STOWMARKET GOLF CLUBSTOWMARKET GOLF CLUB

Delighted to be invited to the Gunhill CupThe Gunhill Cup was launched last year by Southwold Golf Club, in honour of Edward Cripps, a former member and sponsored by his nephew Tom Cripps.Ten of the top clubs in Suff olk are invited to play, each team consisti ng of two adults and two junior golfers. Stowmarket were invited again to parti cipate this year, our team com-prising Jon Markham, Matt Sears, Ben Moyes and Matt Voysey.The weather was very cold and windy, how-ever Stowmarket fi nished 4th. The highlight of the day was Matt Voysey holing a long 50 feet putt in front of the clubhouse on the 9th green.

Explosive start to Ian’s Captaincy

During her year as Ladies Captain in 2015/16, Annie Tyler chose to support local charity Cit-izens Advice Mid Suff olk based in Stowmar-ket. A variety of fundraising events which included a pink day golfi ng event and top money spinner - a table top sale which recy-cled gift s and unwise/unworn (!) fashion pur-chases in a process akin to eBay, combined

The new Ladies Secti on Captain, Sue Knights was accompanied to the fi rst tee for her Drive-In to offi ce by a splendid troop of knights on hobby horses. Sue responded to some moti vati onal chanti ng from the knights with an arrow straight 165 yard drive. We all wish Sue a very enjoyable and successful year in offi ce.The golf season is now well under way with a number of County competi ti ons coming thick and fast:Cranworth – 1st round 23rd June. Stearn – 1st round 4th July. Haskell – quarter fi nals to be played by 30th June. Details of venues will be announced on the Captain’s noti ce board.

County/Nati onal Competi ti on results:Weston – promoted to Division 1. Narrow-ly lost 3:2 in the fi rst match against Newton Green.Senior Shield – won the preliminary round at Haverhill 14:0. Won against Halesworth at home in the fi rst round 23:0. Quarter fi nals at home against Fynn Valley or Felixstowe in June.Mail on Sunday – won away at Bury St Ed-munds, won at home against Frinton, lost away against Playgolf Colchester.

Sue unleashes a superb 165 yard drive.Sue’s Guard of Honour escort her to the fi rst tee.

Carol Eagles, Bureau Manager, Citi zens

Advice Mid-Suff olk receives a cheque from Annie Tyler.

with selling donated homemade cakes – all helped to raise the fantasti c sum of £3647 for the charity. Carol commented: “We are delighted to re-ceive such a generous donati on from Stow-market Golf Club and are extremely grateful to the Ladies secti on and their Captain Annie for their eff orts in raising such a tremendous

Stowmarket Ladies score fundraising success

Knights on horses herald Sue’s Drive-In

www.stowmarketgolfclub.co.uk Summer 2016

CLUBSelectionSelection

Dressed in his football referee outf it and refreshed by a quick snack from the “Scouse” bar, Ian Harvey’s year started with a bang as he drove into offi ce on 2nd April with an (unexpected) exploding ball. Visibly shaken by the experience, Ian managed to compose himself to complete his duti es in the traditi onal manner by launching the real ball almost as far as our new Ladies Captain had managed three days earlier!Watched by a large crowd of supporters and well-wishers the event was a great success and an excellent start to what we hope will be an extremely enjoyable and memorable year for Ian.

amount. This donati on will help us to con-ti nue to provide our free telephone and face to face advice service to all the residents and workers of Mid Suff olk.”

Chairman’s Chat Russell Morley - Chairman Many of you will have attended our Annual General Meeting which signals the beginning of the new golfing year with the formal appointment of our new Club Captain, the election of new Board members and resolutions which give the Board the mandate to undertake the projects which will continue the im-provements to the club, as well as the day to day running of the club through our employed staff.Firstly, I would like to congratulate Ian Harvey on his appoint-ment as Club Captain … Ian had a very noisy drive in … which proved to be just a little too distracting, as his drive was some-what shorter than Sue Knights, our new Ladies Captain, who had enjoyed her “drive in” a few days earlier … Both Ian & Sue have fresh ideas and I’m sure we can look forward to a great summer of golf. Best wishes also to Mike Helliwell who will be captaining the Seniors and he has got off to a flying start with some good results with the senior’s matches.In addition to welcoming Ian & Sue, who join the Board for their year as Captains, I am delighted to see Ivor Evans return to the Board for the next three years. I have another year in the Chair which I am really looking for-ward to and, I hope, another successful year with the team which you have elected to represent the members and contin-ue the work which will see further improvement to the facili-ties which will help our members enjoy their golfing and social experience at Stowmarket. Jeff Gilham is continuing as Chair of Greens for a third year. We have already placed the orders for a new control system for our irrigation system ready for the hot dry summer of which I am pleased we have had a taster! We have also ordered a new greens surround/tees mower which should arrive in June. Generally, there should be no project work through the sum-mer, just grass cutting and routine work to maintain the course through the main golfing season. Behind the scenes, I know Jeff, with Matt & Geoff, will be looking at systems for improving the drainage of our greens, which has been highlighted by the very wet weather we had throughout the winter and spring, and they will be planning the improvements to paths, bunkers etc. which we have detailed previously.Ken Cooper is continuing into his second year as Chair of House, and has already completed the final stages of the refur-bishment of the casual bar (Bar 19) and also the reception area, which is looking very impressive. As you will have observed, this work has seen most of the honours boards and past cap-tain’s photographs replaced, so some making good will be done in the lounge as well as introducing an area of soft furniture in due course.

