Hillsborough G.C. Report
Today finally saw us get together for our first outing of the season, the first for some 18 months since we last played a society fixture because of the pandemic.
A super 20 players turned out on a dry but chilly day and encountered a course with ‘difficulties’ which provided some disappointment to most. There were 4 temporary greens and hole number 2 was out of use altogether. It has to be added fairly to the club that they were great in their response and agreed to look after us next time we visit, together with a partial refund for todays game.
We played an 18 hole stableford competition which resulted in some great scoring.
The All Sports Trophy was won by Mike Pottock with a magnificent score of 44 points. In second place, just a single point behind was Dave Colley & third was Dan Fentaman with a super 41 points including a trip to the 2’s club.
Dave Jordan had a great day too winning nearest the pin on the 6th hole together with a visit to the 2’s club with Dan (mentioned above) and if that wasn’t enough Dave also won the captains prize, winning nearest the pin in 2 at the 7th hole.
The other nearest the pins were won by James Pickersgill on the 10th and Dave Saynor on ’17 A’ which was a sub for the 2nd hole being out of use.
The longest drive was won by John Kay in what must have been a monster drive on the 12th as he beat my Sunday best!
A Special mention and thanks to the guests Hearl Lenton & Andy Stanger, hope you enjoyed your day and will come and support us in the future.
It has to be said that a great day was had by all and we are going to take up the clubs offer of a discount next season with a return visit to what is highly likely to be Dave Colley’s Captains Day. A big thank you to Hillsborough G.C. for their hospitality and also to Mark in the office for his understanding of our frustration regarding the greens. I for one can’t wait to see their course next summer in all its glory.
Moving on to handicap matters……
It’s been agreed that the new World Handicap System doesn’t really work within our society as not everyone is a member of a club meaning some peoples handicaps will change often whilst others will hardly change other than on society days. It also has to be said that the CONGU system of receiving just 0.1 of a shot back for an over par score per round is also unfair and outdated as we only play 8-10 games per year and therefore handicaps will barely increase where necessary. It has therefore been decided to use the average scoring system with a buffer zone of 3 shots either side of said average score. This means that 4/5 points below the average in stableford (or 4/5 shots above average in medal) will gain 1 shot & 6 points or more below the average will gain 2 shots. Going the other way it means that 4/5 points above the average stableford score (or 4/5 shots below in medal) will lose one shot & 6 points and above will lose 2 shots off their handicap. This means the slopes of each course will not be used which stops any small confusion as we encountered today. It should make life easier as only whole shots will be calculated for new handicaps together with a fair increase or decrease in handicaps accordingly given as already pointed out that we only play a handful of games per season. The handicaps are uploaded on the players page accordingly.
Finally, our next golf day will be on Thursday 6th May and will be at Normanton Golf Club. Final details will be posted in the next couple of days. I believe it will be a breakfast sandwich with tea/coffee and one round of golf. CAN I PLEASE ASK YOU NOW TO EMAIL ME IF YOU ARE OR ARE NOT ATTENDING OR DO SO ASAP AS THE NEXT EVENT IS JUST 2 WEEKS AWAY.