Author: Richard Booth

This week, we have lots of different competition formats and results to report. There’s also information on GUR from greens and even, for a bit of fun, a caption competition!

Frolic

The bank holiday Frolic was a waltz stableford and the winners with 43 points were Tiff Fielden, Mandy Gilbert, Johnny Yates and Bob Cooke. Runners up with 40 points were Joanne & Graham Bryant and Kerry & Howard Gill.

Bell Cup

On Sunday, the Hale GC ladies beat Wilmslow GC in the first round of the Bell Cup. It was played at Hale and we won convincingly with a scoreline of 5:2. Tiff Fielden received a whopping 13 shots in her match against a plus three handicapper and won on the last! They now march on into the next round. Well done team Hale!

Junior Comp

Matthew Hodder scored 17 stableford points to win Saturday’s junior nine hole competition just pipping Ollie Grieves by one point.

Seniors Spring Stableford

The rescheduled Seniors Spring Stableford was played on Friday and Ian Goulty was one of three players to score 20 stableford points over the nine hole competition. Ian won on count back, Tony Sampson was second and Roger Da Forno finished in third place.

Ladies Competitions

Well done to Vanessa Veitch and Louise Gerald for winning last week’s Australian Sppons foursomes stableford with 37 points. Second spot went to Helen davies and Sue Bryant with 33 points.

In the back nine stableford, Noelle Morris won with 18 points and the evergreen Barbara Spark was second with 17 points.

Message from Greens – Ground Under Repair

Important! – There are currently no areas of GUR on the course. 

GUR areas on the course are generally marked by a solid white line and grass cutting lines for Greenstaff to follow are marked by a dotted white line (that said the sunken area to the right of the 3rd/12th hole is currently marked by a solid white line which should be a dotted line – apologies for that!).

Whilst it is fairly easy for us to mark GUR areas when they are first established, it is often difficult to declare them back in normal play when the area has recovered but the traces of the original line and/or the letters “GUR” can still be faintly visible on the grass.

We plan in future to introduce clearer guidance to members about precisely where and when GUR areas on the course are in operation and when that situation ceases to apply. 

In the meantime please remember that there are currently no GUR areas anywhere on the course so play the ball as it lies throughout the general area.

Caption Competition

The gentleman captain Roger Laitt spotted these discarded shoes in the bin by the shop and felt it may stimulate a good caption competition so please let me have ’em!!

It seems Pro Shop newsletters are likes buses – you wait ages for one and then two appear practically at the same time! Hope you enjoy your second missive of the week.

Captains’ Mixed Foursomes

Well done to Kerry Bailey & Jonny Gray for winning Saturday’s Mixed Foursomes competition with a whopping 45 points! Rosie Gerrard & Glyn Isaac were runners up with 35 points.

We didn’t have enough ladies so some had to partner two different men! So ladies the message is please try and sign up for these fun competitions whenever possible.

Lady Captain’s Car Parking Space

Here’s a message from the lady captain Jan Ravenscroft:

Thank you all very much indeed for so generously supporting the Raffle for Lady Captain’s car parking space. All the money raised will go to Guide Dogs, this year’s charity.

The draw took place on Saturday afternoon, at tea after the Mixed Foursomes competition. The lucky winner was Glyn Isaac!

Hale GC Pro Am 2023

We still have some sapces left in this year’s Pro Am which takes place on Saturday 8th July. This really is a great event. If you’ve not yet played in it, why not give it a try? Just ask anyone who has particpated and I think they’ll give it a hearty thumbs up. It’s open to ladies and gents.

The format is teams of four (one professional and three amateurs) with the best two scores to count on each hole. You can enter with any handicap but the maximum playing handicap allowed on the day is 18 for men and 24 for ladies. The entry fee is £230 if all three amateurs are Hale members or £260 if one or more of the team are not Hale members.

Sandiford

Congratulaions to Guy Levers & David Rodwell for beating Tony Sampson & Andrew Fishwick 2 & 1 on Monday in the final of the Sandiford, which is the men’s winter foursomes knockout.

