Club Press Releases
Press Reports
For many years Keith Ray provided the local papers with stories from Ross-on-Wye Golf Club giving an insight to the golf, social and team matches at Ross.
This year I have the great honour ...
The following extracts give a flavour of the regular press releases that appear in our local 'rags'. For Team match reports please go to the various Team pages for more information
Geoff Baker
Press Secretary
May 2007
County Medal
The County Medal was played at Ross on Saturday 5th May. This competition is run in two divisions, handicap categories 1 & 2 in Division 1 & handicap categories 3 & 4 in Division 2. The winners of each division progress to the Gloucester County Handicap Final at Minchinhampton on the 19th July and the Gloucester Handicap Champion goes on to compete in the EGU Gold Medal Final at Woodhall Spa later in the year. 107 members entered the competition at Ross and the Div 1 winner was Richard Brough with a gross 77 off a handicap of 10 – net 67. Runner up in this division was Nick Ellis 79 – 11 – 68. Winner of Division 2 was H Davies 82 –13-69, runner up was Geoff Walsh 82 –13- 69 losing on a count-back of the last 9 holes.
Anniversary Rose Bowl
The anniversary Rose Bowl was played for on Sunday 6th May. This competition commemorates the opening of the present course after our move from Rudhall and is a Mixed Foursome format. Outright Winners were Do Godsell & Alan Pearson with a very creditable 39 stableford points. It would be impolite to mention Do’s age, suffice to say she is one of our more senior members who is still playing competitive golf.
The Herefordshire team captained by Will Weaver included well known county stalwarts such as former county captain John McQuillan, two time county seniors champion Neil Bell, Neil Greening and current Three Counties Golf Society Chairman Nigel Winney but they were no match for an on form Ross team who made full use of their home advantage .
Collins Flag
Competitions such as this always throw up problems because of the difference between the Standard Scratch Score and the Course Par. Jamie Wilde thought that he had a drive down the second (72 plus his 6 handicap = 78) but in fact he needed to work off the SSS 71 plus 6 = 77 so he finished in the hole on the first, after taking 72 shots for the 18 holes and taking 5 on the 19th hole. The winner is Phillip Edwards who turned in 83 - 19 = 64, which left him 7 shots. After completing the 19th in 5 he, had two shots down the second fairway. Nerves had set in but after a poor drive he placed an iron into the winning position. No doubt his daughter Katie, who is the assistant professional at Ross, gave him a big hug.
April 2007
Seniors Winter League Final
The final of the Seniors Winter League was held at the Ross-on-Wye Golf Club on Monday 2nd April. John Hebdon & Tiger Dixon winners of the B Division met Pat Curtis & Dave Every the winners of the A Division.
Despite being the holders of the cup and the winners in 2005 as well, Pat and Dave were 2 down with 4 to play. They finally managed to square the match with a 6 foot put from Dave on the 18th. Honours being even they all decided to share the cup for 2007.
March 2007
Barnfield Trophy
The top 8 players from each of the 5 Winter Stableford competitions qualify for the Barnfield Trophy, which was held on Saturday 10th March at the Ross-on-Wye Golf Club. For a change the weather was amenable and the course was in excellent condition for winter golf. Mike Talty took advantage of the conditions to return a fine score of 41 Stableford points to wrest the trophy from Trevor Flowers who he beat on a countback.
Seniors Competition
The Senior’s March Competition held at the Ross-on-Wye Golf club on Wednesday 14th March was a light-hearted affair consisting of a yellow ball teams of three competition. Runaway winners were the team of Jon Palmer, Geoff Baker and Tony Kershaw with 97 points. Second and third with 94 points each were the teams of Will Morris, Pat Curtis & Don Hunter and Peter Metcalfe, Terry Savage & Tiger Dixon.
Annual General Meeting
On a more serious note the club AGM that was held on the evening of that day.
The President Lou Whitton conducted the evening with a combination of wit and authority. The outgoing Captain Doug Duncanson welcomed his successor Frank Gallagher who told the members that he would be having his drive-in after the St Patrick’s Day competition on Saturday 17th March. The New Chairman of the Management Committee Mike Cooper was elected to replace Edward Turner and the new Greens member Dave Sidnell took over from John Rawlings. The new vice Captain David Griffiths was introduced and elected to the Captains Committee where Di Honey and Graham Smith. Special mention was made of the club administrator Sarah Creighton who has done a magnificent job in what has been a very difficult year for the management of the club because of the major changes in the committee structure. The outgoing Chairman of the Management Committee and the Hon. Treasurer David Edwards gave very well prepared presentations on the present and future financial position of the club and the proposition to restrict the powers of the committee in this respect was defeated.
St Patrick’s Day Competition and Captain’s Drive in
A Florida Scramble with shotgun start was organised by Frank Gallagher as the start of his year as Captain of the Ross-on-Wye Golf Club.
