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Bogey 4 was cancelled on Saturday and rearranged for this Saturday so fingers crossed that can go ahead. Thursday’s ladies competition was cancelled because of the snow and frost.

As I write this storm Jocelyn is making it’s way across the country so let’s hope that passes through without too much carnage. I guess that will have a significant bearing on this week’s ladies comp.

Below please read about a couple of exciting Trackman competitions we have lined up for you and news of the 2024 HGC pro AM.

Trackman 9 Hole Comp and Nearest the Pin

From now until the end of February, we are running not one but two indoor golf competitions for the membership.

The first one is going to be a nine hole stableford challenge. We’ve decided to use the back nine of the Olympic Club Lake Course in California. This course has hosted six US Open Championships and the womens US Open in 2021. This fun competition is open to any members that have a WHS handicap. We’ll be playing from tees that make it just over 3,000 yards but remember handicaps will be involved so this should ensure a level playing field, whatever your ability.

Just book some time in the studio and you can enter. You can play as a single or as a two, three or fourball. Will or I will advise you as to how much time we think you’ll need.

There will be an additional £2 per player added to the room hire fee to go into the prize pot for the winner. Simulator hire charges are £22 per hour for one player and £26 per hour for two or more players (so that’s £6.50 each if there are four of you).

The second one is just a Nearest the Pin competition. That will be £2 for three goes and it is going to be played over the 17th hole at Hualalai Resort in Hawaii. The hole will be 135 yards. I have chosen this hole as it’s not too long, it’s looks great and also because there is a chance to run the ball on the green for those golfers that don’t carry their pitching wedge over 130 yards… which most definitely includes me!!

For this one just pop into the shop and have a go! It should only take a couple of minutes. If the room is already in use, we’ll tell you when a good time to pop back might be or alternatively just try us again when you’re next at the club!

Hopefully we can get a few of you to try these initiatives and hat tip to James Munnery for helping me set this up. Thank you.

Pro Am 2024

We have finalised this year’s Hale GC Pro Am date and it’s taking place on Saturday 13th July. The event as always is open to gents and ladies. The price to enter is £240 per team if all three amateurs are HGC members and it’s £270 if one or more of the amateurs are not HGC members.

This is a great event in the club’s calendar so don’t miss out! If you’ve not played before don’t take my word for it, just speak to anyone that has played previously and they’ll tell what a fun day it is!

If you require any further information, please just pop into the shop or send us an email.

Well the recent dry spell has enabled us to get back to some competitive golf last week and the results are below. However the snow fell last night so it’s a different type of precipitation that’s caused the course to close today!

This is the first newsletter of 2024 and we’ve got lots of photos for you to have a look at so please enjoy…

Ladies Front Nine Yellow ball Competition

Well done to Kairen Seaton, Clare Withey & Sally Budd for winning last Thursday’s comp with 37 points. The runners up were Louise Gerald, Mandy Gilbert & Gillian Brogdon with 33 points.

Bradley 4

Congrats to John Moss for winning last Wednesday’s nine hole Bradley 4 with 20 points. Martin Oldfield was beaten on a card play off and so finished as the runner up. Dave Madeley was third with 19 points. Three twos were recorded.

Bradley 5 is scheduled to take place on Wed 24th January over the front nine.

Ping Stand Bags

How about a limited-edition GB & IRE Hooferlite stand bag? The price is £220 and orders must be received by the 30th January for delivery in August 2024. As you can see there are four options to choose from and they look great…

Using a Golf Simulator

Please click here to read about the benefits of practicing in a simulator, as written by top US golf coach Michael Breed.

Photos

Here are a selection of photos from the last couple of weeks. Two of them were taken by Andrew Page so thanks for sharing.

I’m posting more on Facebook and Instagram at the moment and am working on keeping the momentum going. Please click here to find me on Facebook and here to find me on Insta. Please send me a friend request or follow me.

On Thursday 4th January there was no golf but several of the ladies still got together for coffee. Thanks to Irene Kirk for the photo.

Only two sleeps left until the big day! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and the most fabulous 2024. Thank you for your custom in the previous 12 months and Will, Phil and I look forward to doing our very best to look after you over the coming year.

Pro Shop Christmas Draw

Well done to Peter Veitch for winning the main prize of £250 in Pro Shop credit. Although incredibly Chris Ravenscroft and Bill Harvey won twice and so they also won £250. Even more bizarrely Chris had consecutive numbers drawn…. thankfully we had witnesses!! All the winners are listed below.

Position	Amount	Number	Winner
1st	£250	248	Peter Veitch
2nd	£200	60	Bill Harvey
3rd	£150	181	Chris Ravenscroft
4th	£100	182	Chris Ravenscroft
5th	£75	231	Paul Simpson
6th	£60	318	Mike Massey
7th	£50	46	Bill Harvey
8th	£40	69	Rob Manley
9th	£30	353	David Rodwell
10th	£25	350	Ian Williamson

Thanks to Diane Harris, Vicky Chamberlain, Robin Russell-Fisher, David Swale, Tony Bray, Roger Fielding, Chris Ravenscroft, Richard Jenkins, Kerry Gill and Cliff Wright for their help in drawing the numbers. And of course thanks to so many of you for taking part once again!

Christmas Opening Hours

The Pro Shop will be open as follows over the Christmas period: 

DATE	HOURS
Sat 23rd December	9am – 2pm
Sun 24th – Tues 26th December	Closed
Wed 27th – Sat 30th December	9am – 2pm
Sun 31st Dec – Mon 1st Jan 2024	Closed
Tues 2nd January onwards	Normal hours resume

Ladies Christmas Indoor Frolic

The rubbish weather last Thursday didn’t stop the ladies from having a great time with some indoor golf. We ran a putting comp, a chipping com and a Nearest the Pin comp in the swing room. Vanessa Veitch was the winner of that one and there were other winners too. I manage to sneak into the photo montage after a well placed chip shot! And finally we have a video of the lady caprtain Jan Ravenscroft knocking it in close…

Christmas Lunch

Here are some more excellent photos from the Christmas lunch which took place on the 10th December.

Awkward Lies

Joe Boyd and Chris Wood’s ball finished in this tricky spot during their recent winter men’s foursomes knockout match… I’m not at liberty to say who actually hit it there!!

Start ’em Young

Poppy Appeal

Below is the thank you note we recently received from the Royal British Legion following our fund raising efforts. Well done to everyone who took part in the competitions.

Well the rotten weather and course closures continue so it’s a bit of a quiet one this week.

Please remember we still have tickets available for the Pro Shop Christmas Draw. Plus we are open for Christmas presents for that special golfer in your life. Another Christmas present idea is a voucher for golf lessons to help improve their game and ultmately their enjoyment of the game.

As ever please pop in, call us on 0161 249 8427 or email me at richardsboothuk@gmail.com for more information or to make a purchase.

Christmas Lunch

Thanks to Irene Kirk for sending through these photos from the member’s Christmas lunch which took place on Sunday.

Grab a Bargain – Powakaddy Cart Bag

The used golf club trade in event went really well on Tuesday and so thank you to all who took part and now have liberated some of their old golf clubs (and garage space..!!) Thanks also to Elliot from GC4C for all his help.

We still have lots of great Christmas present ideas for you in the shop so please pop in and take a look. Trade hasn’t been easy with this rubbish weather of late so your custom is really appreciated.

SPECIAL OFFER – Callaway Reva Ladies Set – JUST £849

The Callaway 11 piece set is designed with premium performance in mind. This complete offering is engineered for women of all skill levels who want to increase their distance, hit great shots, and enjoy the game more than ever before. This set includes: Driver, 3 Wood, 5 & 6 Hybrids, 7 through 9 Irons, Pitching and Sand Wedge, Putter, Cart Bag, and (5) Headcovers.

This set would make the perfect Christmas present but please hurry as we only have one set available. Original price £1099, now only £849…. that’s a huge £250 saving!!!

Lady Captain’s Fun Competition

Over to lady captain Jan Ravenscroft for a round up of proceedings from last Thursday’s event…..

All proceeds from the competition (including mulligans and nearest the pin entries) went to the Guide Dog Charity and Russell had set up some additional challenging features on some of the greens.

It was indeed like playing crazy golf but none the less the worthy winners were Ceri Hyde in first place and Val Nelstrop a close second. Vicky Chamberlain won nearest the pin on the 4th.

The fun continued on into the evening where our generous ladies entered the”Name a Guide Dog Puppy” competition and participated in our “Blind Date with a Book” sale. The winning names chosen by our guests Sara-Jane and Mary from Guide Dogs were “Teapot” (suggested by new member Lucy Leonard) and “Birdie” (a 3-way tie between Noelle Morris, Sally Budd and Vicki Wells).

Heartfelt thanks from Lady Captain to everyone who took part and help to raise a tidy sum for the charity.

The winners of the golf and puppy naming are displayed above plus a photo of the future LC Gill Kay getting to grips with the frosty conditions.

Golf Mats

We have four different types for you in store at different price points and delivering different performances. The Spurk mat has sold really well since it was launched about a year ago and here’s a reminder video of why it has been so popular. It’s available with a cleverly designed carry bag so that you don’t drop it or mislay it inbetween shots!

Bradley 3

Congratulations to Peter Veitch for taking the honours in the latest senior nine hole competition with 18 points. Chris Ravenscroft was in second place with 15 points and the ever reliable Bill Dixon was third with 14 points. Scoring was tricky and as a result no twos were recorded.

Photos

We have a round up of photos from HGC from the last week or so. First up are Tom Sloan and Nick Horrocks installing the Christmas lights at the front of the clubhouse (Tom’s big into delegation!), a dusk snap looking over the clubhouse and 9th green and finally two photos of Ollie Grieves playing in the sunny but frosty (and bitter cold according to grandfather John Book) conditions last weekend.

Don’t forget GolfClubs4Cash are visiting HGC on Tuesday (the 5th December) from 10am – 1pm so if you have some used golf clubs gathering dust bring them in and get money to spend in the Pro Shop for them.

If you can’t make that date and time, you can leave your clubs with us here in the shop beforehand.

Open 9 Hole Stableford

This took place last Thursday and was played over the back nine. The winner with 19 points was Mandy Gilbert. Brian Greenbank also scored 19 points but was beaten on a card play off and so finished as runer up. Third spot went to Steve Bates with 18 points.

Hale GC Crested Travel Cover

I’m going to have a go at doing a few more of my own videos (yikes!!) so please check out the one below. It gives details of a really nice Christmas gift idea.

Bradley 2

Om Wednesday, 30 seniors took part in their nine hole competition. The winner with 17 points was Bill Dixon. Robert Spark was second with 16 points and Peter Wolfenden was third, also with 16 points. The consolation for Peter was that he was the only player to record a two.

DIARY DATE: Tuesday 5th December

Bring in your old clubs and turn them into Pro Shop credit. The trade in event runs from 10am – 1pm on Tuesday 5th December (next week!)

Ladies Medal Final

This was finally presented to Helen Davies last week. Well done Helen!

Photos

This week, we have a couple of contrasting photos of the course that have been sent in. Thanks to Howard Gill for the sunrise photo with some low lying fog and to Phil Long for the abundance of leaves snap.

It’s Tuesday as I write this an the course has been open for two consecutive days… wahoo! Long may it continue.

Awesome Value Cart Bag

I have two of this Powakaddy DLX Lite Cart bag in stock which has been retailing at £144.99. As a newsletter special offer, they are on sale for £100 until the end of November. Please pop in to take a look..

We’re Recruiting

The greenstaff team are looking for a new member of staff. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please let me know and I will put you in touch with the relevant person.

Ladies Dinner

This was held on Wednesday 15th November. And a great time was had by all: there was a string quartet, great food & drink plus lots of winners receiving prizes.

Thanks as ever to Sue Bryant and Jan Ravenscroft for supplying the excellent photos.

MDGA Ladies 4BBB

Congratulations to Noelle Morris and Kairen Seaton who were awarded trophies for being the winners of the Manchester and District Ladies 4 Ball Better Ball this year. They were three points clear of the nearest contenders. Unfortunately poor Kairen was unwell and so unable  to receive the award which was presented at the AGM recently.

Photos

Thanks to mike Wells for sharing the photos below.

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with those old golf clubs of yours then read on – we might just have the solution for you!

In this week’s missive we also review Sunday’s Junior Awards dinner, the men’s Bogey 3 and the Poppy nine hole competition. And we finish with some great photos sent in by two of our members. Please enjoy the read.

GolfClubs4Cash

I’m delighted to announce that we are hosting a GolfClubs4Cash Trade in Event here at HGC on Tuesday 5th December from 10am – 1pm.

Any clubs that you have gathering dust in your garage or elsewhere can be brought along and you will be given a quote. If you decide to proceed with the transaction, the money will be yours to spend as credit within the Pro Shop.

As you’d expect, GC4C use a grading system for valuing the clubs so the better condition the more you will be offered. You can then decide whether you’d like to proceed or not – the choice will be yours.

If you can’t make it to the day, please bring in your clubs to Will, Phil or I in the Pro Shop and we can pass them onto GC4C on your behalf.

End of Year Junior Awards Dinner

On Sunday, we hosted our sixth End of Season Junior Awards Dinner. We had an excellent turnout for the event including lady captain Jan Ravenscroft and junior captain Matthew Hodder – the gentleman captain Roger Laitt was really disappointed to have missed it but unfortunately had a prior engagement.

We were due to have a nine hole match beforehand but we made the decision to call it off as the weather was just dreadful.

At 5pm, we had a great roast chicken main course followed by crumble afterwards and then we went onto the presentations. Firstly, I did a recap of the year detailing the results from the Adult Junior Competitions, the individual junior competitions, how we’d gone on in the Mid Cheshire Junior League (MCJL) and other noteable performances.

We then got to the four awards of the night:

• The Coach’s Award for consistently having a great attitude and being super enthusiastic went to Xander Macklin
• The Most Improved Player Award went to Olly Mills. Olly has worked hard on his game over the season and is now a regular in the men’s comps having the pleasure of competing with his father and brother. His handicap index has dropped from 39.4 to 22.6 in 2023.
• The appropriately named Golf Fanatic Award goes to Ollie Grieves who aside from playing in everything he could at HGC, spread his wings and competed further afield at Crewe, Carlisle, Selby, Barrow & Adlington GCs.
• Finally, the Giving Back Award went to Matthew Hodder who has worked hard on his own game but has also been a great help in his position as junior captain and is a wonderful role model.

Bogey 3

Congratulations to Chris Hinton for being the only player in the field to beat the course in Bogey 3 on Saturday with a fine score of two up in beautiful sunshine but very wet ground conditions. Paul Taylor was second with all square and Adam Hyde finished third with one down – perhaps Adam’s practice session in the simulator the day before helped him groove his game?!

Poppy Competition

Ian Goulty was the men’s winner with 20 points and Kairen Seaton won the ladies event with 19 points. There were then six players in tied third place with 17 points.

As with Bogey 3, well done to all the players for battling round in really challenging conditions.

Photos

Thanks to Bob Siddle for these early morning photos of greenkeeper Dave Taylor hard at work before Saturday’s Bogey 3. The impressive mushroom photo comes from Terri Broadbent.

Well the course was open on Monday but as I write this (Tuesday late morning), it’s closed again 🙁

We have the nine hole Poppy Appeal competition, which is open to ladies and men, scheduled for Thursday which hopefully will still be able to go ahead.

Pro Shop Christmas Draw

It’s that time of year… and we very much hope that you will be kind enough to support the Pro Shop Christmas draw again.

The price is £5 for one go or £20 for five goes and once again there will be ten prizes up for grabs as detailed below.

The Indoor Golf Studio

As we’ve been mentioning the studio is open whatever the weather. It’s warm, it’s dry and Trackman gives you amzing data to help you improve your game.

In the 22 second video below, I’m playing the par three 12th hole at Royal Birkdale… in case you’re wondering, this was the second take – I blocked the first one out to the right!!!

Odyssey Putter Sale

If you are looking for a new putter, we have just the thing for you and at a great price! We have four right hand models of the the Odyssey White Hot Versa which because of their striking colour scheme make aligning the putter much easier.

They have been reduced by over 20% from £249 down to £195. Please pop in to take a look.

This is the first newsletter for a couple of weeks as the weather thwarted any golf from the previous week. Happily we have much more in store in this missive…

Please note that from Wednesday 1st November onwards, mats are c ompulsory for social golf when hitting from the fairway.

Captains Elect

Well if you don’t who they are, where have you been?? For the 2024/25 campaign, the captain elect are Ben Fallows, Gill Kay and Matthew Hodder to stay on for a second year as junior captain. Huge congratulations and we all hope you have a very enjoyable time during your year of office.

Bogey 2

Well done to M atthew Hodder for winning last weekend’s Bogey 2 with a score of three up. Commiserations to Joe Mills who recorded the same score but was beaten on a card play off. Andrew Fishwick finished third with two up.

The fourth photo below shows the “eight down club” who seem to be in high spirits despite their less than stellar performances on the golf course!

Lady Captain v Lady Secretary

The Ladies Competition last week was a hard fought nine hole greensomes match between the Lady Captain’s (Jan Ravenscroft) team and the Lady Secretary’s (Min Fishwick) team. 

Despite the the squelchy conditions some good golf was played and the LCs team prevailed as the overall winners.  

Winter Items

Winter has definitely arrived but the Pro Shop has everything (well near enough…) that you’ll need to keep you golfing over the winter months.

Below are some fleece & lighter weight snoods, trolley wheel covers and hot mitts (USB powered to keep your hands ultra toasty) that we have in stock.

Plus we also have the following:

• Winter wheels
• Hand warmers
• Beanies & bobble hats
• Wwaterproof caps & bucket hats
• Winter mitts
• Winter golf gloves
• Rain gloves
• Base layers
• Men’s Puma zip up thermal jackets
• HGC crested umbrellas
• HGC crested flasks
• Winter tees
• Electric trolley umbrella holders
• Waterproof golf bags
• Waterproof suits
• Electric trolley travel covers

Rainbow

Thanks to Terri Broadbent for this lovely photo taken on the 19th October. The golf had been washed out but this was taken just before the ladies convened for tea.

Church Stretton

Thanks to Paul Gilbert for sending in this photo of, as he put it, “the greenkeepers at work” at Church Stretton GC. I know nothing about the course but it looks a fabulous spot in Shropshire.