GPS Devices

With the new pat three 4th hole now being in operation plus other changes to the course, we are busy contacting the GPS companies to ensure that their information is correct. Shotscope and Skycaddie have updated. I am in email communication with Garmin to finalise them updating their data.

Are there any other companies that have not yet updated their information correctly? If so, please can you let me know so that I can make contact with them. Thank you.

Snips from greens – Health & Safety on the Course

The opening of our new 4th/13th hole means that the shortest route from that green back to the next teeing area for Crowbank, can tempt members to walk along the edge of the fairway of ‘Bend’ (the 3rd/12th fairway). Please do not use that route, tempting as it is, but instead use the path which is cut to run alongside the riverbank and through the sunken area which leads up to Crowbank’s 14th Teeing area. This is not only a much safer route it also avoids players on Bend having to delay play whilst waiting for their target area to clear. Thank you.

The New Patio looking good in the Sunshne

It’s been a busy week so I’m a little tardy in getting my newsletter out to you all so my apologies! The good news is that there’s loads of golf to report on so I’ve simply gone through the competitions in time order with the most recent ones first.

Adult Junior

The first adult junior competition of the five event season was played on Friday evening. The scoring was excellnt, the weather stayed fine and a good time was had by all. The winners were Spencer & Andy Plastow with 26 points.

Second place was tied on 25 points but much to the gentleman captain’s delight, he & junior captain Matthew Hodder beat Adam Laitt & Hector Neary on countback.

The next one is on Friday 12th May. Please let me know if you would like to play or just require further details.

Nine & Dine

There was a great turnout for the Nine & Dine which also took place on Friday. The format was a waltz stableford and the winners with a whopping socre of 50 points over the front nine were Judy & Ian Pinnington and Ceri & Adam Hyde. Second place was secured by the all female side of Jane Wilkinson, Amanda Greaves, Sally Budd & Kairen Seaton. They were just one point behind the winners.

Thanks to Jo Egerton for her help in running the event.

Ladies Competitions

Well done to Mandy Gilbert for winning Thursday’s Bunty Booth stableford with 35 points. Louise Gerald also recorded the same score but was beaten on countback.

Pat Jefferies won the nine hole competition with a fine score of 21 points. Jane Perks finished as runner up just one point back.

The previous week, the weather took it’s toll again so only a nine hole competition was played. It was a max score medal with a three way tie at the top with scores of 38. Jo Bryant won the card play off, Noelle Morris was second and Sally Blackburn was third.

Seniors Summer Stableford 1

A super turnout of 40 seniors took place in Wednesday’s nine hole competition. Well done to John Gower-Jones for finishing in first place with 19 points. Ian Hunt was second with 18 points. Andrew Fishwick finished third also with 18 points.

Medal 1

The scoring reflected the difficult conditions for last Saturday’s Medal 1. Jonny Gray was one of four players to record a nett 70 to win on countack. Second was Nick Maxwell, Tony Adamson was third and Roger Sheen was fourth. The best gross score of the competition wwas Adam Laitt with a 76.

The weather on the alternate day was terrible – cold, wet and windy so bad luck to those players who pegged it up then.

Ladies Rules Evening

A big thank you goes to Phil Long for running the Ladies’ Rules Evening with the lady captain jan ravenscroft. The winners of the quiz were Pat Jefferies, Mandy Gilbert and Jo Egerton. Thanks to Gwynneth Bramwell for the photo.

Snips from Greens

We politely ask you to please make sure that when you making your way from the 6th green to the 7th tee that neither you nor your clubs are in the way for the group behind.

Photos

There are an eclectic mix of photos from the last seven days or so below.

Cornwall

I was very forunate earlier in the week to have a whistle stop golf tour to Cornwall where Chris Adams and I played Trevose and St Enodoc. Both courses feature in the UK’s top 100 links courses. The weather was kind to us and the courses didn’t disappoint. I have included some photos below. The first in from a clody Trevose on day one and the second two are from a much sunnier St Enodoc on day 2. If you are a lover of links golf, these two should be on your “to play” list – challenging and stunning.

4th Hole

Thanks to Ian Hunt for these photos as the birds get used to having a new pond.

