Well done to Sheffield’s Matt Fitzpatrick for winning the US Open on Sunday. I’ve always admired his deft touching on the putting greens but it was his superlative long game skills that came to the fore on the last day. He joins Justin Rose and Tony Jacklin as the only English winners since Cyril Walker in 1924. The event was played at Brookline GC, where he won the US Amateur in 2013.

Back here at Hale, we have ladies competitions coming up on Thursday, a Nine and Dine event on Friday and the men’s Medal 4 is taking place on Friday & Saturday. Plus the Pro Shop Open Sweepstake has just commenced….

And below we seem to have more results than ever so please enjoy the read.

Open Sweepstake 2022

The end of the US Open has paved the way for the start of the Pro Shop Open sweepstake 🙂 There are 156 spaces and the price is £5 for one go or £10 for three goes. Prizes will be allocated to 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd overall plus the best and worst score on each day. Please call into the shop to take part or just reply to this email.

Ping Mixed 4BBB

Well done to the Bryants, Joanne & Graham, for winning Sunday’s Ping fourball betterball competition with a great score of 45 points. Phil Long & Kerry Bailey were second with 42 points. As did Tiff Fielden & Bob Cooke but they were beaten into third place following a card play off.

Granny Cup & Nine Hole Stableford

Sally Budd won the granny Cup last week with a fine 18 hole stableford score of 41 points. Tracey Thompson were second and third respectively with 37 points.

Emma Daynes won the front nine stableford with 21 points. Four players then shared 17 points but it was Judy Anderson who finished in second place following the card play off.

New Ladies Clothing Range

Calling all golfing ladies! The whole ladies clothing range was updated on Saturday so please pop into have a look at the fresh new colours.

R&A Nine Hole Challenge

The top eight pairs from England in the R&A nine hole challenge are invited to play in the final at St Andrew’s on Friday 8th July along with another twelve qualifying pairs from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia & New Zealand. Ann Coulson and Sally Wright were among the eight pairs from England to qualify. This is a tremendous achievement and we wish them all well for the event in July.

Sandiford 

Congratulations Michael Wells & David Cockbain who were the winners of the men’s winter foursomes knockout, the Sandiford . They beat John Gower-Jones & Peter Veitch in the final.

Mawson Trophy

Well done to Jim Nicholson for winning the Mawson trophy with a nett 44  over eight rounds. Lee Bramley was second with a nett 44 over sixteen rounds. This competition os for the best nett score on each hole in all men’s 18 hole qualifying WHS competitions, from the Blue Tees. Jim won on countback as he had done the same score but in fewer rounds.

Senior Stableford 3

Well done to Tony Sampson for winning this event last Wednesday with a 19 points over the front nine. Lee Bramley scored the same but was beaten on a card play off. Roger Mattocks finished third with 18 points.

Junior Stableford

Well done to Matthew Hodder for winning Saturday’s front nine hole stableford. Commiserations to jack Hickson who had the same score but was beaten on countback.

What a fantastic win for Sweden’s Linn Grant at the weekend. She won the Scandinavian Mixed and in doing so became the first ever female winner on the DP World Tour. She was 24 under and so won by a whopping 9 shots.

Back at Hale, there is a Nine & Dine evening taking place on Friday 24th June. If you would like to play or find out more information, please contact Lynette Lodge or John Moss who are organising this event.

Medal 4

It was a log jam at the top of the leaderboard for last weekend’s men’s Medal 4 with three players sharing the score of 38 points. Gary Beal finished on top after a card play off, Phil Long was runner and Roger Lamb was third. Guy Levers and John Webb finished in joint 4th spot with nett 69s. Brian Greenbank recorded the lowest gross of the competition with a 77. Brian and Nick Horrocks each recorded two twos.

I was delighted to see those results as Gary Beal has been having some coaching with me and working really hard on his game. And Phil Long has recently purchased some new irons from the Pro Shop. Well done gentlemen!

