Blog

Well things definitely seem to be getting back closer to normal as we have loads of competition results to report on in this week’s missive.

Centenary Trophy and Nine Hole Medal

The ladies had their first post lockdown competition on Thursday and the winner of the Centenary Trophy with a brilliant 67 was Corinne Veitch. This took place in the sweltering heat so it ended up being a bit of an endurance test. Second place with another good score of 68 was Tracey Thompson.

Well done to Rosemary Bowden who was the winner of the first ever ladies nine hole max score Medal competition with a nett 34.

Medal 3

Ted Shaw breezed round in a nett 64 to win Saturday’s Medal 3 by two strokes. Ted, real name Iain, learned to play his golf at Stand Golf Club which has produced some magnificent golfers over the years 😉

Three players finished with nett 66s. Of those Nick Horrocks finished second on countback and Quentin Smith in third.

Considering the intense squally showers, the scoring was good. The CSS was 68, scores of 70 and better qualified for September’s Medal Final and twelve twos were recorded.

Seniors Nine Hole Stableford

The winner of Friday’s Senior Summer nine hole Stableford competition was Tony Sampson with 20 points. Jim McNairney was two points adrift in second place.

Sandiford Winter Foursomes

Jez Allen and Andrew Hay beat Mike Massey and Tony Sampson 2 & 1 to win the Sandiford, which is the men’s winter foursomes knockout.

The final was originally scheduled to be played by the 28th March but due to Covid-19 restrictions, it finally took place on Sunday. Rather fittingly the weather Gods supplied challenging winter conditions with a strong, cool wind blowing across the course.

General Safety on the Golf Course

Please click here to remind yourself of the bad weather procedure and most pertinently at this time, electrical storms.

Competitions

Well Saturday saw another bumper turn out for Medal 2, including some of the field playing on the Friday in the alternate day competition. At the completion of Saturday’s play, all the scores are merged to make one overall competition.

The scoring was sensational with Charlie Hindle building on his 69 from the previous week to score a nett 58 to reduce his handicap from 24 to 17. Well played Charlie, who has been working hard on his game and supporting the competitions over the last 12 to 18 months.

Dave Smith comfortably shot the lowest gross of the day with a 71 and a nett 65 to finish in second place beating gentleman captain Jonny Yates into third place on count back. There were 9 other scores in the 60s.

There were also plenty of twos with Andrew Cowan bagging two of them. Plus there was a hole in one on the seventh for Tom Earnshaw, who is another one of our NHS heroes here at HGC. Well done indeed Tom!

Unfortunately the first ladies competition post lockdown was scheduled on Thursday but it just didn’t stop raining all day so it had to be cancelled. Fingers crossed for better weather this Thursday when the Centenary Trophy takes place.

Irrigation

Council agreed that a bore hole should be drilled beside the greenkeepers’ shed to help water the course. It will pay for itself within two years so it’s a sound investment for the club.

72 Holes in One Day

Hale Golf Club’s very own Ben Wilcox and three friends have decided to raise as much money as possible for the Macmillan Cancer Support Charity. The day will consist of four rounds of golf (72 holes), the equivalent of around 17 hours of non-stop golf. Ben and pals will start as soon as the sun comes up and finish when the sun goes down. The day will take place on the 26th June at Stockport Golf Club. Please click here and donate anything you can for this great cause.

So with each week that passes, things inch closer to returning to how they were pre pandemic. The club’s takeaway bar service has added food to it’s list of options and Medal 1 took place on Saturday for the men. The ladies start with both a nine and eighteen hole stableford on Thursday in aid of Maggie’s Charity.

There was an enormous turnout for Medal 1 with approximately 90 golfers taking part. This is certainly the biggest field for a men’s competition during my time at the club. Rob Manley won by breaking 90 gross and shooting a tremendous nett 63. Congratulations Rob – it must be all down to those new Ping clubs you recently bought 😉

Brian Greenbank finished in second place with a nett 68 beating both Howard Gill and Roger Laitt on count back. Charlie Hindle finished fifth with a 69. There were then nine nett 70s and so all of these players have qualified for the Medal Final which is scheduled for September.

