Good afternoon all,

With spring now fully underway, all the fair weather golfers seem to have appeared all at once, so last week was a very busy week at LPGC.

This week I'm in Le Touquet, France playing in the Cote d'Opale Pro Am with Tim Pitt, James Thompson and Nigel Taylor. Wednesday was day 1 of 4 and all I can say is improvement is required!!

Day 2 was a huge contrast from day 1,  as you can see, we made it onto the podium! A much needed improvement of 14 shots to shoot -10 nett team score, let's hope the next 2 days are similar!

Last weekend was the April Stroke and Lombard Qualifier, the course was running very fast due to the dry and windy week which made scoring very tricky. Clearly not for Alfie Hickman though, who shot a fantastic gross 72, nett 67, to beat Michael Parr 78, nett 70, by three shots and John Williams 83, nett 71, by four. Unfortunately Alfie is unable to play in the Lombard regional final with me as he is under 18 so Michael and I will play at Walton Heath later on in the year, the winners from there play in the Grand final at Gleneagles. Keep practicing Michael!

The juniors also played a medal last weekend, winning the day with nett 68 was Declan Lennox beating Harry Venn on countback. Well played boys.

The Vets played their first game in the Kent knockout after receiving a bye in round 1, drawn away to holders Sheerness. Windy conditions unfortunately favoured the home side and LPGC lost all 3 fourball matches to lose the match 3-0. There's always next year gents...

Rules are rules

Did you see that Edoardo Molinari got DQ'd from the European Tour's Shenzhen International in China on Friday? As disqualifications go this one was pretty bizarre. His caddie hitched a ride on a cart between holes which is a two-stroke penalty for the player, but as the Italian didn't see him do it he ended up signing for the wrong score.

You may not ever find yourself in this exact situation but it's a reminder how extensive the Rules of Golf are. Too extensive? Maybe, but rules are rules and to help you stay out of trouble and even use them to your advantage we'll be bringing you a series of Rules features this season in our newsletters. Keep an eye out for these and remember, next time you have a caddie keep him/her away from carts!

Click here if you have a rules query you need some assistance with.