Blog

Welcome to this week’s missive!

Captains Elect

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.

Nine Hole Comps open to Ladies & Gents

We have just set up five nine hole comps open to ladies and gents in the run up to Christmas as follows:

• Fri 1 Nov – F9 singles stableford
• Wed 13 Nov – F9 three clubs & a putter stableford
• Thu 28 Nov – B9 best two from three team stableford
• Sat 14 Dec – F9 step-a-side three person texas scramble (stableford)
• Thu 19 Dec – B9 singles stableford

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.

Ladies 18 & 9 hole Stablefords from Yesterday

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.

Morning Moon

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.

Nine Hole Stablefords

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.

Bogey 1

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.

Lady Captain’s Charity 9 Hole Stableford

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.

Men’s Texas Scramble

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.

Ladies Competitions

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.

Ferrets on Tour

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.

Ladies Away Trip

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.

Ladies Autumn Meeting

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.

Out of Bounders on Tour

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.

What a shame that Finals Day was rained off on Sunday. Matches are now due to be completed by the 27th October and there will be a presentation on that afternoon. Good luck to all the finalists!

Medal Final – Captains Cup 2024

Well done to Paul Simpson for battling round in level par nett to win the Medal Final on Saturday. Paul Taylor finished as runner up beating Andrew Hay on a card play off.

Liam Murphy won the Bentley and can be seen receiving the trophy below.

St Andrews Trip 2025

The initial response has ben really good from this with eight men and ladies signing up so far. In addition, there are a few maybes. Please see the info below in case you missed it last week and contact me to secure your place.

Junior Comp

Saturday’s individual front nine stableford comp was won by Ollie Grieves with 20 stableford points. Ollie Lynch was one point adrift to finish as runner up. Mathhew hodder scored 17 points and Louis Wild 16. Five other juniors submitted scorecards for their handicap hich was great to see.

Ladies Competitions

Congrats to Rachel McDowell for winning last Thursday’s 18 hole Medal Final with a nett 69. Runner up was Irene Kirk with a nett 71 and Mandy Gilbert was third with a nett 72.

Jane Nicholson wpn the nine hole max score medal with a nett 32. Super consistent Helen Williams was second with a nett 34 and Pauline Keeling was third with a nett 35.

Ping Demo Day

Don’t forget the upcoming fitting day on Mon 21st Oct with master fitter Alex from Ping. Spaces are limited so contact me to book yours

Distances on the Practice Ground

I have remeasured the disatnces of the 7 flags on the range and they are shown below. They are also on a little sign near the mats and also on the hut on the other side of the road (as shown in the photos below). Hope this information helps you hone your distances!

Another busy missive this week with lots of HGC results, news of a Ping demo day, a round up of some great photos and news of a trip to St Andrews. Let’s get started….

St Andrews 2025

I’ve not run a golf trip since Covid and I’ve been super keen to get cracking again! I wanted to run something that was a bit different and really exciting which is where this potential trip comes in. I say potential as nothing has been reserved as yet so initially I am just guaging interest. That said, the information contained on the above poster is the trip that I’d really like to run with.

So we’re looking at March of next year and the package includes two nights accomodation (in either the Ardgowan or Albany Hotels, both of which are situated on the main street of St. Andrews and only a few hundred yards from the 18^th Green on the Old Course!!) and three rounds of golf. I am looking for three fourballs so myself and 11 others who want to experience some great golf courses and have lots of fun while we’re at it!

Here are the links to the different golf course websites: Eden, Elie Links and Ladybank.

Please let me know as soon as you possible if you are interested. Let’s make it happen!

Medal 8

Congrats to chair of greens Brian Greenbank for winning Medal with a great score of 74 gross, nett 66. Neil Roberts was 2 strokes back in second place and James Lynott finished third. James’ brother Sam also had a great day out recording a hole in one the short 4th.

Ping Demo Day

Ping are visiting on Mon 21/10/24 with fitting appointments between 1100 and 1500. Please contact me if you’d like to reserve a place. There are 6 appointments available so don’t delay!

Ladies Comps

The 18 hole competition on the 12th September was won by Sally Blackburn and Chris Marsh finished second. Kerry Bailey won the front nine stableford with an excellent 23 points. Maria Deane was runner up with 21 points.

Helen Davies also picked up her trophy for winning the stableford final.

Seniors Golf, AGM & Lunch

On the 4th Sept, Lee Bramley won the 9 hole seniors final with 20 points. Bob Siddle was second with 18 points and Tony Adamson was third following a countback.

The following comps were all played on the 11th September. The Tuttle is a nine hole for those over 74 years young. John Moss won it with 18 points, Bill Wrigley was second with 17 points and Roger Fielding third with 16 points.

The Timpson  (which again is for golfers older than 74) was played over 15 holes this time and Tarik Rashid was the winner with 26pts. Barry Jefferies was beaten into second spot following a card play off and Martin Oldfield finished third with 25 points.