A big thank you to our Chair of Greens Ian Hunt for all his hard work behind the scenes preparing online scoring, booking systems and collating scores to ensure the smooth running of this and other competitions.

Beginner Ladies Coaching Programme

We are resuming the ladies lessons from this week so if you know anyone who might be interested then please ask them to contact me asap. The ladies who have enrolled are allowed to use the club’s practice facilities so please make them feel welcome should you meet. The programme leads to an initial temporary membership and ultimately full membership (we hope) down the line.

A Belated Happy Birthday!

Peter Turkington’s 50th birthday celebration took place on the course the other week. As you can see, his friends turned up with a special outfit for him to wear during his round. Thanks to Roger Sheen for sending this photo in and as he commented “it’s great to see an NHS key worker relaxing.”

So on Monday we started back playing in threeballs as part of the lockdown easing. The beautiful weather seems to have (hopefully briefly) come to an end as a write this but we have been so lucky up to this point haven’t we? It’s been great to see the course well used over the last few weeks.

I’ve been busy coaching and the retail side of things is picking up too so thank you as always for your support. My online lesson booking system has proved really popular of late so if you’d like to book a session online, please click here.

Online Tee Times & Bringing Guests

Most people are getting the hang of the system and many have told me in the shop that they are enjoying this new booking process.

Just one important bit of admin – when you book a guest to play with you, your HGC Members Swipe Card Account is NOT automatically debited. Hence you need to let me or Phil in the Pro Shop know and we will do the honours.

If the shop is closed, please email me using richardsboothuk@gmail.com telling me the date and time that you played or are going to play and authorising me to take the guest fee from your account. If you are able to do this, it would be really helpful. Thank you.

Range Ball Amnesty

If you find any yellow range balls around our excellent practice facilities, I would appreciate you returning them to me. If you’d be kind enough to leave them by one of the mats at the back of the practice tee on the range or by the side door of the hut half way down the drive that would be great. Thanks in advance.

Putting

A little while ago I read the book “The Lost Art of Putting” by Gary Nicol and Karl Morris. I enjoyed the read . It’s a less technical look at the game within a game that is putting. At one point in the book it covers Putt Conversion Percentages from the PGA Tour from various distances. Here is some of the data:

2 feet – 99%
4 feet – 86%
8 feet – 49%
15 feet – 22%
30 feet – 7%
60 feet – 2%
90 feet – 0.5%

So the above means that 99% of all putts on the PGA Tour from 2 feet are holed – no real surprises there. However as the distances increase, the data gets more interesting. So from 8 feet the best players in the world miss more putts than they hole. How about that? From 15 feet, just over one in five putts are holed. Once the distance gets beyond 30 feet, the likelihood of them holing it becomes pretty slim.

So why am I sharing this with you? It’s not so that you stand over an eight footer and think “well the best players in the world don’t even make half of these so what chance have I got?” Rather it’s too make you more realistic. If you miss a ten foot putt for birdie or to halve the match, don’t be too hard on yourself. Based on these stats, putts of that length are plainly not easy.

The takeaway message from this is to approach every putt with the mindset that you are going to make it and give yourself the best chance of doing so…… but make sure that if the ball doesn’t drop (or wedge against the pin in these CV-19 times!) that you don’t beat yourself up. Instead move on and when you get another putt, approach it with the same open minded attitude and ask yourself “is it possible I could hole this putt?” To which the answer every single time is a resounding YES.

As Ian Hunt explained in his email to the members on Monday, at that time over 600 nine hole rounds had been played. The tee sheet remains busy and also the only way to get a game at the moment.

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To book a tee time on line you need to have a How Did i Do Passport ID and then sign up to Club V1. Click here to get full instructions on how to do this.

Golf Lessons & Club Fittings

I’m delighted to say that I’m back coaching again. It’s on a 1:1 basis and it has to be outdoors. I’m of course taking all necessary steps to ensure social distancing is adhered to. Club Fittings are also possible on the same basis.

