Author: Richard Booth

There was no men’s comp on Saturday but I have the results from last Thursday’s Gentleman Captain’s Day and Friday’s Adult Junior event.

My family and I are fortunate to have been negative for all our Covid tests and so have made it to Portugal for the trip that we planned to go on last summer. We flew into Lisbon and are staying at the wonderful Praia Del Rey golf resort on the Atlantic coast – so who knows, I might even get a game or two in!

Gentleman Captain’s Day

Well done to Caroline Massey for winning this event with an excellent score of 44 points. She received a lovely bottle of champagne with glasses from the gentleman captain Johnny Yates. Gill Kay finished in second place with 41 points. Sue Bromley won Nearest the Line and Judith Wainwright won Nearest the Pin. Diana Harris won the nine hole competition and won a lovely bottle of wine with glasses.

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I understand that Johnny was very generous with his hospitality and his time which made for an excellent day for everyone. I also heard that the afternoon tea provided by Ben and his team was delicious. As usual Russell, Dave and Ben made sure the course was in great condition. Finally Jean Green did a great job sorting out the scorecards.

Adult Junior

Well done to all the competitors that played in the gloom on Friday evening. The scoring was excellent and well done to James and David for winning with 23 points. Second place went to Ben & Chris Hinton just one point adrift.

The other scores are as follows:
3rd Caspian & Lubna 20 points
4th Olly & Alex 17 points
5th Isaac & Mike 15 points
6th Sam & Noelle 14 points

Thanks as ever for everyone who took part. The season finale takes place with a shotgun start on Friday 10th September at 1730. Please let me know if you would like to play.

Seniors Stableford 5

Thanks to Chris Adams and Alan Kemp for organising yesterday fantastically well as usual. And here’s a run down of the results in Chris’s own words…

Well done to Bob Siddle (P/Q) for an amazing score of 23 points (two over gross) to win todays comp and six balls. John Gower-Jones (Q) had a great 21 points to come second (four balls) so both new knees worked OK at last and Ian Macklin (Q) was third (two balls) with 20 points. Prizes in the Pro shop.

Thirty six entries and conditions perhaps not as easy as scores indicate with no “twos” (that will please the Treasurer). As well as John and Ian, Ian Hunt and Richard Dyson with 19 points and Adam Hyde with 18 all qualify. John Kennedy (PQ) also had 18. 

Shop Opening Hours

With me being very lucky to be in Portugal, Phil and Will are holding the fort and running the shop in my absence. The opening hours are not quite as extensive as usual and are detailed below.

DAY	DATE	OPENING HOURS
Thu	5th	0830 -1400
Fri	6th	0830 -1230 & 1500 – 1630
Sat	7th	0745 – 1430
Sun	8th	closed
Mon	9th	0900 – 1300
Tue	10th	0900 – 1300
Wed	11th	1100 – 1500
Thu	12th	0830 – 1400
Fri	13th	0830 – 1230
Sat	14th	0730 – 1430
Sun	15th	0830 – 1030

As the Olympics get under way, here’s a run down of Hale’s very own gold medalists over the last couple if weeks….

Summer Stableford

Well done to Gus Murray-Brown for scoring 41 points in the Summer Stableford to take top spot. Tom Sloan was one point behind in second place. Roger Flint finished third with 39 points beating Roger Mattocks on countback. Interestingly only five twos were recorded which is a much lower number than of late.

Ladies Results

Congrats to Chris Marsh for winning last week’s 18 hole Par finishing all square. Min Fishwick finished in second place.

Well done to Lorraine Thompson for winning the back nine stableford on Thursday with an excellent 20 points. Rosemary Bowden had the same score but was beaten on countback.

Below are some photos from last Thursday. The first is of Mandy Gilbert receiving her trophy for winning the Moir Cup and the second is of Lorraine Thompson following what I understand is her maiden golfing victory 👍

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Seniors Stableford 4

Roger Mattocks is obviously in good form at the moment as he finished first in Wednesday’s stableford with 20 points. Peter Veitch and Cliff Wright were both one point back but Peter edged out Cliff on a card play off.

