The BB&O Golf Partnership held it's annual awards night at Harleyford Golf Club on Thursday 26th January. The evening is held for the purpose of thanking everybody involved in the achievements of the partnership during 2011. A number of guests from national governing bodies, county sports partnerships and local sponsors attended the evening to ensure that all contributions and successes were acknowledged. Several of the years winning youngsters also received their trophies and volunteers were presented with County Cards as thank you's.

Mentmore Golf & Country Club was one of only two Bucks clubs within the BB&O to achieve the Golf Mark Accreditation and Sue Lee was at the awards ceremony to represent Mentmore and receive our Golf Mark.

Mentmore's Junior Organiser, Alistair Halliday, would like to thank Chris Leach and Matt Davies for their help in putting the required procedures in place to help gain accreditation and to Andy Pohler for all his help with the Junior Section.

The Management Team and staff at Mentmore are extremely proud of this accreditation and it is a great reward for all the efforts that everyone involved has put into progressing our very successful Junior Section.

Today saw the Greenkeeping staff take delivery of the following equipment to enable them to enhance both our fabulous golf courses which will benefit all:

John Deere 2500A Greens Mower, John Deere 2500E (Hybrid) Greens Mower, Toro 3020 Bunker Bike and a Woodbay Greensiron 3000 (roller)

We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome James Wright (pictured below) to Mentmore Golf & Country Club who has joined our Greenkeeping Department. He is a fully qualified Greenkeeper, bringing a wealth of experience and has settled in extremely quickly after starting his role a couple of weeks ago.

21 year old James comes to Mentmore from Worlebury Golf Club in Weston-Super-Mare, Bristol having worked there for the past 4 years. He studied at Bridgwater College in Somerset where he qualified with NVQ Level 2 in Sports Turf Management along with PA1, PA2 and PA6 (Safe use of Pesticides & Fungicide). James is also qualified in Chainsaw Maintenance, Cross Cutting and Felling.

Away from work James is a keen snowboarder, participates in hot air ballooning as well as "dabbling" with golf and is a fan of Chelsea Football Club.

We are still looking at recruiting a second qualified greenkeeper in the New Year as we continue to invest in our courses.

On 13th December 102 ladies braved the weather conditions to play in the Christmas Texas Scramble on the Rothschild Course.

Many of the ladies made the occasion a very festive one with santa hat's and sparkling earrings to make the day a hugely enjoyable and fun day for all.

The golf competition was played over 9 holes, the front and back 9's, on the Rothschild with the Front 9 winning team made up of Farida Cerosio, Stella Dawes, Janice Jones and Liz Tasker with a combined score of 32.05. Winning the Back 9 with a score of 31.35 were the team of Margaret Atkins, Ann Bridges, Jeanne Cohen and Josie Singer.

The team who one the 'Best Co-ordinated Outfit' were Diane Turner, Shirley Power, Jenny Langford and Pam Watterson.

The ladies enjoyed a delicious meal and the day was rounded off with a sing-a-long of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Lady Captain Christina Mungovan and the Ladies Section of Mentmore Golf & Country Club would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Mentmore Golf & Country Club held the annual Kid's Christmas Party on Sunday 18th December with 28 children attending an afternoon of fun and games.

Their party began Magic Martin performing his brilliant show entertaining the children for 45 minutes before they had a fantastic buffet. After lunch Magic Martin did the second part of his show which included getting come of the parents involved in a variety of games, followed by a dancing competition. The best dancers, one boy and one girl, each received a magic set for their efforts.

Once the dancing and games had finished the children were led to the window in the Rothschild Suite to watch in amazement as Santa came down the driveway in a golf buggy to deliver presents to them all. They sat down in front of Santa in the main foyer as he called each of them out to receive a gift.

With a ring of his bell and a sing-a-long of "We wish you a merry Christmas" the day came to a lovely end.

A bright, cold morning at Mentmore Golf & Country Club welcomed in the new Seniors Captain, Terence Bicker, on Monday 12th December with the annual Seniors' Captain's Drive In.

Terry teed up and promptly drove his ball 172 yards down the fairway to mark the start of his year as Captain. The distance was correctly guessed by three of the Seniors, Ian Plummer, Peter Cochrane and Tony Cain. A great start to his year! General Manager, Clint Moore, presented Terry with a Titleist Cart Bag from the Management Team after Club President David Yorke had welcomed everyone to the day and introduced Terry to the gathered crowd.

