Hello once again from Cleobury Mortimer Golf Club, 

Another week passes by as we enter the final golf major of the year. A big thank you to everyone who has supported the final money back specials, best of luck with all your players. Once again we have lots to report and talk about and as the picture below shows the course definition and condition is looking superb. 

Don't forget the Captains Away Day is next Friday (21st) at the Herefordshire Golf Club. Captain John currently has 48 playing, meaning there are just 4 spaces left. This proves the strength of the club taking a record number on the away day. Great prizes with great people, it all looks set to be a fantastic day. If you would like to join the day please contact us here.



Presidents Day 

Club president Tom Straughton had everything he could of wished for on his 2015 day. A bumper field of nearly 90 men and ladies contested the event in glorious sunshine making it the biggest competition of the year. There were four prizes up for grabs a 27 hole, 18 hole, 9 hole and ladies trophy, a medal format made it even more of an endurance test. Luke Brittain found it tough going but really found form on the final nine to score a nett 32 to take the nine hole trophy. Jem Jones and John Gaskell both had excellent 18 holes but both came unstuck on the 5th of Deer Park, Jem taking a 6 and John 5 putting to also take a 6 on the par 3. This meant Graham Brittain who shot a very steady nett 66 won the 18 hole prize on countback. Sara Pain won the ladies finishing one clear of Amy Millward.

The trophy that everyone wanted was the 27 hole trophy, a level nett would give you an overall score of 105 and there was one man who not only played under that score but played well under. Paul Liggins recorded a nett 98 to finish 7 under. A fantastic achievement for Paul who was playing off a 19 handicap, Paul played very consistent golf focusing on hitting fairways off the tee and playing a patient game. 

Director of golf Dave Pain added "I have spoke to Paul and his goal this year was to get his handicap down to 17, he has now gone one better than that on the back of his Presidents Day win. Paul has notched his first Cleobury Major of the year and even with his handicap reduction will be one of the favourites for the up coming Club Championships. Paul has taken his golf very seriously this year with significant investment in lessons, clubs and practice, he is certainly a worthy winner for all the hard work he has put in". 

   

CMGC On Tour 

Dave had a quick couple of days in Madrid last week, another CMGC picture on tour to match. Remember if your away send me your pictures and we will feature them. 

Here he is at Real Madrid's Stadium.



 

Course Improvements 

You may have noticed a flurry of activity on the courses this week as our Greenkeeping team have taken advantage of the good weather to tackle some major course improvements. Having taken advice from our Agronomists earlier in the year, we put together a plan to improve playing conditions throughout the winter months. As you already know we never use temporary greens however as playing numbers have increased and more golfers expect perfect conditions all year we wanted to improve the drainage on a couple of areas, deal with some problem bunkers and enlarge some teeing grounds. 

We were lucky to be able to call on some extra casual labour in the form of Kieran, Oliver, Sam and Josh to get the work done in record time. In less than a week we have done 500m of drainage on the 5th Foxes which will help dry up the area around the 5th Tee, the 5th Green and the 6th Tee. The spoil from this job is top quality topsoil and has been used to extend and improve the "upper tee" on the 7th Foxes. The "upper tee" on the 7th Deer Park has also been extended increasing the useable teeing area by 40%. 

The bunker on the right hand side of the 6th Green Foxes, back left hand side of the 8th Green Foxes and part of the lefthand greenside bunker on the 5th Badgers have all been cleaned out and re-turfed to become grass bunkers. These grass bunkers will remain GUR for a few weeks and will eventually be treated the same as the green surrounds creating interesting and challenging hazards that can remain in play all year. 

These course improvements have been carefully thought out and planned as part of our policy of continuous improvement and investment in the facility. We are very lucky to have such a skilled and adaptable green keeping team who can tackle the jobs in house using our own equipment meaning we can do these jobs quickly and efficiently causing the least inconvenience to you our golfers ~ CMGC leaders in golf since 1993."

   

   

 

Ladies Knockout Record! 

Most people hope that when they have a knockout match they can get a few holes up early and finish off the match early before any nerves kick in. This wasn't the case for Sara Pain and Ros Harrop who were playing against Nina Foord and Sue Griffiths in the second round of the ladies summer knockout who battled away in their pairs to the 25th hole!! As you can tell it was a closely fought match and probably a tiring one at that too! 

A huge well done to Sara and Ros who managed to win on the 7th on Foxes to claim the match and move on into the next round! If we are seeing matches this close in the early rounds we could have some exciting semi finals and finals on our hands! Good luck to all the ladies in the knockouts this summer!

   

Ladies 3 Ball Alliance Results 

The Ladies Open saw great support from our own ladies sections as well as 14 other golf clubs being represented, it was great to see so many ladies getting involved. 

Some great scores were recorded early on by our own CMGC members Gloria Bullock, Juliet Dugdale and Helen Watson who took the early clubhouse lead of 84 points, making the most of all 3 scores to count on par 3's by scoring 8 points on 3 out of the 4 par 3 holes. It would seem the winning score with the majority of teams shooting mid seventies. However as always, the very last group were the team to come out on top with an impressive 86 points. 

The team from Walmley consisted of Gill Ball, Karen Towell and Anne Wardle. 

The ladies of Walmley had this to say on their game: "We struggled to get here this morning with horrendous traffic and were lucky we could move to a later tee time. The welcome we received from the ladies section as well as the staff of CMGC was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed our round. We will definitely be returning!". 

The ladies section also put on a raffle in aid of Arthritis Research Campaign and raised £186. 

Results: 

1st place: Gill Ball, Karen Towell and Anne Wardle -Walmley 
2nd place: Gloria Bullock, Juliet Dugdale and Helen Watson - CMGC 
3rd Place: Wendy Duncan (CMGC), Jan Peuthere (Churchill & Blakedown), Liz Nasta (Redditch)

 

New Bar Staff 

A big welcome back to CMGC to Hollie Davies, Hollie who used to work as a waitress has returned to take on some bar duties. 

Feel free to give her a big CMGC welcome and help her settle in.

   

Reid Trophy 

As reported last week Jack Severn was playing in the English Boys' Under 14 Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship (Reid Trophy) up at Preston Golf Club, Jack finished tied 54th in event and was actually leading the event after 13 holes of the first day. A great effort from the CMGC youngster. To view the full leaderboard please click here.

Scratch Team 

The scratch team have now won their last three games in a row including two convincing 7-1 wins against Hollywood and Churchill and Blakedown. It has been great to see the youngsters breaking in to the team this season backed up by ever-consistent players such as Phil Lau and Paul Jones. A special mention to Charlie Edwards this week, Charlie was making his first appearance for the Scratch Team and held his nerve down the stretch to grind out a win on the 18th. The team have one home and one away match left on what has so far been a very steady season. 

Pictured on Sunday after beating Hollywood.

Club Championships 

The sign up sheet for the 2015 Men's Club Championships is now up in the golf centre. This is the biggest event of the year at the club taking place on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September . NOT TO BE MISSED.