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MILLIONAIRE GOLF
During 1991 a professional was appointed to The Club for the first time since 1971. Steve Laidler a well-qualified professional joined us after qualifying as a professional with the P.G.A. in Chesterton Golf and Country Club in Oxfordshire.
It was during this period that the phrase Millionaire Golf was first used in conjunction with Milford Haven Golf Course as the following reproduced article shows.
Steve Laidler held this position until 1995 when he left Milford Haven to take an opening in Germany. As the Club wanted to continue having a resident Professional in attendance proceedings were started to interview candidates for the position. After interviewing a number of candidates David Collings was chosen as the new Professional. David was responsible for the continued progress of the Junior Section, which was going from strength to strength. Unfortunately, due to a nervous illness he was unable to carry on his duties and left The Club in 1998. The position was advertised and a field of 39 candidates applied for the position and the very experienced Jim Lynch was eventually chosen to fill the position.
He started in the position in March of 1999 and appeared to be doing a pretty fair job. However, due to his personal circumstances he resigned his position in December 1999.
Once again the club advertised for a professional and was again inundated with applications. A short list of 12 was made and interviewed. Out of the 12 one candidate stood out and was hired.
Dylan Williams took up the position in March 2000 and it was soon seen that the right choice had been made. He took over all of the bookings and tee times for the club and also became responsible for marketing the club through advertisements and advertising.
It seemed that we had a good professional who would stay with the club for a long time. Alas this proved not to be the case, early in 2002 he and his wife bought a house in Porthcall where he and his wife came from and in December he informed the club that he would be cancelling his contract effective the end of December 2002.
Because of the experiences the club had had with keeping a professional for any period of time the Executive Committee decided to explore the possibility of sharing a professional with another club. Alex Pyle from Haverfordwest Golf Club was contacted with a view to becoming a part time pro at the club. After a series of meetings it became obvious that sharing a professional with another club was not going to be a viable proposition so this idea was abandoned. Luckily Alex Pyle offered to fill the gap until a suitable candidate could be found for the position.
The Executive Committee decided that the club had no option but to advertise once more for another professional. At the time it appeared that the club would be looking for a professional every two to three years in the hope that one of them would like the area enough to make a permanent home in Pembrokeshire.
Again the decision was made to advertise the position nationally which once again resulted in a flood of applications. After looking through all of the applications and interviewing applicants. The best candidate was found to be Martin Stimson who was at that time an assistant professional at Ashburnum Golf Club he was offered and accepted the position.
He filled this position to the satisfaction of the committee and the members for almost three years. However as he had never moved from the llanelly area to Milford Haven the daily commute was taking its toll. Early in 2006 he decided to leave the club and take up the position of professional closer to his home.
The committee decided that enough was enough and asked Alex Pyle the professional from Haverfordwest if he would consider filling the position in addition to his position at Haverfordwest. This was agreed to and Alex set up the shop to be run by his assistant Matthew Hearne and casual shop assistants. Lessons were given by both Alex and Matthew by appointment.
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