Club News

At this time our thoughts remain with King Charles III and the Royal Family during a period of national mourning.

On Monday 19 September, the day of the State Funeral, the Clubhouse, Office and Professional Shop will be closed for the full day as a mark of respect.

The golf course will remain open for members wishing to play, please reserve a tee time in the usual manner. Should you wish to bring a guest please notify the professional shop and the guest fee will be debited from your green card on Tuesday.

All facilities will re-open on Tuesday 20 September.

Peter Rishworth
Secretary/Manager

Firm, bouncy conditions met the field of over 100 golfers on Thursday, congratulations to all the winners, full results – Mens 4BBB Open Leaderboard 180822

Our Juniors were down at Woodhall Spa last week playing in the English Junior Champion Club event. Not only were they representing Moortown, but also Yorkshire having won the county final earlier in the summer.
The format was a 36 hole tournament, with 18 holes played over two days. The winning club was to be the one with the highest aggregate nett Stableford score, taking the best two of the three man team scores in each round.

The Moortown side consisted of Joseph Ellis (Junior Captain), Matty Parlett and Josh Stephens, with Jack Ellis also travelling as a reserve, just-in-case.

The assault began with a Weds practice round on the Bracken Course assisted by Messrs Gaffney & Mortimer. With course planners at the ready, the lads agreed on which holes to play safe and which to attack. Having only 3, 2 and -1 shots respectively, the need to go and make birdies was apparent if they were to challenge in this handicap event.

The serious stuff began at 12.30 the next day, with our players being announced on to the 1st tee by the official England Golf starter, “Representing Yorkshire, from Moortown Golf Club.. etc.” All three of our lads made pars on the opening hole and we were up and running!

Out first, Josh made a solid start, going into red numbers with a birdie on the 3rd. Some shots were dropped mid round, but he rallied with another birdie on the tough 13th and followed this up with 5 straight pars to post a fine +1 score. This equated to 34 points.

Playing just behind, Matty started with 7 straight pars; but on a baking hot day, his putter unfortunately turned a little cold on the back nine, and he finished on +6 for 32 points.

Joe burnt the edges on a number of birdie putts early on. Sadly, these turned in to missed par putts mid-round and he was heard asking the throng of Moortown supporters, “has anyone bought a spare putter I can use tomorrow?” However, armed with the knowledge of what was needed to post a counting score; Joe rallied with birdies on 17 and 18 to end on +6 for 33 points.

So at the end of Day 1, the squad retired to the terrace of a local restaurant placed 18th out of the 31 teams. The boys concluded that they had hoped for a slightly better score but agree they were not out of it should the leading teams feel the pressure.

Fuelled by the momentum of Joe’s birdie on 18 and Charlie Parker’s energetic banter (The Captain arrived in a pair of Hawaiian swim shorts expectant of a cooling dip in the local lido. Something which the lad’s thought was simply fantastic!) Joe, Matty and Josh promised each other they would have “a right go at it” in round two.
Joe was first off, and in true Captain’s style, led by example turning in 1 under gross. Another birdie followed on the par 5 14th imparted gladness on a growing number of Yorkshire supporters. The group now including dignitaries from the LDUGC. Sadly, an encounter with the ditch on the tricky par 4 15th led to a challenging finish. Nonetheless, Yorkshire grit was shown, and Joe ended his round on +1, garnering an excellent 38 points for the team.

The story of the day was emerging in the group behind. Rumours swirled that a big hitting lad from Yorkshire was driving par 4s and hitting second shots into the par 5s with a wedge. These tuned out to be true. Matty P had blasted through the first 6 holes in 4 under! Over the rest of the round, the Moortown faithful were treated to a magnificent roller coaster ride. Lost ball, birdie, three putt bogey, eagle! And so, it went on. Eventually ending in a brilliant +1 73 gross and 37 points.

As ever, our final player Josh gave his absolute all for the cause and posted another solid round in the mid-70s, but off a +1 handicap, could not better the existing team Stableford score.

So, after three days of golf in blistering heat, which made even spectating difficult work. The lads retired for a well-earned drink in front of the electronic scoreboard. This ended up showing Moortown on 142 in T8th position. Although the boys were sad not to be bringing the trophy home, they know their performance was extremely credible.

The calm conditions ended up favouring teams with slightly higher handicaps. Sadly, there was no gross prize. If there had been, the Moortown Juniors would have won this by a stretch. They were only 9 over in total across the 4 counting rounds. That’s great golf!

Scoring aside, the way the lads conducted themselves made all the grown-ups who travelled in support very proud. In the words of our Captain, “those lads are a credit to the club and such good fun to be around.” Thanks to Charlie, Simon, Gary, Geoff, Martin and Richard from Moortown, plus Colin and John from the LDUGC for their help and encouragement.

It would be remiss of me to end this newsletter without mentioning Cian Magill and Joe Turner who played a big part in helping us qualify for the final. Sadly, they couldn’t come along due to holidays. Everyone will try their best to get you there next year lads.

