Coaching & Retail
There are still spaces in Saturday morning’s nine hole step-a-side Texas Scramble which is open to ladies and gents. It’s a 3 player team and the competition will be played over the front nine.
Golf and Christmas sweaters on Monday before the Brat pack’s lunch on Monday.
Well it’s now December so not too long until the bearded warrior makes his rounds! If you need any Christmas presents for that special golfer in your life, please pop in.
We can preapre a voucher of any value you for goods, lessons or both! We also have Hale GC crested towels, water bottles, shoe bags, wash bags, headcovers, caps, beanies, ball markers, pitch mark repairers, groove brushes and clothing.
Or how about a top of the range Spurk golf mat to help make winter golf more enjoyable? Or a light weight carry bag if you just want to take out a 1/2 set? Or perhaps an accessory for your electric golf trolley such as an umbrella holder or scorecard holder?
Saturday’s men’s 15 hole team comp was won by Alan Bradley, Bob Siddle and Chris Wood with 65 stableford points. The runners up were Dave McGlennon, Ted Shaw and Andrew Cowan with 63 points. Two points further adrift and in third place were Bill Dixon, Graham Jones and John Kennedy.
Thursday’s best two from three nine hole stableford open to ladies and gents was won by Sally Budd, Diana Harris & Lucy Leonard with 39 points. Jane Wilkinson, Kerry Gill & Ian Powell finished second with 33 points. The Nearest the Pin Prizes were won by Barbara Spark on the second and Phil Long on the 4th.
It was team comps galore last week. The first of which was the Seniors 9 hole Texas scramble. The winners with 23 points were Ian Hunt, Roger Fielding, and Andy Veitch.
Second place, following a back three hole card playoff, went to Andrew Fishwick, Roger Mattocks and Dave Swale. And Bill Dixon, John Webb and Steve Bates finished third with 22 points.
Thanks to Ted Shaw for this great winter sunrise photo whilst he was walking his dog Reggie last week (and not the location of his opening tee shot as he was quick to establish….!!) Plus here’s the evidence that Tom Sloan and Nick Horrocks were working hard putting up the Christmas lights last Friday.
There are still spaces in Thursday’s nine hole team comp this Thursday (the format is best 2 from 3). Remember it’s open to ladies and gents.
There are two more comps open to ladies and gents coming up as well. On Sat 14 December, there is a step a side three player team Texas Scramble and on Thu 19th December, there is an individual stableford.
There is one space available for a four person group lesson on Mon 2/12/24 from 2-3pm. The topic is winter golf (thanks to Ian Powell for the idea). It’s open to ladies or gents. We’ll look at playing from the wet rough, using mats and some relevant rules. The price is £25. Please let me know if you’d like to enrol.
The Annual Ladies Dinner took place last Wednesday. It was superbly organised by lady captain Gill Kay and Min Fishwick . They’d kept the surprise Singing Waiters a secret until the night! The “Italian “ Tenor Marco ( from Bolton!) and his amazing Soprano are pictured below with LC
We also have some photos of the winners that were awarded prizes (full details below the photos). Looks like everyone had a great time – thanks to Jan Ravenscroft and Tracey Thompson for the photographic eveidence!
| NAME | COMPETITION |
| Kairen Seaton | Crysta Golf ball (most reduced handicap – below 36) |
| Jane Nicholson | Secretary’s Prize (most reduced handicap – above 36) |
| Pauline Keeling | Joyce Fisher Plate (most improved senior player) |
| Gill Kay | Bunty Booth candlesticks (best 4 medal rounds during 2024) |
| Tiff Fielden | Birdie Tree |
| Mandy Gilbert & Chris Marsh | Joint second in Birdies |
| Tiff Fielden | Eclectic (gross) |
| Caroline Perkin | Eclectic (nett) |
| Gillian Brogdon | Eclectic (9 holes) |
Peter Wolfenden won with an excellent 21 points on Wed 20th November and Bob Siddle was second with 17 points. Philip Long finished third losing out to Bob on a card play off. There were two twos recorded and they were recorded by Chris Adams and Bob Siddle.
We raised £640 for the Poppy Appeal and here’s the thank you note from the RBL. Well done to everyone who helped achieve this.
Furthermore here are the photos of the winners from the Poppy Appeal competition. I received them after my last newsletter went out so well done again to Kate Morris for winning and Andrew Fishwck for finishing as runner up.
Please forward this email onto anyone who you think might be interested in signing up for my newsletter. If they are, they can sign up by clicking here.
Also if you’d like me to update your email address, please just hit reply!
Congrats to Richard Duerr for winning Bogey 3 with a score of three up. Jack Wilcox was second having been beaten on a card play off and Guy Levers finished two up.
