Author: Richard Booth

Well another week, another course closure! Today’s Seniors competition has been cancelled due to the snow. We will have to wait and see about the fate of tomorrow’s ladies competition and then Bogey 4 which is scheduled to take place on Friday and Saturday.

On the plus side there’s been some lovely photo opportunities for Tracey Thompson and myself! The three photos of various stages of the sunrise were taken this morning and the big frosty puddle by the first tees was snapped yesterday.

Pro Shop Survey

It’s been a while since we canvassed feedback as to how we’re doing in the Pro Shop so I have put together a very simple survey. Feel free to mention anything – be that elements of the shop, coaching, other services we provide, me, staff, communication and so on.

We would be most grateful if you could complete the survey. Click here to view and download the one page document. Or we can provide you with a copy if you pop into the shop.

To return it, there are several options. You could do so by dropping it into the shop, by email or by posting it through the letterbox on the rear door of the Pro Shop (near the rental trolleys). If you would prefer, we’re quite happy for you to complete the survey anonymously.

Thank you in advance for your time on this.

Ping G430

The Ping G430 family has just been launched worldwide. The clubs look and play fantastically. I have demos in store for you to try so why not book an appointment and start off the new golf season with some new, high performing golf clubs?

I also have a demo of the Ping ChipR available which has proved really popular for those awkward shots from around the green.

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2023. There’s not much to report as the rain continues to pour and the course does it’s best to stand up to it.

The photos below were taken at 1115 on Tuesday and show significant areas of water pooling.

Ladies Front Nine New Year Stableford

Well done to Min Fishwick who cruised round in 23 points despite a long lay off to win last Thursday’s competition. Ceri Hyde finished in second place with 18 points and Sue Fallows was beaten into third spot following a card play off.

Please remember….

And finally…

Thanks to Will for sharing this tweet with me. It seems Jon Rahm, following his victory in Hawaii on Sunday, wouldn’t have any problem with keeping his WHS handicap at an acceptable level 😂😂

Here are the results from the Pro Shop Christmas Draw.

Will and I were going to grab people as they popped into the Pro Shop yesterday afternoon but the weather was so lousy that I had to snare John Wright and Graham Jones who were enjoying a beer in the clubhouse. They were great sports and did the honours superbly but were very disappointed that they didn’t draw their own names out from the tombola!!

The lucky winners are listed below and remember the amounts are in Pro Shop credit. Thank you so much to everyone who took part.

Position	Amount	Number	Winner
1st	£250	644	Al Kenney
2nd	£200	58	Terri Broadbent
3rd	£150	155	Roger Fielding
4th	£100	623	Mike Kirchin
5th	£75	195	Paul Gilbert
6th	£60	365	Tarik Rashid
7th	£50	559	Adam Hyde
8th	£40	64	Jan Ravenscroft
9th	£30	110	Bill Harvey
10th	£25	52	Terri Broadbent

Pro Shop Christmas Opening Hours

As a reminder, this is when we’ll be open over the Christmas and New Year period.

DATE	HOURS
Sat 24th December	0900 – 1300
Sun 25th – Tues 27th December	Closed
Wed 28th – Sat 31st December	0900 – 1400
Sun 1st – Mon 2nd January	Closed
Tues 3rd January onwards	Normal hours resume

And so to finish this mini missive, Will, Phil and I wish you all a very

After 10 consecutive days of the course being closed (as long as I can remember, aside from lockdowns, whilst I’ve been here), I’m very happy to report that it is back open!

Hope to see you out there getting some fresh air before all the festivities kick off. If we don’t, we hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Thanks for supporting the Pro Shop in 2022. Best wishes Richard, Will & Phil

Christmas Opening Hours

The Pro Shop will be open as follows over the Christmas period:

DATE	HOURS
Sat 24th December	0900 – 1300
Sun 25th – Tues 27th December	Closed
Wed 28th – Sat 31st December	0900 – 1400
Sun 1st – Mon 2nd January	Closed
Tues 3rd January onwards	Normal hours resume

Give the Gift of Golf Improvement

Photo Round Up

Thanks to everyone who has sent me photos for this week’s newsletter – you’ll notice there are no action shots from the golf course 🙁

First of all, here are some snaps from the family Christmas lunch which took place on Sunday sent in by Irene Kirk.

The next group were sent in by Jan Ravenscroft from the member’s Christmas lunch. Mike Kirchin and Roger Sheen organised the singing superbly. Tom Sloan described the photo of him and Jan as “Hale Poster Boy and FLC”!!

And finally, Sue Bryant sent in these photos of the ladies having fun, sporting Christmas jumpers despite the lack of golf. Pat Jefferies won the prize for the most sparkly outfit 🙂

The photo below says it all, course closed 🙁 It looks like the sun is coming out tomorrow but I’m not sure whether it will be warm enough to melt the remaining snow. The next course inspection is at 0700 tomorrow morning.