Ivor Evans has taken over from Brian Delve as Chair of Mem-bership & Revenue. Brian was very successful in bucking the national trend of declining membership, by orchestrating an increase in our membership last year. Ivor will be working with Mo O’Shaughnessy to build on that success and is already plan-ning advertising etc. to achieve this. For the time being Ivor is also managing our website but he is looking for someone who can take on responsibility for running the website and take it to a new level. We are also looking for someone to help with raising our media profile … if you can offer help or expertise in either of these fields, it would be much appreciated.Bill Von Isenberg is in his third year as our Finance Director and will be keeping a watchful eye on our finances and I am sure, a tight control of the purse strings. Our other Directors are, Brian Delve who is now sitting on the Greens committee, David Fletcher who is helping Ken on the House committee, working with Jon Markham on building re-lationships with local schools to encourage juniors to take up golf, and is continuing as Editor of Club Selection. Mo O’Shaugh-nessy is on the M & R committee and also the director respon-sible for Health & Safety. They are joined by non-voting direc-tors, Bill Darling (our President), Geoff Scott and Bridget Thorp (our Treasurer).Many of the projects and work required to run the club involve employing outside contractors. Where possible we prefer to use club members, (especially those who can discount their rates!) … if you have a particular skill or access to goods or ser-vices which could benefit the club, please let us know by speak-ing to Geoff in the office.We have been honoured by being chosen to host a number of county competitions again this year, not least the Ladies Coun-ty Championship. Unfortunately, the downside is that this does restrict our own members use of the course on those dates. However, this is an obligation we have to SGU and we do try to keep any disruption to members to an absolute minimum.As I said earlier, I am looking forward to working with all of the Board as we continue to try and make Stowmarket Golf Club the best it can be in all respects, giving our members the golf club they expect and deserve.Please have a great summer of golf and enjoy the lovely sur-roundings, our great course, and warm hospitality.

The amount raised for St Nicholas Hospice Care, depicted in golf balls.

The Membership & Revenue (M&R) Committee now consists of Ivor Evans (Chairman), Mo O’Shaughnessy (Director) and Nicola Hatfield (Assistant Sec-retary). The Chairman Russell Morley and Geoff Scott also at-tend meetings. The Committee is tasked with promoting the club and encouraging new members

to join. One of the main meth-ods to achieve this is our contact with the Press and Media. To carry this out we are looking for a volunteer to become our Press Officer, preferably with PR expe-rience, but mostly someone who is keen and willing to help. If that is you then please talk to Ivor Evans. Finally, remember that you, as current members, can benefit financially by introducing new members to the club. Speak to the Club Manager about the rewards if you bring along a new golfer who joins and then renews their club membership.

Last year’s captain, David Fletch-er is pictured with George Chil-vers, from St Nicholas Hospice Care, Bury St Edmunds. This was David’s Captain’s Char-ity for 2015. Proceeds from Quiz Nights, Captain’s Charity Golf Day

and the Captain’s Charity bunker, on the 18th hole, amounted to £2384 and a cheque was pre-sented to George on the 6th May.David would like to pass on a very big thank you to all members for the generous donations.

What are the M&R Committee up to?

Balls spell out charity donation

As you walk from the 17th green to the 18th tee, look back to appreciate the outstanding scenery

At the beginning of your round, the magnificent and inviting view from the first tee

