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

Oakdale GC

On Tuesday April 16, Oakdale’s ladies played the Ladies County Foursomes qualifier. The winners were Lindsey Holt & Christine Schlegel, scoring 13pts, while Anne Jones & Jayne Nicholson came second with 12pts on countback from Olivia Lambert & Alison Mowat.

On Sunday April 28, the Rabbit Section played its first competition of the year, the Nine-hole Rabbit Get Together. Thirty-four Rabbits entered and was won by Thanh Truong with a fantastic 24 points. The top 16 players have now qualified for the knockout competition.

A team of eight players went to Bellingham GC to play a North East Rabbits Golf Association first round match. The Oakdale team came a creditable 5th overall despite the need to play off mats.

Two Oakdale players were part of the Harrogate & District Union Junior League team in the Yorkshire Inter-District fixture against York, played at Rudding Park on Sunday April 21.

Harrogate won the event 11pts to 1pt, with Oakdale’s Archie Stoner and his partner winning their foursome match 7&5 and Cameron Gallagher and his partner winning 6&5.

In the singles, Stoner (3.8) won his match 3&2 and Gallagher (6.6) by 9&7.

Oakdale GC hosted the Senior Ladies Championship from Tuesday April 23 to Thursday April 25. On a cold and largely dry day, 99 ladies completed an 18-hole qualifying round with the best 16 gross scores qualifying for the match-play stage.

After the persistent rain of the previous months, the greens staff had worked extremely hard over the previous 10 days to ensure that the course was playable.

Winner of the Best Gross and Barratt Trophy was Bet Sworowski (Wakefield) with a round of 78 (b6). Winner of the Best Nett and Elliott Trophy was Carol Simpson (Malton & Norton) 83-7-76.

Congratulations go to Moortown golfer, Susan Mannion, who scored a hole-in-one on the 12th during the qualifying round.

On a cold Wednesday morning, 16 players competed in the first round of the match-play. Two of the matches went to the 18th hole and one to the 19th. The quarter-final matches were completed in the afternoon.

Between the first and second round matches, 15 teams competed in the Tri-Am. Otley GC players, Morag Wilkinson, Jo Webb and Michelle Reynolds won with a score of 66 points from the York team of Emma Kilvington, Lisa Emberson and June George with 65 pts.

The weather remained dry, enabling the greens staff to cut the fairways and rough, as well as the greens, before play started on Thursday, but the temperature remained very cold.

The first semi-final match was between, Karen Jobling (Richmond) and Lynn Wass (Selby) and the second semi-final was between Emma Brown (Malton & Norton) and Heather Butcher (Ganton). Jobling beat Wass 2&1, while Brown beat Butcher 4&3.

A few spectators braved the chilly weather to watch the semi-finals and final where Brown continued her excellent form, proving too strong for Jobling and winning by 6&5 to retain her title of YVLGA Champion for the third consecutive year.

The full results of the qualifying round, match-play stages, Tri-Am and prize winners are given below.

Best Gross & winner of the Barrett Trophy: Bet Sworowski (Wakefield) 78

Best Nett & winner of the Elliott Trophy: Carol Simpson (Malton & Norton) 83-7-76; 2nd nett – Jean Manson (Alwoodley GC) 92-15-77; 3rd nett – Liz Jones (Rudding Park) 88-11-77; 4th nett – Cheryl Brown (Keighley) 96-19-7-77.

Pannal GC

Tuesday April 30 was Pannal’s first Ladies Medal of the season. In total, 25 ladies entered the competition, which was also a qualifier for the top 8 ladies to go into the Bunny Belmont singles Matchplay Knockout competition.

Division One was won by Hilary Ingram with nett 79, second place was Vicky Eyre, nett 81, beating Claire Hutchinson, also nett 81, on countback.

Division Two was won by Susan Asquith, nett 79. Sue White came second with nett 86 and Lesley Southwell in third place with nett 87.

