Bowood gets a new look behind the scenes

Bowood Golf & Country Club will stage the PGA Pro-Captain Challenge West qualifying event after a year of change behind the scenes.

The Wiltshire club’s captain Graeme Wearne will partner PGA professional Ben Emerson for the competition on September 26.

Emerson took over as Bowood’s new director of golf this year and the club, which was only formed in 1992, seeks to raise its profile.

The pair will be aiming to triumph on home turf as they look to book a trip to Spain for the £22,000 final, staged in association with Golfplan, which takes place between November 6-7 at Arabella Golf Mallorca.

‘We’ve staged this event quite a few times now and it should be a great day,” said six handicapper Wearn, who lives in Derry Hill, next to the course.

“I’m looking forward to playing alongside Ben who became our new director of golf earlier this year, and it’s also the first PGA Pro-Captain event he’s hosted here.

“There’s even a re-jig here in the space of the last year, we’ve got a new general manager in along with Ben, there’s been quite lot of change and that’s really good.

“It’s bringing some fresh life into the club, not that we had problems before, but we’re only 26 years old and change can have its positives. This year we’ve been able to experiment with some new things, we’ve got night golf happening for the first time next month when the evenings get darker.

“There a new bits and pieces which seem to have gone down well, there are more social events and it’s a case of us being a big club but at the same time, we don’t seem that well known.

“It’s about doing things differently in terms of participation.”

Wearn says that, at 38, he is one of the club’s younger Captains.

“I haven’t been playing golf all that long in truth, I’ve been a member at Bowood for nine years, I was a later starter,” said Wearn, who works in the defence sector.

“I’ve had a couple of comments when I’ve pulled into the Captain’s car park space at the club. They’ve said: ‘You do know that’s the Captain’s space don’t you?’. I take it as a compliment.”

Other teams from Wales and the West due to play in the event at Bowood include: Martin Stimson/Simon Gravelle (Ashburnham Golf Club); Sion Bebb/Colin Butler (Morais Castle Golf Club); Alun Evans/Irwyn Wilcox (Newport Links Golf Club); Martyn Thompson/John Warner (Parkstone Golf Club); Mark Brookes/Stever Went (Players Golf Club); and Richard O’Hanlon/Andy Jones (St Kew Golf Club).

For more information on the event at Bowood, click here.

For more information on the PGA Pro-Captain Challenge, click here.