A Burnham-On-Sea couple are celebrating this week after scooping three accolades at a leading golf awards ceremony.
Nick and Carole Pope – who live in Burnham and are the golf professionals at Wedmore Golf Club – picked up three awards at the annual Pro Shop Europe Awards held at the prestigious Wentworth Golf Club.
The success comes after a difficult year for the duo.
Last November, Carole arrived to find the golf shop unders six inches of water during the major floods that hit the area and this led to a full refurbishment of the shop which included a full refit with new carpets and a custom-built shop reception.
Carole picked up the Runners-Up spot for the second year in a row in the PGA Assistant of the Year but the major successes came with two wins – the PGA Professional of the Year for Nick, and Pro Shop of the Year.
Nick – who was previously manager of Burnham Swimming Pool for 17 years before his current role – said: “Although at the time we were devastated by the floods, especially after the poor season with huge amounts of rainfall, it proves that there is always a silver lining to every cloud as what we have now to welcome our members and visiting golfers is bar far superior to what we had before the flood.”
Carole added: “It was a fantastic night for us and Wedmore Golf Centre – we were thrilled to pick up three of these prestigious awards and were the only Centre to be short listed in three categories and have been told that we received the most nominations of any nominee.”
“These awards mean such a lot to us as we have been nominated by golfers who use our shop and they are judged by a independent panel, it is a great feeling that all the effort we put into providing a first class golf professional shop is recognised and appreciated by our customers. We won’t be resting on our laurels either, we’ve got lots of exciting things in the pipeline to push the shop on through next year where hopefully we’ll be picking up more Pro Shop Europe Awards!”
It’s not the first time that Wedmore Golf Centre has featured in these awards as in 2011 they collected the Runner Up spot in the Pro Shop of the Year category and in 2012 they were celebrating again with a third spot in the Pro Shop of the Year category, a third spot for Nick in the Junior Coach of the Year while Carole scooped the runner-up spot in the PGA Assistant Golf Professional of the Year.
