JUNE 2023
PART TWO OF OUR CHAT WITH STAFFORDSHIRE’S OWN PGA TOUR CADDIE, JASON TIMMIS
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW about the WHS
COUNTY JUNIORS season off to a flier
STAFFORDSHIRE AMATUER CHAMPIONSHIP and the winner was…
Welcome to the fifth issue of the Staffordshire Golfer. We’ve had an unbelievable response to the first four issues from both inside and outside of the County. As a County we feel that we’re leading the way in the area of digital club communication, and we can’t wait to bring you future issues highlighting all the great stories throughout the Union that are waiting to be told.
The golfing season is now in full swing, so if you’ve got any great stories that have happened at your golf club please do get in touch. Make sure to contact Gareth, at the
email below with anything you’d like us to share.
The start of the summer season has been busy for everyone involved with the County. We’ve had team matches across all our age groups taking place as well as the coveted Staffordshire Amateur Championship. The teams have had a tough start to the season at County level, but we feel the work that everyone is putting in to improve will bear dividends. On the positive side, we’ve given debuts to some of our junior players and they have really held their own. This will stand us in good stead as we head into the rest of the season and into future seasons.
THE TEAM AT STAFFORDSHIRE GOLFER
Editor and Production: Medi8 Golf – david@medi8ltd.co.uk
Editorial research: Gareth Shaw – secretary@staffsgolf.org.uk
Editorial research: Michael Entecott – michael.entecott@staffsgolf.org.uk
Our juniors, led by new Junior Chairman Alan Street, have had a fantastic start to the campaign that you’ll be able to read about in more depth later in this issue!
Alongside our chat with Alan, inside this issue you’ll find part two of our interview with PGA Tour caddie Jason Timmis and a feature length interview with our very own Roger Howarth, who spills all the secrets on what it takes to rate a golf course.
I won’t give too much away here but it really is a great issue, so enjoy and don’t forget to share the issue with your golfing friends!
The course rating team have been to JCB Golf and Country Club.
Congratulations to Geoff Hall on his hole-in-one on the 11th hole at Aston Wood Golf Club. Geoff was playing in the Club Qualifier first round.
No stone left unturned for our elite players with our stats card.
Richard Mansell makes the day of two young Staffordshire golfers.
Congratulations to Ronnie Groveson his first hole-in-one at Trentham Park Golf Club in The Staffordshire Amateur Championship 2023.
Gareth Shaw: Was it tough to make that jump into caddying and almost have to bite your tongue at times? I imagine being a decent golfer and the players hit a bad shot or not listened to what you’ve said, was that a hard adjustment from playing to caddying?
Jason Timmis: A little bit. But at the same time, I’ve been in their shoes, so I know. It should be simple, but, you know, there’s so much that could go on in the players mind or whatever else. It’s probably understanding that because it’s even
when you go and watch golf, you stand on the side of the ropes and they make it look very easy don’t they? But they can hit bad shots. So, there’s a lot of bad shots. But the good thing with the top pros, they know how to score, they know how to recover. That’s the most impressive thing I see on the PGA Tour. You watch somebody [and think] that’s a funky golf swing but you play with him. They sign the scorecard and they’ve shot 66.
G.S: So is there anybody that we should be watching who is not Tiger
Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, but you’ve been in the group and they’re a better player than people give them credit for?
J.T: Everyone really. I would say 100% that Aaron is underrated himself personally. We’ve played with some of the best players in the world now. I always come off there, and I’ll back Aaron all the time, like, yeah, he’s a better player than this guy or that but you know, everyone’s different.
There is a lot. We played with Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson the other
This is part two of our sit down with the PGA Tour caddie, Jason Timmis. In this issue we’re going to take you inside the ropes of the PGA Tour and what it’s like to be around some of the best golfers in the world.week, but these guys ripped it. I was blown away that they could still play to a high standard. That again impresses you. You see some of the results and, you know they fizzle out but we played and they could still hit their shot shapes, putt, chip and do everything.