Captain’s Blog Ian Harvey - Captain I enjoyed an explosive start to my year as Cap-tain at my Drive-in back in April, thanks in part to the members of the lunchtime Saturday Club who were all present on what was an unusually warm and sunny Spring Saturday to witness me literally ‘melt’ my ball down the first! Unfortunately, my proper ball (second shot) did not go as well as expected leaving me just short of the distance posted by Ladies Section Captain, Sue Knights. Congratulations to Jamie Ruegg who success-fully predicted my driving distance on the day (465’ or 5580’) in the Drive-in Sweepstake, which started my Charity Fundraising for the year, collecting in excess of £245 in receipts. My thanks go out to my Vice Captain, Mark Tibbenham who was ably assisted by his Sat-urday Club cohorts to theme the drive-in on both my love of fast food and football. Over the Drive-in weekend 204 members took to the course playing in either the Singles Stableford Competition or the Mixed Social. Special thanks go to both Di and Ivor Evans who organized the Mixed Social on the Sun-day, and for all that they do in organizing the Mixed Social events during the year.Springtime is always a special time at the Club as the course wakes up from its winter slumber and the colours explode seeming-ly almost overnight. This together with the

impressive work carried out by Matt and his team around the course make the Club a very desirable Club to be a member of, and it is with great pleasure that I would formally like to welcome Kim Double, Gavin Bailey, An-drew Dobrucki, Anthony Baxter, Scott Evans, Andrew Henwood, Paul Freeman and Gra-ham Jessup who have all joined recently.Our County Golf Competitions have already got underway with the Parks Team, cap-tained by Ron Gilchrist easing through to the Second Round with an emphatic win (14 up) at home to Rushmere.Mark Tibbenham’s Curry Cup team were drawn into the strongest group of this year’s competition and have already played 2 of their divisional matches the first away to a tough Three River’s side where they lost on the day 11-7, the other, again away at Haver-hill coming away 9.5-8.5 Winners. The side are left with 2 home fixtures against Epping & Felixstowe.Both the Tolly & Hambro teams captained by Philip Coleman & Andrew Forgan respectively go into battle with their first round matches on Sunday 29th May. The Tolly face Seckford at home and the Hambro away to Gorleston who they will be looking to avenge after last year’s semi-final defeat.This year the Beaumont Team, captained by

Robert Hall received a bye in the first round and will go on to play West Suffolk Golf Centre at Beck Row on 14th June.Finally, the Stenson Team, which this year is captained by Simon (Gus) Cutting will start their campaign on 25th June at home to the Winners of the first round match between Diss and Halesworth.I would like to wish all Captain’s and squad members representing Stowmarket Golf Club all the very best on their competition days, I am personally looking forward to getting out to support them on the day and would also welcome your support too. Captain’s Charity – I am delighted to an-nounce that both Sue Knights, Captain of the Ladies Section and I have this year decided to join forces to support a local project of a Na-tional Charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) as our chosen charity. CRY supports young people diagnosed with potentially life-threat-ening cardiac conditions and offers bereave-ment support to families affected by young sudden cardiac death.

As of 1st January 2016 new golf rules came into effect. We have summarised the most important changes for you.Submission of a score card with fewer strokes than taken (rule 6-6) – previously always resulted in disqualification. Now, if you have not recorded penalty strokes because you were unaware of the rules, the missing penalty strokes are subsequently added and you also incur 2 additional penalty strokes.Anchoring the club (rule 14-1) – previously, certain unusual stroke techniques were permitted too, especially in connection with long putters. Now, you are not permit-ted to rest or support your club against a part of your body when playing a stroke.Prohibited devices (rule 14-3) – previously, a player who used an artificial device or unusual equip-ment was immediately disquali-fied. Now, if you use a prohibited device you incur 2 penalty strokes for the first infringement and if the infringement is repeated you are disqualified.Ball moved when addressing it (rule 18-2) – previously, if the

ball moved after the player had addressed it, it was assumed that the player had caused the ball to move and 1 penalty stroke was in-curred. An exception to this were cases in which it was obvious that the player was not responsible for the ball moving. Now, if, by grounding your club, you cause the ball to move you must put it back with 1 penalty stroke. How-ever, if, after grounding your club, a gust of wind moves your ball you must play it from the new position and no penalty is incurred.Distance measuring devices (rule 14-3 and appendix IV) – since 2006, DMRs can be permitted by Local Rule. However, they are only allowed to measure the distance and the player is not permitted to use any prohibited functions (e.g. measuring the slope, wind direction etc.) Previously it was deemed a breach of the rules if a function such as these were installed on the device, irrespec-tive of whether the player had actually used them. Now, the sole determining factor is whether the player uses a prohibited function. If a device provides prohibited ad-ditional features these functions must not be used.

The new golf rules 2016Jeff Gilham - Chair of GreensThe new season got off to a slow start with the weather remain-ing cold and wet throughout the spring, but there are now more en-couraging signs and a few bare legs are appearing on the course!The autumn/winter project is now complete with the last part of the rubber path being laid and the two left side bunkers now in play on the 11th. We are hopeful that the lining of the restyled bunkers with rubber compound will prevent the problems historically experienced with drainage, stones etc. The rubber compound has proved use-ful in other ways, being used as a base for the new benches, around the 150 yard markers, also on the rough areas under the tall pine trees to the right of the 6th and

even as blue tee markers on the fairways. There are some more, can you spot them – sorry no prizes for correct answers!Fairway re-shaping is also being looked at now that we have some significant growth, as over the years they seem to have changed. A new irrigation system controller and computer have been installed as the old system was way out of date, running on Windows 98. I hope you agree the greenkeep-ers have done a marvellous job of keeping the course playable and looking good over the very wet winter and spring months and I hope you enjoy this coming season playing on one of the best courses in the region.

