Golf round-up: The latest news from Harrogate & district's courses

Pannal GC

While the ladies did not play a competition at Pannal they had an enjoyable Exchange Day at Ilkley on September 12, won by the team of Ruth Skaife-Clarke, Val Smith-Jackman, Gerry Callendar and Alison Stratford.

September 16 was the day for a four-man Stableford competition in which 24 teams took part with high scoring very much the order of the day.

Third place went to Dave Hindle, Phil Cave, Phil Stott and Geoff Hickling who came in with 96 points. Second place went to Jon Clayton, Mike Smith, Micky Dawes and Neil Davies on 98.

However the clear winners with a superb 104 points were the team of Mike Hudson and the Jonas family of father Michael and sons Jordan and Callum.

Mid-September each year sees the culmination of the Club’s annual mens, ladies and mixed knockout competitions with most decided on Finals Day on Sunday September 17.

In the various mens competitions Chris Matthewman and Steve Duffy secured a narrow one up victory over Graham Hindmarsh and Brian Hemingway to clinch the newly awarded Euan London Trophy for the Men’s Summer Foursomes.

Hemingway and Hindmarsh took an early lead but Duffy and Matthewman fought back to be 2 up by the 12th, but a late rally by their opponents saw everything all square by the 18th tee.

In the end it was a high-risk rescue shot from the trees that secured the win for Chris and Steve at the eighteenth green.

The Tiger Trophy is awarded after a series of matchplay contests between the previous year’s winner, the winner and runner-up in the Club Championship and the winners of the April, May and June medals.

In the 36-hole final Will Eardley beat Carl Bushby 4&3 to clinch the trophy.

In the Veterans Trophy for men over 55 Alex Bussey beat Malcolm Taylor 2&1.

The Mixed Foursomes was won by Steve and Pam Dodds who beat Rob and Becs Booth in the 18-hole final.

In the Ladies' Club Championship, after a fantastic nip and tuck match with a stunning display of excellent golf, it went right down to the 36th hole with Julie Parry winning against Ruth Skaife-Clarke one up.

Ruth put up an amazing fight bearing in mind she has only recently returned from injury.

In the Harrogate Union Championships, the Ladies Silver Division Championship was also played on Sunday at Thirsk & Northallerton GC.

Two Pannal teams of four ladies competed and although out of the prizes Ladies Captain Clare Davies was delighted to report that Claire Hutchinson was runner-up for the Individual Gross with a very creditable score of 84 having been the winner last year.

Harrogate GC

Harrogate GC has a strong and proud heritage for Junior Golf; producing golfers of all abilities from P.G.A. and D.P. Tour Professionals to passionate amateurs.

This year has been Harrogate’s Junior Sections 50th year and the club has been celebrating and marking this milestone throughout the season.

On the first Sunday of September these celebrations moved up a notch with a Past Juniors v Current Juniors match. This was the Section’s Flagship celebratory event with the Past Juniors being Captained by our professional Sam Everson and the Current Juniors being led by Harvey Auckland the Junior team Captain.

No quarter was given in a superb series of matches, played on a pristine course and in perfect conditions. The Current Junior Team continued their unbeaten and season winning form with a commanding win.

The Ladies Section enjoyed the Captain’s Away Day at Thirsk & Northallerton G.C. recently, eight teams of four playing a better-ball Stableford over 18 holes.

The course was green and lush and with the sunny and very hot weather the players found some of the holes particularly tricky, but the teams stuck to their task well and subsequently the winners recorded some good scores.

Results: 1st Margaret Bleasdale, Cheryl Lewis, Fiona Gillies & Celia Fowler. 91 pts; 2nd Margaret Brown, Liz Haw, Val Thornborrow & Polly Brettle. 86 pts; 3rd Vanessa Conway Jenny Hill, Boo Orman & Pat Benson. 76 pts.

With Greens Week in full swing the normal mid-week Stableford was suspended but on Saturday the Comps Team set up one of the “fun” formats rather than a qualifying competition.

In total, 39 teams of three players went out for the “Waltz”, where one score is recorded on the 1st, 2 scores on the second and three scores on the third and so on.

It was brutally hot and humid which tested the players as well as the unpredictable surface of the heavily sanded greens. It was a very close finish with just a point between the top two teams.

Results: 1st J. Pearson, C. Westerman & P. Lai. 77 pts; 2nd J. Watson, K. Howe & S. Stanton. 76 pts; 3rd S. Bainbridge, J. Clarkson & M. Wilfen. 74 pts (bb9); 4th A. Consodine, A. Beardmore & C. Jones. 74 pts.

On Sunday, recognising those great tournaments about to grip our attention later this month, H.G.C. held the inaugural Ryder (Men) v Solheim (Ladies) Match. Seven Pairs for each team competed in a 4BBB Stableford Format. Despite the Met.

Office warnings for severe weather all of the matches were completed in the dry. Played in a great spirit all of the matches proved to be incredibly close. With a 5 – 2 result in favour of the Ryder (Men) team, this was the final event of a very busy and successful season for the Mixed Section.

Oakdale GC

Congratulations to Joyce Slater, Allison Wormald, Ann Birtles and Muriel Bradley who won the Ladies Open competition at Masham last week. A great achievement made even sweeter by the fact that their nearest rivals were 11 points behind their winning score. Well played Ladies.