G.S: That’s cool. Do you still get pinch yourself moments? Because when we think about those names, you’re sitting here now, we’re smiling between ourselves and we’re just two lads here from Stoke sitting in Greenway Hall Golf Club, talking about some of the best golfers in the world.
J.T: Yeah definitely. You start looking back and we played with Rickie Fowler the other week. I’ve known of Rickie since when I was at college.
G.S: I’ve played as him on the Xbox or PlayStation!
J.T: Your likes of Justin Thomas, Rory [McIlory] we played with I think at Riviera. So, it’s a pro-am day and Tiger was playing first out. So, me and Aaron go and watch him on the back nine. It was early morning. Aaron got there first so I caught him up and he’s walking the fairway with Tiger having a chat!
G.S: Did his manager or his agent
invite him inside the ropes?
J.T: So I was just watching what he does, his mannerisms and things like that. He [Aaron] likes that kind of stuff, learning. Then yeah his manager invited him over and he had a brief chat with him. He’s your hero growing up. Like Rory, we’ve played with Rory, you see him in the gym or see him on the course and we always have a nice chat and they’re just normal people who are very good at what they do.
G.S: Do you think [caddying] is becoming more professional? You look at yourself, Rory’s caddie, you’re both fit and healthy young lads and the lifestyle of a caddie is going towards the life of a golfer.
J.T: Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of the lads want the caddy to push them. So, in another way it’s a role of a caddy, but you’re also a role of potentially a friend, a fitness partner, you know, maybe a psychologist. But yeah, it’s performance stuff is you just constantly trying to push your player to be better, but it also ultimately pushes you to be better.
G.S: People don’t see that do they? They’ll see you giving them the number or the club, but they don’t see the other stuff. Talk me through a day in the life of you at a tournament?
J.T: Say we’ve got a 09:00 tee off, we’ll get to the course at potentially seven. I’ll have a bit of breakfast, have a stretch and a warm up. We used to do two hour warm ups, but now it’s an
hour and a half. So, we’ll start on the putting green, and I’ll set up all of Aaron’s drills up, his mat and his string stuff and his Aim Point numbers.
It takes 10 to 15 minutes then Aaron will get there and spend 45 minutes there, then 15 minutes chipping. He’s very short on his warm up. We’ll start with a wedge, then his mid irons and work up to his driver and then whatever he’s got off the first tee then we’ll get into it. We’ll go to the first tee and hopefully not spend loads of time out there. Then after the round it depends on how he’s performed or what area he feels isn’t quite there, then we’ll have 20 minutes having a chip or a putt or whatever he feels needs work.
G.S: It’s a long day, I bet you’re exhausted at the end. You get used to it now as it’s your job, but was that a hard adjustment?
J.T: Yeah, it’s a long day. Aaron’s on another scale as well. He’s one of the hardest working out there, which is good, but it puts you through your paces at the same time. But it’s probably more the practice. Those practice days are now 12-hour days without fail, which if it makes you better, that’s what you have to do.
If you missed the first part of the interview with Jason, or would like to listen to the interview in full you can listen here:
The Staffordshire Amateur Championship, one of the most prestigious events in the County calendar, was hosted at Trentham Park Golf Club on Saturday 10th June. The course was in spectacular condition as over 30 golfers battled it out over 36 holes to be crowned Champion on one of the hottest days of the year so far.
Congratulations to all of the various category winners, but with two rounds of 73, Zarak Curley was crowned the overall champion on the day. Going into the second round, Jack Clemson had a slender lead after shooting a 71 gross in the morning. But the two shot cushion wasn’t enough as a second round 78 dropped him into second place. Consistency and fantastic scoring
proved to be the key for Curley, as a second 73 gave him a three shot lead, and the 2023 title.