Thanks as ever to Chris Adams and Alan Kemp for all their hard work arranging these events.

July Nine & Dine

Well done to Kerry Bailey, Phil Long, Jan Ravenscroft & Chris Ravenscroft for winning Friday’s Nine & Dine Texas scramble with an excellent nett score of 26. The field was closely packed and Jo Egerton tells me that the four of them are already hard at work planning the next one!

Away from HGC

Last week, Keith & Tracey Thompson and Gwynneth & Martin Bramwell played in a Clarion sponsored event which was held at Bramhall Park. It was a 4 Ball better ball stableford competition.

Tracey & Keith scored 41 points but Gwynneth & Martin faired better with 45 points. The winning score was 47 points. The two Hale teams were the only two mixed teams in a field of over 200.

Well after winning the Open sweepstake having drawn Collin Morikawa, Philip Long is his new biggest fan! I hope you all got chance to watch at least some of it. Royal St Georges looked magnificent and didn’t really bare it’s teeth this week but it’s such a joy to see links golf on our screens.

I hope you have all been suitably inspired and this super hot spell won’t deter you from striding the fairways.

Medal 6

Well played Lee Bramley for winning his second Medal of the 2021 campaign on Saturday with a nett 63. Tied on second place with 65s were Colin Bamford (playing in his first medal so well done indeed) and Freddie Fallows. Colin pipped Freddie into third place – imagine just how low you could go Colin if you added another “L” to your name!! There were in total thirteen nett scores starting with a six during the competition which is excellent scoring.

The best gross of the event went to Adam Laitt with a 72. Twelve twos were recorded, with Adam bagging two of them.

Bridgford & Moir Cup

Well done to Mandy Gilbert for winning the Moir Cup which was staged over Wednesday and Thursday of last week with a gross score of 177 for the two rounds. Janet Grant was five shots back in second place.

The Bridgford was won won by Pam Dixon with a five under par nett total of 137 following a sensational second round of nett 65. Janet Grant was second again with 138.

Thursday’s 18 hole Max medal was won by Corinne Veitch with a fine nett 69. Sally Wright was two back with a 71.

The Front Nine Max medal was won by Vicki Wells with a nett 35. Three players tied second with 36 and they were Freda Hunt, Sue Fallows and Min Fishwick.

And finally, Tiff recorded a birdie four at the first hole.

Sunday Trading

Since we opened up again, we have been running an experiment by opening on Sundays. We ran it for over three months until the 11th July. Unfortunately it just hasn’t been financially viable to continue with staff costs far exceeding profits.

So we are going back to opening six days per week, Monday to Saturday. As we’ve always done if there is a large event / competition taking place on a Sunday, we will of course open the shop for that.

Thank you to all of you for your continued support and trade with us in the Pro Shop during these really difficult past 18 months and of course throughout my twelve plus years here. We’re enormously grateful and happy to serve you here at HGC!

Twelfth Tee

After missing out last year, the Open starts again today from Royal St Georges. Two of our members were down in Kent last week to check out the venue first hand but more on that later.

Pro Am

Twenty three teams took part in Saturday’s Pro Am which proved to be another successful event. Apart from about an hours heavy rain in the afternoon, the weather was kind to us and the course was in immaculate condition – with true, receptive greens.

Olly Smith took advantage of this by going round in an incredible 62 strokes and using just seven of them to play all par threes! Yes you read that correctly – he had three twos and a hole in one… as you do! Olly also helped spearhead the winning team partnered by Mike Kirchin, Chris Brown and Paul Hilton. They recorded a score 119 or 21 under par which was unmatched.

David Rodwell, Howard Gill, Brian Greenbank and their pro Matthew Dixon scored 18 under to finish second. Roger Laitt, Adam Laitt, George Buchan and pro Curtis Hughes were one shot adrift in third whilst Peter Hindle, Neil Thompson, Pete Tukington and pro Jason Dransfield finished fourth with 124.