Another major board competition, the Vice President’s Prize, was played on a blazingly hot Saturday (9th) with an excellent field of 129 players playing off white tees. The winning score of 43 pts was produces by Michael Bond (7) with Dan Walker (19) coming second with 42 pts and Peter Brown (7) with 39 points. Sixteen two’s were recorded with Mark Indriks achieving two of them.

The 36 hole final of Oakdale’s Scratch Matchplay was played between James Wilcox and Chris Henderson which will go down as a one hell of a battle.

The match started off quick with both players making birdies up the first and James had a small 1up lead after 9 holes, both continued to play solid golf with birdies on 11 and James holed out from 70 yards on 14 to move to 2 up. Chris battled back and finished with a birdie on 18 to square the game at the half way mark.

Round 2 continued with solid par golf from both players, but Chris made a move and finished the front 9 with a birdie which gave him a 2 up lead with 9 holes to play. James fought back with birdies at 11 and 12 and continued with solid pars and found himself 1up with 2 holes to go.

Chris holed a monster birdie putt on 17 which James followed up with his own birdie to remain 1up. Both players hit great shots down 18 and found the 18th safely with chances for birdies. Up steps Chris, who rolled in his birdie from 20 foot from the back fringe and forced a play off.

Both players went down the 1st for the 3rd time and both missed their par putts to head up the 2nd. Both hitting good drives, but Chris found the greenside bunker with his 2nd shot with James hitting a great shot to the back of the green.

As James did all day, he stayed composed and got down in 2 to make birdie and seal the game and win his first Scratch Matchplay Championship.

Well done to both players on a brilliant achievement and congratulations go to James on his win.

The final of the Silver Salver was played between James Wilcox and John Watchorn earlier in the week with James winning the Salver.

The final of the Seniors Alan de Lacy competition was played between Mick Emmerson and Roger Pygott.

Despite giving Roger 19 shot Mick won on the 16th by 4 and 2 by playing the first nine in one over par and the back in level, Roger had pars at the 3rd and 9th but to little effect against a one over par round!

The Oakdale trophy cabinet was duly replenished as the Oakdale Rabbits WEBOA team travelled to Wetherby in the third leg of this Year’s Trophy.

Despite two outstanding 38 pt scores from the Bedale team, the Oakdale team showed much greater consistency of playing and duly won by a narrow margin of 7 pts.

Rabbits’ Vice Captain, Graham Scott collected the trophy from Wetherby Captain Don O’Mahony.

An nine-hole Juniors Stableford (J12) was played on Sunday (10th) for the New Course Cup. The winner was George Garland 15) with 19 pts. Second was Cameron Gallagher (4) with 16 pts and third Archie Stoner (2) with 15 pts.

September Medal & Breakthrough Breast Cancer was played during the week. The top three players were Division 1 winner Lady Captain Margaret Liddle (22) with 70 nett, second Muriel Bradley (22) nett 72 and third Penny Baxter (10) 76 nett.

The Division 2 leader was Paula James (26) 82 nett.

President’s Comp for Ladies was held on Saturday (16th). The winning pairing with an outstanding 45 pts were Patsy Rochester (10) & Julie Smith (20).

Second were Penny Baxter (9) & Jane Henderson (11) with 41 pts and Janet Jelley (40) & Kathryn Hughes (14) third on count back from Gaye Richardson (34) & Rachel Smith (27) with 39pts.

More than 190,000 amateurs enter the Daily Mail Foursomes competition each year and through their clubs’ qualifying competitions generates over 3,000 pairs going into the first knock-out round needing to win 7 rounds to go to the finals at Marriott St Pierre, Chepstow.

On 20th August Oakdale’s Christine Schlegel & Margaret Liddle reached the sixth round to play at Chatworth Golf Club.

A difficult 9 hole course with 18 tees, small greens, no bunkers, tight fairways, penal rough and a par 69. Despite all these slightly difficult and unusual conditions our ladies lost 2&1 and just missed out on an adventure to St Pierre.

The Men’s Annual Medal was completed on Saturday (16th). The top three scores were Paul Donaldson (9) with 70 nett, second was Luke Durkin (12) with 71 nett and third was Geoff Scott (23) with 73 nett.

The winners of the third individual divisions with their names going onto the Club winners boards are Paul winning Division 1 with 70 nett, Antony Smith (17) winning Division 2 with 74 nett and Geoff Scott winning Division 3 with 73 nett.

The annual Oakdale v Fulford match was played out on Sunday (17th) at Oakdale. Nine teams from both clubs battled it out in a matchplay format for the chance to NOT take home the trophy, the infamous Tetley's beer tray.

The early matches went in Oakdale's favour, but with a strong fightback from the Fulford teams it ended with a very close 5-4 victory for Oakdale.

The Wednesday Stableford was played on 13th and was won by Lewis Murray (24)scoring an excellent 40 pts. Second was Robert Morgan (16) with 37 pts followed by Michael Tobin (13) with 32 pts.

The Seniors’ Nine-hole Stableford was played off red tees on Monday (11th) with 20 players taking part. The winner was Tony Doveston with 23 pts from Rod Mosley second with 20 pts and Barry Holland third with18 pts.