Ronnie Groves was the winner of the Youth Cup. After an opening round 81, he had it all to do in the second round, but a fantastic score of 70 was enough to secure the cup. However, that wasn’t the only story from Ronnie’s day, after the youngster recorded his first ever hole-in-one in the competition.
The Scarf Shield for best club was won by Bloxwich Golf Club, and the Legg Cup, the prize for the lowest nett, was won by Oliver Perks with an impressive score of 143 over the two rounds.
Following the event, SUGC secretary Gareth Shaw said: “There was some fantastic golf on display by everyone, especially considering the warm weather which made the course even more difficult. Congratulations to all of our winners, who not only played great golf but also dealt superbly with the conditions.
I must also give a shout out to Ronnie Groves for recording his first hole-in-one, what a day to do it!” Gareth continued: “These County events give everyone a chance to play a course they may have never played before, alongside meeting new golfers from all over the County. We can’t wait until the next one where we hope to see another good turn out.”
Gareth Shaw: Alan, we’re here today because we’ve had a bit of a change, we’ve had a similar infrastructure with our junior side for many years now. And you’ve come in and I don’t want to of hype you up too much on the conversation, but I think it’s been a bit of a revelation this year, in terms of the structure and the way you’ve gone about
things, especially managing your team as well as the whole junior set up as well. Would you echo that?
Alan Street: I would, yes. Because of my footballing background, I look at it in a much better structure than what we’ve got. I’ve implemented that throughout. It’s worked well for me in several matches because I look at players and they all mix with each
other and I’ve got a very good junior committee, which I’m pleased with.
G.S: How is that crossover working for you then? From your footballing background, how have you brought that into golf?
A.S: That’s a good question. The way I look at players is probably different than any team manager
We sat down with our new Junior Chairman, Alan Street, to talk about the changes that have been made to the County Junior Section and what the aims for the Junior teams are in the next 12 months.they’ve had before. Because I look at their attributes that they’ve got and how I can best utilise their abilities. It’s worked really well; I’ve seen some lads really find the best golf. I try to get round all my players as they’re playing, whether it be in foursomes or singles, and just give them words of encouragement. I never criticise anything they’ve done which I truly believe in. They’ll know if they’ve made a mistake without me telling them.
G.S: Do you feel it’s a little bit more about the person than the golfers as well at times? Have you taken people into the squad who you think would be good for the team and the camaraderie of the team, not just their golf ability?
A.S: That’s one of my favourites, that is. I do look at the way other golfers interact with each other and I truly believe that I’ve had several new players come in that have gelled really well which again is another football based thing that it’s all a team effort although golf is more individual it’s still a team effort.
G.S: In terms of where you want to take the team and what you want to do, you had a great start to the year with your side, the under-18s. How did that kind of kick it off? Because it starts quite fast, doesn’t it, in terms of the inter-County competitions and things like that? So how did you feel going into those early events?
A.S: To be quite honest, quite scared. I didn’t know what I was going to get. I didn’t know whether my way of coaching, and I use the word coaching people, into my way
of thinking would work with golfers. Luckily enough, it got off to a very good start, and it still is. I think the lads enjoy it, because it’s a different way.
G.S: Well, I know they enjoy it, yeah. And that’s the key to it, it’s about that enjoyment, it’s about them going out there, because I think if you enjoy it, you’ll play your best golf. And especially when these guys are going and staying away from home and parents, it’s a different vibe, it’s a different atmosphere, isn’t it? And that must be difficult for you to manage logistically as well.
A.S: It is, yeah, yeah. That’s a bit of a nightmare. That’s the nightmare part of the job, is getting that team together and sorting the parents. Once you’re there and everything falls into place, then it starts to become easier. And it’ll get easier for me as I get a bit more experience because I’m a newbie.
G.S: And you’re a volunteer, that’s the thing. You’re doing this again, as a sort of a selfless act and giving your time and energy for the County, which we greatly appreciate. But why do you do this?