Second place in the individual professionals’ competition went to Jason Shufflebotham with a 64 and third was Philip Archer with a 65. In total 6 pros finished under par with three pros on level par – I was one of those pros on even par.

Thanks to Dan Huxley and helper Bill from the PGA, Russell and team, Ben and the bar staff for their part in producing such a memorable day. Thanks also to the members for kindly allowing the course to be used throughout the day.

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Ladies Summer Meeting

Well done to Gwynneth Bramwell, Mary Cockbain, Jean Green and Sally Budd for shooting an amazing 85 points last Thursday to win the ladies Summer Meeting. Three points adrift in second place was Jan Ravenscroft, Sue Bryant, Diana Harris and Jennifer Bradley. Ten teams took part and the beautiful weather helped the players enjoy a tasty lunch and a glass of wine (just the one of course!) after play.

R & A 9 Hole Challenge Final

This was staged at Royal St Georges last Saturday. Amanda Greaves and Jane Wilkinson qualified at our events which were held a few months ago. They were both delighted to be playing but somewhat apprehensive about playing golf on such a big stage early on in their golfing journeys. They both sent me lovely emails afterwards telling me about their experiences and so I have quoted them below (I hope you don’t mind Amanda & Jane!!) Well done ladies, you did us proud and what a story to tell!

Here’s part of the message from Amanda:

We got the results through last night and we finished 8^th out of 17 – so we are delighted.  We just didn’t want to score 0.  The winners scored 38 and we scored 32 – which I think is very respectable especially as we were terrified.

We were the highest handicaps by a long way – so they ranged from 2.5 to 46.6 (Me!).  Apart from Jane and I everyone had a handicap 28.5 or less.

You couldn’t see the end of the rough off the tee, so it was fingers crossed and a big drive to try and keep out of it – which we managed on most holes. Apart from me on the first – I was so nervous, and spectators, cameras etc!

I can’t quite believe we did it and were the only ladies team, and only 8 ladies out of 34 competitors!

As everyone told us and in hindsight, we had a great time and everyone was lovely to us, even in the rain.  Anyway thank you for your help and we will let you know if anything comes of our interview on camera about women getting into golf.  R&A are trying to push the development of the sport in terms of 9 hole golf and more women and juniors playing – so we were their ideal story.

And here’s some words from Jane:

We did not feature in the prizes but got a respectable 32 points, the winning team got 37.

Hale Golf Club did get a special mention from the Randa chairman of development that if there was a prize for best turned out team it would go to Hale!!

We were also interviewed by Randa because they were very impressed that both of us got into golf via the very generous temporary  membership initiative Hale Golf Club offered.

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Correction

In last week’s missive, I quoted the incorrect time for this Thursday’s inauguration of new club president Barry Jefferies. The correct start time is 1900. My apologies for any confusion and I hope it’s a good evening for all.

Twos on all the Par Threes

Thanks to Peter Hardern for answering my question of last week about whether anyone had ever scored four twos on the par threes here at HGC (how ironic after Olly Smith’s incredible efforts of Saturday?) by explaining that Oliver Harris had done so. He went on to explain that he was fairly certain that David (Percy) Leese and David Hallworth had also done so. Peter recalls Oliver buying drinks all round after his birdie barrage on the par threes but is not sure of when this happened though.

Photo

We have lots of results and photos again this week which is great. The Covid restrictions have prevented presentations and hence a lack of images for the past 12 – 18 months. Thanks to Sue Bryant, Brian Greenbank, Ian Hunt and Craig Rea for helping to put that right this week.

England v Denmark

As I write this it’s early Wednesday morning on the day England take on Denmark in the semi finals – let’s hope we can ease those years of hurt this time around 🤞 There will be plenty of you down at the club to watch later on and well done to Tracey and the team for giving the marquee a football makeover!