Jubilee Summer Meeting

Congratulations to Mandy Gilbert, Kerry Gill, Anne Webster & Kathleen McNairney for winning this shotgun start team event last Thursday with 72 points. Corinne Veitch, Judy Anderson, Gillian Brogdon & Ceri Hyde finished in second place with 67 points. The golf was followed by lunch so a fun day was had by all.

SALE

There are just 6 days left to buy any hardware in the shop and get 10% off. This includes Ping G425 drivers & hybrids, Callaway Rogue ST drivers and fairways plus Odyssey and Ping putters. Many of these clubs are the most up to date models which are full to the brim with technology to make the game easier and more fun.

Jubilee Photos

Thanks to Tracey Thompson and Roger Sheen for supplying me with some more photos from the club’s Jubilee celebrations. It’s good to see the Queen herself dropped in to keep a close eye on ex gentleman captain Johnny Yates!

Rainbows

Thanks to Anne Webster for this montage of photos of a rainbow over the golf course as her knockout match progressed.

Well I hope you all had a great double bank holiday last week. The Booth family and intimidating hound headed to Norfolk for a week’s holiday which was great fun. If you got away, I hope you had a wonderful time too.

In other news, the word is that I have been tempted away from HGC by the Saudi funded LIV Golf Invitational series. I want to dispel those rumours immediately and explain that my moral compass is such that I will not be lured away from club life to play competitive golf for vast sums of money.

Right so now that’s cleared up we can get on with the important task of telling you what’s coming up in this week’s newsletter. We have the results from last week’s frolic, spaces in July’s Ping demo day and news of a tremendous hardware promotion which is running until the end of June. Enjoy!

A Right Royal Frolic

Congratulations to Min & Andrew Fishwick and Freda & Ian Hunt for winning the the Right Royal Frolic last Thursday with 48 points. It was tight at the top as second place went to Vicky Chamberlain, Roger Sheen, Tiff Fielden and Bob Cooke who were only one point adrift. Ceri & Adam Hyde and Barbara & Robert Spark also scored 47 points but were beaten into third place after a card play off. Ben Fallows won the Nearest the Pin prize.

Thanks to Sue Bryant for the brilliant photos capturing the scene – it certainly looks like everyone had a great day.

Mid Season Hardware Sale

Until the 21st June, we are offering a 10% discount on all hardware that is in stock. This is a great deal as we price our clubs very competitively anyway. We have the current crop of mens drivers, woods and hybrids from Ping and Callaway plus putters from Odyssey and Ping. This is a great opportunity to buy products at tremendous value so don’t miss out.

Remember though this is a promotion to encourage the sell through of stock and so is not available on items that need to be ordered in. We can still get you those for you at great prices but they won’t have the extra 10% off.

Ping Demo Day

There are still 2 spaces left for the Ping demo day which is taking place on Tuesday 19th July. The available slots are at 1300 and 1340 so contact me to reserve your fitting.

Shotscope

I’m interested to hear from anyone who owns a ShotScope golf tracking device. I’m familiar with Arccos but would like to know more about ShotScope. If you own one, please get in touch to give me your views on it. Thank you.

Just a quick results round up this week before the upcoming double bank holiday. Well done to all the winners.

Gentleman Captain’s Prize

Well done to the hard working Chair of Greens Brian Greenbank for winning the Captain’s Prize on Saturday with 39 points. Second place went to Andrew Fishwick with 36 points. John Kennedy also scored 36 points but was beaten into third place after a card play off.

Peter Hindle was the winner of the Longest Drive on the 14th and also the Nearest the Pin in two shots on the 18th hole.

May Ashton Trophy

Congratulations to Terri Broadbent for winning the May Ashton trophy with a fine nett 69. Rosie Gerrard was just one shot adrift to secure second spot. Diana Harris was third with a nett 72.

In the back nine Max medal, Mandy Gilbert shot a nett 33 which shows that she is well and truly on the road to recovery. Lucy Daynes was second with a nett 37.

