Whittington Heath plans to cope with high speed train running through middle of course/clubhouse

 

An artist's impression of how the new high speed rail link from London will biset the Whittington Heath golf course near Birmingham

 

By Adam Lawrence (Golf Course Architecture Journal)

Whittington Heath Golf Club, in Staffordshire, has announced that it has been granted planning permission for a set of works that will allow the club to continue operation when the HS2 high speed railway line is built. 
The club had been under threat as the route for HS2, which will link London with the north of England, passes straight through the clubhouse and several golf holes.
The club has acquired 25 hectares of land adjacent to its existing site on the north-east side, and is working with golf architect Jonathan Gaunt to plan the move.
Five entirely new holes are planned to be located on the new land, while four additional new greens will be constructed on the existing site to create a new-look 18-hole course.
The new ground is currently farmed, but is essentially denatured lowland heath, with sandy subsoil underneath the topsoil that is the creation of many years of manuring and fertilising. Whittington has come to an arrangement with HS2 that will see the new land returned to a heathland state, as part of the rail project’s commitment to mitigate losses elsewhere. HS2 will also provide ongoing funds to assist with maintenance for 15 years.
Construction of the new holes is expected to start in spring 2017. HS2 construction is anticipated to begin in 2018, and the club is determined to maintain 18 playable holes throughout the process.
Whittington Heath staged the first Senior Women's Home Internationals in 2003

Wentworth's West Course being given a 

facelift in response to criticism

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  European Golf Design is working alongside Ernie Els Design on the project
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  Every bunker on the West Course has been completely rebuilt
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  The project is scheduled for completion next month
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  Five greens have been built thus far, with another four partially rebuilt

By Sean Dudley (Golf Course Architecture Journal)

European Golf Design is working alongside a team from Ernie Els Design on a restoration project at Wentworth’s West Course, sometimes described as the "Burma Road" but called other things in recent years!
The firm was added to the project’s advisory team in June this year, as part of a club-wide effort to improve Wentworth’s golf offering by owners Reignwood Group.
Work is planned for all three of Wentworth’s courses – West, East and Edinburgh. Gary Player Design is leading the work on the Edinburgh course, while an architecture firm to lead enhancements to the East course is set to be announced in the near future.
GCA caught up with European Golf Design’s managing director Jeremy Slessor to discuss how the project is progressing and how his firm is working to meet the needs of European Tour players.
“Work started immediately after this year’s BMW PGA Championships in early June,” said Slessor. “Since then, five greens have been completely rebuilt, another four have been partially rebuilt, and the remaining nine and the practice green have been resurfaced.”
SubAir golf drainage systems are being installed on all 18 greens and the practice green, with all greens seeded by the end of July.
“All of the bunkers have been completely rebuilt, with the last ones finished in early September,” Slessor said. “Four sets of tees are being redone, with the last of those nearly complete. Going forward, the SubAir work will be completed, and some seedbed prep and seedbed work for fairway bunkers needs to be done.”
The schedule should see all work on the West Course finished by the end of October.
Slessor added that the collaboration with Ernie Els Design is going very well.
“We’re used to working with other players, but less used to working with other players that have their own design teams!” he said. “But so far so good. Ernie’s been very open to suggestions. He and design associate Greg Letsche have been easy to work with. It’s been a very good process.”
One of the reasons European Golf Design is involved in the project stems from a series of discussions between Reignwood Group and the European Tour ahead of the work starting.
“It’s no secret that European Tour players haven’t been universally happy with some of the changes that have been made to the West Course at Wentworth,” Slessor said.
 “If you ask 156 Tour players for their opinions on a particular course, you’ll tend to get 156 different answers. What’s different about Wentworth is that there really was a consensus about what it was they didn’t think was fair or appropriate.”
“On that basis, the discussions Reignwood Group was having with the European Tour led to us becoming involved, and the establishment of an advisory group consisting of Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn and David Jones, who are relaying the thoughts of the players and Tour executives,” Slessor explained. “It has become a collaboration, not only between ourselves, Ernie and Greg, but also with all of the Tour players through Paul, Thomas and David.”
The club is pleased with how the project is shaping up.
“We are delighted with the progress made so far on the West Course,” said Kenny Mackay, director of Golf Courses and Grounds and project lead at Wentworth Club. “The partnership with Ernie Els Design and European Golf Design has been a success and will ensure that the final product is a course that the Tour, professionals and members of Wentworth Club can be proud of.”

