A wet and windy Friday was the perfect day to welcome Richmond Member of Parliament Mr Rishi Sunak, to Richmond Golf Club to open our newly installed Golf Studio. As Rishi mentioned in his opening remarks, the use of simulation technology to keep practising golf when the outside conditions are awful, is exactly why The Golf Studio is needed.

Rishi and his press secretary Malcolm Warne were warmly welcomed by Bruce Tate (Chairman) and Chris Lamb (Director) and a group of some 30 interested members. After a brief chat in the clubhouse, the rain stopped and it was outside to the Golf Studio so that Rishi could “do the honours” by cutting a large red ribbon and declaring the Studio “open!”. Rishi made some opening remarks commenting on the value of having an indoor practise facility to encourage players to keep playing throughout the winter and also noted that the simulation approach allowing players to “play” many courses from around the world, should also encourage a younger audience that can only be good for the sport of golf. Rishi also highlighted and thanked Sport England for their partial funding of the facility which we at RGC greatly appreciate.

Of course Rishi had to try his hand and after a few words of coaching and encouragement from Dan Hood, Rishi took up a 7-iron. As an ex cricketer, Rishi favoured the off-side (maybe a slice is a better word) though showed signs of a natural swing and great promise.

Then it was off to the clubhouse for tea/coffee and cream scones and cakes for all and a chance for the members to chat to Rishi about golf, politics and life in general.

A great morning event and we at Richmond Golf Club would like to extend our thanks to Rishi and Malcolm for spending some time with us out of their busy schedule.

Now we need to make a success out of the Golf Studio.As we’d expect its busiest time to be during the winter, we have a couple of months to ensure that we all understand how to use it and the the system’s capability. Look out for Dan’s training sessions for “Golf Studio Use” and try and enter some of the competitions we will establish over the winter.