Well done to Justin Thomas for winning his second major, the USPGA Championship, after beating Will Zalatoris in a play off on Sunday. It was a strange week with variable weather conditions. Chilean Mito Pereira and Sheffield’s Matt Fitzpatrick both had their chances to win but ultimately weren’t able to take them.

Back home at Hale, there have been some great competition scores which we take a look at below. Plus photos from the Lady Captain’s Away day and a free offer from Arccos that I wanted to share with you. Enjoy the read!

Medal 3

The scoring was superb for Medal 3 with 13 nett scores in the 60s. Bill Dixon was the winner with a gross 79 for a nett 61. This has ensured his handicap has now tumbled to 15.3 so well done Bill. Fancy shooting a nett 64 and not winning? That was the case for poor Simon Wallwork who finished in second place. Third place went to gentleman captain David Wainwright with a fine 65. Fourteen twos were recorded.

Coronation Foursomes

Congratulations to Mary Cockbain and Min Fishwick for winning the Coronation Foursomes last week with an excellent 39 points. The runners up spot went to Sally Wright and Diana Harris with 36 points.

Kerry Gill was the winner of the nine hole stableford with 17 points. Judy Pinnington finished in second place with 15 points.

Ping Club Owners Offer

I was sent this information from Ping in an email the other day. It looks like a great deal and a fantastic way to help you improve your golf so I wanted to share it with you.

Receive a free set of Arccos Smart Sensors and a 45 day free trial to the Arccos Caddie App if you own any Ping golf clubs.

Click here to find out more.

Ladies Captain’s Away Day

Thanks to Sue Bryant for sending in these photos form the recent Lady Captain’s Away Day. The main image shows Irene Kirk, lady captain Judy Pinnington, Min Fishwick and Amanda Greaves who won the 18 hole competition. The slightly smaller photo in the gallery shows Jean Green, Sue Martin, Judy and Amanda Gilbert who won the 11 hole competition.

In this missive, we have news of the ladies competitions from last week.

In junior news, Hector Neary won the Adult Junior competition on Friday and then on Sunday we hosted the Mid Cheshire Junior League (MCJL) for the very first time.

Ladies 18 hole Par & Back 9 Stableford

Well done to Diana Harris for winning last week’s Par competition with a great score of two up. Vanessa veitch was second with her score of one up.

In the nine hole comp, Jean Green was the winner with 19 points beating Emma Daynes via a card play off. Special mention to Sally-Anne Heaford for recording a great score in her first competition.

MCJL at HGC

Hale are part of the MCJL as of this year. We are in the Gleneagles league with Delamere Forest, Warrington, Bramhall & Styal golf clubs. The format is that each club hosts over the season and the team that finishes on top of the league then goes into knockout stages with the winners of the other leagues.

So on Sunday, 23 juniors played at Hale. The lowest handicapper was a plus 3 and the highest was 28 so the standard was good. Styal were the winners with their best three stableford scores from five on the day being 40, 38 and 35 for a total of 113. Warrington were second with 106 and Hale finished in fourth spot with 100. Dan Turkington, our junior captain, submitted a very creditable 36 points in tricky conditions. So it was a solid start for us considering it was our first outing. We go to Delamere on Saturday which will be a treat for our players.

Thanks to the volunteers who started, ball spotted and helped out on the day and made things run so smoothly. They were Peter Hindle, Phil Hickson, Phil Long, Bob Siddle, Pete Turkington and Ben Fallows.

Adult Junior 2

Well done to Hector & Bruce Neary for recording an excellent score of 22 points to win last Friday’s competition on a beautiful evening. The Mills brothers, Olly & Alex, were just one point adrift in second place.

The next competition dates are:

Friday 17th June	Tee times from 1730
Friday 29th July	Tee times from 1730
Friday 9th September	Tee times from 1710
Sunday 6th November	End of Season Junior Awards golf, dinner & presentation

I’ve heard so many comments recently about the quality of the course at the moment and having been out there myself a couple of times recently I can see why. The condition really is first class and so the greens team of Russel, Dave and Phil should be very proud of themselves.