A.S: I enjoy working with younger people. I enjoy working with senior players as well. It’s been one of the best jobs I’ve ever had working for Staffordshire County.
G.S: What’s your ethos? We talk about it now we’ve got six squads in terms of the age groups as we move up into the senior gentleman and juniors playing and moving through the ranks?
A.S: Oh, that is crucial to the county, especially in the men’s first team. You cannot beat players that have come through the system.
G.S: What are your thoughts on the kind of age over ability or ability over age where do you sit?
A.S: Ah, that’s a good question. Again, my belief is if they’re good enough, they’re old enough. Yeah. I’m a firm believer of that.
G.S: You’re instilling those good habits throughout the age groups, aren’t you? And hopefully they’d feel comfortable. We’ve seen that already this year in the second team, especially some of the established younger lads have had an opportunity, they’ve played and they’ve succeeded, haven’t they, as well?
A.S: They have succeeded and they’ve put up a good showing, a very good showing, so it does show you that they’re old enough to play.
G.S: If we’re sitting here in 12 months time chatting again, what do you want to achieve? What do you want to get out of this season and what do you want to achieve moving forward?
A.S: Well, at all levels, I’d like to see the four Counties won by Staffordshire, the leagues won by Staffordshire and even the 10 Counties at all levels. I believe we have got a good future and we should be winning these events. To listen to the rest of the interview with Alan:
I know this is a bold statement to make because the word ‘confidence’ is brandished everywhere in the field of golf performance. Watching golf on television is like playing a game of confidence bingo and you’re guaranteed to get a full house, hearing phrases like “They looked so confident over that shot”, “They are playing with confidence today” and “They must be feeling confident today” etc.
It’s no wonder we see confidence as this magical thing that’s going to help solve all our problems and achieve our dreams. But what if we’ve been placing too much importance on confidence? What if confidence is overrated?
The dictionary definition for confidence is “The state of feeling certain about the truth of something. A feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s own ability” Sounds about right doesn’t it? But here’s my take on this definition.
Do we ever know for certain what is going to happen? On the 1st tee of a big competition,do you know where the ball is going to go?
The answer is NO and this is because we are not time travellers, we can’t travel into the future and know for certain what is going to happen. I say to my clients, ‘This shot that you’re about to hit, have you ever hit it before?’ And they normally say to me “Yes, I’ve hit this shot before millions of times in practice and in previous rounds” and I’ll say “Those are in the past, have you ever hit this shot you’re about to hit before?”
“Uncertainty is the only thing that’s certain”
Are feelings permanent or consistent?
Have you ever played a round one day and felt the most confident you’ve ever felt and then turned up the next day and that feeling is gone? You’ve probably spent a lot of time wondering why this has happened or how you can get that feeling back.
A feeling is an emotional state within our body that is influenced by many factors including sleep, nutrition, environment and chemical balances within the body. Therefore, it’s not possible to have consistency with our feelings. Furthermore, no feeling is permanent, feelings are like clouds in the sky they come and go and whilst they might be over us now, in 15 minutes, an hour or 3 hours they will have moved on.
“Feelings don’t hit golf shots”
So, we know that uncertainty is the only thing that’s certain and that feelings aren’t permanent or consistent. This definition doesn’t sound that impressive, but what can golfers aim for instead of the feeling of confidence?
By this I mean trusting your skills and ability to execute them, the things you have practiced and worked on. You don’t need to feel confident to execute your skills in those important moments, whether the confidence cloud is there or not it never takes away your motor skills, or your ability to swing the club.
Trust also doesn’t mean you won’t ever feel nervous, anxious, worried or have doubts, these are all very natural responses in the face of uncertainty, which we know is something that is certain in Golf. Think of trust as an act of acceptance or being willing to have these feelings and still deliver your skills.
With my clients, I work on building their ‘Trust score’, through actioning their skills in these important moments and despite how they feel. This also highlights a lesser-known definition of confidence, the confidence in the action.
