Winter Order of Merit

Saturday saw the conclusion of the Winter Order of Merit with an individual Stableford. Charles Lupton came out of hibernation and produced the round of the day early doors with a fine 38 points in really tricky conditions to take division one from Craig Conley who is obviously still loving his new PING G driver.

Division Two was dominated by winter coaching pupils with the top three all on the winter programme. Steve Johnson pipped Bill Dales on a count back after both had scored 36 points and Peter Jones was third with 35 points despite two blobs!

Well done to all of them and really pleased the coaching is already paying dividends.

David Marriott produce a solid 4th place finish in the Stableford that was enough to get the points needed to overall Simon Stephens in the Order of Merit first division, Jason Child finished third. Division Two was a Winterbottom one, two, with dad Mike winning and son Ben finishing tied second with Nick Draper who has obviously benefited from winter coaching with Eddie, as has Stephen Cirell who tied fourth with Bill Dales.

Thanks to everyone for their support which has seen the biggest pot ever for the series with over £1,000 being paid out to the winners.

New Rule Change Proposals

On Wednesday the R&A and USGA announced proposals for the most radical changes to the rules in years. I have to say not before time too, nos. 4,5,10 and 11 will most certainly help to speed up the game. One thing for sure it will create a good conversation over the coming weeks, the plan is to bring them into operation in 2019. Among the proposals are:

1. Remove any penalty for accidentally moving your ball.
2. Relax the protocols for taking free or penalty drops, with the ball dropped from only an inch above the ground, rather than shoulder height.
3. Use fixed distances (20 or 80 inches) rather than club lengths to measure areas where a ball should be dropped.
4. Reduce the time allowed to search for a lost ball from five to three minutes.
5. Allow putting on the green with the flagstick left in the hole.
6. Allow players to repair spike marks and animal damage on greens.
7. Automatically allow the use of distance measuring devices.
8. Ban caddies from lining up players as they prepare to hit.
9. Recommend no player takes more than 40 seconds to hit a shot.
10. Encourage players in strokeplay to implement "ready golf" rather than waiting until it is their turn to hit. 11. Empower committees to set a maximum score for a hole (such as double par or triple bogey) to allow a player to pick up and move to the next hole.

First official competition of the year

It's officially Spring now that March has arrived and it's the first official club competition of the year on Saturday the 5 club challenge.

So what clubs are you taking for the 5 Club? My choice would be 3 Wood, 5 Iron, 8 Iron, 52 degree gap Wedge and Putter. Let me know what you're taking, it will be interesting.


 

14 years at Moortown

Last week to celebrate 14 years at Moortown, anybody who scored a gross birdie on the 14th hole on Saturday won 3 Callaway Chrome Soft Balls and every nett birdie won one Chrome Soft.

There were only two gross birdies -well done to Iain Esplin and Graham Etherington. Eight people scored a nett birdie, Bob Banks, Tim Brown, Antony Burrows, Chris Craven, Len Fawke, Tom Flannery, Steve Johnson and Billy Snowden.

Don't forget that for the whole of March if you buy a dozen balls you get a FREE Moortown Cap.