Adam Lumley from  Coventry beaten in 

three-man Tennessee play-off

Adam Lumley from Coventry, a student at Mars Hill College, North Carolina, lost a three-way play-off after tieing for first place on three-over-par 139 in the Tusculum Men's Fall Invitational at Links Hill Golf and Country Club, Greenville, Tennessee.
Lumley, pictured, shot 69-70, Cameron Dugger (Tusculum) 68-71, and Garrett Tucker (Loyola Marymount Univ, Los Angeles) 69-70.
Tucker won the sudden death play-off but no information as yet as to how many holes the play-off lasted. 
Lumley's team-mates Harry Butler from Chigwell, Luke Challis from Nuneaton, and Callum Ritchie from Scotland (listed as from "Dunden" in the Mars Hill men's golfer roster: could that be a misprint for "Dundee?") finished T19, T19 and T37 respectively in a field of 51 players.
Butler shot 75-70 for 145, the same score as Challis who had scores of 73-72.
Ritchie totalled 153 with scores of 75-78.
Tusculum (565) won the team event ahead of Mars Hill (577) in a field of eight teams.

West of Scotland Inter-County “A” League

 

Dunbartonshire 5.5, Renfrewshire 2.5

 

Report from Jim Paton, DGU “A” Team Manager.

On arrival at Elderslie GC, you couldn’t see the end of the first tee due to dense fog. We decided to wait 30 mins but decided it was too dangerous to go onto the course as the players would not be able to see who was in front of them or where even the holes were shaped.

Renfrewshire GC contacted Paisley GC as it is higher up and the majority of the holes there were in sunshine. So rather than postpone the match we agreed to play there.

To accommodate Paisley GC we split into two groups, starting at both the 1^st and 10^th tees, playing in four-balls, but as singles matches to allow Paisley their course back as soon as possible.

After the two previous matches, where we were unbeaten, albeit both at home, the challenge was now to see how we could perform away from home.

I struggled to get a full team during week and had to bring in two rookies, at the last minute. Who said rookies couldn’t win anything? Well, we had two and Ross and Chris both won their games. Along with David, Richard and as usual Steven, and Andy’s half match, we beat the 11 times previous league winners 5.5–2.5

  

A great result, so now on to next week’s game against Stirlingshire at Falkirk Carmuirs.

DUNBARTONSHIRE 5.5, RENFREWSHIRE 2.5 

Details:

Steven Stewart                 won 3 and 2                 D. Dickson lost 3 and 2

David Lindsay                   won 2 and 1                 S. Watt lost 2 and 1

John McMahon                  lost 3 2                        D. Sibbald won 3 and 2

Chris Thursby                    won by 1 hole             L. Jenkins lost by 1 hole

Andy Campbell                 Halved match              P. Dorrian

Ross Hepburn                   won by 2 holes            O. Lavelle lost by 2 holes

Richard Bridges               won  by 1 hole             A. Farmer lost by 1 hole

Craig Bisset                     lost  by 7 and 6            C. Thomson won by 7 and 6

 

 

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  Katie Scott wins the 2016 West girls'        championship at Troon Portland 

L to R - Sophie Kyle, Taylor White, Katie, Scott and Lorna McClymont.   Photo courtesy of Allison Bell

The West Girls Championship Final was played yesterday over the Troon Portland in beautiful sunshine.
The Final was between Lanarkshire County Team player Katie Scott and D and A's County Champion Lorna McClymont.
Both girls played the front nine very well with Katie only 1 over par at the turn and 2 up.
Lorna was 2 over par.

