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

Harrogate GC

January has proved to be a very testing month for the competitions teams as they have organised, cancelled and re-organised various competitions depending on what weather conditions were being experienced.

The first half of the month saw the course closed pretty much every day due to waterlogging as the rain continued to fall and then as the skies cleared temperatures plummeted creating a frozen landscape where temporary greens were required.

On Tuesday 17th, with temperatures below freezing but under a blue sky with lovely bright sunshine the Ladies played a Team of Three fun competition, with two scores to count at each hole.

Temporary greens were in play and the competition was played over just 12 holes.

Results: 1st Wendy Skaife, Liz Haw & Jane Moorhouse, 55 pts; 2nd Vanessa Conway, Margaret Wildridge & Carol Coleman, 50 pts; 3rd Margaret Bleasdale, Boo Orman & Margaret Hindley, 44 pts.

The severe frosty weather continued and on the Saturday the men played a Foursomes medal over 15 holes. With a lack of predictability of bounce and tricky putting we still had a very competitive leader board resulting in a tie at the top.

It was the pairing of James Brennan & Andrew Wicken who claimed the winner’s mantle as their back three holes bettered that of Gordon Simms & Colin McCaw. Both pairs had returned with Nett 55.

Results: 1st J Brennan & A. Wicken 68-15=55 (bb3); 2nd G. Simms & C. McCaw 88-33=55; 3rd A. Partridge & J. Peel 68-12=56.

Last week, the Ladies played a 14 hole non qualifying Stableford competition. As in the previous week, temporary greens were in play due to the ground still being frozen under the surface.

Sheila Robertson came in with a great score of 26 points just beating Karen Myers on 25 points.

Results: Div. 1 -1st Ladies Captain, Boo Orman, 20 pts; 2nd Ann Lancaster, 19 pts; 3rd Valerie Thornborrow, 17 pts. Div. 2 - 1st Sheila Robertson, 26 pts; 2nd Karen Myers, 25 pts; 3rd Liz Haw, 21 pts. Div. 3 - 1st Carol Coleman, 24 pts; 2nd Elizabeth Walkinshaw, 23 pts; 3rd Ladies Vice Captain, Charlotte Franks, 21 pts.

Despite the need to employ temporary greens and with three holes closed the latest round of the Men’s Winter League went ahead last Saturday.

A very healthy entry of 77 players turned out for this singles non qualifying Stableford and what a terrific competition it became with four players tied for the top spot all scoring an excellent 35 points over the 15 holes.

Countbacks provided the results as follows: 1st Steven Riley (10) 35 pts; 2nd Ian Birchall (13) 35 pts; 3rd Brian Haines (23) 35 pts; 4th John Kirkby (11) 35 pts.

Knaresborough GC

It was truly a game of two halves. The rescheduled January Medal, deferred because of biting winter frost, still posed a weather affected challenge for players, particularly the early starters.

Hence the front nine, played on the temporaries, saw a mixed return in the early stages for Harvey Swales after a promising start which yielded a birdie at the fourth. That came via a good length drive up the middle and a wedge to six feet for the putt.

Focus lapsed after a double bogey at the six followed by a drive at the seventh which swerved over trees onto the eighth fairway. Unfortunately his lofted effort to carry the copse overlooking the seventh green came to grief and he walked off with no score.

But he recovered well parring five of his next six holes as he moved onto main greens over the back nine. The exception was at the short 11th where he flew his eight iron to within 12 feet to sink the birdie putt.

A third birdie was snared at the long 17th after a two iron into the green from where he rolled his putt up the slope to nail the four on his way to 36 points for the win.

Though he also bagged three birdies, including one at the par five 17th, Keith Dobson (8.8) couldn’t quite find enough to overhaul Swales and ended with 34 points, ahead of Martin Unwin (6) on countback.

In Division Two, Chris Saul (15.4) also benefitted from a midmorning start, though it was a while before his round really caught fire. Till then his putting had been unexceptional but as he moved up the back nine, he continued to hit most fairways and the better surfaces on the green were yielding better results.

But most memorable moment - and by his own account - the ‘fluke’ of the day was at the 14th where his drive was trapped in trees right and short of the green.

In a spirit of hit and hope he wedged his shot under overhanging branches, over a green side bunker, just making the green and then dropped an eight foot par for birdie.

In a strong finish he went on to add 11 points to post a winning total of 38 points. It was a finish that saw off the challenge of Jason Cargill (16.5) on a countback difference only, with Steve Watson (9) third on 36 points.

Stewart Skinner (21.8), in Division Three, matched Saul’s 38 points to top the table with Moss Walker (21.3) second on 35 and Peter Drew (19.9) third on 34 points.

Masham GC

The Captains’ Drinks Party has a threefold purpose. First of all, it is an opportunity for the club and lady captain to introduce themselves to members and, secondly, for the outgoing captain and lady captain to hand over a cheque for the amount raised during their captaincy.

Finally it is an opportunity for the incoming captains to introduce their charity for the year.

So it was, that introductions to the new captains, Craig Nichols and Mandy Boak, were completed and the floor given over to Will I’Anson and Penny Nicklas, last year’s captains to announce the amount raised for their charities.

I’Anson began by reminding members of their chosen charities, the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Bone Cancer Trust, with the monies raised to be split equally between each charity. He then went on to thank everybody, who, throughout the year, had made their generous donations to those worthy causes.

I’Anson also reminded members that the charities had a local connection through Chris and Gaynor Verity’s daughter Lucy.

He then introduced Lucy’s dad, Chris, and with Penny’s assistance, they handed over a cheque for £5,530.

In accepting the cheque, Chris said he was overwhelmed at the sum Masham Golf Club had raised in Lucy’s name and for the two charities.

He said that when he stood in front of members in the club house, almost a year ago, as an ambassador for both charities and introduced Lucy’s on going fight against cancer as well as explaining how his family were spending a lot of their time fundraising, he had no idea that he would standing in the same spot with a cheque for such an amount, a year later.

Chris thanked everybody on behalf of both Trusts and said that all monies raised will go towards direct help for young people in Lucy’s situation and into research to rid the world of this dreadful disease.

In closing, Chris presented gifts to both captains for naming their charities and Alan Sturdy for the work he had done to raise funds for their charities.

Following the cheque presentation, the new captains, Nichols and Boak, introduced Tessa Klemz, from the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, to introduce their 2023 charity.

Nichols, in closing, explained his and his family’s personal involvement with YAA and how much they had to be grateful for with that involvement.