This week, we have more results, news of a Ping demo day here at HGC in July and a plug for the Nine & Dine which is taking place on Friday 20th May. The format is pairs betterball stableford. Please contact Peter or Vanessa Veitch if you would like to play.

Ping Demo Day

I’m thrilled to announce that we have secured another visit from an experienced Ping club fitter. It’s taking place on Tuesday 19th July with slots between 1100 and 1500. Please let me know if you would like to book an appointment. There’s no obligation to buy but please only book in if you are serious about making a purchase as spaces are limited.

Medal 2

Congratulations to Alex Mills for shooting an excellent nett 65 to win Medal 2 on Saturday. Alex has had lessons with me and so I’m hoping my input has helped. Paul Simpson finished one shot back in second place but scored the best gross of the competition with 74. Bob Siddle also recorded a nett 66 (the same as Paul) but was beaten into third place on count back.

There were plenty of twos with fifteen being recorded and three players even had two twos!

Ladies Competitions

Well done to Jo Bryant for winning what i think is her first 18 hole competition last week. She scored an excellent 40 points to finish in pole position. Min Fishwick was two points back in second place. As was Mary Cockbain but she was beaten into third spot via a card play off. And congratulations to Irene Kirk who recorded a hole in one on the 7th.

Sally Wright won the nine hole competition with 22 points, having just had her clubs regripped – clearly a solid investment! Lorraine Thompson was two points back in second spot.

Seniors Summer Stableford 2

Well done to John Bacon for skipping out enthusiastically to the first tee yesterday morning despite the rain and returning with 21 stableford points to win this event! Rob Manley was was second with 20 points and Mike Massey claimed third spot with 19 points. The competition was played over the front nine from the tees of the day.

Bank below the 12th Tee

Thanks to Jane Perks for sending in this lovely photo of the bank below the 12th tee. Well done to everyone involved in making it look so fantastic.

In this week’s missive, we have plenty more results for you to catch up with and news of some ladies group coaching sessions. Enjoy the read!

Frolic

Well done to new recruit to the ladies section Kerry Gill for winning the bank holiday frolic with 21 points. Gentleman captain Dave Wainwright, Chris Adams and Andrew Fishwick all scored one point less to finish just behind Kerry.

Ladies Max Score Medals

Congratulations to Terri Broadbent for winning her first 18 hole competition on Thursday,. She shot an excellent nett 69 to do so. Gillian Recorded the same score but was beaten via a card play off. Rosie Gerrard finished in third place.

Sue Bromley was the winner in the front nine max score medal with a nett score of 35. Vanessa Veitch also scored a nett 35 but like Gillian was beaten on countback. Emma Daynes finished one shot further back to take the third spot.

Ladies Group Coaching Sessions

I emailed out some information yesterday about some ladies group coaching for the newer members of the club. The response has been great and some of the classes are already full. Despite that, please email if you’d like to take part as I will endeavour to put on extra sessions wherever possible. The dates, times and topics are as follows:

DATE	TIMES	TOPIC
Fri 13th May	1400-1500	Chipping – simple techniques & strategies for when you’re just off the green
Mon 16th May	1000-1100	Putting – learning the key variables of distance control and direction
Wed 25th May	1100-1200	Bunker Shots – taking away the fear of sand shots
Fri 10th June	1400-1500	Driving – gaining more distance and more accuracy
Fri 17th June	1100-1200	Rules & Etiquette – looking at situations that can crop up at HGC

Each group will have a maximum of four participants and the price will be £15 per person. This price includes a tea or coffee in the clubhouse afterwards.

Junior Matchplay

The closing date for this year’s junior knockout is the 10th May. Please remind your son, daughter, grandchild about this if you it applies to you. Please just let me know via email. Thank you.

Junior Stableford

Well done to Rory Hobbs for winning this event on Saturday. He scored a very creditable 20 points. Matthew Hodder and Alex Mills finished as runners up with 16 points.

