Andrew March, Brean Golf Club’s head professional has taken up office as the captain of the regional PGA in the South West.

BREAN Golf Club head professional Andrew March took up office as the captain of the regional PGA in the South West of England.

He already combines being chairman of the Gloucestershire and Somerset PGA with his role at Brean and with this honour his duties look to expand a little bit further for the next 12 months.

Thirty-six-year-old March, who lives in Bridgwater with his wife Rachael and their two children Ebony and Logan, is well known in Somerset golfing circles, having represented Enmore Park as an amateur and then completed his PGA qualification at Burnham & Berrow, before moving up the coast to Brean in 2008 where he joined David Haines.

Brean can now boast a PGA board member in Haines and the regional captain in March among their ranks representing them around the South West and beyond.

While serving as captain, March intends to instigate a PGA captain’s charity raising money for CLAPA, the Cleft Lip and Palalte Association. His son was diagnosed with this condition before birth and since his arrival in November of 2013 March has set about raising funds for the organisation.

Along with the regional PGA secretary Glenn Ross, he is organising a charity pro-am at Enmore Park on August 4.

Anyone wishing to find out more details about entry or the various sponsorship opportunities for this event should visit www.teeup4tots.moonfruit.com or contact Andrew directly on 07957 972614.

THE fine weather has led to a flurry of activity at Worlebury Golf Club with players enjoying spring-like conditions.

The first major competition of the men’s season, the RNLI Shield, was held and resulted in narrow victory for 15-handicapper, Paul Marsh, is 44 points pipping Pete Wyatt by one. Three players had 40 points with countback resulting in Dan Bovingdon beating Josh Freeman and Jim Skinner.

The monthly Stableford bucked the trend and was played in wet and windy conditions making scoring difficult. It was pleasing to see that the winner of Division 1 was a relative newcomer to the club, Keith Thomas, who scored 38 points, followed by Philippe Vibert on 37 and Jim Walton on 36.

Division 2 was won by Dave Collard on 38 from Derek Isgrove on 37 and centenary captain Steve Rowlands, on 35. Winning Division 3 on countback was Jack Poole with 39. Dale Rendall was second and Ron Ganfield third with 35.

The sun returned for the annual England v Rest of the World encounter. The Lions led by Pete Nuttall, took on Keri Allchurch’s donkeys, with England winning comfortably.

Andy Nicholls and Bill Denyer went on to beat captain, Paul Gardiner and his partner Graham Hewlett. The heaviest defeat however of 8&6 was inflicted by Bill Stow and Jeff Snook over a hapless Scottish pairing, who wished to remain nameless. A packed clubhouse took delight in seeing Nuttall lift the trophy for the English.

Worlebury has always had a vibrant junior section and in recent times the club has amply demonstrated their commitment to youth.

During the winter, club professional Gary Marks has been putting the club’s more experienced juniors through their paces at the Wolvershill Driving Range.

At the same time, fellow PGA professional Sarah Burnell, who runs the Junior Golf Academy, has just finished an eight-week programme of indoor golf in the clubhouse with both boys and girls of ages ranging from six to 12 years.

Up to 20 children each week over four groups have enjoyed Sarah’s novel approach. The programme has included balance, co-ordination and strength exercises for golf in a fun, interactive format. The youngsters have also played putting and chipping games.

Sarah said: “It has been great to see how the children have improved their skills over the eight weeks and I am following this up with a 10-session outdoor programme, which has just started this month.”

Any youngster interested in joining the academy should contact Sarah for more details on 07725 555970.

More experienced juniors, who are interested in private lessons with Gary, should contact him on 01934 623932, via his page on the club website or by emailing worleburygolfpro@gmail.com

This commitment was further demonstrated by a visit from the Mayor and Mayoress of Weston, Councillor Keith Morris and Mrs Jocelyn Holder, to present the club with a certificate of appreciation for its support in the recent appeal by Weston town councillor, Tony Probert, for local business and organisations to come forward and help finance youth services in the town.

The club has shown its ongoing commitment by pledging a regular monthly amount to the appeal. The Mayor, in a brief speech, thanked the members for their generosity and said it was greatly appreciated in these difficult times Weston’s youth.

Keith Morris and Jocelyn Holder at the presentation ceremony with Worlebury Golf Club captain Paul Gardiner (left) and president Keith Wharton (right).

Photos are of children participating in indoor golf and jpeg is Sarah Burnell

Worlebury Golf Club captain Paul Gardiner presents Paul with the RNLI Shield and Dave picking up his prize.

Paul Marsh receiving RNLI shield from Captain Paul Gardiner

WITH a good field of players, Weston Golf Club ladies held their Texas Scramble on one of the mildest and sunniest days so far this year.

The greenkeepers were at work on the greens, but this did not deter the team of Beryl Robert, Joan Jenkinson and Pat Rowland, who led the field with a score of nett 64, with only a seven-shot allowance.

