Blog

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

Just a brief missive this week as I’m on my hols! Please remember the shop is not open quite as extensively as normal in my absence as Phil looks after things. I’m back to work on Thursday 15th August.

Senior Stableford 1 Re-Play F9

1	John Gower-Jones	21
2	Bernie Wilcox	20
3	Tony Adamson	20

F9 Ladies & Gents Stableford

1	Nigel Taylor	22
2	Emma Daynes	22
3	Lucy Daynes	21

Ladies Competitions

Kerry Bailey won Thursday’s 9 hole Max Medal with a nett 34. Gillian Brogdon was seecond with nett 37. The results of the Centenary Trophy have not yet been announced.

Senior Stableford 5 F9

1	Chris Ravenscroft	23
2	Ian Hunt	21
3	Lee Bramley	21

Medal 6

1	Chris Davies	83 – 14 = 69
2	Danny Fox	78 – 8 = 70
3	Ade Kershaw	96 – 26 = 70

Caldy Mixed Open

Here is a picture of Gillian & Eric Healey and Jennifer & Alan Bradley before they went out to play in the Caldy Mixed Open Team Event yesterday, which they went on to win with a score of 93 points. Well done!

Results, retail goods and care of the course are the topics covered in this week’s missive. Please enjoy!

Ping Mixed 4BBB

Well done Joanne & Graham Bryant for winning this event on Sunday with 37 points. Mandy Gilbert & Jonny Grant were the runners up following a card play off. Third place went to Jan & Chris Ravenscroft with 36 points.

Medal 6

The results for this will be announced at TNC on Thursday evening.

Nine and Dine

Congrats to Freda & Ian Hunt and Barbara & Robert Spark who scored 37 points to win Friday’s (back) Nine and Dine. Pat & Barry Jefferies and Jennifer & Alan Bradley were runners up with 36 points.

Gentleman Captain’s Day to the Ladies

Well done to Pauline Keeling for winning the 18 hole competition with a whopping 42 points. Caroline Perkin was second with 38 points..

Helen Williams won the nine hole competition with a fine score of 22 points and Sue Fallows was the runner up with 18 points.

Shop Opening Times

I’m away next for a family holiday next week and Phil is looking after the shop in my abscence. The shop will be open as follows:

DAY	DATE	OPENING HOURS
Mon	5th Aug	0900-1500
Tues	6th Aug	0900-1500
Wed	7th Aug	1100-1700
Thu	8th Aug	0830-1430
Fri	9th Aug	0900-1500
Sat	10th Aug	0800-1400
Sun	11th Aug	closed
Mon	12th Aug	0830-1430
Tues	13th Aug	0900-1500
Wed	14th Aug	0830-1430

Ladies Golf Accessories

To celebrate the recent sunny weather, we’ve just taken delivery of some ladies summer gloves and also a selection of visors in different colours and fit.

Care of the Course

I received the message below via an email and so I explained to the sender (who I’ll keep anonymous) that I would post it in my newsletter. It’s not the first time this has been mentioned to me – we have a beautiful course with some hard working greenkeepers, let’s do our best to maintain it.

I hope I’m not stepping out of line to suggest this. Would you be able to put in your newsletter a mention regarding raking the bunkers?  There seems to be quite a times lately when the bunkers are not raked adequately after being used. Ball tracks, impact marks and footprints have all been there to show fun in the sand. Perhaps mentioning that there should be no evidence left that you’ve ever been in there? It is getting worse and worse. It’s not a lot of fun dealing with a churned up bunker as you try to get your ball out of it.

What a performance by Xander Schauffele to win the Open at Troon and bag his second major of the year. The course looked magnificient and the weather cooperated by giving us some brutal conditions on the Saturday to see the top players in the world battle with… I think we all quite enjoy seeing that don’t we??!

Group Coaching

There are still one or two spaces left in these coaching sessions (see below) so please let me know if you’d like to join us.

Back 9 Stableford

Freda Hunt on Monday’s back nine stableford with 20 points. John Kennedy was second with 18 points and Janet grant secured third spot with 16 points.

John’s win means that he and Graham jones are leading the order of Merit with two events to play. See the top ten places below. The next dates are Sat 3/8 and Sat 24/8

Medal 5

Congrats to Mike Kirchin for shooting an excellent nett 66 to win Saturday’s Medal 5. Martin Oldfield was one back to secure second spot and George Buchan was third with a nett 66.

Peter Hindle and Dave Smith tied the best gross score of the competition with 78s.

