Thursday Recap
The Masters is well under way and is as eventful as ever. Jack Nicklaus started The Masters with a fitting tribute to 'The King' Arnold Palmer.
Unfortunately world No. 1 Dustin Johnson pulled out due to an incident with a set of stairs which ended his chances of winning the Masters, but luckily for the rest of the field the competition has opened up. Charlie Hoffman took full advantage with a first round score of 7 under par. Let's hope for a close and exciting finish and of course the right (British or even English) winner. This weekend we have a Masters Sweepstake in The Pro Shop so please have a go, as always there are first class prizes.
Rules Change
Our most helpful winter rules have been modified, which allowed Wednesday's Stableford to be the first qualifier of the year. So no teeing up on the 18th, no mats and no more lift, clean, and place in the rough.
Lift, clean and place is on closely mown areas only (this means grass that is cut to fairway height or less). Bunkers are back in play. We also have a new local rule that allows relief to be taken from embedded balls 'through the green' so this includes the rough - lift, clean and drop it.
Know Your Rules!
There seems to be confusion surrounding lost balls in the rough, and I have been made aware that some players are treating the rough as an 'abnormal ground condition' so when they lose a ball they simply drop a substitute ball and continue without penalty. To proceed this way certain requirements MUST be met and you need to be very careful - so please read on;
An 'abnormal ground condition' must be either a marked area of GUR or casual water. It can also be a hole, cast or runway made by a burrowing animal, reptile or bird.
To be casual water, there needs to be a temporary accumulation of water visible on the surface. That means that you can clearly see water sitting on the surface. Wet or mushy ground is not casual water. If you press your foot firmly into the ground and induce water upwards around the sole of your shoe, this is not casual water either.
So the next thing is - if the area where your ball has landed is casual water, it needs to be known or virtually certain that your ball has gone in there - a splash is considered satisfactory proof.
And if all these requirements are met, you need to drop a substitute ball in the right place. The right place is not close to where you think the original ball finished. You need to determine the area of the 'casual water' and drop the substitute ball where the original ball last crossed the margin of the casual water. Please see the diagram for the correct place to drop.
Any lost ball outside of these specific requirements and you must proceed under rule 27-1.
A Trip To Formby
Friday I spent the day at Formby Hall completing the second part of my level 2 coaching. The first part of the day was conducting a lesson on the full swing, finding faults and giving the correct advice, following on from that I then had to give an explanation/demonstration on how to perform a chip shot. I passed all areas of this course.
Junior Coaching
- Sunday 9th April - 1pm - 2pm (Practice Ground)
- Thursday 13th April - 10am - 11am (Practice Ground)
- Easter Sunday 16th April - 2pm - 3pm (5 Hole Competition) meet at Pro Shop
- Sunday 23rd April - 1pm - 2pm (Practice Ground)
- Sunday 30th April - 1pm - 2pm (Practice Ground)
- Sunday 14th May - 1pm - 2pm (Practice Ground)
- Sunday 21st May - 4pm - 5pm (5 Hole Competition) Pro Shop
Please register your child or grandchild for our junior sessions. £4 per child, per session.
Captains' Drive In
Well done to The Captain Barry Cocksey and Lady Captain Mal Woodcock, who each began their term with well struck drives from the first tee. The Drive In was well supported, with a large crowd and several photographers present. The Drive In went well for just about everybody and the shotgun team competition afterwards was well supported too.
If you didn't already know, Barry Cocksey is an avid Manchester City fan, so don't expect to see Barry with anything red (unless it's an air ambulance of course). I would like to wish both Captains an excellent year ahead.
Derek Dodd (pictured below, moments before disaster) hadn't been on the brandy all morning as was suggested and was okay after a slight backwards tumble or two from the first tee.
Seniors
The seniors played against Mellor on Tuesday and had a convincing win with a score of 5 1/2- 2 ½. They are playing Houldsworth on Thursday. If anyone is eligible for the seniors and wants to get involved with their competitions and matches please let us know and we will put you in touch with the right people.
Pro's Cross Country
I hope you enjoyed the course this year which included a couple of new holes, including the gruelling par 6 of 751yards, from 14th tee to 9th green. Looking at the scoring, this hole played the most difficult and provoked a few comments, thank you!
Coming in first place were the team of Ivan Kennedy, Kenny Barthram & Darren Cooper with 122 points, Duncan Hayes, Anthony Lyons & Tom Walker took second with 119 points, and Greg Mitchell, Pete Simister & Andy MacKenzie claimed third with 118 points.
Two's = £2.40 ppp2.
OOM Results
Geoff Loughlin held on to win the Winter Order of Merit.
Sunday's Pro's Stableford
Jonathan Knight claimed the winner's spot with 36 points and Greg Knight took second place, on countback, with 35 points (CPO).
There was only one two worth £21. Click here to see the full results.
Wednesday's Section
Div 1 Winner - Trevor Bate - 35 points
Div 2 Winner - Was Yousaf - 35 points (CPO)
Div 3 Winner - Allan Ramsden - 35 points
Two's = £8.42 ppp2.