Over 60 members and guests played in the 18 hole pairs competition on The Rothschild Course in cold and frosty conditions. The winners were Steve Albright and David Bray with 53 points. Second, third and fourth places all finished on 49 points! After countback, second place went to Ken Brown and Malcolm Dodsworth, third to Bob Walker and Steve Lloyd with Tony Elliott and Barry White ending up in fourth.

After the golf all the players sat down in the Rothschild Suite to a lovely turkey dinner with warm mince pies and coffee which was enjoyed by all.

The new Seniors Captain then made a speech in which he announced that his drive on the first had raised £86 from the Senior Section to the Club Charity, the Variety Club along with a further £150 from the sweep in which members had to guess the weight loss of Terry over a 17 week period. The weight lost was 24lbs and winners of the wine and sleeve of Titleist ProV balls (kindly donated by Graham Buck and Terry) guessing correctly were Clint Moore, Bob Walker and Tom Wareham.

A great day was enjoyed by all who attended and on behalf of everyone at Mentmore Golf & Country Club we would like to wish Terry a great year as Seniors Captain.

On Sunday 27th November Mentmore Golf & Country Club welcomed the new Lady Captain Christina Mungovan and Men's Captain Bob Welfare-Ford at the annual Captain's Drive In. The event was attended by over 80 members, the past Captains, family members and friends.

The Drive In itself was a relief to both Christina and Bob as they watched their drives sail down the middle of the fairway with a combined total yardage of 248 yards, guessed correctly by Roger Gaudoin. It was however an utter disappointment to the baying crowd who were hoping to see one or both miss the ball! The good natured banter was joyful and added, as always, to the atmosphere of the day and the Texas Scramble competition that followed the formalities.

The Captains were presented with their new blazers on the first tee and then General Manager, Clint Moore, presented them each with a new Titleist cart bag on behalf of the Mentmore Staff.

After the golf has finished everyone gathered in the Main Lounge and Christina and Bob took turns to speak before announcing their chosen charity for the year, The Variety Club of Great Britain. Christina introduced Mike Haszko, Deputy Head of Fundraising for the Variety Club, who spoke before a short film about the chairty was shown. The aim of this year's Captain's Charity is to raise enough funds to provide the local community with a Sunshine Coach which will carry the Mentmore logo and benefit a local charity or school.

Both Christina and Bob would like to extend their thanks to everyone who attended the Drive In and congratulate all who won prizes on the day. They also would like to thank Clint, Laurence, Didier, Matt, Brenda and all the team at Mentmore for their support, time and help and look forward to the year ahead.

Team winners on the day were; Front 9 Marilyn & Michael Myatt and Christine & Graham Robinson and on the Back 9 Richard Adamson, Stephanie Howlett, Matt Rolph and Marilyn Bowman.

At this year's Mentmore Club AGM, on Thursday 24th November, a cheque for £16,100 was handed over to this year's Captains' Charity Dreamflight. Throughout 2011, members and visitors of Mentmore Golf & Country Club have been generously donating and playing in a variety of events to raise money for Dreamflight.

The charity, which relies on public donations as well as corporate sponsorship, has been operating since 1987 in which time thousands of disabled and seriously ill children have experienced the trip of a lifetime on a 10 day holiday to Orlando, Florida. Dreamflight takes 192 children aged 8 to 14 to Orlando each year and provides every child with the opportunity to experience life in a different environment whilst making their holiday a never to be forgotten experience. However, this trip comes with a huge financial tag, with annual costs of around £750,000.

The cheque for £16,100 was presented to one of this year's Dreamflight children, 11 year old Kayla Perry from Luton and Dreamflight Founder, and Mentmore member, Pat Pearce MBE, by Club Captain Jon Dymock and Lady Captain Carolyn McKewan.

Kayla was diagnosed with Germ Cell Cancer in August 2010 and underwent 6 months of chemotherapy before being given the all-clear on March 28th this year. After the cheque had been presented, Kayla's mum Jo addressed over 100 members who were present and read out a moving note written by Kayla.