MCJL Junior Open at Astbury GC

Some of our junior section were back at Astbury on Saturday for the MCJL Open. Jack Hickson scored 33 points but also won the nearest the line competition, finishing just 3″ away from it! Junior captain Matthew Hodder recorded 31 points and Louis Wild 27 points.

A few of the juniors are entering other junior opens with Wilmslow being one of them so we wish them well for those events.

May Ashton & Nine Hole Max Medal

Well done to Jo Bryant for winning the May Ashton last Thursday with a nett 71. Diana Hogeb was second with a nett 75 beating Caroline Perkin on a card play off.

Karen Stockton won the front nine hole max medal with a nett 36 beating Sally Wright on a card play off. Pauline Keeling was third with a nett 38.

Senior Stableford 4 B9

On the 17th July, Phil Long recorded 20 points to win the back nine seniors Stableford. Chris Adams was runner up with 18 points and Tony sampson third with 17 points.

Wahoo, the greatest show in golf (the Open) rolls into Troon this week…. and the Pro Shop Open Sweepstake has been drawn! Plus what a super win for Bob MacIntyre in the Scottish Open on Sunday.

In this week’s missive, there is golf news from closer to home to whet your appetite and also details of some upcoming group coaching sessions. Also, booking opens on Sunday at 8pm for the next nine hole stableford which is taking place on Sat 3rd August and a reminder that there are still spaces in Monday’s (the 22nd July) 9 hole stableford so please enter if you can!

Pro Am

23 teams tooks to the golf course for battle for the 2024 HGC Pro Am on Saturday. Each team consisted of three amateurs and a pro. The winning team with 15 under par were Pete Hindle, Pete Turkington , Joe Mills and their pro Sonny Lewis. Second place (and hence Ben’s comedy “long” face on the photo) were gentleman captain Ben Fallows, Nancy Fallows, Alison Booth and their pro Scott Booth. Third place with 12 under were Summer Meeting winner Dave Smith, Glyn Isaac, Andrew Cowan and myself. Neil Thompson’s team finished fourth.

In the individual Pro’s event, Jason Dransfield from Heswall successfully defended the title that he won last year with a gross 66. He’s a fine player and great supporter of the Cheshire & North Wales PGA so his victory was thoroughly deserved. The runner up with a gross 67 was myself, which I was really pleased with. I’d led for most of the day as my team and I had played in the morning but Jason was playing in the penultimate group and came in to beat me by one. Third spot with one under par was shared with Oli Pantoja (who needs no introduction!) and Alistair Waddell from Chorlton-cum-Hardy GC.

So many thanks yous…. to Russ and the greenkeeping team, Ben & the bar & kitchen team, the guys from the PGA Joe and Bill (the starter), all the pros that played and of course everyone who entered to make it another fantastic event.

MCJL

As you’ll see, a strong fish from Hazel Grove meant that we finished second overall following the final Muirfield League MCJL fixture of the year at Astbury GC on Saturday. So it would have been nice to win but Phil Hickson and I are still super proud of the effort from all of the juniors. We started out struggling to get enough players to fill a team early in the season to contending strongly at the end so very well done. 

Adult Junior

Well done to Oscar Davies who’s win on Friday with father Marcus sees him leading the charge to Order of Merit glory and the Claret Jug (beware of imitations!) but Louis Wild is just 2 points back. The final event of the campaign takes place on Friday 6th September with tee times from 17.00 onwards so please let me know if you’d like to play.

Bridgford & Moir

Well done to Mandy Gilbert for winning last week’s Bridgford competition and also for recording the best nett score on the Wednesday of the two day tournament. Janet Grant came second in the Bridgford and third in the Moir Cup. Gill Kay came third in the Bridgford and recorded the best nett score on the Thursday.

Congrats to Tiff Fielden for defending the Moir Cup, which is the gross competition. Kairen Seaton won the most improved player award from day one to day two.

Snips from Greens

Over to Bob Siddle for this update on our local rules……

The eagle eyed amongst you will have seen the amendment to our Permanent Local Rules on the Rules Noticeboard!

The extensive works installing the irrigation system and the current and planned work to alleviate drainage issues means there are several areas of unusually disturbed ground occurring at various points around the course. It is not feasible to mark and maintain white lines to define GUR to all such areas so a temporary amendment to Permanent Local Rule 4. Immovable Obstructions has been introduced which is shown in bold italics below.

These temporary rules will apply until Further Notice.