The other two photos show the outdoor Christmas tree looking very festive in last week’s heavy frost. The other equally fine looking trees were in their holding position before being planted either on the first hole or by the course boundary on Orchard.

Ladies Back Nine Stableford

Congratulations to Jo Egerton for winning last week’s comp with a great tally of 21 points. Freda Hunt was just one point adrift to secure second place.

Thanks to Terri Broadbent for the action photos in the frost and she’s absolutely bang on when she said “we’re a hardy bunch to go out in today’s weather!”

New Hale GC Accessories

We have received a top up of Hale GC crested accessories just in time for Crimbo. Some of which are shown below: headcovers, beanies, pitchmark repairers and towels. These would make excellent stocking fillers.

Men’s Turkey Trot

Unfortunately Friday night’s snow kiboshed the men’s Turkey Trot. Lunch still went ahead though and thanks to Bob Siddle for creating a quiz for the attendees to sink their tee into. The winners were Roger Fielding and Tony Bray.

Last place on a card playoff (not sure how that works!) went to President Barry Jefferies and Ted Shaw. They won the Paxo stuffing kindly donated by Peter Harden.

So the men’s football team cruised past Senegal in the World Cup to set up a formidable fixture against the French on Saturday. Earlier that day and on a similar scale sporting wise, we have the men’s Turkey Trot 🙂 Plus on Thursday, the ladies are playing a back nine stableford.

Christmas in The Pro Shop

Well the super extravagant Christmas decorations are up. In all honesty, they are not a patch on the one’s in the clubhouse but more on that later.

Tickets sales for the Pro Shop Christmas Draw are ticking along nicely. If you’ve not purchased yours yet, pop in or reply to this email. They are £2 for one or of you can get six for £10.

If you are looking for Christmas gift ideas, we have a few suggestions.

• There’s the great value Bushnell Ion Edge GPS watch at just £99.99 (see below)
• We also have lots of Hale GC crested goods in stock such as headcovers, caps, drinks bottles, towels, clothing and ball markers to name just a few
• Plus there’s the non crested goods such as clubs, shoes, golf bags and of course golf balls, socks and golf gloves can make brilliant stocking fillers.
• Another option is golf lesson vouchers or time in the simulator using Trackman. These can be customised to suit your individual requirements and budget. Remember now is a great time of year to work on your game so that you can hit the ground running come the spring.

Back Nine Three Clubs and a Putter Stableford

Well done to Joanne Bryant for winning this event last Thursday with an excellent score of 19 points. There were three players one point behind in joint second place and they were Ann Coulson, Pat Jefferies and Gill Kay.

The other two photos are of Sally Budd and Vanessa Veitch receiving their prizes from lady captain Judy Pinnington, that they had won earlier in the season.

Social Events

As mentioned earlier, the clubhouse decorations look fantastic thanks to a team from the ladies section who toiled last week to put them all up. I’m not going to mention names in case I miss anyone out but you all know who you are!

There are some photos below including Diana Hogben and Terri Broadbent behind the windows and the beautiful table settings ahead of Friday’s Member’s Christmas Party.

Tracey Thompson wanted me to let you know that there are tables available for New Years Eve and members guests are most welcome.

Rainbow

Thanks to Peter Hindle for this photo of a rainbow over the course taken on Saturday morning.

We still have spaces available in the Pro Shop Christmas draw. The price is £2 for one or six for £10. The prizes are fabulous and are vouchers for the following amounts:

• 1st – £250
• 2nd – £200
• 3rd – £150
• 4th – £100
• 5th – £75
• 6th – £60
• 7th – £50
• 8th – £40
• 9th – £30
• 10th – £25

Please get involved by popping into the shop or replying to this newsletter. Thanks to everyone who has entered already.

Plus the Spurk mats are selling well and we’ve had great feedback on them. Will thinks it’s all down to his appearance in the 30 second explanation video 😁 If you’ve not seen it, please click here and for more details click here. They are priced at £24.99 or £32.49 with a carry case.

Front Nine Stableford with Mulligans

Helen Davies won last Thursday’s competition with 20 points. Gail Sampson finished in second place with 19 points. Each mulligan was priced at £1 with all the proceeds going to charity.

Quiz

The winner’s of last Friday’s Quiz Night were Johnny’s Angels. Well done all and thanks to Tracey for this brilliant photo.

Not too much to report golf wise this week as the heavy rains have just engulfed us. The ladies comp was rained off on Thursday but the dinner the night before still went ahead – you an read about this below.

Plus we have a new mat in stock and we also look at simple but really useful gift idea for that special golfer in your life.