Four Ladies played in the Nine-hole Stableford competition, Ann McDonough winning with 12 points.

The first matches of the new season got under way this week in the Harrogate Union Inter Club League, where Pannal took on Masham in an away fixture.

It was honours even at the end of the night in both the singles and fourball encounters. Will Caldecott and Callum Macnair prevailed in their scratch singles and Hunter Sr suffered a very narrow defeat meaning the father and son combination of Craig and Oli finished on the losing side.

In the fourball matches, Men’s Captain David Everingham and club pro Martin Padgett were winners by 2&1, but the biggest winners on the night were Alan North and Jon Clayton by 6&5.

The other two pairs, Mike Smith and Jon Gregory and Ian Davison and Michael Flatley suffered narrow defeats.

Summing up at the end, First Team Captain Will Caldecott said: “An away point is a good solid start to the season as Masham is a tough place to go to get a result".

The next match is a home fixture versus Bedale on Thursday May 9.

On a lovely evening on May 1, Pannal kicked off the first of the summer season of Captain's Nights.

Played over 13 holes with Men & Ladies joining, the course looked very pretty in the evening sunshine.

The results were a tie on 21 points for second, third and fourth place, with Ian Webber coming out favourite on a countback ahead of Nick Brown & Sophie Jacob.

The winner was Andrew Asquith with a splendid 25 points, so he presented the winner’s prize to himself to cries of “its' all been a fix”, though he claims it wasn't.

The May Monthly Medal and Beanland Trophy was held on Saturday May 4.

The in-form Tom Booth won Division One with a nett 68, going out in 36, coming back in 38 with 2 birdies and 12 pars, beating Callum Jonas by 3 shots.

Sam Crawshaw won Division Two with a nett 65, going out in 38, coming back in 38 with 2 birdies and 10 pars, beating Peter Melling by 1 shot.

Chris Stoner won Division Three with a nett 70, going out in 44, coming back in 42 with 8 pars, beating Chris Wragg in a card play-off. There were a total of 17 twos carded.

The Winter Foursomes final was played last Monday, with a 3&1 victory for Men’s Captain David Everingham/Richard Goodall over Nick Brown/Jon Gregory. A tight match played over 18 holes just going the way of the eventual victors in the last four holes.

Harrogate GC

With the weather starting to resemble what would typically be expected in spring, and the course continuing to recover well from the exceptionally wet winter and early spring, things are starting to look more normal at Harrogate GC.

Last Saturday’s May Monthly Medal was played in fine conditions in all ways, weather, course and entry list.

The players clearly felt that good vibe and went out and produced good golf and great scoring.

In Division One, for instance, there were gross score returns of 70 from David Keywood (0) and 72 from Max Sowray (12) and George Davies (2). Sowray with his playing handicap of 12 won the division handsomely and by a clear five shots with nett 60.

Jack de Gruchy would have thought his nett 65 to be a challenging score to win but Sowray’s exceptional performance resulted in second for de Gruchy.

Two players, Matt Roberts and Nigel Golden, fought hard, tying on nett 66 with Roberts taking third place after a countback.

The leader-board was very crowded in Division Two, with seven players vying for the top three places.

Paul Williams has been absent from the leader-board for some time so he will be delighted with his game and a very good first place with his nett 67.

Keith Rogers has started the season well and this second place, nett 69 endorses that. Five players, Bob Fox, Tim North, Andrew Consodine, Gareth Sawyer and John Blair all returned on nett 70.

Fox has been working on his ‘short game’ and it paid dividends as he had the superior back nine to take third place.

Ian Holmes enjoyed a “dream” round, finishing on nett 64 to win Division Three, three points clear of the second-placed Keith Peters. Sam Goodfellow, in third, scored well for his nett 69.

Results: May Medal Division One - 1st M. Sowray, 72-12=60; 2nd J. de Gruchy, 76-11=65; 3rd M. Roberts, 77-11=66 (bb9).