Trolley Trouble

Neil Stockton is still smiling whilst rescuing his trolley as it attempted to make it’s way into the Bollin on Friday night. Phil Long took great delight in sharing this with me 🙂

Well done to Jon Rahm for playing some excellent golf on the long final day to secure this year’s Masters. Richard Hogben must have been happy too as he had him in this year’s sweepstake.

The bad weather that disrupted the Masters also meant that the Frolic scheduled for Easter Monday had to be cancelled.

Callaway Demo Day

And talking of Jon Rahm, you may well be aware that he is a Callaway staff player,. As such, he is using the latest Paradym driver and fairways amongst other Callaway clubs.

This leads me nicely into reminding you that we have a demo day here on Friday 28th April. We still have some spots left. If you are interested in some new clubs for 2023, this is a great opportunity to have a go with them under the watchful eye of master fitter, Tom Gradwell.

Junior Stableford (Front 9)

The junor stableford on Saturday did go ahead though and Sam Morris won with 13 points. Ollie Grieves scored the ame number of points but was beaten on a card play off.

Snips from Greens – Scorecards and Maximum Scores in Medal Competitions

In order to ensure that cards can be easily checked at the end of a competition players should only mark the gross score of the person they are marking for in column A together with their own score as Marker in column D. No other players scores should be recorded on an individual’s card.

During this year’s Medal competitions we will again be implementing the ‘Maximum Score’ competition format to help ensure a prompt pace of play. This establishes a maximum score for each hole of 5 over par. Players who have not yet holed out after playing that number of shots must pick up and continue with their round.

As you mark your card, please indicate where you have picked up by placing a square around the score for that hole. This information will be used to aid in tie-resolution in the event of any card play-off. You must gain confirmation from your marker that your score is correctly recorded before submitting it.

A properly completed card should look like this (apologies Dave for using your scorecard label in this example, as we all know you would always score far better than this!!)

Hole #4 – Player has hit 8 shots and has not yet holed his/her ball, so he/she picks up and moves on to hole #5.
Hole #7 – Player has hit 9 shots and has not yet holed his/her ball, so he/she picks up and moves on to hole #8.
Hole #9 – Player holes out with his/her 9th shot (no square needed).

Well it’s Masters week which, as we all know, is the unofficial official start of the golf season!! There was some fantastic golf played yesterday but a a relatively slow start for Rory. Hope you all get chance to watch some of it and good luck to those of you who have entered the Pro Shop Masters Sweepstake.

In this week’s newsletter, we have the following:

• a round up of competition results
• news and photos of the new patio
• a great deal on Titleist pro V1 golf balls
• new of some great value junior golf sets
• a rules reminder from greens and
• a link to Seamus power’s consecutive holes in one!!

Ladies Stablefords

Congratulations to Mandy Gilbert for winning Wednesday’s 18 hole stableford with 36 points. Noelle Morris was runner with two points less.

Freda Hunt was the winner of the nine hole stableford with a fine score of 20 points. The runner up was Karen Stockton with 16 points. Karen beat both Pat Jefferies and Gail Sampson on count back.

The other photo below is of the lady captain Jan Ravenscroft and Sandra Mossop with flowers presented to Sandra for her very special birthday at tea on Wednesday. Sandra treated all the ladies to a birthday glass of fizz. 

Ladies Spring Meeting

Well done to Jackie Murphy, Joanna Bates Mandy Gilbert and Jane Perks for winniung last week’s nine hole Spring Meetingwith a cracking score of 51 points. Second placve went to Gwyneth Bramwell, Jane Wilkinson, Gill Kay, and Terri Broadbent. Third place was secured by Lady Captain, Wendy Jenkins, Joanne Bryant and Pam Dixon

The shotgun start golf was followed by lunch.

Titleist Pro V1 Promotion

Why not stock up on Pro V1 golf balls for the season with this amazing offer? So 4 dozen balls would cost you £149.97 and if you wanted them personalised the price would be £165.96. Please contact me to place your order.

Nine & Divine

Well done to Graham Bryant and Amada Greaves for winning Sunday’s Nine & Divine pairs betterball stabeford competition with 23 points. There were four team just one point behind on 22 points but Mandy & Paul Gilbert beat the others following a card play off.

