Gathurst Golf Club

Course Status: 18/01/20, Course Open (Status 5).

The course is open for players who are using carry bags only. 16 holes are  available, 1-9 then 12-18. Multi-mats must be used on all close cut areas.

News

BIGGA Environmental Report for Gathurst

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James Hutchinson, BIGGA Membership Services Manager – Sustainability and Ecology, carried out an ecological and environmental assessment during October 2019 to:
• Assess the ecological and environmental issues relating to Gathurst Golf Club and its surrounding environs
• Provide an in-depth report highlighting any findings that may have arisen from the aforementioned ecological and environmental issues
• Provide an easy to follow plan for the management and greenkeepers thereby improving the flora and fauna quality of Gathurst Golf Club

The report is very comprehensive, take several years to implement, and will benefit both the club out members, and  flora and fauna.

You will find a hole by hole plan with some interesting photographs James took during his visits.

Click here to download your copy: GathurstEnvironmentalReport

For more information about BIGGA (The British and International Golf Greenkeeping Association) visit their webite : BIGGA

If you have any comments about the plan please feel free to talk to Dan or Keith Melia.

 

Thank you message from Tom King

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It’s been almost a week since Gathurst held its 57th AGM I am still in shock and overwhelmed with the decision to make me an Honorary life member.

I would like to thank all the members who attended the meeting and ratified the decision made by the board, who put me forward for this tremendous honour.

I joined Gathurst some 30 years ago when we were a 9-hole golf club, one of the reasons for joining the club, was that I would not have to queue up at a municipal course for hours on end to play a round of golf.

Little did I know at joining this fantastic golf club, what sort of impact it would have on my life.

I was given my first official handicap of 16 by Harry Marrow, for those of you who do not know, or did not know Harry, he was a larger than life character within in the golf club, I thought this first handicap of 16 was a little harsh, Harry told me not to worry it will go up and down.

He was right it went up to 18, then came down over the next couple of years to 9 which I still play of today.

Some of my proudest moments at Gathurst have been being elected on to the board of directors where I served for 12 years, serving as chairman on three of the committees over that period.

Being made Captain in 2004 and president in 2017, being made chairman of the Centenary committee from 2011 until completion of the centenary in 2013.

Representing Gathurst playing in the South Lancs League, also the senior victory trophy team.

Playing in the South Lancs snooker and dominoes league over the last thirty years, and being chairman of that league for the last 10 years.

Then in 2017 I became Captain of the society of Liverpool golf club captains which was a great honour for me personally and an honour for Gathurst Golf club. I travelled up and down the country representing the society and Gathurst at many functions and competitions.

Now my wife Elaine being appointed Lady Captain for 2020 another proud moment in my life and her life at Gathurst golf Club, I am sure she will have a great year in office, with the support of all the members

But these achievements don’t compare to the pinnacle of being made an Honorary life member of Gathurst Golf Club

Once again thank you to all the members for bestowing on me this great honour.

Best wishes to all the incoming officers for 2020, I am sure you will have a great year.

Best wishes to Janet Davies on her appointment to lady Captain of the society of Liverpool lady golf Captains.

To the chairman and board of directors keep up the good work.

To all the staff at Gathurst who have supported me over the years thank you.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New year

Yours sincerely.

Tom King.

 

 

Men’s Competition Prize Donors 2020

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The Men’s fixture list for the 2020 season is now complete and the sheet asking for donors is on the notice board. We would like to encourage members to sponsor a competition and donate prizes.

Normally two members will jointly sponsor a competition and provide 2 prizes to the value of around £40 each. These can either be vouchers for the proshop, or gifts (e.g. bottles of wine, dining out vouchers, etc.).

As an incentive and a thank you to those prepared to sponsor a men’s competition, the golf committee have agreed to have a prize during the year that can only be won by those having sponsored a men’s competition.

This will be played for on the last singles competition of the year (4th October). In addition to the normal 1st and 2nd division prizes there will be 2 further prizes for those having been sponsors during the year. The first prize is 20% reduction on 2021 golf fees, the second prize a 15% reduction. These prizes are the largest the club offer, please consider supporting your club through sponsorship.

The 2019 Donor’s Prizes were won by Jimmy Summers (20% reduction off his subscription) and Ian White (15% reduction).

Golf committee

GGC Says farewell to Barbara Wood

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Friday 1st November saw the Club Secretary, Barbara Wood, retire after 7 1/2 years with the club.

We wish Barbara a long and happy retirement, and thank her for all her hard work on behalf of the club and it’s members.

Jeff Hurst (GGC Chair) Presenting Barbara with a lovely bouquet

Barbara sharing a joke with Jeff

Barbara’s last duty, drawing the 100 club numbers for the October draw with Mark Jordan

The cake tasted as good as it looked

 

 

Club Email Problems

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ClubV1 Emails – Going Into Junk

Update in relation to members receiving emails from ClubV1 but being put into Junk.