And get this, the Latin definition of confidence is ‘confidere’ which means to trust. So the next time you’re out on the golf course, I’d like you to ask yourself ‘How can I build my trust score?’
Lyle Kirkham is an HCPC registered Sport Psychologist, he currently works with Golfers of all ages and abilities across the UK from high handicappers who want to enjoy the game more to professional Golfers on the DP World Tour, Challenge Tour and Sunshine Tour. He offers a range of different support packages to suit individual needs to make sport psychology something that is accessible to everyone For more information and to book in your FREE 15-minute discovery call, please see Lyle’s contact details below.
Mobile- 07533741580
Email- spark_perform@outlook.com
In this interview Roger Howarth, SUGC Course Rating Team Leader, tells us everything you need to know about the World Handicap System, upcoming changes and the work that goes into rating a course.
Roger started his course rating journey six years ago, with Sandra Fraser and SUGC President, Andrew Dathan. In 2015 work started rating every course in Staffordshire. It only became clear at a much later date that this was in preparation for the implementation of the World Handicap System.
Gareth Shaw: How has the integration gone for you into WHS and how that links then into course rating? Because there’s probably a lot of people out there who see the board, but they don’t know the tireless hours and the work that goes into rating a golf course. Can you give us a bit of a flavour of how that process is done?
Roger Howarth: It’s the American system that’s been running for 30 or
40 years now. And it is complicated, there’s no question about it. The only thing that’s fixed about the system is the idea of how far a scratch player and a bogey player will hit the ball.
The assumption, and I know it’s not relevant nowadays because modern scratch players hit it much further, but this is the fixed number that gets used. There’s the gentlemen scratch player who will hit the ball
250 yards off the tee and the gentlemen bogey player who will hit the ball 200 yards. And ladies again, slightly different again. That’s the only thing that’s fixed. Essentially what you do with course rating is you take that fixed difference, you go to each tee of each hole of each course that you’re rating. You go to where the ball is going to land and you adjust it for height differences and uphill and downhill and so
forth, further or shorter. When you get to that point you measure how wide the fairway is, how close the extreme rough is, whether there are any trees, whether there are any bunkers, whether there is any water and all the potential hazards. Is the fairway even or has it got mounds on it? Is the fairway sloping? Is the ball going run off it to the side?
All that stuff.
You go around the course, taking all those measurements at every place where each of the bogey and the scratch player and the lady scratch player and the lady bogey player are going to land the ball. That ends up with probably 50 or 60 points around the golf course where you have to take all of those measurements. You end up with several hundred pieces worth of data for the course.
Then of course there’s the greens. You have to measure how big the greens are, how wide, how long, what shape they are, whether the ball will run off to the side, how many bunkers there are, how deep the bunkers are, where the hazards are around the green, is there water? Is it at the back? All that sort of stuff. So you end up with probably about 300 pieces of data, I think for every golf course.
Now you go and gather that with a team of people and that takes you three or four hours to go around the course doing that, which is fine. But then what you have to do is you then have to enter that data into a series of spreadsheets. You have to take those 300 pieces of data that you’ve gathered and apply those to each hole for each gender, for each
tee. It’s a time consuming process and it takes probably about 35 or 40 hours of work to get through that to come out the other side of the rating.
When we started rating the whole idea was we’re just going to produce a standard scratch score for the course, which essentially was just for the white and yellow tees for men and red tees for ladies. But now we’ve got the World Handicap System, juniors want to play and they want to play off the forward tees and people have winter tees and people want to be able to play competitive golf year round so they need ratings for it.
G.S: For you as well, what’s been the most, I’d say myth around WHS, is it that association where people think the higher the slope the more difficult the golf course?
R.H: Absolutely, we get that question day in and day out and of course it’s not right. As you know and I know, the World Handicap System as applied in the rest of the
world is done slightly differently from the way that England Golf decided to implement it in Great Britain.