The easiest way to book a lesson is to use my online diary. Click here to schedule a session. You can book up to 10 days in advance. Should you be struggling to find a slot that is convenient for you, then please call me 0161 249 8427 and we can sort something out over the phone. 

Marshalling

The marshalling of the course from Wednesday to Sunday was very well supported by the membership and a great success. It was needed as we transitioned from members of the public being able to walk freely across the course to them having to go back to sticking with the designated footpaths for safety reasons as golf started up again.

On that subject John Moss send me an amusing email telling me about one of his encounters whilst marshalling on Friday evening.

It was change over time and so there were four marshals by the 9th tee when a young man cycled up the new path by the 12 tee. John’s wife Janice politely explained that it was private land and so he couldn’t come up it. The cyclist replied “it’s ok, I’m not coming on the course, I’m just practising my hill climbs!”  As John observed “little did Andy Veitch think that his lovely path would be used for another purpose entirely!” I wonder whether we should develop another income stream and offer a cycling membership from now on…… 😂

So we’re back golfing again which is great news. As I’m sure you know, members are able to play in twos and book up to 48 hours in advance via the Club V1 app. I hope to see you back down here at the club very shortly.

The first out this morning was a belated and much lower key than usual, Captains’ Drive In. Gentleman captain Jonny Yates and lady captain Irene Kirk teed off at 10am and here are the photos to prove it. The first photo shows them setting an excellent example by posing for a socially distanced photo 😂

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Video

Here’s a video explaining a simple but very effective game to improve your putting. It can be played indoors or outdoors. Either way, try sticking with the 50 pence piece as the target. That way, the hole will look much bigger when you get back to it.

Mini Rakes

I can get hold of the portable mini rake attachments as per the photograph below. They attach to the end of one of your golf clubs. They retail at £10 and come in green, blue and pink. Please contact me if you’d like one.

Persimmon

Thank you to Andrew Pendleton for getting in touch from Scotland following last week’s missive. Andrew explained that he received the driver which is pictured below for his birthday back in 1982. This happened to be the same day as the April Medal which he then went on to win, making it a very successful first outing for the club! He told me that he didn’t win many medals at Hale so this was always a special memory for him. The driver was made by the US club maker, Prima.

New Zealand

Helen and Chris Davies have made it back from Auckland in New Zealand. They were working their way round the world when they got stranded there due to the country going into lock-down which apparently was stricter than here in the UK. As Chris explained “fortunately we were staying with with Helen’s sister and husband who live in a great house on the beach in Auckland.” The photos below certainly seem to back that up….

Azaleas

Thanks to Janice Moss for sending in this lovely photo of the azaleas just below the 12th tee.

Rumours

There are all sorts of whispers and rumours going around that golf might be able to start up again shortly. We at the club are not sure when that will be or what it will look like at this stage but it gives us a little optimism. Let’s hope when it does this great weather continues….. 🤞

Video

This week’s instruction video is the second and final part of my in depth look at the grip. If you didn’t see the first one, it’s worth taking a look at that first by clicking here to visit my YouTube channel.

Pro-Am Cancelled

We have taken the decision to cancel this year’s Pro Am which was scheduled for Sat 11th July. All things being equal, it will take place again in the summer of 2021. 

We have decided for various reasons that this would be the best course of action. Some of those reasons are as follows:

1. You, the members, have not been able to play the course much this year after a lousy winter and then Covid-19 and so it seems unfair to be asking for money from you to play the course on a Saturday in July.

2. If we are able to start competitions again, that Saturday might be a useful one for staging a club event to “help catch up”.

3. The clubhouse might still be closed.

4. Asking people to travel especially for the Pro Am from across Cheshire, does not seem appropriate in these times.

Photo

I love this photo from the cover of the April 1961 Golf Digest, which featured in their most recent publication. It’s an early high speed photo showing the compression of a golf ball by a wood. Those persimmon headed woods were hard work weren’t they? Thank goodness for modern day over sized titanium drivers which make the game so easy…. 😂

Golf Grip 101

This week’s video takes an in depth look at how to grip the club properly. It’s the first of two videos – the second will be part of next week’s missive. I hope the two together will serve as a useful reference for members and my pupils to check that what they’re doing either now or in the future is correct. Please have a watch and I hope you learn something new or simply confirm that you are already holding the club in the right way.

