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

Pannal GC

With temporary greens still in place, 14 pairs of ladies tackled the first 13 holes in their Fourball Betterball competition on Tuesday January 24th. It turned out to be an extremely closely fought event with the top 3 pairs all scoring 34 points.

With countbacks in force, it was Susan Asquith and Lynn Sheldrake who finished third with Clare Davies and Rebecca Booth having to be content with second. This meant the winners overall were Julie Parry and Gerry Callander

On Saturday 28th once again Martin Padgett staged a Fourball Betterball competition with an excellent field of 41 pairs taking part with temporary greens no longer in evidence. As with the ladies it was a tight affair with the top four all finishing on 46 points.

In reverse order Roger Stead and Jonathan Freeman came in fourth, Chris Mathewman and Simon Stalker in third with David Hindle and Phil Cave second. Congratulations therefore to Roy Woodburn and Philp Wilkinson who finished at the top of the leaderboard.

The return of regular greens inspired some excellent putting with the 82 players recording no less than 32 twos – which meant there was just enough in the pot for one ball each!

Without question the best 2 of the day was scored by four handicapper David Hindle with an eagle two at the 8th. His drive, a three quarter hit soft fade landed 20 yards short of the green which was followed by a 9 iron chip and ran to the back of the cup,

Every January the Harrogate Convention Centre plays host to over 200 exhibitors and 5,000 delegates from across the world to Europe’s premier exhibition for golf greenkeepers and turf management professionals.

Pannal GC was nominated as a finalist in both the Ecological and Sustainable Projects in the annual Golf Environment Awards. Congratulations to the greens team, volunteers and front of house staff for their hard work and passion without which these nominations would not have been possible.

Knaresborough GC

Like father, like son is often the essence of some family rivalry on the golf course. Take Darren Swales and son, Harvey who, over one week, matched each other by topping the leaderboard in division one of the January and February Medals.

The first was rescheduled to the end of the month because of heavy ground frost. Despite conditions, Harvey Swales rocked round on 36 points, a respectable return on the hard front nine temporary greens and newly thawed back nine.

In the slightly mellower conditions of the February Medal, dad Darren got off to a promising start, dropping just one shot over the first six holes.

At the long ninth he hoisted himself into contention when he arrowed a shot into the green and sank a 10 foot birdie.

As well he did, as the momentum dipped over the next few holes, running up a double bogey at 13 after finding the green side bunker.

Thereafter it was pars all the way with the exception of the 16th where he holed a 15 foot birdie from the fringe, setting up his win with 38 points. With barely a sliver of difference in the father-and-son handicap indexes (6.5 and 6.7), the pair will at least be joint assets when they feature together in the next four ball team competition on Saturday.

Ivor Roy (3.7) was edged out on a countback despite birdies at the first and eighth and an almost spotless back nine. A lively third was Mike Pennington (0.6) with a 37 that included three birdies and an eagle two at the 14th.

Despite failing to log a score at the short fifth, Andy Marshall ( 9.5) produced a big enough row of pars to see off the opposition with a 38, three points ahead of Paul Crawley (16.8) and Paul Cameron (11) divided on countback.

But most stunning result of the winter medals came in division three where Mike Pedder (17.6) triumphantly overcame his chipping deficiencies to net 44 points. As Mike tells it, he has tried for years to master the chipping and pitching wedge including chipping left handed, right handed “and even one handed a few times or with my eyes closed!”

His solution: a left hand below right for firmer control of his club.

But his result was not a total shock, as most other departments of his game were working well and “a good result was threatening”.

The cream on the cake was at 14 where he chipped on from 20 yards and holed the birdie putt. Dermot Keegan (20.5) and Tony Bretherick (18.9) were separated as second and third on the countback with 36 points apiece.

In the delayed ladies’ January Medal Julie Lovell (13.7) found her driver in good form but like everyone else had to battle to negotiate the crusty front nine temporaries.

The hybrid club did sterling work clipping the ball toward the target over the icy semi rough, but the birdie at the uphill, dog leg 10th, followed by par at 11 ensured a back nine of 19 points to finish with 35. Julie Hargreaves (21) with 34 and Lynda Grey (19.5) with 30 were second and third.

Bedale GC

January 25 – Ladies Winter Stableford: Division 1 - 1st Patricia Knox 37 pts; 2nd Gillian Petrie 34 pts; 3rd Karolina Aurelius 33 pts.

Division 2 - 1st Fiona Blaken 35 pts; 2nd Evelyn Weighell 32 pts; 3rd Ginny Kirk 31 pts.

Division 3 - 1st Claire Retchless 43 pts; 2nd Barbara Calvert 34 pts; 3rd Julie Fisher 31 pts.

9 holes - 1st Sheila Minto 14 pts (countback required); 2nd Maggie Tuer 14 pts (countback required).

January 26 – Thursday Stableford: 1st Mike Stirk 36 pts; 2nd Ric Noble 34 pts (countback required); 3rd John Norwood 34 pts (countback required); 4th Dave Larder 33 pts.

January 27 – Friday Animals: The Friday Animals held a team competition on 27 January, in first place were Paul Simmons; Harry Sargent; Bill Lumb & Kath Tate (127); the runners up were Mick Watts; Patricia Knox; Jeff Smith & Colin Tipton (119) who beat Dave Hennessey; Joan Sanderson; Al Aurelius & Andy Balsillie after a countback. In fourth place were Jim Hargan; Karolina Aurelius; Lee Broadway & Mike Ingram (118).

January 27 – Seniors Stableford: 1st Harry Dyke 38 pts; 2nd Richard Stevens 36 pts; 3rd Andrew Calder 35 pts.

January 28 – Ladies Stableford: 1st Terri Williamson 38 pts.

January 28 – Junior Winter League: 1st Jaicob Saunders 23 pts ; 2nd Charlie Clark 21 pts (countback required) ; 3rd Harry Gatenby 21 pts (countback required).

January 29 – Winter League Team Waltz: 1st Pam Rawlin, Sally Hunt, Rachel Holden & Emma Poulton-White 118 pts ; 2nd Max Weighell, Dave McCabe, Mark Williams & Colin Bartram 113 pts ; 3rd Tim Morris, Matthew Day, Kevin Bradley & Dave Munton 112 pts ; 4th Mike Edwards, Dave Adams, Neil Exelby & Josh Lishman 109 pts.