New Patio

Below are some photos of the work in progress. Many of the members turned out in force to help with the new hedge planting. As you can see the whole project has brough Tracey to her knees!!

… and here’s the finished product with some of the members not being able to resist using our excellent new facility, despite the weather!!

Snips from Greens – Mark your ball

Rule 6.3a requires players to put an identifying mark on their golf ball so that they can clearly identify it before playing it.

If your ball is not visible after your shot and you find an unmarked ball of the same make and number lying in the area where your ball landed you cannot just assume that is your ball unless you have a personal mark on it. You will be obliged to apply a stroke and distance penalty to yourself for a lost ball and go back to play a new (clearly marked!) ball instead.

Junior Clubs

We have a few second hand sets of junior clubs at various price points if ayone is looking for some. Perhaps instead of Easter Eggs for a grandchild? Much healtheir and fulfilling than chocolate!!

What are the Odds…?

How about Seamus Power recording back to back hole in ones in the the Masters Par 3 tournament on Wednesday…..

It’s a busy one this week with news of the Captains’ Drive in, a Callaway demo day plus lots more! We also have lots of great photos for you to persue so thank you to everyone who’s sent those in – my apologies if I didn’t use yours on this occassion!

Callaway are Coming

I’m delighted to announce that we have secured a Callaway demo day here at Hale GC on Friday 28th April. They’ll be showcasing their full range including the multi tour winning Paradym range. Times are available between 1100 and 1430. Don’t miss this excellent opportunity to upgrade your clubs. Please drop me a line to book your appointment

Captains’ Drive In

The new captain’s took up office over the weekend. They can be seen below before their drive in and also in action. They are Roger Laitt, Jan Ravenscroft and Matthew Hodder. We wish them all the best for a fabulous year.

Farewell and a big thank you to the retiring captains of David Wainwright, Judy Pinnington and Dan Turkington for all their hard work during their year of office.

Before the drive-in, we staged a nine hole stand a side Texas Scramble. Thanks to Tiff Fielden for organsing this. It was a shotgun start and it was so popular that we had to make it teams of five!

There were two winning teams, each scoring a gross 34 (one under par). Dave Madeley, Kerry Gill, Glyn Isaac, Joe Bluer & Dave Burkinshaw made up one of the teams and Ted Shaw, Judith Guest, Tony Sampson, Tracey Thompson & Andrew Fishwick made up the other. Well done to all!

New Ladies Spring/Summer Clothing Range

Annastasia has dropped off a whole new range of fabulous clothing so please pop in and have a good browse….

Ladies Texas Scramble

Last Thursday, the ladies played a back nine Texas Scramble. Congratulations to the winners – Kerry Gill, Caroline Smith and Noelle Morris with 24 points. Second place went to Kerry Bailey, Joanne Bryant and Karen Stockton with 21 points following a card play off with two other teams.

The third photo below shows Sally Budd presenting flowers to Judy Pinnington as a thank you for her year as lady captain.

Ladies Starter / Returner Golf Lessons

I’m not even sure “returner” is the appropriate word but hopefully you understand what I mean! This Spring, I am offering group lessons on a bespoke basis to new golfers or golfers that haven’t played for a while to help them “Get into Golf”. It’s a course of six one hour lessons.

Should you know any friends or family that might be interested, please ask them to contact me and I’ll can explain more about it. My email address is richardsboothuk@gmail.com and the Pro Shop phone number is 0161 249 8427. Thank you.

Snips from Greens – Ready Golf

The R&A recommend various methods to help speed up play including the following:

• Be ready to play when it is your turn.
• Hit your shot before helping someone else search for their ball.
• Hit your shot if you are ready to play but a player further away from the hole is not (eg they may be raking a bunker or looking for a ball).
• Position your bag on the side of the green nearest the next tee when putting.
• Play a provisional ball if there is a risk that your ball may be lost.

We have loads of results this week from the men’s and seniors sections but sadly not from the ladies as the weather last Thursday meant that their competition was cancelled 🙁

We also have another message from Greens and news of a bargain set of irons.