This 9 hole event was played over two dates (Sat 9th Nov and Thu 16th Nov) and was again a vehicle to earn money for this very worthy cause. Well done Kate Morris for winning with 22 points, Andrew Fishwick was two back to finish second and Bernie Wilcox was third fllowing a card play off.
Chris Ravenscroft, Tarik Rashid, Joanne Bryant & Jo Egerton all scored 16 points On Wednesday but following the card play off, Chris was the winner Tarik the runner up and Joanne B finished third. Tarik also won the Nearest the Pin on the 2nd hole and gets another £8 of credit for that.
The feedback I received following this competition was posiive with players sayingt hat they enjoyed the format.
I was watching the golf on Sunday and saw this shot played by Rory on the 5th hole en route to another great win for the northern Irishman. As you can see in the first video, he played a great short iron approach shot. The second video shows a close up of impact. I thought it would be great to share with you all and so I paused the TV and wound it back to be able to record it on my phone.
Notice how his iron hits the ball and then the turf, taking a long shallow-ish divot. When you hit from the grass, how often do you take a divot similar to that? Now we’re using mats you can still get the sense of “scuffing” the mat post impact.
If you’ve not been doing this and start, your ball striking will sky rocket…. and before long, you too will be playing a 3/4 wedge from 135 yards out!!!
It’s a bit of a results round up this week. Oh and don’t forget to grab you Pro Shop Christmas draw tickets! Please enjoy the read!
Well done to Jan Ravenscroft, Jo Egerton & Sue Martin for winning Thursday’s team comp with 45 points. Gill Kay, Sally Blackburn & Kate Morris were one point behind in second place. Third place went to Gillian Brogdon, Min Fishwick & Pauline Keeling with 38 points.
In Wednesday’s senior’s Texas Scramble, first place with an excellent 25 points (2 under gross) went to Craig Rea, Ian Goulty and Roger Dawson-Smith. In second were Bob Siddle, Chris Wood and Chris Adams with 24 points. On epoint adrift and in third place were Bill Dixon, Graham Bryant and Steve Bates.
Congrats go to Guy Levers, Brian Greenbank & David Rodwell for scoring 79 stableford points in Saturday’s team competition. The runners up with 75 points were Bob Siddle, Chris Ravenscroft & Alan Bradley. Third spot went to David Wainwright, Dave McGlennon & James Munnery with 71 points.
Barbara Spark won a three way card play on 21 points to win Friday’s stableford that was open to ladies and gents. Runner up was Ian Pinnington and third place went to Sally Wright.
Just a reminder that there are four more fun nine hole stablefords scheduled in the run up to Christmas that we’d love you to enter. Again they are open to ladies and gents.
The men will play from the yellow tees and the ladies will play from the red tees. They go live for booking 13 days before the date of the competition.
The upcoming dates and formats are as follows:
The clear winner of last week’s senior’s individual stableford with an excellent 23 points was Graham Jones. Roger Mattocks was second with 20 points and Mike Wells with 19 points took third place.
Remember from the 1st November 2024, mats are compulsory in all forms of play from closely mown areas and winter wheels are mandatory for electric trolleys. This is until the end of Feb 2025, unless other communications explain anything to the contrary.
Congrats to Freddie Gillan for winning Bogey 2 with a superb score of 6up. Danny Fox was runner up with 3 up & the inform Chair of Greens, Brian Greenbank, was third with 2 up. Just one two was recorded over the two days and that went to Peter Wolfenden on the second.
This 9 hole annual match took place on Thursday and out of the blue, it ended up being a honourable draw!! There was a good turn out as 39 ladies took part.
The presentation for the 2024 club knockouts took place on Sunday. Below are the winners and photos of them at the presentation. Congrats to them all! Apologies I think the photos might be a little grainy.
| Men’s Summer Matchplay Pairs | Andy Veitch & Brian Greenbank |
| Reid Plate | Chris Brown |
| Bech Cup | Noelle Morris |
| Gordon Murray Mixed 4somes | Rosie Gerrard & Dave Smith |
| Ladies 4somes | Nancy Fallows & Noelle Morris |
| Charlton Cup | Sally Blackburn |
| Owen Memorial | Freddie Gillan |
| Men’s Scratch Knockout | Brian Greenbank |
Some autumn colours spotted by Jane Perks the other day from the dining room.
Welcome to this week’s missive!
The nominations for Club Captains for 2025/26 were announced on Thursday evening in the Clubhouse and the Lady and Gentleman Captains-Nominate are Vicky Chamberlain and Glyn Isaac respectively. Vicky and Glyn have been long-standing members and both have previously served the Club and the membership through roles on Council.
Ollie Mills was also nominated for the position of Junior Captain. These nominations will be put to members at the Annual General Meeting in March 2025.
We have just set up five nine hole comps open to ladies and gents in the run up to Christmas as follows:
As you can see we’re trying a few different formats and remaining conscious of keeping play moving. The singles comps will count (course conditions permitting) for handicap and the other three won’t. We plan to run a nearest the pin on each par threes as opposed to an order of Merit this time around.
