficiently to help reduce your scores.

These one-hour sessions will run from 6pm – 7pm as follows:

•  April 8th: Putting
•  April 15th: Chipping
•  April 22nd: Pitching

Spaces will be limited to eight people per session, so if you would like to take part please get in contact to reserve your space. My email is [email protected] or message me on 07517490792.

If anyone has been thinking about improving their game during lockdown, please don’t hesitate to contact me to discuss individual lessons and plans that we can get in place for you to make 2021 a great year for your game.

Win a Golfbreaks.com break!

Get Golfing partner Golfbreaks.com has teamed up with Mizuno Pairs Tour to provide the chance to win some truly unbelievable prizes when you enter a Golfbreaks UK Pairs Tour event or the Golfbreaks Match Play this summer. 

European Tour, Solheim Cup, Open Qualifier and PGA venues across the UK feature in the schedule at great value prices. 

You and your playing partner are guaranteed a very warm welcome from the Golfbreaks team, a fun day out on the fairways and the opportunity to win a trip at one of the world’s finest golf destinations should you finish top of the leaderboard!

Every winning prize destination across the schedule is of the highest quality. Trips to Dubai, Dominican Republic, Portugal, France & Spain are all up for grabs with PGA TOUR, European Tour and Ryder Cup host courses part of the experience. Golfbreaks says it has gone all out with more than £30,000 worth of prizes to play for across the year and the top five pairs at every event taking home a prize!

Take your pick at Golf Breaks’ great value events below and enter here: