Woodhall Spa Report   May 21st - 22nd 2019

The GSGB's first meeting of the 2019 season was played at Woodhall Spa, home to the relatively modern Bracken layout and the world famous Hotchkin course which is currently ranked 78th in the World. The Hotchkin will always be linked to the society through Neil Hotchkin, designer and owner of the course and GSGB President between 1989-93.

Forty three members enjoyed glorious weather over the two days of competition as they battled the notoriously well bunkered Hotchkin layout. A three year course renovation programme was recently completed by world renowned golf course architect Tom Doak and his team. Thousands of trees were removed to help with heather regeneration and bunkers have been both refurbished and added to create a more open heathland feel and a much improved golf course.

At Dinner, we were joined by the Woodhall Spa Captain, Mr David Hilton and the Ladies Vice-Captain Cynthia Treharne. GSGB Chairman, Giles Hinchcliffe, presented David with a £500 donation to be used to support the club's junior section.

The Day 1 prizes were won by David Kerr with 33 points and Vanessa Adams with 28 points and the Day 2 winners were George Clark with 37 points and Christine Hinchcliffe with 30 points.

The aggregate handicap prizes were won by Alan Golbourn with 67 points and Kathryn Archibald with 63.

David Archibald had the honour of being crowned this year's Men's Scratch Cup winner fending off challenges from Alan Golbourn, Lorne Smith and last year's winner Tim Russell. David adds his name to the Cup for the fifth time. Gillian Curley won the Ladies Scratch Cup by one shot over Pat Bennett with Kathryn Archibald a further two shots back.

A full list of prize winners can be seen below.

The next meeting will be held at Middlesbrough and Cleveland on June 20th - 21st.

Day two found us at Dainfern Golf Club, on the outskirts of J’burg, only to be told the course was closed – fortunately this was an administrative error, as all courses are closed on Monday’s for maintenance, but we had the course to ourselves and the Proshop had an excellent Sale that kept the Ladies and some Gents happy.  A toughie with six crossings of the flooded river to contend with.

The next day was a rest day, but our driver Norman took thirteen of us on a tour of Johannesburg visiting the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Presidents House and the Apartheid Museum.  Lunch followed in a nice suburb followed by retail therapy at a nearby African Crafts Centre.

Glendower Golf Club, home of the SA African Open in 2018 greeted us the next day for the 1^st Round of the Individual Stableford.  Some good scores were returned, but the highlight was Alan Golbourn getting a Hole in One on the 3^rd Hole – both the Golf Course and the Hotel were suitably impressed. 

Our final day in Pretoria was spent on the delightful Pecanwood Golf Course after a pleasant hour + drive to get there.  Despite threatening skies and a sharp downfall, we all enjoyed playing an easier course against each other in the Couples Swapsie.....even those who were not couples!  We elected to have a Bar-B-Q that evening at the nearby lakeside which did not quite work, but it was a lovely venue and we returned late to pack up ready for an early start the following morning to Kruger.

Leaving before 8.00am we drove through fairly flat landscape for two hours before coming into some beautiful countryside with steep gorges and rolling hills.  We finally stopped for lunch at HazyView where a much needed break was enjoyed.  Another few hours we arrived at the Hans Merensky Resort stepping out into a different climate entirely – very hot and humid.  After such a long day the first impressions of the hotel were not great, with air conditioning issues, changes of rooms etc.  However, waking to see impala grazing and monkeys playing outside our rooms soon lightened the mood.  

We stayed at Hans Merensky for the remaining week interspersing four golf days with a 5.00am Game Drive followed with an afternoon river cruise.  On another day we drove into the Drakensburg Mountains on the Panorama Route visiting Blythe River Canyon and Bourkes Luck Potholes with pancakes for lunch at Harries in Graskop.  Our final rest day, most played golf again followed by an evening Game Drive where some of us were lucky enough to get really close to a pride of lionesses with one cub – quite magical.

Our final golf day was interesting as we were mixed up with a large Am-Am, but managed to play the final round of the Stableford.  The Tour Winners were Gillian Curley with rounds of 29 and 34, and Terry Jones with 38 and 34 with the respective Runners Up being Paul and Yogi Jackson –  the Rookies!  Our final evening was very jolly with the Prize Giving and an impromptu African display by the chef on drum, and the waitresses and kitchen staff all singing, and Michael Pring doing an impressive African dance!

We set off early on the last day driving back to J’Burg this time taking in more lovely scenery through the Highland Way stopping at Dullstrom for a lovely lunch at Critchley Lodges, and arriving at the Airport in good time.  This Tour was certainly a full itinerary, but in true GSGB style everyone took it in their stride and despite the heat and malaria pills, we all coped !

Liz Clark

The Fifty four members who participated enjoyed light winds and plenty of sunshine, particularly at Bradford, but more importantly two days of dry weather to round off another enjoyable season for the Society.

After Dinner we were joined by the Moortown Captain Malcolm Slinger ,who spoke of the club's junior programme before GSGB Chairman Giles Hinchcliffe presented him with a £500 donation towards the club junior section.

The Bradford golf course is an undulating Harry Colt parkland design with tree lined fairways, excellent greens and some fine views. Improvements to the clubhouse were very noticeable since our previous visit and Bradford now makes an excellent venue both on and off the golf course.

The men’s Barlow Seniors Trophy was won by Alan Percival from Astbury with 73 points and the runner-up was Ian Chamberlain from Frinton with 68points.

The Ladies Trophy was won by Gillian Curley from Northamptonshire County  who scored 61 points and the runner-up was Yogi Jackson with 65 points who had to settle for 2nd place as she is too young to take home the Senior Trophy.

A full list of all prize winners can be seen below.

Photos of the prizewinners and a group photo can be viewed here.

The next GSGB event is the February tour to South Africa and the 2019 fixtures can be found on the home page of the website.

Brian

Camberley Heath / Army Report   August 28 ^th – 29 ^th 2018

The GSGB August Meeting straddled the Surrey, Hampshire border when we visited Camberley Heath GC (Surrey) and Army GC (Hampshire), two lovely wooded heathland courses. Good weather was enjoyed on both days by the 59 members who attended, the temperatures being much more manageable than those experienced at the Belfry during the July heat wave. Camberley Heath is a fine course containing all of the characteristics of Britain's finest heathland layouts. With heather, bunkers and pine trees in abundance, Harry Colt must have been delighted to be offered such an attractive free draining piece of land on which to build a golf course. Unfortunately the greens were not at their best following the annual maintenance programme but the rest of the course was magnificent with some particularly attractive (some might say penal!) bunkering on show. This however didn't stop some excellent scores being registered, particularly by the men. The course also boasts a challenging and memorable quartet of par-3's and it's easy to see why it's consistently ranked in the list of England's top 100 courses.

At Dinner we were joined by the husband and wife team of Kevin and Debbie Warner who are fulfilling the roles of club Captain and Ladies Captain in the same year. Kevin accepted the £500 Society cheque from GSGB Chairman Giles Hinchcliffe before speaking about Camberley's very strong junior section.

You can view the photos from the prize giving here.

Perfect playing conditions greeted everyone on Day 2 at the Army and although the course is not as heavily bunkered as Camberley, the tree lined fairways, ditches and fast greens provided more than enough of a challenge. That however didn't stop Martyn Pellew from scoring a very impressive 43 points to add to the 36 he registered on the first day which comfortably brought home The King of Morocco Cup by 5 points over Ian Edwards who is also a Woburn member. Ian's total of 74 points would have comfortably won the cup in any of the previous five years. The Society Salver was narrowly won by Gillian Curley from Northants County with 69 points over Vanessa Adams from the Warren  with 68 points.

Congratulations to all prize winners. A full list can be seen below.

The next event will be at Moortown / Bradford on September 26^th – 27^th.

After such a long, wet winter who would have thought that we would be playing golf on firm and fast courses with slick greens and brown fairways by the month of June. Glorious sunny weather was enjoyed on both sides of the Welsh border as the GSGB took on two very attractive parkland courses at Ross-on-Wye and the Rolls of Monmouth. Both were in good condition throughout but a combination of fast and undulating greens set a stiff examination that was beyond most of our members. A field of 53 players took part and it was no great surprise to see just two players play to their handicap over the two days. At Dinner we were joined by the Ross-on-Wye Captain, Mr Robert Tuttiet and his wife Irene. Robert accepted the Society donation of £500 for their junior section from GSGB Chairman Robin Moser before speaking of the clubs tremendous success growing their junior section from just 30 to over 100 boys and girls over the past 5 years. The Founders Trophy for men was won by Terry Jones from the Warren with 71 points. The ladies Founders Trophy was won by Terry's partner, Vanessa Adams, also from the Warren who scored 59 points. David Kerr from Northants County and Rosemary Lilley from Portal were the aggregate runners-up. A full list of all prize winners can be seen below.

Click here for Photos from the event

The next event will be the AGM meeting at The Belfry on July 26th/27th.

 Brian

The opening GSGB meeting of the 2018 season was played over two of England's premier link's courses, Prince's on Day 1 and Royal Cinque Ports on Day 2. Prince's currently features at number 57 in the list of England's Top 100 courses with RCP sitting in 13th place, some might say that it should be in the top 10!

Sixty eight members battled with northerly 20 mph plus winds on both days as they competed for the honour of being crowned this year's Scratch Cup winner. The Prince's round was played over the Himalayas/Shore combination with the recently re-designed Himalayas loop being particularly challenging in such tough conditions. Both nines are well bunkered but the Himalayas now contains a number of wetland hazards to add to the difficulty.

In such tough conditions Nigel Hodges played particularly well to score 34 points in the men's competition with Karena Collier scoring an impressive 33 in the ladies half of the draw. At Dinner we were joined by the Prince's Captain Mr Bill Howie and his wife Sheila. Chairman Robin Moser presented Bill with a £500 donation to be used to support the club's junior section.

The wind was still a major factor on Day 2 but at least the sun made the day feel a little warmer. The winners were Mark Lockley with an excellent 34 points and Anne Perry on count back with 29 points. Royal Cinque Ports certainly lived up to its reputation as one of the world's best links courses as it has the best collection of green complexes that I personally have ever seen.  

The men’s Scratch Cup was won by Tim Russell from Alwoodley with 52 points, who managed to bring an end David Archibald's excellent run of 4 successive victories. Tim overcame a two shot deficit at the half way point to win by one point.

The Ladies Scratch Cup was won by another previous winner, Karen Lobb from Northamptonshire County who scored 46 scratch points, beating Denise Parker by 2. Although narrowly losing Scratch Cup, Denise won the aggregate handicap prize with 54 points, Geoff Ogden winning the men's aggregate with 61points. A full list of prize winners can be seen below.

You can see a photo album of the prize winners and some stunning shots of RCPGC by clicking here. Trophies presented by Keith James of Royal Cinque Ports and GSGB Chairman, Robin Moser.

The next meeting will be held at Ross-on-Wye and Rolls of Monmouth on June 21st - 22nd