Katie then birdied 10th with a fantastic 2 to go 3 up which seemed to be the turning point of the game. Katie then played very steady over the next 3 holes and won each hole to finally win the trophy.

The Bronze Championship tmatch went to the 19th with Taylor White from Cathkin Braes beating Sophie Kyle from Whitecraigs

Championship Results

Semi-finals - Katie Scott (Strathaven) bt Rachel Foster (Turnberry) 2 and 1, Lorna McClymont (Milngavie) bt Justine Fulton (Hayston)  1 hole

Final: Katie Scott bt Lorna McClymont 6 and 5

Bronze Championship: Taylor White (Cathkin Braes) beat Sophie Kyle (Whitecraigs) at the 19th

Thanks go to Allison Bell for the Photo and report

Aberdeen students Murray, Fisher do well in USA

Two Aberdeen-born student golfers at American colleges did well in recent tournaments.
Ben Murray from Portlethen, a student at Midland Community College, Texas, tied for fourth place in a field of 69 players at the High Country Shoot-out competition at The Links at Sierra Blanca, Ruidoso, New Mexico.
He had rounds of 68, 70 and 69 for a total of nine-under-par 207 over a course of 6,757yd with a par of 72.
Murray finished 10 shots behind the winner, Adam Blomme (Odessa), who had a total of 19-under-par 197 to finish five shots clear of the field. 
Midland (832) finished second to Odessa (827) in the team event, contested by 11 squads.
Newmachar GC member Adam Fisher, pictured, a student at Missouri State University, tied for 15th place at the Derek Dolenc Intercollegiate tournament at Gateway National Golf Club, Madison in Illinois.
He had rounds of 74, 71 and 75 for a total of 220 over a long par-71 course of 7,102yd.
The competition was won by one of Fisher's team-mates, Jack Knoesel with scores of 66, 68 and 72 for seven-under 206.
Fisher helped Missouri State to win the team title, finishing two shots ahead of runners-up SIU Edwardsville.

Emma and Katie scoop Stephen Gallacher Foundation prizes at Dunbar

From the Stephen Gallacher Foundation Facebook Page
60 boys and girls competed today in our Finals Day, Race to Dunbar. All the boys and girls qualified for this through our U18, U15 Boys and U18 Girls Scratch and handicap order of merits played throughout the Lothians in 2016. and they had the pleasure of having our official starter Stephen Gallacher helping them on their way.

Many thanks to everyone at Dunbar GC for the hospitality shown on the day and to the members for giving up their course for the kids this afternoon. Special mention to Captain Gael Pollitt, Jacky Montgomery and Liz Thoms for all their help in organising the event and for James Hughes in keeping us well fed.

The weather was kind to us this year with beautiful sunshine and with the course being in excellent condition all was set for some excellent scoring on a tough Open Qualifier course. The boys and girls did not disappoint.

Emma Morrison (pictured) ...what a score, scratch 68 ( to be confirmed as a ladies' course record) by a five-handicapper, brilliant score and a worthy winner of the Race to Dunbar Scratch Prize and well done to Liam Currid who scored a 71 after being 5 under at the turn.

The handicap prize was also won by a girl Katie Graham from Hamilton who scored a fabulous nett 68, but with the girls having one shot deducted, won the Race to Dunbar Handicap with a nett 67, brilliant scoring.

The scoring from everyone on the day was a of a very high standard with the CSS for the boys being 71 and for the Girls 74

On the day their was a special surprise for all our Order of Merit Winners and to one lucky prize draw winner Matthew Murray who were given Junior memberships of Dunbar for the 2017 season, a great gift from Dunbar GC.

The results from today were as follows:
RACE TO DUNBAR SCRATCH
1. Emma Morrison (Craigmillar Park) Score 68
2. Liam Currid (Gogarburn) Score 71
3. Cameron Adam (Royal Burgess) Score 72
4. Connor O'Toole (Craigmillar Park Score 73
Cameron Johnstone (Troon Welbeck)
Cameron Gallagher (Longniddry)
Eric McIntosh (Brunstsfield Links).

