Seniors Golf this Friday

Playing for – Championship Trophy Game (for those eligible)

Format – Stableford over 15 holes

Handicap – 95% of course handicap

Entry to competition on IG necessary? – Yes

Rules quiz

In stroke play, a player swings at and misses a wrong ball. What is the ruling?
A – There is no penalty.
B – The player gets two penalty strokes and the stroke at the wrong ball counts.
C – The player gets two penalty strokes but the actual missed stroke does not count.

Answer at the end of this newsletter

Bottle of Wine Competition – Friday 4 September

Reporter: Paul Foster

Confusion was the call of the day, with players wondering whether Friday’s competition was over 13 holes, 15 holes, or possibly whatever number they happened to fancy! The newsletter of 19th August did state that Friday’s competition would be over 13 holes because of the afternoon shotgun start, with concerns that not everyone would get back in time. Simple enough, or so we thought. In hindsight we should have reiterated this in last week’s newsletter, so apologies from the committee! (Editor’s note: future newsletters will always now start with details of what the Friday format will be).

In the end, 16 players completed 15 holes, while 8 players completed 13 holes. The 13-hole players entered their 13 holes into IG and put NS for holes 14 and 15. Thankfully, IG appears to have been less confused than the players. It doesn’t matter which holes were completed, because the competition had been set up as a 15-hole competition. The WHS algorithm then calculates an Expected Score for those unplayed holes based on your Handicap Index and course difficulty, rather than just automatically giving you a net par. Holes not started/skipped entirely for a valid reason (such as bad weather, fading light, sudden injury, or a hole closed for maintenance) are recorded as “Not Started” (often marked with an asterisk *).

So, if you played 15 holes, your score counts. If you played 13 holes, your score also counts. In short, everyone wins…apart from anyone who was hoping their missing holes would conveniently disappear!

So there we have it: 13 holes, 15 holes, holes not started, shotgun starts and a touch of golfing confusion — all sorted by the magic of IG! Official conclusion: Nobody really knew what was going on, but thankfully the computer did.

Back to the competition! The early starters were treated to heavy autumn rain, ensuring that nobody could complain about the greens and fairways being too dry! Thankfully, conditions improved for the later starters, who enjoyed a much more pleasant round. The fairways were a deep British Racing Green, the wind was mercifully light, and the greens were wonderfully receptive — although perhaps a little too receptive for some of the players’ approaches!

Despite the favourable conditions, only one player managed to beat par, proving once again that the course is considerably easier to admire than to actually score well on. A thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all, with plenty of good golf, a few questionable shots, and, of course, the important matter of competing for that highly coveted Bottle of Wine.
Congratulations to the winner — and commiserations to everyone who went home empty-handed and had to buy their own wine!

Winner – Stuart Baird with 33 points

Happy Mondays Report – 7 September

Reporter: Steve Bird

Eighteen players started in six teams of three, although only five teams finished as they started – more of that later.!!

After heavy overnight precipitation the rain abated to leave a damp and lush course. No wind and a grey sky provided for good golfing conditions although the fairways are now greening up meaning the ball roll of a couple of weeks ago is much less and consequently stableford scores were lower.

The winning team, fresh from their victory at Abergele, was that of Mike Bennett, Colin Crail and Richard Yates with an average of 27.6 points

Runners up were Kevin Bocquet and Ken Pearce with 27. 

The latter team started with three members but Les Fecitt had foot issues, and he sadly had to depart after 9. Similarly, Ken had a massive blister on his heel and reverted to trench surgery, when he used a Hawkstone Park scorecard to provide a buffer zone between the back of his shoe and his heel. He gallantly finished his round with Kevin.

There were some notable individual scores – Richard Yates with 33 points, and Ken Pearce and Pete Broady with 28 points each. But ‘hole of the day’ must go to Colin Crail who had a gross 2 on the par 4 11th for five points!

Tee booking schedule for tomorrow Thursday 10 September

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 13 September

Rules Quiz answer

Correct answer C
Explanation: See Rule 6.3c. Since the player made a stroke at a wrong ball, they get the General Penalty, but the stroke does not count.