Rubber compound was used to line the new bunkers to the left of the 11th green.

Course News

Seniors – Men For All Seasons! Early one Spring morning Geoff Scott observing Sen-ior golfers on the 1st disappearing into the mist said: ‘It’s not about the golf it’s the fact that they always play on Tuesday morning regardless!’ Before moving on to what the Seniors’ have to look forward to this Summer a catch up on some events that rounded off the 2015-16 season. The Winter League competi -ti on was won by Andrew Lillistone and Ian Wilkinson and the Final Fling’s Terry Bayley Trophy at the Gog Magog by John Bell on 29th February. The new golfi ng year got underway with the AGM following the monthly stableford competi ti on on Tuesday 1st March, almost washed out by heavy rain, won by Ron Woodham. At the AGM Jim handed over to Mike Helliwell as Seniors’ Captain (see photo) with David Hughes as Vice Captain. The fi rst of this year’s 42 inter-club matches, played on Tuesday 8th March, resulted in a home win.Results so far are six wins, three halves and four loss-es, a steady start to a busy year.The Matchplay Knockout competi ti on started on 1st April with 72 players. Clive George won the Gren Hibbert salver medal competi ti on with a net 67 on Tuesday 5th April. This year’s Golf 55 Trophy compe-ti ti on was played at Waldringfi eld on Monday 11th April. Our team of 12 players was competi ng along-side Fynn Valley, Rushmere and the hosts. Despite

Phil Fairbrother scoring a splendid 38 points we fi n-ished third with the hosts coming out on top. The sun shone for the May stableford, won by Gerald Prior, and was into the 20’s by the end of the week. Ever opti misti c we are hoping this trend conti nues as there is much to look forward to in the schedule. The Summer League and Eclecti c competi ti ons are underway and, with a later date this year of Tuesday 21st June, it’s fi ngers crossed for a warm and sunny Seniors’ Invitati on Day. Other events of note are: the Reuben Wiff en Cup competi ti on starts 1st July, the Seniors’ Captain’s day and lunch 5th July, the Sen-iors’ Inter-Club Trophy, involving 11 Suff olk and Essex Clubs at Felixstowe 19th July and the annual match against the Juniors 4th August.

Barry’s Triple Delight Captain, Ian Harvey presents Barry Squirrell with a bott le of Champagne to celebrate his hole-in-one on the 18th during the Captain Pro Challenge com-peti ti on. Barry was partnered by Vice-Captain, Mark Tibbenham, who between them recorded a bett er ball score of 44 points to fi nish top pairing for the compe-ti ti on.For Barry his ace on the 18th rounded off a terrifi c week, hav-ing shot a hole-in-one on the 15th at Bury St Edmunds Golf Club just 72 hours earlier, during a Wednesday Club away day.Barry’s success on the 18th was his third ace of the year, having recorded his fi rst on the 9th at Stowmarket in the Satur-day Club Premier League just 6 weeks earlier.

Pro’s Tip – When it’s breezy – Swing it easy!The faster you swing the golf club the more spin you impart on the golf ball. When playing into the wind this will make the ball “bal-loon up” into the air and drop short of the pin. The windier it gets the easier you should swing! Take plenty of club, slow the swing down and watch the ball bore through the wind.

Alex Davey qualifi es for Nati onal FinalAlex played in the PGA East Region Assistants qualifi er at Purdis Golf Club on 5th May and shot level par on a very challenging course he was playing for the fi rst ti me! This resulted in a fourth place fi nish for Alex and qualifi cati on for the PGA Assistants Nati onal Final, to be played at Litt le Aston Golf Club in Staff ordshire, one of the top 100 courses in the UK, between the 3rd and 5th August this year.Congratulati ons Alex on this fan-tasti c achievement and we wish you every success in the fi nal.

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Summer Ball – 9th July (Sold out)A Night at the Races – August TbcCasino Night – September Tbc

2016 Social Calendar Winter Quiz Night – 3rd NovemberMurder Mystery Night – 5th November 12 Days of Christmas – 3rd DecemberWinter Dance – 17th December

Friday 15th July 2016Proceeds for the benefi t of

Cost £160 per team of four.A great day of golf with friends and/or colleagues.

CAPTAIN’S CHARITY GOLF DAY

Please support us.

Jim Deasy presents Mike Helliwell

with his Seniors’ Captain’s Shirt