RACE TO DUNBAR HANDICAP
1. Kate Graham (Hamilton) Score 67
2. Jamie Fulton (Bruntsfield Links) Score 68
3. John Vogelpohl (Pitreavie) Score 69
4. Ewan Burns ( Bathgate) Score 70
Jack Gallacher ( Bathgate)
Aidan O'Hagan (Old Course Ranfurly)
Grace Crawford (Gullane Ladies)
Jame Morgan (Longniddry)

Well done to all the players who competed in 2016 in all the Order of Merit events, it was great to see so many children competing throughout the year.
Many thanks to all the children and parents for staying behind for the presentation it is great to see such enthusiasm.
We look forward to seeing you all again in 2017.

Irish star amateur Jack Hume turns pro

 NEWS RELEASE

Jack Hume has ended his impressive amateur career to turn professional at this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and sign for International Sports Management.

The 22-year-old Irishman finishes his amateur days at number seven in the World Amateur Golf Rankings after an outstanding year that saw him win the South African Stroke Play (pictured) and the European Nations Cup and finish runner-up in the Irish Amateur.

Hume contributed one-and-a-half points in Great Britain and Ireland’s Walker Cup victory against the United States at Royal Lytham and St Annes in September last year.

He also helped Ireland to their best-ever finish at the World Amateur Championship as they picked up a medal for the first time in their history with bronze in Cancun last month.

After this week’s tournament in Scotland, Hume hopes to play on the Challenge Tour before European Tour Qualifying School Stage Two.

He said: “It’s been a great year but I want to move to the next level and I can’t wait to turn professional. I’m really looking forward to the weeks and months ahead and testing myself.

“Joining ISM is a big part of it. They’ve helped a lot of players from the very start of their careers and that’s obviously a path I’m hoping to follow.”

 

ISM is a leading sports management company based in the United Kingdom that has guided the careers of former world number one Lee Westwood, Masters champion Danny Willett, former Open champion Louis

Oosthuizen, former Open champion and recent Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, as well as Ryder Cup star Matt Fitzpatrick.

Chief Executive Officer Chubby Chandler said: “We’ve monitored Jack for a long, long time and he’s a player with a huge amount of potential.

“He’s got all of the ingredients and we’re excited about doing what we can to help him be the best he can be and really flourish.”

Graham Chase

Media and PR Manager

International Sports Management Ltd

McNeill finishes T26 at Burlington, Iowa

Duncan McNeill from Annan, a sophomore student at McNeese State University, finished T26 in a field of 60 players at the Golfweek Conference Challenge, played over the Spirit Hollow par 72, 7179yd course, at Burlington, Iowa.

McNeill, pictured right,  started well enough with a first-round 69 but he followed that up with rounds of 76 and 75 for a four-over-par total of 220.
McNeese State team-mate Tom Atkins from Poole, finished T50 on 230 with scores of 78, 80 and 72.
Chandler Phillips (Texas A and M) (68-71-67) and Chase Hanna (Texas) (72-67-67) tied on 10-under-par 206.
Phillips, a Texan sophomore, won the play-off to score his first win on the US men's college circuit.
Kansas (846) won the team title ahead of Texas A and M (859) and San Jose State (862). McNeese State (876) finished eighth in a field of 12 teams.

Ryder Cup: Player ratings for Team Europe

 at Hazeltine

SKYSPORT.COM

By Keith Jackson at Hazeltine

After Europe lost their grip on the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National, we rate the performances of Darren Clarke's side.

Thomas Pieters: P5 W4 L1 (played five, won four, lost one)

Thomas Pieters 9/10: Five matches, four wins, and a star is born. Many questioned him as a wildcard pick, but he answered those critics in some style. Unflappable on his debut, and a great foil for McIlroy as he finished the Ryder Cup as the leading points scorer.

Rory McIlroy: P5 W3 L2

Rory McIlroy 8/10: The team's talisman without question, and we've never seen him so highly charged as he spent the week fighting fire with fire. Three brilliant wins with Thomas Pieters, but the energy and emotion he displayed throughout took its toll as he ran out of steam against Patrick Reed.