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Summer Meeting

We were worried in the days coming up to last weekend’s men’s Summer Meeting that we might have a problem with thunder and lightning. Thankfully that never happened but unfortunately we did have plenty of rain, especially for those players with morning tee time.

The main event, the Galloway Scratch Challenge Cup, was won by Jonny Gray and James Scott with 151. Richard Duerr was third with 156.

The Walker Trophy, the best 36 hole nett, was won by Nick Horrocks with scores of 63 and 71 to make a 134 (six under par) total. Jonny Gray was second with 135 and Freddie Gillan third with 140.

The MacCaig trophy is presented to the best 18 hole gross score on either day by a player that didn’t win the Galloway, David Smith was the winner with a 75. Adam Laitt was one shot back in second (after a card play off) and Richard Duerr was third.

Mr Captain Johnny Yates won the prize for the Best Nett on Sunday with a 66. Martin Bramwell had a 67 and David Rodwell a 68.

The Arnold Challenge Cup was presented to Andrew Hay who recorded a gross 87. This prize is for the best gross recorded by a player with a handicap of 15 or above. Nigel Taylor and Andrew Gething recorded 88s to finish one shot back.

The Goulty Trophy is presented to the player with the best nett score on day one that is aged 60 or over. Keith Thompson won with a nett 66. John Moss was second with a 68 and Paul Simpson third with a 69.

Finally Keith Thompson was back in the winners circle to win the prize for the best nett on day one, again using that nett 66 to do so. Jonny Gray was beaten on a card play off to finish second and John Moss third with his 68.

Paul Gilbert recorded, in his words, a “proper” hole in one on the eleventh on day one. Also Brian Greenbank recorded three twos on day one with birdies on all the par threes except the second which is mighty impressive too. This got me thinking, is anyone aware of a golfer that has birdied all four during their round? Please let me know if you can think of anyone who fits the bill.

Well done to all the winners, Russell and team for getting the course in great shape and of course to Ian Hunt and Brian Greenbank for working tirelessly to make the event run so smoothly.

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Lady Captain’s Day

The weather was far kinder for this event as sun drenched photos below show. The lady captain Irene Kirk kept the competitors well fed and watered with Pimm’s half way round and a delicious tea after play.

The scoring was excellent with Rosie Gerrard winning the 18 hole stableford competition with 42 points. Clare Withey was second with 39 points and Jan Ravenscroft third with 38 points.

The front nine stableford was won by Joanne Bryant with 21 points. Ann Davies finished second with 18 points on countback meaning Nicola Kitching was in third place.

Gail Sampson won the Nearest the Line prize on the ninth hole with her shot that finished just 8cm away from it. Gilliam Brogdon won the Nearest the Pin prize on the seventh.

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Changing of the Guard

Barbara Grant is retiring as President of HGC shortly and so was presented with a bouquet of flowers by Roger Sheen, the Chair of Council on behalf of all the Council members to show their appreciation for all her input. Barry Jefferies will be inaugurated as the new President on Thursday 22nd July at 1930.

Selfie

Well we have a big few weeks of golf ahead of us here at HGC. On Thursday we have Lady Captain’s Day and the men’s Summer Meeting over the weekend. Then next Thursday, it’s the ladies’ Summer Meeting with the Pro Am on Saturday 10th. As always, I’ll keep you posted here with all the results.

Ping Demo Day

Hot on the heels of the Callaway Demo Day the other week, we have a Ping one lined up for a few weeks time. It’s on Friday 20th August between 1100 and 1600. Spaces will be limited so please contact me to book your slot.

Ladies Results

Congratulations to Gwynneth Bramwell for winning the May Ashton 18 Hole Medal with an excellent nett 67 last week. Emma Daynes was second with a nett 67 beating Gillian Brogdon on a card play off.

The back nine Stableford was won with a whopping tally of 23 points by Sally Wright. Sue Fallows was second with 17.

Chris Marsh and Diana Hogben recorded birdies on the day.

