Winter League - Saturday, 14 March 2015

The last round of the Winter league was thankfully blessed with much more favourable weather conditions, although the breeze picked up later in the afternoon. Congratulations to Ben Easterling and Stuart Cameron who won this week's Winter League beating Ian Hodge and Alan Howells on the back nine.

1st - Ben Easterling & Stuart Cameron - 44 points
2nd - Ian Hodge & Alan Howells - 44 points
3rd - Tom Ruhrmund & Clive Cribble - 43 points
4th - Brian Hosken & Tim Martin - 42 points
5th - Seamus Stevens & Eamon McWilliams - 42 points
6th - Brian Joy & Richard Glasson - 42 points
7th - Gary Wignall & Lee McGarraghy - 41 points
8th - Matt Richards & Steve Turner - 41 points
9th - Luke Stevens & Chris Bowden - 41 points
10th - Neil Hodding & Ian Alford - 40 points

Nearest the pin was won by Alistair Paterson 5ft inches away on the 15th hole

The booby prize was won by Chris Sandow & Bob Smith with 24 points

The final Winter League Scramble is on Saturday, 28 March. If you would like to enter please click here.

After the scramble, the overall Winter league prize winners will be announced and presented with their prizes. All prize winners will be expected to attend.

The War Against Pitchmarks

In the last Winter League on the 14th March war was declared against the increasing amount of pitchmarks that are remaining unrepaired on our greens. For the Winter League each group was assigned a green to undertake and repair every pitch mark on the green. It took each group a minute or two to provide a real improvement to the putting surfaces.

The project was considered a success with Course Manager Keith Kemp saying the greens were a lot better after the day. Thanks very much to everyone for co-operating with us on the day and please let's continue to help by always repairing your pitch marks and any others that you find on the greens.

Remember that with the firm nature of our greens that your pitch mark may be well away from where your ball lies. Try to make it a habit that the first thing you do once arriving at the green is looking for your pitchmark in the area that your ball landed.

Please "Always carry a pitch mark repair fork on your person whilst playing" Failure to carry a pitch repairer and repair pitch marks is considered A serious breach of Golf Club etiquette.

Thank you.

How to repair a pitchmark

Take your ball mark repair tool and insert the prongs into the turf at the edge of the depression. Do NOT insert the prongs into the depression itself, but at the rim of the depression.

Then push the edge of the ball mark toward the centre, using your ball mark repair tool in a gentle twisting motion.

This is where golfers who try to repair ball marks usually mess up. Many golfers believe the way to fix a ball mark is to insert the tool at an angle, so the prongs are beneath the center of the crater, and then to use the tool as a lever to push the bottom of the ball mark back up even with the surface. Do not do this!

Pushing the bottom of the depression upward only tears the roots, and kills the grass.