Now from next year, it’s now been agreed, I believe it’s from April next year, that’s going to change. At the moment, your course handicap is calculated by taking the slope rating of the course and adjusting your handicap index by that slope rating to give you the course handicap. Therefore, everybody quite naturally says, well, hang on a minute, if this has got a slope of 131, it must be a harder course than the slope that’s got a slope rating of 128. And that’s a perfectly reasonable assumption, and that’s why people say to us, “why is this course harder than that one?” But that’s not the answer.
If you look in detail at your score differential, which is the magic number that goes to make up your handicap index, is calculated, that always considers not just the slope rating, but also the difference between par of the course and the
scratch rating of the golf course. It’s that number, the scratch rating of the golf course, that actually is the true measure of difficulty.
For example, in Staffordshire, the toughest course for which we’ve got a complete rating thus far, although with JCB just about to come on that might change, the toughest course for which we’ve got a full rating for at the moment is Beau Desert [Golf Club]. Perhaps not surprisingly, people would expect that. Beau Desert, the par is 70. But the scratch player is only expected to play Beau Desert in 72.4. So, the scratch rating is 2.4 shots more difficult than par. Here at Brocton, for example, where I play, our par is 69, but our rating is 69.8 so it’s 0.8 of a shot harder than par.
Up to now, as we’ve just said, the way you calculate a course handicap is by taking your handicap index, multiplying it by the slope, dividing it by the 113 average slope figure, to get you to your course handicap. From next year, you will do that calculation, multiply it by that slope, and then also add in the difference between the scratch rating and par. If you’re playing at Beau Desert, you will do that calculation that you have done up to now, and then you will add 2.4 to get your course handicap.
From next year we will see the
genuine picture about which courses are harder than other courses because we’ll see that difference between the scratch rating and par. But that’s the way it was always meant and intended to work.
G.S: Why do you think they didn’t adopt that process when we first started? Was it too complicated at that stage you think?
R.H: I suspect so, yes. I remember when we were doing the initial training about the World Handicap System, having a quite a heated discussion with Gemma Hunter, actually here at Brocton about it, on a training course we were doing one day, saying, why aren’t we doing this like the rest of the world? I don’t really think I got a satisfactory answer, but I think the answer was yes, to make it simpler. Because I think the world believed that the UK was kind of in a unique position of having CONGU and being very strongly wedded to CONGU and the principles of CONGU changing to the world handicap system, moving to an averaging system as opposed to an incremental system which CONGU was, would be a bigger change for us than it would be for everybody else. I suspect they took the view and said, let’s make this as simple as we can. So, boards are going to
change from next year and I imagine the calculation will be done for you. Everything will be there for you. I mean as we’ve seen this year with the, you know, one of the rule changes that’s taken place in the rules of golf this year is that you no longer have to put your handicap on your card in a competition because it’s now assumed that the computer is going to work that out for you.
We’ll catch up with more from Roger’s interview in future issues, but if you can’t wait, just click the link and catch up with the podcast:
If your ball ends up in the clubhouse, which isn’t considered out of bounds do you?
A. Get free relief and receive a drop out of the clubhouse
B. Open any doors or windows and play the ball from where it lies
C. Have to declare the ball unplayable and receive a 1-shot penalty
See back page for the answer
Do you want to improve your ball striking this summer season? With this short video Trey shows you three fantastic drills to help you get the most out of your game this season. Watch the video and see your scores tumble once you put these drills into practice.
Mens 2nd Team met for the second game of the season at Chevin Golf Club on Sunday 4th June 2023 to play Derbyshire.
The day started with a cool breeze, but bright blue skies and the forecast was predicting a very warm day. The course was very dry and firm following the recent good weather and lack of rain, made for several questionable bounces. With the weather forecast it was going to be tough for both teams on a very undulating course. From the highest point you can see four different Counties, which made for scenic views.