Medal 5

Neil Roberts played magnificently on Saturday to record a superb gross 75 for a nett 61 on Saturday. Mark Haywood and Tom Cressey must have both thought they’d done enough to win coming in with nett 64s but ended up being three shots off the pace. Mark finished second and Tom third. Tom did however have the consolation of shooting the lowest gross of the day with a four over par 74.

It was a good day for twos with fifteen players recording a birdie on a par three.

Overseas Golf

Thanks to Michelle Rea for keeping us posted of golfing excellence abroad by our members!

She explained that Mandy & Paul Gilbert and she & Craig played in the President’s Cup on The Faldo course at Amendoeira golf resort in Portugal ten days or so ago.

Craig finished in second place and also won Nearest the Pin. Mandy won the “Best Ladie” which is Portuguese for Best Lady!!

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Well done to Jon Rahm for being the first ever Spaniard to win the US Open. I kept my eyes propped open with matchsticks to see him birdie the 17th but had to to then retire whilst he went onto birdie the 18th as well. He was by far the most impressive golfer on the back nine and this win catapults him into a different league of golfers.

Well done to England for qualifying last night for the last 16 of the Euros without conceding a goal. It looks like next Tuesday will be stiff competition but on the plus side, if you’ve no interest in the “beautiful game” then the course is likely to be pretty quiet!

Open Sweepstake

So the US Open is no more but the good news is that the next major is the Open Championship from Royal St Georges in Kent in July. To mark this occasion, the Pro Shop’s Open Sweepstake returns. Tickets are £5 for one go or £10 for three goes. Prizes are for your player finishing in the top three overall and also for the best and worst score of each of the four tournament days.

Please enter in the Pro Shop or drop me a line and I’ll allocate you some spots and you can pay me when you’re next at the club. Good luck!

Match of Champions

On Saturday, a fun match was played when the current gentleman captain Johnny Yates’ side took on the previous gents captain Chris Wood’s side. Johnny’s team was victorious on the day. As you can see below, the main purpose of the day was to present prizes that have been won over the last 18 months or so that because of Covid restrictions were never formally presented. Hence this most photo packed newsletter that I think we’ve ever done!

Well done to Ian Hunt and captain Johnny for working tirelessly before and during the proceedings to ensure it all ran smoothly.

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Adult Junior

The turnout was lower than usual for Saturday’s Adult Junior competition, perhaps Friday evenings are the way forward? Despite that, the winning score of 23 points for Sam Morris and Dan Turkington was superb so well played gents.

Handicap Information

We’ve prepared WHS charts now for the front nine, back nine and 18 holes from the blue tees, the men’s tees of the day and the red tees which are now on display in the window next to the first door into the clubhouse (as per the photo below). This should help you work out handicap allowances for any friendly or knockout matches you might be involved in.

Medal 4

The scoring was hot in Medal 4 which took place on the 11th June. Tony Sampson burned the course up with a gross 80 and a nett 64 to win by one stroke from Jez Allen. Roger Sheen finished third with a nett 67. Brian Greenbank scored the lowest gross of the day with a 73. Well played all!

Ascot Day Stableford

Congratulations to Tiff Fielden for scoring an excellent 39 points to win the 18 hole Stableford. Freda Hunt was pipped into second place with 37 points but did win the Granny Cup so well played.

Diana Harris won the nine hole stableford with 20 points and Val Nelstrop was second with 19 points.

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Seniors Stableford 3

Well done to Graham Jones for getting back into the winners circle on the 16th June by winning the third stableford of the season with 21 points. John Bacon finished one point behind in second place.

Just a short memo to explain that we have Callaway demo day here at Hale GC on Wednesday 16th June. We’ve had a couple of late cancellations so if you’d like to come along and be fitted by Tom, one of Callaway’s expert fitters without any fee then please email me asap to secure your place. Thank you.

Things are still busy meaning I’m a little late with this missive so it’s a bit of a catch up edition. Hope you enjoy the news from recent weeks.