Division Two - 1st P. Williams, 84-17=67; 2nd K. Rogers, 83-14=69; 3rd R. Fox, 85-15=70 (bb9).

Division Three -.1st I. Holmes, 89-25=64; 2nd K. Peters, 91-24=67; 3rd S. Goodfellow, 90-21=69.

On Tuesday, Harrogate GC’s Ladies had a choice of two competitions, the Nine-hole Stableford qualifier or the Yorkshire Foursomes over 18 holes.

It was a closely fought in the Stableford, with four players finishing on 13 points, but the victor on a countback was Lindsay Bancroft from Linda McPhee, Carol Coleman & Tina Meadows.

Eight pairs entered the Foursomes, with Val Thornborrow & Liz Haw taking the lead on 28 points followed closely by the pairs of Viv Allison & Elaine Shepherd, Elizabeth Goody & Linda McDowell and Margaret Brown & Karen Myers.

It remains to be seen how many pairs progress to the next round, which will be played at Easingwold GC on June 27. The Ladies all agreed that it was a pleasure to be playing out in the spring sunshine with no course restrictions.

Recent mid-week Stableford’s have been attracting large fields and last Wednesday was no exception, with 59 players enjoying the fine spring day.

It proved to be a tight contest,, with four players – Matt Fowler, Jack Carolan, Mark Harding & Michael Gray - tied on 35 points, but they just missing out on finishing in the top three.

Ian Watson (15) claimed the winners spot, scoring an excellent 38 points, with Harvey Auckland (8) just one point back in second place. Completing the top three was Paul Martin (12) on 36 points.

Harrogate GC Rabbits just prevailed in the closely-fought match against Sandmoor GC Rabbits 3.5–2.5. The Seniors, meanwhile, had wildly mixed fortunes, beating Shipley GC Seniors 6-0 at home but losing 5-1 away to Wike Ridge GC.

Bedale GC

May 1 – Water Rats: 1st Hubert Van-Huet 37 pts; 2nd Dave Hall 35 pts; 3rd Peter Kirkbride 33 pts.

May 2 – Thursday Stableford: 1st Phil Raynor 34 pts (countback required); 2nd Terry Pratt 34 pts (countback required); 3rd Paul Clemens 32 pts; 4th Colin Williamson 29 pts.

May 2 – Ladies friendly v Barnard Castle: Bedale ladies hosted Barnard Castle ladies for a friendly match, the result was a 3-2 win for Bedale.

May 3 – Friday Animals: 1st Colin Baines 39 pts (countback required); 2nd John Sample 39 pts (countback required); 3rd Kevin Palethorpe 38 pts.

Front 9 Chris Jackson 19 pts; Back 9 Graeme Tate 22 pts.

May 3 – Seniors White Tee Medal: 1st Dave Adams nett 69; 2nd Clive Robson nett 73; 3rd Ken Pitchford nett 75.

May 4 – Junior Stableford: 1st Jaicob Saunders 29 pts; 2nd Charlie Clark 27 pts.

May 5 – Ladies Medal: 1st Gillian Petrie nett 75; 2nd Clare Bevan nett 77; 3rd Di Clark nett 78.

May 5 – Gents May Medal: Division One - 1st Kevin Palethorpe nett 68 (countback required); 2nd Kevin Rayner nett 68 (countback required); 3rd Jamie Wilkinson nett 69; 4th Alex Morris nett 70; 5th Steve Black nett 71.

Division Two - 1st Alan Hutchinson nett 71; 2nd Iain Moffatt nett 73 (countback required); 3rd Jamie Nelson nett 73 (countback required); 4th John Condon nett 74; 5th David Lawrence nett 75.

Division Three - 1st Steve Gunn nett 69; 2nd Jamie Moffatt nett 71; 3rd Kevin Clinton nett 73; 4th Keith Rollins nett 74.