Andrew Myers

Greetings golfers,

Going the right way…The latest golf course rankings have been published this week, and I am pleased to tell you that after we climbed three places from 18th to 15th in Cheshire in 2016, we have climbed by a further four places and we are now ranked 11th in 2017.

Click here to see the order of the top 20 ranked golf courses in Cheshire . As you can see, the top six remain unchanged with Royal Liverpool at the top, and no other club has moved by any more than two places except Reddish Vale which has improved by a massive four places, and that’s seven places in just two years.

At a time when many golf clubs are doing well to stand still, just standing still would be going backwards for Reddish Vale. The rankings are the cast iron proof of what a golf course we have and are a reflection of the improvements that are being made and the excellent job which is being done here. If things continue to progress as they are, and I am aware of many plans to further improve the golf course, I can only see Reddish Vale’s position improving again.

Club news

East Cheshire Scratch Knockout Final

The venue for hosting this year’s East Cheshire scratch knockout final has just been changed from Stockport Golf Club to Reddish Vale. The final is on Thursday 31st August (this Thursday) when the best from Prestbury take on the best from Northenden. The first tee time is 5.30pm so if you want to see some excellent golf being played, Reddish Vale on Thursday evening is where you will find it.

Nostalgia

Reddish Vale has being rated highly for a very long time, and I would say the latest rankings are putting the course back to where it should be. Back in the 1920’s and 1930’s Reddish Vale hosted exhibition matches between many of the leading professionals of the day.

You will have seen the picture (shown below) of Alf Perry, George Duncan (both past Open Champions), Abe Mitchell and Alf Padgham playing a game of golf at Reddish Vale. The framed picture is located in the MacKenzie lounge beneath the television if you haven’t seen it.

The ‘new’ 16th hole was Henry Cotton’s favourite hole in golf back in the day and the ‘new’ hole was renamed ‘Cottons’ after him. Below is another picture of what I am pretty certain are the same four golfers, seen here walking down the 16th at Reddish Vale. This is a lovely article written about the 16th hole, so please click on the images to enlarge them and read the text. The strategy of the hole looks clearer back then, clear risk/reward options with loads of room to the left (virtually no trees) to aim for, but needless to say you would be faced with a tougher second shot. And on the other hand ‘How much dare I cut off?’ is still the question.

Shop news

Get up the 18th – we are stocked with this in mind

Our 18th requires a different type of shot than your average golf hole.

You need high shot with a strong flight to get from the bottom to the top.

Many manufacturers have stopped producing lofted fairway woods and replaced them with hybrids over the last few years.

Hybrids are effective, but in truth they are not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ and do not produce such a high flight as a lofted fairway wood.

Take a look at the PING stand and the Callaway stand in The Pro Shop – each company is making not only a 7 wood but a 9 wood as well, perfect for our 18th.

New arrivals

The latest in the shop

Callaway steelhead fairway woods
Callaway Epic driver
FootJoy trousers – most sizes in stock now
Lamkin Z5 half cord grips

Assistant's news

Coaching resumes next week

No junior coaching this weekend sorry, but these will resume next week at the usual times on Sunday 3rd September. For any queries or help with developing junior golf please call us in The Pro Shop.

Competition news

Saturday’s August Medal

The later players had the drier of the conditions this week and the morning players got wet.

Div 1 Winner – Keith Seaton – 75-5=70 (CPO)
Div 2 Winner – Duncan Cheslett - 83-11=72
Div 3 Winner – Gareth Eyres – 92-21=71
Lowest Gross – Ryan Jackson – 71
Lowest Gross (Over 55’s) – Kevin Gale – 78

Two’s = £8.20 each.

Sunday’s Pro’s Stableford

1st – Dean Martin – 38 points
2nd – Mark Watkins – 36 points
3rd – Mike Warburton – 35 points (CPO)

Two’s = £9.33. Click here to see the full results.

RV Trophy

Winner – Vinny Kilcullen (Davyhulme Park) – 72-5=67

Congratulations to Vinny Kilcullen for winning the Reddish Vale Trophy. So Vinny’s name is on the board here yet again, we thought it would be one day. Vinny’s round had something of a poor start and finish by his standards, but some extremely good golf in between was enough to win.

2nd – Kevin Corfield (Rose Hill) – 83-15=68 (CPO)
3rd – Steven Yakub (Alderley Edge) – 79-11=68
Lowest Gross - Vinny Kilcullen (Davyhulme Park) – 72

Two’s = £16 each.

Wednesday Section Stableford

Div 1 Winner – Adam Stott – 40 points
This was a gross score of 61! Adam’s handicap is now +4.4 so only 0.2 from +5. (Yes +4.5 is still +4 as things work the other way round with a + handicap!). However Adam didn’t win the school as someone in division 2 had a better score…

Div 2 Winner – Jeff Stockton – 41 points
Div 3 Winner – Pete Simister – 38 points

Two’s = £3.17 each

Dunham Trophy

Thank you to the players who played on Sunday in what was a superb 3-4 away victory at Wigan Golf Club. Jason Leech made an impressive debut, 2 under par gross and Jason won his match 8&7, Keith Seaton won his match and Keith Pownall also got his point. Amid running the Reddish Vale Trophy, Abbie’s junior coaching and all the other stuff like towing in broken down buggies etc, I managed to nip to Wigan and back to claim a valuable point! A win is a win and we are now in the last eight and have a home draw against Pike Fold.