Rafa Cabrera Bello: P3 W2 L0 H1

Rafa Cabrera Bello 8/10: Forged a brilliant partnership with fellow Spaniard Garcia, and their foursomes comeback on Saturday morning was memorable. Unlucky to be left out in the afternoon, and a cracking win over PGA champion Jimmy Walker.

Sergio Garcia: P5 W1 L2 H2

Sergio Garcia 7/10: Like McIlroy, one of the main targets for abuse, but he dealt with it well. Unbeaten with Cabrera Bello, and he was incredibly unlucky to not get a singles win. Nine birdies were not enough in a sensational halved match with 10-birdie Phil Mickelson.

Henrik Stenson: P5 W2 L3

Henrik Stenson 7/10: A little inconsistent throughout the week, but he stuck it out for all five sessions despite a dodgy knee and did well to hold off Spieth on Sunday. Such a shame the partnership with Justin Rose that starred at Gleneagles yielded only one point.

Justin Rose: P5 W2 L3

Justin Rose 6/10: The Olympic champion struggled on the greens all week. He won good points alongside Stenson and Chris Wood, but he faded down the stretch against Rickie Fowler in a close contest on Sunday.

Chris Wood: P2 W1 L1

Chris Wood 6/10: Sat out day one, played well in a brilliant foursomes win with Rose, and then left out of the fourballs. Almost snatched a half with Dustin Johnson with a late rally on Sunday, and he deserved to have played more golf.

Matt Fitzpatrick: P2 L2

Matt Fitzpatrick 4/10: Hard not to sympathise with the youngster on his debut. Played only once over the first two days, and the result was done and dusted by the time he slid to defeat in his singles.

Andy Sullivan: P2 L2

Andy Sullivan 4/10: Didn't do much wrong in his foursomes defeat with McIlroy in the opening session, but we didn't see him again until the singles. Led early against Brandt Snedeker, but the American barely missed a putt on the back nine.

Martin Kaymer: P4 W1 L3

Martin Kaymer 3/10: Holing "that" putt at Medinah was an all-too distant memory for the German this past weekend. Below par in every part of his game, he lost three matches before salvaging some pride with a good comeback win over Matt Kuchar.

Danny Willett: P3 L3

Danny Willett 2/10: His focus must have been affected by the exploits of his brother at the start of the week. Lost both his four-balls, and soundly thrashed by Brooks Koepka despite leading after five holes.

          Lee Westwood. P3 L3
Lee Westwood 1/10: A 10th Ryder Cup appearance, and probably his worst. Awful on Friday morning, he did at least take himself out of the firing line before being sent out in Saturday's four-balls, when two short missed putts at 17 and 18 really hurt. His week was summed up when he was two up with three to play against Ryan Moore, who won the last three holes.

Ryder Cup: Darren Clarke concedes USA 

were better team at Hazeltine

SKYSPORT.COM By Keith Jackson at Hazeltine

Darren Clarke admitted that USA fully deserved their 17-11 victory at Hazeltine.

Darren Clarke was gracious in defeat and admitted Europe had been beaten by the better team after the USA stormed to a 17-11 win at the Ryder Cup on Sunday

Clarke's bid to steer Europe to an unprecedented fourth consecutive victory floundered at Hazeltine National as his side could not recover from a disastrous 4-0 whitewash in the opening foursomes session on Friday morning.

Story of day three

The holders did reduce the deficit to one point after a spirited fightback, but Team USA took the final four-balls session 3-1 to establish a three-point lead which rarely looked under threat during the 12 singles matches.