The morning foursomes were started by Mark Gayes and Mark Sheldon. The Staffordshire pair battled hard but faced two players playing on their own course. The Staffordshire pair went on to lose
4&3. Second group was Ian Curley and James Turner. The Staffordshire pairing faced another team that was again full of local knowledge and lost 5&3.
Third group was James O’Keefe and Jonathan Rae. James was given yet another new partner and with his sun block on the pair went on to win 3&2. Fourth pairing was Nathan Hirst and James Sellman. Nathan and James battled well against their opponents but were unable to gain the upper hand and lost 3&1.
The final group for the morning session was Richard Knott (2nd team captain) and Louis Cope. Louis was making his debut for the men’s team having featured well for the under 18’s side. The Staffordshire pair played well against yet another team from the opposition with very good local knowledge, and fell to a 3&2.
This meant that after the morning session the score was – Derbyshire 4 v Staffordshire 1. A hard-working display in the morning session, did not truly paint a picture of the good play.
The afternoon session got underway with Mark Gayes. Mark was returning to the side after a long term injury but made a very good winning start, taking the victory 4&3. Second out was Ian Curley. Ian was playing one of a number of Chevin members and unfortunately lost 4&3. Third match out was Jonathan Rae. Jon got off to a steady start against his opponent but went on to lose 6&5.
Fourth match was Mark Sheldon. Mark was finding it tough on such a hilly, and at times blind, course and lost out 6&5. Fifth match was James Turner. James stood in at the last moment for an injured player and
battled well against his opponent. Unfortunately, his opponent had too many birdies and James lost 4&3. Sixth match was James O’keefe. With another layer of sun block applied James played well and took control of his match winning 2&1.
Seventh match was Nathan Hirst. Nathan got out of the gates early and took a commanding lead in his match. His opponent attempted a fight back but Nathan kept his head and won 3&2. Eighth match was James Sellman. James was another Staffordshire player who could not quite get to grips with the up and down fairways. He battled hard but lost 7&5.
Ninth match was Louis Cope. Louis’s opponent had several years’ experience of the course which made this match a tough battle. Louis kept plugging away and took his match to the final hole where a good approach shot by his opponent meant Louis lost 1 down. The final match was Richard Knott. Richard took an early lead in the match, but his opponent battled back well in the final few holes.
The match went down the 18th hole where Richard birdied the par 5 which could not be matched by his opponent meaning Richard won 1 up.
James’s opponent retired injured after the morning session meaning James won his matchup. Leicestershire were able to field a substitute so that James could play the afternoon 18 holes.
The final result being Derbyshire 10 v Staffordshire 5. A Disappointing result for the team on a very tough course. Home advantage, and knowledge, by the Derbyshire team was definitely a bonus. There were some positives to be taken alongside a very good debut for Louis Cope, who continued the impressive performances by the juniors pushing their way into the team.
Well done and a thank you to players from both sides with the match being played in the good spirit.
Thank you to Chevin Golf Club for holding the match and for their hospitality. Thank you to the greenkeeping staff, professional staff and the members of the golf club for making us feel so welcome.
The new golfing season is finally upon us and the Union is excited to see how our County representatives will perform across all our junior, men’s and senior teams. We’re confident with the work that our teams have being doing throughout the winter months and they’re all ready to compete at the highest level this season.
We’ve also got a selection of County competitions taking place throughout the year, which are all available to book via the website.
These are the complete fixtures until July, if you would like to view the complete list then follow the link below:
Is there someone at your club that goes above and beyond? Has there been a hole-in-one or an exceptional score? Do you have a special event happening in the coming months? Have you redecorated the clubhouse?
We want to know! Let us know of anything exciting going on at your club and we’ll try and find a spot in the next edition! E-mail: secretary@staffsgolf.org.uk
Make sure you’re following us on social media to keep up with all the latest news from around Staffordshire:
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Staffordshire Golf Union
www.staffsgolf.co.uk
Answer: B. Open any doors or windows and play the ball from where it lies.
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