The Morren is for the “rookies” (those under 75) and was won by Adam Hyde with 35 points which is great scoring over 15 holes. Second place went to Chris Ravenscroft with 32 points and Ian Hunt was third with 27 points. Photos of the winners can be seen below.

Photo Round Up

Congrats to Trina Walsh, seen her celebrating a significant birthday – you’ll need to ask her as to which one!!

Secondly, it would seem Al Kenney didn’t get the memo about casual TNC!

Thanks to Ian Hunt for sending in the beautiful rainbow pic, taken during the men’s 9 hole league match last week.

Finally here’s Helen Williams who won the 18 hole medal on the 5th September with a fantastic nett 65 – I somehow manged to miss off her photo from last week’s newsletter so my apologies Helen!

The Solheim Cup takes place this weekend as Europe attempt to win it for a record fourth consecutive time. Should be a great watch.

President’s Prize

Congratulations go to Rosie Gerrard & Dave Smith for winning Saturday’s mixed foursomes stableford with 41 Points. Kerry Bailey & Phil Long were runners up with 37 points.

Caroline Smith won the the Nearest The Pin on the 4th hole with a distance of 13 ft 9” and Dve McGlennon won it on the 11th with 24ft 8”. Keith Thompson won the Nearest the Line on the 1st hole and Rosie Gerrard won it on the 10th.

There were five twos recorded, two of which were scored by Tiff Fielden & Dave McGlennon. Rosie Gerrard & Dave Smith, Kerry Bailey & Phil Long and Chris Marsh & Mike Kirchin grabbed the others.

And finally the Tote was shared six ways between Andrew Kay, Pat Jefferies, Gillian Brogden, Martin Oldfield, Jane Wilkinson & Sally Budd.

The president John Gower-Jones can be seen below presenting the prizes to the winners and runners up.

Juniors

We had a good turnout of ten players for Saturday’s Texas Scramble competition. Congrats to Ollie L, Ollie G and Fraser for returning an outstanding score of -3. The other scores weren’t too shabby either! Results below.

1st Ollie Lynch, Ollie Grieves, Fraser Gregory (-3)
2nd Matthew Hodder, Lucas Dolce, Spencer McCann (level par)
3rd Louis Wild, Ben Hinton, Owen Moss, Edward Baxter (+1)

The next junior comp is at 4pm on Sat 21st Sept. Please contact me for further details.

Well done to Spencer McCann and junior captain Matthew Hooder won Friday’s final Adult Junior competition of the season with 22 points beating the Murray-Browns on countback. The season long Order of Merit was won by Oscar Davies with 30..33 points. Congrats Oscar! Louis Wild was second with 28 points. All the results are shown below.

Ladies Competitions

Helen Williams blitzed the field of the 18 hole comp last week shooting a superb nett 65. Caroline Smith was second with a nett 73 beating Helen Davies on countback.

Pat Jefferies recorded an impressive 22 points in the nine hole stableford. Jean Green was second 21 points and Mary Cockbain third with 20 points.

September has lots of golf coming up here at HGC. Tomorrow we have the Seniors stableford final, Thursday is the ladies 18 and 9 hole Medal finals, the last Adult Junior comp of 2024 takes place on Friday afternoon and the Presidents prize is taking place on Saturday.

Rental Trolleys

The Pro Shop has just invested in a new fleet of push rental trolleys, replacing the previous set which were bought approx four years ago. Again they are three wheelers and beautifully weighted so a breeze to manoeuvre round the course and less strain on your back. If you use one, please pay for it in the Pro Shop. If the shop is closed, you can pay behind the bar. Thank you.

Centenary Trophy

Congrats to Ian Goulty for amassing 42 stableford points to win Saturday’s Centenary trophy. Chris Adams was the runner up with 39 points beating Gary Beal following a card play off.

Sale Rail

We also have an end of season sale rail with some items as low as £10. There are some lovely garments on there so if you want to pick up a bargain, don’t hang around!

Ladies Competitions

Well done Joanne Bryant for winning the ladies 18 hole stableford last week with 39 points. Jo Egerton was second with 37 points and Min Fishwick was third, losing out to Jo on countback.

Lisa Warnes won the front nine max score medal with a nett 31. Karen Stockton was second with a nett 34.

Ollie G on Tour

Thanks to proud (and justifiably so!) grandfather and HGC member John Book for some recent updates on Ollie Grieves’ progress.

Ollie was invited to compete in the Grand Final of the Northern Junior Golf Tour recently at Thonock Park GC, Gainsborough. You will see from the attached photo’s that this was a very professional event with the caddies having to wear bibs and players presnted with a sheet of pin positions!!

Ollie played really well but unfortunately had a rotten last hole and so finished 7th on the day but 9th out of 32 in the Tour’s Order of Merit for the year. One of the photos below shows him proudly sporting his competitors badge alongside his Hale GC badge on his bag.