Europe won three of the first five points on Sunday, but Martin Kaymer was the only other player to put blue on the board in the remaining matches as Davis Love's team ran out convincing winners.
"I couldn't be more proud of the guys that I'm surrounded with, they did everything I asked of them," said Clarke. "They tried their heart out, they worked hard and they fought hard.
"But the bottom line is that Davis's team holed a few more putts than we did, and they played better. So when it comes to it, the American Ryder Cup team deserved to win this Ryder Cup. We're all gutted and disappointed, but we will be back stronger to fight in two years' time in Paris."
Clarke also hinted that he regretted splitting the pairing of Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera Bello for Saturday's crucial four-balls session, although he confirmed his line-up when the Spaniards were heading for a heavy defeat against Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth.
They staged a remarkable fightback over the closing holes to snatch a half, but Clarke had already opted to leave Cabrera Bello out of the four-balls and Garcia partnered Martin Kaymer in a 2 and 1 defeat to Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar.
Asked if he would change any of his decisions this week, Clarke told Sky Sports: "No. I really wouldn't. The only one I possibly may have changed was yesterday's pairings, which had to be in by 11.30 and there were still matches on the course.
"I've had a wonderful group of vice-captains helping me every step of the way and we've made all our decisions together. This doesn't happen overnight, 18 months of planning goes into it.
"I just think this week the Americans have putted that much better and that makes all the difference between winning and losing. Congratulations to Davis and we'll try to win it back on our own patch in two years' time."

EDITOR: Russell Knox would not have made a game-changing difference to the European line-up but the Scot should have been one of Darren Clarke's captain's picks .. ahead of Lee Westwood and arguably most of the others. 

TOM FORDYCE (BBC Sport): 
Seventeen points is the highest number a US Ryder Cup team had scored in 35 years, an affirmation of so much that their captain Davis Love and his 11-man task-force did, an evisceration of a European team with three great players but too many who faltered in the fierce early autumn heat.

YAHOO SPORTS

If the performances of Lee Westwood served as the biggest disappointment for Darren Clarke, a close friend of the former world number one, Europe's captain also had reason to regret another of his wildcard picks.

Martin Kaymer, the man who holed the winning putt to round off the 'Miracle of Medinah' in the previous Ryder Cup to be played on American soil, managed just a solitary point from four matches this time around and that was gained after Europe had given up the trophy.

Kaymer twice suffered defeat alongside Sergio Garcia in the four-ball format, while his sole foursomes outing, with Willett, resulted in a 5 and 4 thrashing at the hands of Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka.

The German has not won a tournament since securing a second major title at the 2014 U.S. Open and appeared a shadow of his former self at Hazeltine.

Carnoustie Junior Open cancelled due to lack of entries

FROM FRASER MANN
CARNOUSTIE LINKS JUNIOR CO-ORDINATOR
Sorry to tell you that this year's Carnoustie junior open has been cancelled due to lack of entries.
We will be looking at a different date next year, i.e. August.
All the best
Fraser Mann

West Kilbride pair through to finals of Daily Mail Foursomes

Helen Cattanach and Catherine Garrett

Congratulations to Catherine Garrett and Helen Cattanach of West Kilbride Golf Club in reaching the last 16 in The Daily Mail Foursomes competition.
They will now be heading off to the Finals Event at Marriott St Pierre Hotel and Country Club, Chepstow from October 16 to 18.

Last 32 Results:

Ashburnham bt Welshpool  5 and 3
Ashby Decoy bt Toft Hotel 6 and 5
Bromborough bt The Mere  3 and 2 
Crane Valley bt Chichester  4 and 2 
Cranleigh bt Hendon  5 and 4 
Grangemouth bt Leven Golfing Society 2 and 1 
Kendal bt Durham City  5 and 3 
Milnathort bt Huntly  2 and 1
Perranporth bt Marlborough 3 and 2 
Tadmarton bt Marriott Forest of Arden at 20th 
Thornhill bt Uphall  5 and 3 
Walmer and Kingsdown  bt Stock Brook Manor  4 and 3 
Walmersley bt Hart Common  at 19th 
Welwyn Garden City bt Ufford Park Hotel 4 and 3
West Kilbride bt Cardross 6 and 4
Wilton  bt Boldon 5 and 4.

READ THE FULL STORY ON www.kirkwoodgolf.co.uk