The event on Fri 1st Nov is available to book into now on Club V1. All the others will open for booking aprrox two weeks before they are scheduled to take place.
Well done to Noelle Morris for winning the 18 hole stableford with 35 points. Helen Davies was just point behind to finish as the runner up.
Mandy Gilbert shot an excellent 22 points to win the 9 hole stableford. Gail Sampson was second with 21 points and Corinne Veitch third with 15 points.
Thnks to Vicki Wells for sharing this from one of her early morning dog walks.
Unfortunately yesterday’s ladies comp was cancelled due to the constant rain on Wednesday.
We’re running some more nine hole competitions open to men and ladies. The dates before Christmas are as follows:
Fri 1st Nov
Wed 13 Nov
Thu 28 Nov
Sat 14 Dec
Thu 19 Dec
The first one is going to be a singles stableford and is open to bookings on Club V1 now. I will create the others shortly and keep you posted. We’ll be running some different formats as well to keep it interesting and fun such as a pairs betterball, a step-a-side 3 player Texas Scramble and a three clubs and a putter comp.
This time there won’t be an Order of Merit this time but there will be prizes for the Nearest the Pin on both short holes in each competition. We hope you are available to take part.
There was a three way tie at the top on one up for last weekend’s Bogey 1 and following the card play off Marcus Davies was the winner. Jim Nicholson was second and Ade Kershaw third. Three players then finished on even and they were Mike Thompson, Neil Thompson and John Stevenson. The presentations were made last night at TNC. It was clearly tricky playing conditions as no twos were recorded on either day.
There’s was a good turn out for this competition last Thursday (the 10th Oct) and all for a good cause. Mandy Gilbert was the winner with 20 points beating Sally Wright on a card play off. Kate McKenna was third with 19 points and Min Fishwick was fourth, also with 19 points.
The new online booking procedure which was implemented from the 1st October for bringing guests seems to working well so far. The three paragraphs below provide a reminder and potentially some new information.
Please note that your HGC Clubcard account is NOT automatically debited for Guest bookings. Your booking will only be confirmed when you enter the names of all of your guests and pay the requisite green fee by credit or debit card.
If you subsequently need to cancel or move your tee-time(s), please contact the Professional who will be able to assist. If you cancel your own booking we will not be able to refund your card directly and may credit your club card account instead.
Anyone wishing to play 18 holes must make separate bookings for the front and back 9 holes allowing the appropriate time to complete the first 9.
Saturday’s new members Texas Scramble was played in lovely conditions and the scoring was excellent. The winners with a nett 54 (16 under par!) were Chris Hinton, Neil Thompson, Phil Hickson & Andy Gregory. In case you couldn’t tell the winning prizes were Hale GC crested beanies!
Second spot and only one shot adrift went to the gentleman captain Ben Fallows, Jonny Grant, Rob Goodall & Bill Dixon.
Congrats to Rachel McDowell for winning the recent 18 hole stableford competition with 36 points. Jan Ravenscroft was second with 35 points and Sally Budd third with 33 points.
In the front nine hole stableford, Min Fishwick was the winner with 19 points. Jane Wilkinson finished second with 17 points beating Vicki Wells on countback.
The Ferrets have also been golfing overseas recently and they were in Palma, Majorca. Congrats to the winner of their competition, John Webb who had two rounds of 36 points.
As Mike Thompson remarked this was a wonderful result, particularly remembering John was seriously ill and only walking with a frame not so very long ago. Inspiration for us all. Jim Nicholson was the runner up.
Wow, what a rainy day Monday was – as the photos below from the course, car park and my drive hole demonstrate!
Preferred lines are now in operation with immediate effect.
Thanks to Jan Ravenscroft for sending in the photos below and the write up of the recent ladies overnight trip to Carden Park.
The whole event was very slickly organised by Mandy Gilbert and Tracey Thompson and was a lot of fun. The winners of the team golf competition were LC’s team Janet Grant,Sally Blackburn and Sue Wright. In second place were Tracey Thompson, Gail Sampson, Noelle Morris and Sue Broadbent. Nearest the Line was Louise Gerald and Nearest the Pin was won by Sally Budd.
This event was played last Thursday morning and then followed by lunch. It was a Texas Scramble with a shotgun start. The winners were Sally Blackburn, Sue Fallows and Judith Guest. The runners up were Judy Pinnington, Amanda Greaves and Jo Bates.
19 of our members went to sunnier climes over the weekend as part of the Out of Bounders tour to Praia D’el Rey in Portugal. The photos show them having a great time and the fabulous backdrop of one of the courses!
If you couldn’t tell, the Orange team won the encounter and Chris Hinton won the individual prize.