Spurk Mats

We have just taken delivery of a new golf mat, which having just tried it, performs really well. It is compact (approx 12 inches x 4.5 inches) and as you can see from the photos below, it has teeth on the underside of the mat. This keeps it from moving during a shot.

The Spurk mat retails at £24.99 or can be bought with a carry case for £32.49. Click here for to visit their website for more information and please take a look at the video below, with Will taking centre stage.

Ladies Dinner

This took place last week. Not all the winners were able to attend but those that were are photographed below. Anne Webster won the Medal Final, Amanda Greaves won the Secretary’s Prize/Cup, Tiff Fielden was the winner of the birdie tree and the eclectic gross and Terri Broadbent won the eclectic nett.

Dinner was followed by a Ukrainian dance troupe who added colour to what looked like a great evening.

Christmas Present Ideas

How about giving that special person in your life some golf tuition? Vouchers are available from the Pro Shop for exactly what you require – whether it’s a brush up on the range or in the simulator using Trackman or a few holes on the course, we can create the perfect gift for you.

If you’re not sure what might fit the bill, you can just pay for an amount of time and the recipient can decide how they would like to use it.

Please contact us in the shop for more details or reply to this message to book or for further details.

Thanks to those of you who have already purchased some Pro shop Christmas draw tickets. Don’t despair though if you haven’t yet got round to it, there are still plenty to go at! The price is £2 for one or £10 for six. Please pop in or email to take part. Thank you.

PROMOTION: Ping Putters, Hybrids and Driver

Grab a bargain pre Christmas. I have six Ping 2021 putters in stock which I am reducing from £239 to £179 with immediate effect. Also I have some G425 hybrids reduced from £219 to £199 plus a G425 SFT driver which is now at £379 instead of £419. Sorry lefties, they are all right handed ☹ Please hurry though because once they’re gone, they’re gone!!

Bogey 3

Well done to current gentleman captain David Wainwright for winning Bogey 3 at the weekend with a score of three up. Both Danny Fox and Mike Massey recorded the same score but were beaten into second and third spots respectively following a card play off.

Poppy Appeal Nine Hole Stableford

This Poppy Appeal nine hole stableford was a huge success. It was played over two separate days and the club raised a whopping £555 for the Royal British Legion which was fantastic (see the letter below).

The men’s winner was Andrew Gething with 21 points and Min Fishwick won the ladies prize with 19 points. They each received a lovely medal with a poppy etched on to it.

Seniors Bradley 2

John Moss finished on top in a three way tie with 21 points following a card play off to win the Bradley 2 front nine stableford competition in the seniors section last week. Bob Siddle was second and Ian Goulty finished in third place.

Photos

This week sees the second half of the hugely popular Poppy Appeal nine hole competition taking place on Thursday.

Plus in the shop, we have some new ladies and mens winter clothing ranges. These items could make excellent presents or why not just treat yourself?

The Pro Shop Christmas draw has just started. Numbers are £2 each or £10 for six. You can enter in the shop or just reply to this email and we can sort out payment between us.

The ten prizes in the form of Pro Shop credit will be as follows: £250, £200, £150, £100, £75, £60, £50, £40, £30 & £25. 

Junior Awards

On Sunday, we staged the 5th end of season junior awards presentation day. We had 28 golfers play a nine hole competition at 1400 followed by over 50 people dining. We then went through a review of the junior golfing year here at HGC.

First of all we announced the winners of the eight junior competitions, four adult junior events and the Order of Merit.

We also explained that 2022 was the first year we had played in the Mid Cheshire Junior League (MCJL). The four other clubs in our league were Delamere Forest, Styal, Warrington and Bramhall.

We remembered Matthew Hodder for winning the men’s summer stableford competition and we reminded the attendees that six juniors got their WHS handicaps in 2022. They were Ollie Grieves , Rory Hobbs , Alex Keeling , Tommy Lamb , Sam Morris & Caspian Sands.

We also announced the winners of four trophies. Hector Neary and William Meadowcroft won the Best Newcomers awards while Ollie Grieves and Sam Morris won the Improver awards.

Finally, we announced the winners of the four person team competition that had taken place earlier that day. It was a tie at the top with both winning teams scoring 36 points. One team consisted of Charlie Hindle, Peter Hindle, Sam Morris & Noelle Morris. The other team was Caspian Sands, Ian Roebuck, Ollie Grieves and John Book. Well played everyone and bonus points should have been awarded for battling the elements.

Ladies Bonfire Sparkly Better Ball stableford

Congratulations to Min Fishwick, Kathleen McNairney & Ann Mattocks for winning the front nine Bonfire Sparkly Better Ball stableford with 38 points. The runners up were Sally Budd and Vicki Wells who battled round as two player team to get a very creditable 37 points.