David Ellis
Junior Organiser

A chilly but fine day at Moortown welcomed 88 ladies to this year’s Ladies Open on Monday 13th June.

Prizes were awarded to the top 6 teams as follows – 1st place team – £100/player, 2nd – £60/player, 3rd – £50/player, 4th – £40/player, 5th – £30/player, 6th – £20/player. Vouchers will be forwarded by email to each team direct from our Club Professional Martin. Congratulations to all the prizes winners – Ladies Open Results

Congratulations to Isaac Smith who won the YUGC Boys Championship at Woodsome Hall earlier this week with a superb 36 hole score of +1. Further congratulations go to Josh Stephens, who came a close 2nd with a 36 hole total of +2, but managed to win the Under 16’s prize.

Notable finishes for Joe Ellis and Matthew Parlett, who both finished in the top 15.

Isaac will now represent Yorkshire in the England Golf Boys Champion of Champions event – 10th September. Full Results

Pictured left the winners (Josh Stephens U16s award) and Isaac Smith (Boys Champion) feature alongside Mark Fielding (Woodsome Hall Club Captain) and Terry Collins (YUGC President).

Apart from the runaway leaders Scowcroft, Barden, Warwick and Tyson with an incredible score of 90 points it was a close run thing with three teams all finishing on 83 points. Congratulations to all those who won prizes on the day. Seniors Spring AMAM Results 250422

A sunny and dry spring day lead to some exceptional scoring in last Thursday’s Winter Open, Adam Draper (Renishaw Park) & Samson Cagnani (Kedleston Park) took top sport with 44 points. Winter Series Results

Following the announcement by the General Committee Chairman in his AGM report, we are about to embark on a major refurbishment of the clubhouse and I would like to take this opportunity to outline our plans and probable timescales.

It is obviously a major undertaking, both from a financial and practical viewpoint and the club has to be able to function whilst we undertake the works, so we have split the project into 4 phases over the next 4 years.

Phase 1

Construct a terrace that runs across the front of the MacKenzie Bar and Snooker Room bay windows. Drawings are available to view below and copies have also been displayed on the main noticeboard.

Drawing 1 shows the first stage of the terrace which will start on the 28th March 2022. We envisage completing this element in approximately 5 weeks. This is subject to no adverse delays with materials that at the moment are readily available.

Drawing 2 shows our proposal for the removal of the bay window in the Snooker Room and the installation of bi-folding doors and further extension of the terrace area. This greatly improves the visual aspect of the terrace, provides better and more usable space and will form part of the future improvements to the Snooker Room. It may seem illogical to be doing this work in two stages but it has to coincide with whatever changes we make to the Snooker Room which will take place in Phases 3 & 4. The cost of extending the terrace upon removal of the bay window is negligible.

Also, as part of Phase 1 we will be replacing the windows facing the proshop and this will take place during the week commencing 20^th June and should be completed in a week. Following on from that will be the replacement of the bay window to the MacKenzie Room, removal of the external porch and installation of new windows and a door into the Mixed Lounge. A new lobby will then be formed inside the MacKenzie room (shown on the terrace drawings) and a new canopy spanning between the Mixed Lounge and MacKenzie bay window will be installed. Because of the disruption this will cause we are planning to carry out this element to coincide with the course maintenance period in early August when golfing activities are reduced and there are no visitor bookings. We are mindful that we are hosting the Ladies MacKenzie Gathering starting on the 22^nd August so we will commence work on 25th July for a period of 3 weeks.

The last element of Phase 1 will be the four windows to the mixed lounge and we plan to carry this out at the end of October.

Phase 2

We have engaged the services of an interior design company Fusion by Design, who are about to begin the design process starting with the mixed lounge and dining room. We aim to be in a position by early summer whereby we can place orders and secure the necessary contractors for work to commence immediately in the new year. At this moment we do not know how long this phase of work will take but think in the region of 3 months.

Phases 3 & 4

The MacKenzie room refurbishment is currently earmarked to commence in 2024 followed by the snooker room in 2025 but depending on the design concept may well be done together if finances allow.

A scheme of this size will clearly impact the day-to-day function of the club, but we will make every endeavour to minimise this and information will be forthcoming on a regular basis as we progress.

Ian Hartley – Chair of Building

Terrace Drawings

An impressive 46 points by Garry Dolan & Michael Smith of Blackley Golf Club won the first of our Winter 4BBB Opens on the 2nd December 2021. – Winter Open Results 021221

Another fine dry week has allowed the team to progress well with the work on the 5th hole.

The green surround and greenside bunker banks have now been re-turfed and focus has move to the fairway extensions where old turf has been stripped, exposing the peat. Sand has been added to the peat and the ground rotovated which helps improve the drainage of the land whilst rectifying levels readying the area for new turf to be laid.