Bogey Final

Congratulations to Tony Bray for winning Saturday’s Bogey Final with a score of two up. Andrew Fishwick also scored two up but was beaten into second spot following a card play off. Johnny Yates finished third with one up. Seven twos were recorded.

Sharp Memorial Trophy

At Saturday’s presentation, David Wainwright received the Sharp Memorial Trophy for his win over the course of Bogeys 1 to 6. It is based on the a player’s best four scores from the six events. David’s cumulative was a very impressive five up. The runner was David Rodwell with four up and Danny Fox was third also with four up.

Mawson Trophy

Well done to Guy Levers who finished on top in the Mawson Trophy. This is an eclectic competition run over 22 events which concluded with the Bogey Final. Guy’s score was a nett 44 which is 26 under par!! He scored this over 15 events. David Rodwell was second and David Wainwright third. Both had the same nett score but needed more events to amass this total so hence Guy proved to be the winner.

Bradley Trophy

Below is a photo of Chris Adams receiving his trophy from Alan Bradley following his victory in the competition. This event is also an Order of Merit style with four scores being taken from the six nine hole competitions. Chris won with a very impressive 80 points. The runner up was to Tony Adamson with 74 points.

Out of Bounders Winter League

Well done to David Rodwell for winning this most prestigious of titles.

Cobra Fly XL Irons

I have just got in stock one set of Cobra irons (5-PW & SW) with men’s steel regular shafts. They are selling at £299 and are a lot of club for the money. They are well worth considering if you or a friend or family member are looking for a great value set of irons.

Snips from Greens: Pace of Play in Competition Golf

As the summer season approaches we are expecting a large number of competitors most weeks. With only nine holes we can get a reasonable number of rounds completed on a Saturday but only if everyone plays each round of nine holes in no more than two hours.

Two things to remember please:

1. Pace of play is the joint responsibility of all group members so please keep up with the group ahead of you  – to check you’re on the pace you should be arriving at each par four tee before the group ahead of you have finished putting out on that hole.

2. Don’t forget that Alternate Day tee times are available when there is usually less time pressure although you should still aim for the two hour target.

Well what a shocking week weather wise ☹ The PGA seniors & trainees events that was scheduled for Monday, the Seniors Spring stableford scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday’s ladies comp have all been cancelled due to inclement weather. Fingers crossed for the men’s Bogey Final on Saturday.

As you’ll read below, the juniors managed to get round on Saturday afternoon though.

This week, we also have our new feature “Snips from Greens” explaining about the procedure when a player plays from the wrong tee.

Junior Stableford

The first junior competition of the season was played in the cold and wet last Saturday. The winner after battling round the front nine was Matthew Hodder with 16 point. Alex Keeling pipped Ollie Grieves on count back to secure second place with 13 points.

Men’s Team Clothing

I will be placing the order early next week so please let me know asap if you’d like to get one of the navy FJ polos as linked to here and shown in the photo below. The price is £45.

If there are any other FootJoy clothing items that you would like to order with the Hale GC crest on, I can add those to the order. Here’s a link to their website. This offer is open to men, ladies and juniors.

For the men, one option might be a navy mid layer which would compliment the navy polo if things ended up being a little chilly. Here’s a link to that garment and there’s a photo below.

UA Waterproof Jackets

I’ve also taken stock of a small run of close out Under Armour waterproof jackets. As you can see from the photo below, they look great. I have them in men’s small, medium and large. The price is £99 but if you buy one before my next newsletter comes out I’ll take £10 of that price.

Ladies Spring Dinner

Thanks to Sue Bryant for providing me with these photos from the evening.

Snips from Greens – Playing from the Wrong Tee

Strokeplay – If you realise you have done this and you have not yet started the next hole you need to apply the general penalty of two strokes to your score and go back and play from the correct tee. If you don’t realise your error until after you’ve teed off on the next hole then you have to disqualify your score for the entire round.

Matchplay – There is no penalty but your opponent may choose to cancel your stroke and make you play another ball. If your opponent does not cancel your stroke, you simply carry on as normal.

Thanks again to Bob Siddle for providing these rules reminders.