Runners-up were the captain’s team of Di Walker, Carol Harris and Sue Andow with 67 and in third place were Angela Cook, Di Brown and Cathy Preston.

The monthly club Stableford was held in blustery conditions and threw up some great scores with Glenn Taylor fulfilling his potential with 41 points and winning Division 2. Phil Humphries came in with 38 and Phil Porter with 36.

Ed Stephens won Division 1 with 40 points. Adam Sloan, playing off a one handicap came in two points behind with 38 and Ian Clark scored 37.

The final of three rounds in the Winter League was played in sunshine and Nigel Browne, with an eight-shot lead was favourite for the silverware, but Glenn Taylor finished off a great weekend by scoring 38 points.

The seniors’ Texas Scramble played on a fine spring morning produced some remarkably good scores. Mike Dyer, Ray Chambers, Peter Sedley-Jones and Bob Clarke-Hall came in with 55.4.

Roger Preston, Robin Webb, Trevor Jenkinson and Ian Freeman were not far behind with 56.9 and in third place with 59.1 were the team of Matthew Duffin, Graeme Somerville, Ken Matthews and Mark Frisby.

TREVOR Hicks won the Burnham & Berrow Division 1 Stableford with 36 points.

Playing in bright and breezy conditions, players scored better on the downwind front nine and then had to hang on to their score on the back nine into the wind.

Hicks made it to the turn in level par for 20 points and with 16 points on the back nine, edged out Chris Hill by one. Hill played probably one of the best back nines of the day with 17 points, despite not scoring at the last hole.

Third place went to Martin Plant with 34 points, who beat Geoff Clifford and Jared Poole, also with 34 points after a count back.

Division 2 was also won with 36 points by Phillip Vowles, whose three points at the last hole proved decisive in beating Barry Hall who also scored 36.

The ladies’ Australian Spoons/silver foursomes was won by Jane Moreton and Jane Pitcher, who combined to great effect scoring 35 points and a comfortable six-point margin over this years’ lady captain Donna Robertson and Mandy Vickers, who finished second scoring 29.

THE seniors’ medal at Wedmore resulted in a close finish in Division 1.

Club captain Tom Bennett was a clear winner with 40 points, although by only a single point. He was then followed by four players all with 39. On countback, Martin Easton was runner-up by virtue of the better back nine than Ivor Monelle, Ian Robson and John Viney.

Best score of the day was in Division 2, won by Terry Stew with 41 points. This was one ahead of Tony Metcalfe with Derek Osborn coming third with 36. Division 3 came down to countback with John Taylor just getting the better of Clive Williams, after both had scored 37 points. Richard Sanders was a shot back in third.

As usual, it was cold and wet for the ladies, but there were some good scores in their greensomes. Countback on the back nine was again needed to find the winners.

These were Liz Sims and Caroline Patterson, who played stronger on the back nine than Sue Hughes and Jennifer Kellaway, both finishing with 37 points. This put them one point ahead of Liz Hill and Liz Sims, who finished third.

The ladies lost the second round of the Mail on Sunday event to the home team with only Sue Tarry registering any score.

Wedmore captain Brad Ruddick, who won the club Stableford with 45 points.

UNTIL Jerry Brueford, playing in the last group on the course, returned to the clubhouse, the best score of the large field who contested the March monthly medal at Brean was three nett 67s.

He bettered these efforts by two strokes thanks to some excellent chip shots and took the top spot in Division 2, relegating Pete Barton to second spot. Richard Triscott’s good form continued as he was the top dog in Division 1 with his 67, two strokes clear of Mark Hatfield on 69.

Senior Pat Mullholland won Division 3 with his 67 and he had the biggest winning margin of the day with second placed Mike Smith ending six shots behind the winner. Suzanne Hatfield was the winner of the ladies’ event ahead of Sheila Rouse.

Another large field enjoyed the sunshine in the Loxton Trophy. Russell Shaw and Brian Read enjoyed it more than most as they handed in a betterball medal score of 62 to win by one and take the silverware on offer.

Mo Sanders and Jason Kidley took second spot courtesy of their round of 63, while captain-elect Stuart Wills and Andy Thomas ended up in third place on 64.

Seniors’ captain-elect Bob Hurrell won the March Stableford in difficult conditions. In contrast to the beautiful dry weather of the previous day, steady drizzle and the odd heavy burst of rain made it uncomfortable and as a result Hurrell’s card of 33 points was good enough to take victory.

He edged out his playing partner Colin Roberts by a point as they were the only two players to top 30 points. Bill Griffin was third on 28.

Just 24 hours after taking over as the West Region PGA captain for the year, Brean head professional Andrew March recorded his first win of the Gloucester and Somerset PGA winter season.

His one under par round of 68 at Knowle in Bristol shared top spot along with four others and the result moved him back into the top 10 of the Total Triumph Order of Merit.