LR4. Immovable Obstructions (Rule 16.1)

Within the boundaries of the course, all man made fixtures are deemed immovable obstructions. This includes constructed tracks andpaths but excludes tractor marks and drainage channels unless the ball is clearly sitting on exposed gravel, stones or concrete  and/or such clusters of stonework interfere with a player’s stance or the area of his intended swing.

If a fixed sprinkler head, and/or any ground immediately surrounding it which has been significantly disturbed during its installation, is within two club-lengths of the green edge and on a players line, they may also take relief as long as their ball lies on an area cut to fairway height or less and is within two club-lengths of the obstruction. (Model Local Rule F-5.1)

Photos

Thanks for the photos below from Brian Greenbank. Apparently the greenstaff had a sweep in the Euros and Paul & Ben came last so were given the job of cleaning the water pumps, the island and the solar panel of the pond on the 4th/13th!!

The ladies Bridgford is being playing today and tomorrow (it’s Wednesday as I write this), we’ve had the men’s Summer Meeting last weekend and the Pro Am takes place on Saturday so it’s safe to say we’re in the thick of things golf wise… plus the Open starts next week from Troon! Hope you enjoys this week’s round up.

Summer Meeting

Well done to the winners of the various prizes from the men’s summer meeting which took place last weekend. They are as follows:

• Best Nett Saturday – Ian Goulty (nett 66)
• Best Nett Sunday – Al Kenney (nett 69)
• Goulty Trophy. – Ian Goulty (nett 66)
• Walker Trophy. – John Kennedy (nett 70 & 68 for a 138 total)
• Arnold Challenge. – Andrew Hay (gross 84)
• MacCaig Trophy. – John Gray (gross 72)
• Galloway Scratch – David Smith (gross 80 & 74 for a 154 total)

Summer BBQ

Football watching, barbequed food, drinks and rainbows – what else could the attendees want!

Mixed TNC

Thus took place last Thursday and was a great success. It was Howard Gill’s birthday and Play your Cards Right made a comeback! Martin Oldfield was telling jokes and stories as only he can plus Roise Gerrard and Rob Manley were presented with the trophy following thier win in the Mixed Centenary on the 15th June.

Ladies Presentation

Congrats to Clare Withey for winning the 18 hole stableford with 37 points. Pauline Keeling was second with 36 points and Helen Williams was third with 35 points.

Ceri Hyde won the back nine stableford with 20 points. Judith Guest was second with 18 points and Helen Redfern finished in third place with 17 points.

There are one or two spaces left in the Open Sweepstake so please get in touch to secure that you get involved!

Remember if you’d like to book a golf lesson with me, please call, email or just click here to book online.

Invitation Day

Congrats to Jim Nicholson, Will Nicholson, Sam Smith and Nick Buckley for winning Sundy’s Mixed Invitation day with 88 points. Bernie Wilcox, Ismael Mury, Tony Anderson and Simon Stokes were runners up with just one point less. Martin Oldfield won the Nearest the Pin prize on the 4th hole and Sam Smith won the one on the on the 11th.

Open Stableford

Neil Roberts won Saturday’s front nine stableford with a stunning 25 points. Johnny Yates was second with 22 points and Janet Grant third with 21 points.

The date of the next competition is a little experimental and will take place on Monday 22nd July with tee times from 1530 – 1730. Bookings will open for this event on Sunday. If you are able to play early, please do so to enable people who want to play after work the best chance to do so.

MCJL Results from Eaton GC

Another weekend and another great results from our juniors in the latest MCJL event at Eaton GC. Louis Wild scored 38 points to win overall and Ollie Grieves shot the same score to finish as runner up following a card play off. Jach Hickson finished 7th with 34 points and junior captain Matthew Hodder scored 30 points to finish in 10th spot. Thanks to Phil Hickson for acting as junior organiser and chauffeur on the day!!

We remain top of the league with just one more fixture to play on 13th July at Astbury GC. Just one more good result needed to get us over the line!!

Hilda Timpson Salver

Chris Marsh won the Hilda Timpson Salver with a fine score of nett 68. Well done Chris! Rachel McDowell was second with a nett 73 and Kairen Seaton third with a nett 74

Lady Captain’s Day

A great day was had by all last week for the Lady Captain’s Day. There was also some mighty fine scoring…..

Amanda Greves won the 18 hole competition with a whopping 46 points and Wendy Jenkins was second with a non too shabby 44 points! Jane Nicholson won the nine hole comp with an excellent score of 24 points and Ceri Hyde was runner up with 22 points.

The Nearest the Pin prize was won by Vanessa Veitch and the Nearest the Line was won by Jane Nicholson.