Adult Junior

We ran the first event of the 2022 season on Friday and had a good turn out of 12 pairs. The winners with 22 points were Tommy and Roger Lamb and it would be remiss of me not to mention that Tommy was using his newly bought clubs from the Pro Shop for the very first time!! Ollie Grieves and John Book finished two points behind in second place. Matthew Hodder and Al Kenney were third with 16 points.

The next event is a week on Friday so please let me know asap if you would like to play. So the remaining events are as follows:

• Friday 13th May (tee times from 1730)
• Friday 17th June (tee times from 1730)
• Friday 29th July (tee times from 1730)
• Friday 9th Sept (tee times from 1730)
• Sunday 6th Nov (tee times from 1400) – end of season junior awards (golf, dinner and presentations)

Boys Toys

Thanks to Colin Bamford for this photo of hefty hire equipment arriving at the club last week. Just look at that beautiful blue sky too…

We have loads of results for you to catch up on this week. We also have news from Bill Wrigley about the men’s nine hole league matches, a request for volunteers to help the junior section and much more.

I am also looking for lady members of any ability who are keen on improving their game with some informative and fun group lessons. If you are interested, please let me know. You won’t be committed to anything at this stage but it will help me to plan more easily and then I can let you have the details down the line.

Nine & Dine

Friday’s nine and dine was won by Vanessa & Peter Veitch with an impressive 23 points. The format was a fourball betterball stableford and was played over the back nine. Freda & Ian Hunt finished runners up with the same score but were beaten on count back. Kathleen McNairney & John Adams finished third with 22 points.

April Mixed Foursomes

The following day Vanessa struck again, this time partnering Glyn Isaac. They won the April Mixed Foursomes with a very creditable 37 points beating Vicki Wells & Bill Dixon on a card play off. Kerry Bailey & Jonny Gray were one point adrift in third place.

Ladies Competitions

Vicki Wells won last week’s Par competition with even. Wendy Jenkins was the runner up and Gill Kay & Gwynneth Bramwell shared third spot.

Well done to Val Nelstrop for winning last Thursday’s back nine stableford with a great score of 22 points. Sue Bryant was second with 20 points. Mary Cockbain had the same score but was beaten into third place on count back.

Volunteers Required

I have mentioned before that we are really excited to be included in the Mid Cheshire Junior League for the first time this year. We are in the Gleneagles league which contains ourselves and four other clubs: Delamere, Warrington, Styal and Warrington. There will be a fixture at each course and ours takes place on Sunday 15th May with tee times from 1400.

Please could some of you spare a couple of hours and volunteer as ball spotters on a few holes. It will help keep the speed of play up and help the adult golfers of the future have a great experience here at Hale GC. Please let any of the junior organisers (Peter Hindle, Phil Hickson and I) know if you can lend a hand

Men’s Nine Hole League 2022

Bill Wrigley will again be organising the nine hole league for the coming season. There will be six fixtures, three home and three away usually teeing off at 6pm with a team of eight in a four x fourball betterball format.

These fixtures are as follows :-

2 June – Poulton Park v Hale at Poulton Park
16 June – Hale v Alderley Edge at Hale
14 July – Woodside v Hale at Woodside
26 July – Hale v Flixton at Hale
11 August – Hale v Cheadle at Hale 
TBA – Hartford v Hale at Hartford.

The matches are over nine holes followed by sandwiches and chips. If you are not already in the nine hole squad and wish to participate then you can add your name via the teams section of the Club V1 app or alternatively contact Bill Wrigley.

Errors from Last Week

There were a few mistakes in last week’s newsletter regarding dates of the gentleman captain’s team matches. Rather than republish the correct dates, please refer to the teams section of Club V1 or speak to David Rodwell for more information.

Club V1 Booking System

We’ve had a few issues with booking this week and hopefully that will be sorted out soon. As the screenshot from my phone shows below, there are a couple of changes that have been introduced. Below is an excerpt from an email Ian Hunt sent out on Monday explaining the first of the new features.