Pat Pearce said "I would like to say a real heartfelt thanks for this wonderful donation of over £16,000. It means such a lot to Dreamflight. I was so pleased that you were able to hear Kayla's words on her thoughts on the trip and what it meant. You have all been so very generous and that money equates to paying for 5 children to have their Dreamflight".

For further details about Dreamflight, or if you would like to make a donation please visit their website www.dreamflight.org

On Sunday 13th November the Captain's Last Fling was held on The Rothschild Course to mark the end of Lady Captain Carolyn McKewan and Men's Captain Jon Dymock's year and their last official event. Fittingly for such an occasion the sun shone all day!

The day was a tremendous success with more than 90 people attending the day including 72 players starting with a shotgun start at 9:30am for the pairs playing for either the Men's Captain or Lady Captain's team.

In the end it was Jon's team winning the overall competition with a total combined score of 684 points to Carolyn's team score of 662. Winners of the Best Pair Score were Braam Slabbert and Matt Davies with 42 points. The Ladies Nearest the Pin winner was Marilyn Bowman and Longest Drive was won by Farida Cerosio. Nearest the Pin in the Men's competition was won by Rob Evans and Men's Longest Drive on the 17th hole was Marthinus Oosthuizen.

Back in the Clubhouse after the golf, the F&B team layed on a fantastic Last Fling Special Menu before both Carolyn and Jon handed out the prizes and said a few words of thanks for their year as Captain's. The traditional handing over of the Captains' Charity cheque will be done at this year's AGM but Carolyn announced that the member's of Mentmore Golf & Country Club had raised in excess of £16,000 for Dreamflight which is an amazing amount of money for such a worthwhile cause. One of this year's Dreamflight children will receive the cheque along with Dreamflight Founder, and Mentmore Member, Pat Pearce on Thursday 24th November. A huge thanks to all for your efforts this year.

On behalf of all at Mentmore Golf & Country Club we would like to congratulate both Carolyn and Jon for a hugely successful and great year as Captain's.

On Friday 21st October the annual Mentmore Staff versus Committee Challenge took place on The Rosebery Course. 12 players representing all areas of the staff competed in the 4BBB competition against the Committee including this year's Men's Captain Jon Dymock, the Ladies Captain Carolyn McKewan and Mentmore Club President David Yorke.

The day was enjoyed by all who played with much banter between the two sides. The staff ran out as winners and taking the trophy back by a point, winning three and a half points to two and a half. Staff Captain Jake Humphrey gladly accepted the trophy from Jon Dymock at the post match lunch and then celebrated by filling it with wine and passing around the victorious team to sip from!

We look forward to next year's competition with the new Staff Captain Stewart O'Neill and his rival Bob Welfare-Ford as Committee Captain.

The Dreamflight Children, all 192 of them, took off on Sunday 16th October for the holiday of a lifetime to Orlando, Florida from Heathrow Airport along with their 200 plus helpers and medical carers.

The children from all over the country started their adventure on the Saturday night at the Renaissance Hotel, Heathrow with a party and disco. they were divided into 12 groups of 16 with such team names as The Simpsons, Donald Duck and various other well know childrens characters. The evening finished with The Welsh Guards Band, complete with Shenkin the Regimental Mascot Goat, entering the ballroom to rapturous applause and excitment. A true spectacle to see!

Sunday morning and the massive operation begins to send the children, without their parents, on their Dreamflight, with BA staff and the Met Police supervising the special departure from a BA Hanger well away from the terminal building. The flight crew were all dressed up to add to the fun along with the Police, enjoying the whole experience as much as the children! Our very own Pat Pearce, founder of Dreamflight, waved to the crowds as she boarded the plane and so began another trip of a lifetime for 192 seriously ill and disabled children to spend 10 magical days of fun and excitement in Florida.

Dreamflight is an amazing charity and one that will benefit from a year of being our Captains' Charity and the fundraising that we here at Mentmore Golf & Country Club have all been involved in during 2011. To see the culmination of all the work goes into making the trip happen and the children who benefit is truly inspiring and something incredibly special to witness.

If you would like to see the children leaving Heathrow on their trip visit:

http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/childrens-dream-flight39525/

Further information on this amazing charity please visit: http://www.dreamflight.org