We have a new informative feature from Greens starting this week at the end of the newsletter. We also have lots of results to share plus information about an opportunity to buy a team polo shirts for the men.

Bogey 6

Congratulations and utmost respect to current gentleman captain David Wainwright for recovering from his Captain’s dinner the night before and then going out to score 3 up in Bogey 6 on Saturday. What staying power! Peter Atherton was second with two up whilst Paul Taylor secured third spot with his score of one up.

Sharp Memorial

The gentleman captain’s winning score of three up was also good enough to secure him victory in the Sharp Memorial. This is awarded to the golfer with the best aggregate score from four of the six Bogeys that are played over the winter. His aggregate score was five up. David Rodwell was second with four up. Danny Fox was also four up but he was beaten into third place following a card play off.

Open Nine Hole Winter Stableford

This was played over two dates: Saturday 25th February and Thursday 2nd March. The scoring was incredibly consistent with ten players sharing the same score of 20 points at the top of the leaderboard. So after many card play offs, the winner of the ladies prize was Kairen Seaton and the runner up was Gail Sampson. On the men’s side, David Rodwell finished on top with Ian Goulty the runner up.

The turn out for the two days was really encouraging and great to see.

Men’s Team Polo Shirts

Here’s a message from David Rodwell…

I am excited to announce that we have decided to introduce Hale GC crested polo shirts for this year’s Captain’s matches. These new shirts are not only comfortable, but they will also help us look and feel our best while representing our club.

Our new Foot-Joy shirts will feature our club logo prominently displayed on the front. The colour will be navy (white logo) and we are suggesting the Stretch Pique Solid (see below). More details can be found by clicking here.

Richard will be placing an order soon for these shirts, so please contact him in the Pro Shop to reserve yours.

Please note that these shirts are optional, but all members of the Captain’s squad are encouraged to consider purchasing one.

Finally, the dates for most of this year’s fixtures have now been arranged and can be seen on Clubv1 (Menu => Club Teams =>Captain’s Matches). Confirmation of the full list of fixtures will be sent once all dates have been finalised.

I look forward to seeing you all soon on the course sporting our new team shirts!

Nine & Divine

The club’s first Nine and Divine took place on Sunday (like a Nine & Dine but on a Sunday morning rather than a late Friday afternoon). The winners were Keith and Tracey with 23 points. Second place went to Kerry Bailey and Phil Long and third spot went to Pat & Barry Jefferies. All three teams scored 23 points so the final standings were sorted out via countback. The golf was followed by Sunday lunch so a great time was had by all.

Snips from Greens

We are going to try and run a regular feature to help with common rules queries that crop up. Thank you to Bob Siddle for providing the content.

Picking up a ball – this is arguably the most common error made by golfers worldwide. Whilst everyone marks a ball when they lift it on a putting green (whether theirs or someone else’s), many people do not mark a ball when they handle one elsewhere on the course (eg to identify if it is their ball).

If a ball has to be replaced in it’s original position then it must be marked first. If you forget to do this with your own ball you should apply a one stroke penalty to your score.

If you are lifting a ball to place it elsewhere because you are entitled to relief (eg from abnormal ground conditions) there is no requirement for you to mark your ball first. Our preferred lies relief rules at Hale for example (whether you are placing the moved ball back on grass or a mat) do not require you to mark the ball position before lifting it.

It is good practice to do so, however, if you take your lifted ball a pace or two away to clean it (by your trolley for example) so you know for sure where the original spot was.

Just a brief one this week. Next week, we will have the results of the Open Winter Stableford competition that has been staged over two days.

Patio

Work on the patio is progressing nicely…

Seniors Back Nine Texas Scramble

Yesterday’s event was won by Roger Fielding, Andy Veitch and Ian Hunt with a fine score of 25 points. Paul Gilbert, Phil Long and Bill Wrigley finished runners up with 23 points beating Graham Jones, Lee Bramley and John Wright on a card play off.

Ladies Front NineStableford

Well done to Maria Deane, who scored 21 points to finish in first place. Jo Bryant was second just one point adrift and Kathleen McNairney was beaten into third place after a count back.