Member Watch…

Although it’s lockdown, I’ve still managed to bump into (from a social distance of course) some of the members of late…

I’ve seen Jez Allen, Paul Simpson and Andrew Page at Altrincham Market. Tarik Rashid, David Gill and Graham Jones whilst out on a run with one or both of my daughters. Colin Broadbent as he cycled past my house. Ian & Freda Hunt and Claire & Peter Hindle whilst dog walking and Dr Tom Earnshaw doing the weekly shop in Tescos. I obviously hope to see a lot more of you sooner rather than later but we’ll just have to see how things pan out.

Twitter

If you are on Twitter, please make sure that you are following myself, the official Hale GC Greens account and also assistant green-keeper Dave Taylor on the platform to keep up to date with what’s happening at the club. The respective handles are:

@rboothgolf
@halegcgreens
@murciadreams

Light Relief

Thanks to Ian Hunt for sending me the below to include as a bit of light relief in this week’s newsletter. If you have anything similar then please forward them on to me so that I can share in future dispatches.

Thank you so much to those of you who have kindly added money onto your Pro Shop accounts since last week’s newsletter. I’m very touched by the support and it certainly helps with cashflow.

If you like to do the same, please email me and I will send you my bank details so that you can transfer the amount of money that you are comfortable with. Plus I’ll add 10% in value to it. So transfer £50 and I will credit your account with £55 etc. This is the last time that I will mention this offer.

I don’t think it’s appropriate to go into too many details here but the administrators of the club have also been very supportive during these difficult times caused by Covid-19. They have proactively contacted me and pledged help financially to counteract the loss of earnings at the time of year that is traditionally a Club Pro’s busiest. It has made me feel really valued and highlights once again, what a special golf club I have the good fortune to work at. Thank you.

Coaching Video

This week’s video is looking at getting into a good post impact follow through position. It’s like many things in life and requires us to start with the end in mind. Click on the embedded YouTube link below to watch. Please note that last week’s video link didn’t work so hopefully this one will…… 🤞

Photos

I appreciate I run the risk of being accused of rubbing your noses in it here but below are some photos of the course looking in fine fettle when I popped down to the club last week. Russell and Dave are doing lots of work to ensure that when we return to WA15 0NU, it will most definitely be worth waiting for!

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That’s all for this week so stay safe and well until next time.

Fantastic to hear that Robert Spark is out of Wythenshawe hospital and back at home to complete his recovery. He and Barbara sent out a lovely email to the members this morning explaining this and thanking everyone for all their lovely messages of support.

The Masters

So the Masters would have just finished on Sunday had things been going according to the pre Covid-19 plan. This means it’s just over a year since Tiger Woods had his first major victory since 2008. He always divides opinion but you’ve a chance to re-live this incredible chapter of one of the world’s great sporting icons as it’s being shown on BBC iPlayer for the next year or so. It might just help fill in a small part of that golfing void in your life!

Rory McIlroy is looking forward to a Masters in November as the change of timing might be just what he needs to win the event for the first time and complete his career grand slam. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for the four time major winner!

Support

Thanks for the encouraging words that have been sent my way on the back of the lockdown playing havoc with the golf trade, even more so following a pretty lousy winter.

If you’d like to help financially, I am running an offer – if you top up your Pro Shop account with credit I will add an additional 10% to it. This will run until lockdown finishes. So for example, if you pay me £50, you’ll account will be credited with £55 or pay me £100 and get £110 worth of credit. You can then spend this credit on products or lessons when things get back to normal.

If you’d like to do this and support the Pro Shop, please email me on richardsboothuk@gmail.com and I will send you my bank details so that you can do a bank transfer. Thank you.

Instructional Video

Following on from last week’s posture video, here is a brand new video discussing things to work on when playing short chip shots. Hope you like it!

That’s all for this week’s missive so until next time, stay safe and well.