90 members took part with the team of Richard Lloyd, Mike Rothwell, Adam Gillespie and Chris Bullock coming away the outright winners by a considerable margin. The Ladies Captain Wilma MacNamara and her team received the prize for the greenest team. Following the competition Frank ‘Drove In’ achieving the undistinguished distance of 140 metres. As any past captains will know it is a very unnerving experience! Ellie Peake was quite pleased with his length off the tee however as that was the distance she had in the draw. The festivities finished with a buffet lunch provided by the caterer Trevor Griffiths.
February 2007
February Winter Stableford
The third round of the winter stableford competition was played on Saturday 3rd February at the Ross-on-Wye Golf Club. It was a very frosty morning again and therefore temporary greens were in use on all the holes. Despite the weather about 100 members completed the course though the scores were not as high as is often the case in these competitions. The Winner in Division 1 was Richard Matthews with 41 Stableford points beating Tim Rigden on a countback. In Division 2 Richard Kimp came out top again with 41 points followed by Trevor Flowers, Neville Ovens and Harold Beach with 40. The January round, which had to be abandoned because of inclement weather, will now be held on 17th February.
Winter Stableford
The January round of the winter stableford, which had to be abandoned on two former occasions, was finally played on Saturday 17th February at the Ross-on-Wye Golf Club. Ground conditions were still somewhat soggy and the fact that there was virtually no run on the ball on the fairways made for some interesting scores. The Club Captain Doug Duncanson was heard to mutter as he left the course that he would have been better off staying in the bar! Despite that 97 players took part and in division 1 Bob Griffiths managed 45 stableford points beating Mark Gould by one point. In division 2 Paul Meddings also had 45 stableford points though in this case the runner up David Rees was 4 points adrift.
Seniors
Ross Seniors played a Greensomes Ryesomes partners drawn competition on Valentines Day much to the chagrin of many wives and girlfriends. After some extreme weather conditions which kept the course closed for the week previous, the course was opened and we were blessed with wonderful spring sunshine and a cloudless blue sky.
As it was Valentines Day everyone put their Heart into it, producing some truly amazing scores, none more so than the 'mercurial' Bob Henbest and his partner, 'C' team captain, Malcolm Thornton who accumulated 42 points. Hot on their heels, in second place, were 'super vet' Cliff Price and his partner the 'mighty atom' Fred Stott who amassed 41 points.
January 2007
The first competition of the New Year comes to a soggy end
Approximately one hundred golfers were due to take part in the first men’s winter stableford competition of the New Year on Saturday 6th January 2007 at the Ross–on-Wye Golf Club. The weather conditions were pretty miserable from the start with continuous light rain making for difficult playing conditions on an already saturated course. 59 stalwarts actually commenced play but by about 11.30 a.m. the condition of the course had deteriorated to such a level that play had to be suspended and then abandoned.
Those who had not yet started greeted the decision with approbation and most then retired to the bar and drank to the health of the committee for sparing them. Those who had completed seventeen holes were not so fulsome in their praise.
Extract from press report dated 7th Jan 2007
Seniors competition
The senior’s competition held at the Ross-on-Wye Golf Club on Wednesday 24th January 2007 was a three club and putter affair over sixteen holes. It was a cold and frosty morning and there were temporary greens on all 16 holes, making the putting somewhat of a lottery. 44 members took part and despite the problems many good scores were returned with Pat Curtis coming out supreme with a great 39 Stableford points. Runner up Fred Stott had 36 points with Cliff Price coming in 3rd with 35 points. Pat’s club selection for the day was Driver, 4 Wood and 7 Iron plus of course a putter. Perhaps this was the magic combination particularly as almost all of the bunkers were out of play due to the positioning of the temporary greens? Maybe we should all take note of this score and discard most of our clubs? The competition was rounded off by an excellent lunch provide by the Club Caterer Trevor Griffiths.
C Team Dinner
C Team Captain Malcolm Thornton welcomed The Club Captain (Doug Duncanson) and 48 members and guests to their annual C Team Dinner held at the Ross-on-Wye Golf Club on Saturday 20th January 2007. All enjoyed a pleasant evening. Malcolm reported that during the year 46 members actually played for the team and that 8 matches were won, 6 were drawn and 1 was lost which overall was a very satisfactory result. The matches were all played in a friendly yet competitive spirit in which helps to cement good relations with members of other local clubs. For the first time home and away matches were played against Kington Golf Club and these will become permanent fixtures. Particular note was made of the very substantial win over the Ross B team, which was greeted with enthusiasm by the members. The evening ended with the usual draw for which members had entered at every match. 16 prizes were on offer and even though Paul Reynaert’s name was drawn 4 times he was only allowed to keep one bottle!