Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter.

In this week’s mail, we compare today's drivers to the big sticks of yesteryear, look at how layering has become so important out on the course and cast our eye over one of the changes to the Rules of Golf which come into effect in 2019.

Enjoy the read.

It's all change

As 2019 comes ever closer, so too do the new Rules of Golf which are to be implemented on 1st January 2019. The changes being made are intended to modernise the game, one of which is the dropping procedure. Drops will no longer have to be made from shoulder height – instead, golfers will be able to drop from knee height when taking relief to simplify the dropping process and speed up play.

View all rules changes here.

Junior Presentation

Tuesday evening’s presentation went very well indeed, thank you to everybody who came. We had around 20 juniors in attendance; and with parents/relatives/brothers/sisters and anyone else who was interested the function room was full.

The children who attend the beginner’s coaching class were called up by Abbie to receive medals and certificates which were presented by The Captain – thank you Mike and well done Abbie. We had a break for a few minutes during which time the chipping foam balls into a net proved very popular with all children, and especially when incentivised with a Mars bar for chipping one in. The football cards were filled in minutes, with 50% being paid out and 50% going to help the Junior Section. Everybody stayed to watch the main event, and the younger children saw what awaits them in a year or two.

I called up the prize winners for the main presentation, with trophies and prizes presented by The Captain. These were all newly acquired and presented trophies for the series of order of Merit competitions we ran through the summer, which included ‘majors’ such as the Captain’s Prize and Pro’s Prize for juniors. We also bought a trophy for the Reddish Vale Junior Open which was a new event this year, and all trophies were engraved with the winner’s names.

It is very rewarding to see the progress of The Junior Section. It feels good to put back into the game that we get so much pleasure from. There was a lot of good energy in the room, it was very rewarding to see everybody together and so happy – and it gives much optimism for the future.

Thank you to everybody who has helped with our development of The Junior Section. There are too many people to mention but special thanks goes to Sheila Cowlard, Ken Hawker, David Wolstencroft and David Sanders.

3 Man Texas Scramble

This is the first event of our Winter Order of Merit, each week the top 6 accumulate points (like formula 1) with the top 3 at the end of the season receiving vouchers for the overall prize.

After each event the leaderboard gets updated and the sheets are available to look at in the locker room.

1st – Andy Covell, Pete McDermott & Colin Leigh – 56.4

2nd – Nick Hayward, Alan Jones & Lee Addison – 57.2

3rd – Phil Houghton, Paul Bruckshaw & Andy Humphrey – 57.4

Two’s = £1.72 each – not bad for Texas Scramble!

Pro’s Stableford

A close affair this week with three players tied on 38 points, Richard Howard had the best back nine score.

1st – Richard Howard – 38 points (CPO)
2nd – Tim Crampton – 38 points (CPO)
3rd – Paul Donohue – 38 points
4th – Ray Juskiw – 37 points

Paddy Weadick had the only two of the day which came at the 9th; Paddy said he was delighted to hole a long putt from off the green at the 9th, Paddy takes the whole pot of £27.00.

Wednesday Section Medal

Div 1 – Jason Leech – 72-5=67
Div 2 – Marc Singleton – 77-12=65
Div 3 – Chris Marshall – 84-16=68 (CPO)

Two’s = £6.87 each.

Knockouts

Well done to all players who made it to the final of any of the knockouts. Three of the four knock out finals have been played, so here is a quick rundown:

Josh Tunnicliffe and Richard Howard beat Lee Costello and Paul Sloane in the final of the Fourball. Lee and Paul agreed to play the match early because Josh was away on holiday on finals day.