Professional Golf

Well done to nineteen year old Yuka Saso for winning the US Open in San Francisco at the weekend and becoming the first Filipino to win a major championship.

And what about Jon Rahm having to withdraw from the Memorial tournament on the PGA Tour with a six shot lead after being told he had tested positive for Covid… that must have been hard to take.

Gentleman Captain’s Day

Back at Hale, Alex Halliwell stepped in at the last minute to join Sean Dwyer and Paul Bramwell and win the Gentleman Captain’s Day team event on Sunday with 86 points. The experienced group of John Bacon, Keith Thompson and Rob Manley finished in second place with 81 points.

Ladies Results Round Up

Congrats to Mandy Gilbert and Gill Kay for winning the Ping 4 ball better ball competition on the 3rd June with 43 points. Lady captain Irene Kirk and Gillian Brogdon were two points behind in second place. Rosemary Bowden won the back nine stableford with 17 points.

On Thu 10th June, Pat Jefferies played great to shoot a nett 69 and win the Centenary trophy. Poor Janet Grant had the same nett score but was beaten on countback. Kerry Bailey won the front nine hole stableford with a very good 21 points.

Father’s day items

Don’t forget Father’s Day is a week on Sunday so why not pop in the shop to buy that super special man in your life with some golf gear? Some suggestions:

• Golf Balls
• Hale GC crested golf balls, polo shirt, sweater, headcovers, towel, cap etc
• Shoes
• Golf glove
• Lessons eg. 45 minute lesson or an on-course playing lesson
• Brolly
• Driver
• Electric trolley

There are lots of options so why not pop in and chat with Phil, Will or I for some inspiration?

Ping Demos

I have lots more men’s Ping demos than usual as I have borrowed my Ping ASM’s supply until the 22nd June. I have right and left hand drivers, fairways, hybrids and crossovers. Please pop in to discuss how they could help you improve your game.

Cheshire Junior Team Championship

Over half term, Charlie Hindle, Alex Mills and Dan Turkington took part in this event at Lymm GC. It’s the first time we’ve been able to field a team in this competition for some time so the boys did well by finishing 14th out of the 26 teams that entered. Alex even had the pleasure of playing with the step son of a very famous local Ryder Cup golfer – I’ll let you ask Alex to find out the details!

Frolic

Well done to Mandy & Paul Gilbert, Tiff Fielden and Bob Cooke for winning the end of May bank holiday Frolic with 51 points. In second place, on the same score but beaten on a card play off, were Pam & Bill Dixon and Gillian & Eric Healey.

Just a quick (and a little belated) round up this week as it’s been another hectic one at the club.

I’m writing this from our family holiday cottage in Amble in Northumberland. The weather thankfully is dry (not too much sun… yet 🤞) and we’re all looking forward to exploring the regions beautiful beaches and scenery over the coming days.

USPGA Championship

There were thumbs up all round 👍🏻 as Phil Mickelson won the USPGA Championship on Sunday on the brutally difficult but beautiful Kiawah Island golf course. He managed his game far more successfully than Brooks Koepka seems to manage his disdain of Bryson DeChambeau on social media but I guess that’s another story…

Ladies Results

Well done to Caroline Massey for winning Thursday’s Max Score Medal. Nicola Kitching won the 9 hole stableford with 18 points. Chris Marsh won the Alt Day Max Medal with a stunning nett 65.

The previous week, Tiff Fielden won the 18 hole Par and Min Fishwick won the 9 hole stableford with an excellent 20 points.

Other Results

The scoring in Medal 3 on Saturday 22nd May as very good. Lee Bramley was delighted to win with a nett 63 beating Alex Mills by just one stroke.

Dan Turkington won Tuesday‘s 9 hole stableford with a level par score of 18 points.

Matches

We’ve even managed some club matches recently with the men taking on the Police on Wednesday.

Plus the ladies advanced into the next round of the Bell Cup by beating Birchwood GC away from home. The score was an emphatic 5:2. Their next opponents will be Davenport or Shaw Hill.