Clearly Ollie’s experience in this alongside playing for Hale GC in the MCJL and also doing the Link Golf Junior Tour more locally has been a great learning experience in the wonderful game of golf, alongside which Ollie has made some really good friends in the sport and in doing so is maintaining a life learning experience which is maintaining his desire to progress and do well.

Ollie used the last hole disappointment to spur him and so went onto win the Link Golf event in the 12-15 year age group at Greenmount GC, Bury on Sunday afternoon with his mum Kirsty as caddie. He won by four shots.

Well done Ollie – it’s not just your grandfather, we’re all super proud of you! And I love the penultimate paragraph – isn’t that what it’s all about??

This week we have the latest results round up, news from the Irrigation Project team and a lost property request. Please enjoy!

Frolic – Mixed Texas Scramble – Back 9 on 26/08/2024

1	J. Bryant / K. Gill / H. Gill / G. Bryant	26
2	I. Kirk / R. Kirk / K. Thompson / T. Thompson	25
3	V. Wells / C. Davies / H. Davies / M. Wells	24

B9 Ladies & Gents Stableford on 24/08/2024

1	John Kennedy	21
2	Peter Hindle	21
3	Jane Nicholson	21

Order of Merit

We played eight nine hole stablefords over the course of the season, starting on the 6th April and culminating in the event held last Saturday. 142 different golfers took part over the campaign and the OoM winner was John Kennedy with 139 points pulling away from Graham Jones with two strong final results. The top 10 positions are listed below. Well done to these golfers and many thanks to everyone who took part.

1st John Kennedy 139 points
2nd Graham Jones 125 points
3rd Martin Oldfield 117 points
4th Chris Wood 89 points
5th William Wrigley 86 points
6th John Johnston 83 points
7th Jane Wilkinson 80 points
8th Ian Hunt 76 points
9th Johnny Yates 74 points
10th= Bill Harvey, Freda Hunt, John Wright 72 points

Ladies Competitions from Thursday 22/8/24

Kairen Seaton shot a magnificient 42 points to win the 18 hole stableford.

Most of the field opted for nine holes because of the lousy weather and Diana Harris won the event with 23 stableford points. Jan ravenscroft was runner up with 22 points and Gillian brogdon third with 19 points.

Irrigation Project

A few words below from Roger Sheen.

On Wednesday 21st August Council held a luncheon at the club to celebrate the successful implementation of our new state of the art irrigation system.

During the period of the planning, financing, tendering exercise and successful delivery of the project a number of members happily contributed their personal and professional time when requested.

At the lunch, on behalf of all members, The President presented Andrew Hay with a caricature memento in recognition of the many hundred of hours  in recent months spent working on this project on our behalf.

At the end of the lunch, Russell, from his mobile phone presented a demonstration of the system watering our practice putting green – it was spectacular (and nobody got wet!)

Unfortunately, because of work commitments, two members who contributed and greatly supported the project could not join the celebration on the day – Howard Gill and our ex captain Roger Laitt.

Thank you to all involved.

Lost Property

Has anyone found a right hand, blue grip, Rife, Barbados Island Series putter? It belongs to Paul Gilbert and was lost on the course last Friday, somewhere between the 7th and 9th holes during the match between the Seniors and the Ladies. Please let me know if you have it and/or drop it into the shop. Thank you.

Congrats to all the winners and those just pipped at the post over the last couple of weeks that are detailed below.

Just a reminder that the last frolic of the season takes place on the afternoon of the bank holiday Monday and there are still spaces available. It’s a nine hole, team of four texas scramble. At least one tee shot per player must be taken but no more than 3

Summer Stableford – 16/08/2024

1	Brian Greenbank	41
2	Chris Adams	40
3	Bill Harvey	39

Ladies Invitation

Well done to Sally Blackburn and irene Kirk for winning the invitation last Thursday in grim weather. Unfortunately it had to be cut to 9 holes. Second place went to Heather Gilchrist and Terri Broadbent’s team.

Senior Stableford 6 B9 – 14/08/2024

1	Peter Atherton	21
2	Paul Gilbert	21
3	David Cranmer	21

Medal 7 – 09/08/2024

1	Richard Duerr	75 – 11 = 64
2	Richard Hogben	90 – 23 = 67
3	Dave Swale	94 – 25 = 69

Ladies Par Tropy and Presentation Photos

Congrats to Pauline Keeling for securing the Par Trophy on Thursday 8th August with a cracking score of 5 up. Noelle Morris was runner up with 4 up and Helen Williams third, fittingly with a score of 3 up.

And well done to Ann Coulson for winning the nine hole stableford with 21 points. Freda Hunt was second, having been beaten on a card play off.

Seniors Texas Scramble – 07/08/2024

1	John Kennedy / Richard Jenkins / Chris Wood	24
2	K.eith Thompson / Paul Bramwell / John Bacon	23
3	Adam Hyde / Richard Dyson / Bob Siddle	23

Photo