A recent upgrade to our ClubV1 software means that you are now able make a casual booking for 18 holes in single request. Simply click on the ’18 Holes’ tile on the booking screen (see the screenshot below) and the system will reserve tee-times for both the front and back 9.

The system has been set up with the following intervals to allow you to complete the first 9 holes in time:

1 ball – 90 mins
2 ball – 100 mins
3 ball – 110 mins
4 ball – 120 mins

You can of course continue to make two separate bookings at different time intervals should you wish to do so.

The other change is that the system defaults to allowing others to join you if you book a tee time for one, two or three of you. If you are playing a knockout or don’t want others to join you, please slide this left to Do not allow under the Share Tee Time heading (see the screenshot above).

WHS Information

I have condensed the WHS information into just four sides of A4 (it was eleven!!) and moved it to the left hand panel in between the Pro Shop door and the bench, as the photo below shows.

I hope you all had a good Easter and the good news, we don’t have too long to wait until the next bank holiday – they seem to come thick and fast at this time of the year. And I trust you are all enjoying getting back on a nice, dry golf course again after a long winter.

In this week’s newsletter, we talk about opportunities for early season golf lessons, the competition results from last week and information about the Gentleman Captain’s Team Matches which take place over the course of the season.

Golf lessons

Please click here to book a lesson via my online booking page. You can book up to 10 days in advance.

We had a good response to my proposed ladies group coaching sessions which appeared in last week’s missive. Dates proved to be the main stumbling block so I’ll come up with some fresh dates and options and come back to you. In the first instance though, if you are interested in finding out more about these sessions then please let me know by replying to this email and I’ll add you to my list.

Medal 1

Congratulations to Cliff Wright for breaking 90 gross and shooting an excellent nett 64 to win Medal 1 on Saturday. Talking of gross scores, Adam Laitt shot a magnificent level par score of 70 to record a nett 66 to finish in second place. John Moss also recorded a nett 66 but was beaten on a card play off so he finished in third spot. Fifteen twos were recorded on the day and Neil Roberts bagged two of them!

Bunty Booth

Well done to Tracey Thompson for winning the Bunty Booth last week with 37 stableford points. Vanessa Veitch was second with 36 points and Pam Dixon third with 35 points.

The front nine stableford competition was won by Lorraine Thompson with 17 points. Jennifer Bradley was one point in arrears to finish in runners up spot.

Gentleman Captain’s Team Matches

Our current Gentleman captain, Dave Wainwright, has been the organiser of the Captain’s matches for several years, David Rodwell has now taken over this responsibility.  For those that aren’t familiar with the events it’s a series of eleven matches friendly matches played against other nearby clubs.

Usually played in the late afternoon, the match is preceded by tea and cakes, before the Gentlemen Captain (or his opposite number) hosts two teams of twelve, in an eighteen hole pairs matchplay competition, followed by post-match drinks and a two course dinner.

This years fixtures are

Date	Club	Home / Away	Captain’s Tee Time
Wednesday 18th May	Wilmslow	Home	4pm
Wednesday 25th May	GM Police	Home	4pm
Wednesday 1st June	Dunham	Home	4pm
Friday 10th June	Knutsford	Away	4pm
Wednesday 22nd June	Dunham	Away	4pm
Sunday 17th June	Delamere	Away	9am (TBC)
Wednesday 27th June	Ringway	Away	4pm
Wednesday 4th August	Ringway	Home	4pm
Friday 12th August	Knutsford	Home	4.00pm
Tuesday 23rd August	Stockport	Away	4.00pm
Sunday 4th September	Wilmslow	Away	9.00am

If you would like to play in any of the matches, you may need to join the “Captain’s Matches” team within the “Club teams” section of Club V1 and once a member of the team, your availability should be set for each match individually.  Team selections will be confirmed around two weeks before the event. 

In the words of your Gentlemen Captain “the Captains Matches are very much about friendship, gamesmanship and good fun”. Therefore, please do take the time to sign up or if you would like to know more, please contact David Rodwell.