Recently, several clubs have reported members receiving emails from ClubV1 but they were being put into Junk.

This seemed to be an intermittent issue and appeared to be typically affecting Microsoft accounts; Hotmail.com, Hotmail.co.uk, outlook.com, etc., however some other domains also seemed to be affected, for example gmail, TalkTalk and AOL.

After some investigation by the technical team, we were pointed in the direction of our Dedicated IP address that’s used to send emails. We raised this issue with our deliverability management team at Sparkpost (Email Senders), who then escalated the issue to Microsoft.

We have now been set up with a new dedicated IP, 100% of our email traffic now going through this new IP and our old IP will be deleted in the next week or so.

The route cause of the problem was that our old IP was an Amazon Web Services (AWS) IP,  which Sparkpost are moving away from. Some of the major mailbox providers are flagging AWS IPs, which is why we were getting an intermittent issue.

 

Junior Prize Presentation 2019

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The 2019 Junior Prize Presentation Evening took place on Tuesday 1st October, approximately 50 attended, but many couldn’t make it due to a clash with the Shevington High School Open Evening.

The Lady Captain, Phyllis Wigginton, was also unable to attend due to illness, so the Captain, Jim Wall, presented the prizes in her absence. The continued support of the Ladies Section is greatly appreciated.

It was Daniel Ainscough’s last presentation as a Junior and he was presented with a memento of his two years as Junior Captain.

Congratulations to all the winners. Thanks also to Mike Black for is assistance on the night, the Junior Organiser, Doug Pickering for all his hard work, Chris Clarke for his coaching classes, and to all the others who give up their time to make the Gathurst Junior Section so successful.

Here are a few photographs. Unfortunately new LED lighting installed recently to save energy caused too much shadowing on the attendees, therefore the photos aren’t as good as we would have liked.

The group photo proved to be a problem for a different reason –  most of the Juniors were taller than the dignitaries!

Doug Pickering, Junior Organisor with Junior Captain, Daniel Ainscough

  Lady Vice Captain, Elaine King, observing the Captain, Jim Wall, presenting George Smith with one of his prizes

Captain Jim Wall with the 2 minors, Joel and Megan

Bradley Nelson with his prizes, along with the Junior Captain Dan Ainscough

Prize winners with dignitaries “hiding” in the background

WINTER LEAGUE 2019/20

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FORMAT AND RULES OF ENTRY

A Winter League is to be run by the members of the club for the members.  It is not a club run competition.  Official tee times cannot be booked and it cannot be operated on a shotgun start basis.  It is not affiliated to the club in any way.

  • The format will be Individual Stableford played on Saturday mornings at 09.30 commencing 09 November 2019 and concluding 07 March 2020. That is 18 weeks.  The best 10 rounds from the maximum of 18 rounds played shall count, ie the total number of points from your best 10 rounds will comprise your overall total score.  The overall Winter League winner will be the player with highest cumulative number of points from those 10 qualifying rounds.
  • A player does not have to play every week. If they do it is their best 10 scores from 18.  If a player only plays 8 rounds, then just the 8 scores will count.  New players can join at any point during the window of the competition as long as they understand and accept the format – in particular understanding that they may not be able to complete 10 qualifying rounds depending on when they joined.
  • The League shall commence with each players current club handicap for their first round. A players handicap will then be adjusted (go up or down or stay the same) dependant upon their performance and your personal category, ie play over par up 0.1, play under par and handicaps shall be reduced in accordance with number of stableford points scored better than par.  Such adjustments will be made by the Winter League organisers.
  • This handicap will be recorded separately for the Winter League only and will not impact on a players’ official club handicap. Thus, when the new season commences in 2020 all players will revert to their official club handicaps regardless of your performances during the Winter League.
  • If players wish to take part in a weekly “chuck-in” then this can also be facilitated. It is suggested that a £1 fee is paid prior to each set of matches and it will then be operated in the traditional manner, ie winner takes all, unless more than 10 players take part on the day when 2nd place will also get a cut based on a 70/30 pay out.
  • Rules of the day will be in accordance with those stated by the club, ie whatever the course status is at the time.
  • Full rules of golf shall apply at all times, eg no putt concessions, if a player loses a ball then play another, if we are on temporary greens then that is what we are on, etc.
  • The entry fee is £10 per person and this shall be paid prior to commencement of a players’ first qualifying round. The total amount collected will pay for a trophy (or similar) for the overall winner together with Clarkes Golf vouchers for those finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall at the end of the Winter League event.  All entries shall be submitted to any of the organisers noted below.  Players are requested to provide their name, contact number and email address together with the £10 entry fee.

If any further information is required then please contact one of the following organisers:-

Andy Davies   Ian Thompson   Drew Winstanley