Saturday, November 12, 2016

PAST COUNTY TEAM PLAYER IS NOW A PROFESSIONAL GOLFER - RENFREWSHIRE COUNTY GETS A MENTION


The 2013 winning County Team -- Iona far left 
Iona Stephen is now a professional golfer  -- Hear what she has to say  


Wednesday, November 02, 2016

107th AGM AT HAGGS CASTLE GOLF CLUB

Some of the Main 2016 Prizewinners with Captain Gillian Kyle 

58 ladies attended the 107th  RLCGA AGM which was held at Haggs Castle Golf Club tonight  --  the 2nd November 2016. 
Captain Gillian Kyle welcomed Honorary President Jennifer  Mack and all the committee and members to the AGM.  She opened by saying "What a quick and eventful year it’s been. I hope you have all had an enjoyable season."
"We were saddened to lose Dorothea Hastings and Jean Brown over the course of the year and our thoughts are with their families"  

Secretary Carol McNally intimated that there were 30 apologies

The minutes of the meeting held on November, 2015, had already been distributed and also on the website were taken as read.
There were no matters arising.
The following reports were then read out  - 
Tracy Masterton read out her treasurers report which indicated Renfrewshire County were doing well this year. 
Carol McNally then read out her Secretary's report listing all the competitions throughout the year, the winners, enjoyment of her first year in office, being caddy mistress at the jamboree and reading out the fixtures for next year (fixtures and competition reusults are at the end of this post)  
Both reports will be will be in the 2016 minutes when available

RLCGA's Audrey Sturgess (Scottish Golf Limited) then gave a very informative talk about the difficulties and challenges within  Scottish Golf since the amalgamation of the SGU and SLGA. 

JUNIOR CONVENOR REPORT -  BY GILLIAN KYLE (Due to the departure of Junior Secretary Audrey MacKenzie moving to Amsterdam)

Here are some of the girls’ activities from last season-
Prehandicap and girls with handicaps met at the Indoor Golf Centre in November then the potential junior team joined up with the seniors for a practice session and pizza to kick start the season in January. I know friendly matches had been scheduled with D&A but due poor weather then lack of time, they were never played.
We had the use of the 9 hole golf course at MCGA on a Sunday evening throughout May and June for the seniors and juniors and we only played foursomes for practice. This was fairly well attended and helped the girls get to know each other a little better and not be scared of Foursomes!
The West Girls only had 30 members this year and 7 of them are from Renfrewshire. This is obviously a worry but the West Committee will continue to organise their medals, matches and Championships as before. Renfrewshire was well represented in all their medals and the highlight, for me anyway, was Sophie Kyle being runner up in the Bronze Championship, just losing on the 19th hole.


The Winning Kennedy Salver Team 
The Kennedy Salver took place at Loudoun Gowf on June 28th.
Our team was Emily Crusher (Eastwood) , Niamh Kinney (Erskine), Sophie Kyle (Whitecraigs), Anna Mackenzie (East Renfrewshire) Heather Mushet ( Elderslie) & Ellie Wilkie (Greenock)

We had a great start to the day winning all 3 foursomes so excitement at lunchtime was an understatement!
As D&A could only fielded 5 players, they gifted 1 point to each County, so we were left requiring 2 more points in the afternoon singles. A nervous start in the early matches in the afternoon but Niamh and Sophie both won their matches and we beat defending champions, Lanarkshire, by ½ a point.
A very well deserved victory and hopefully this may inspire others to get more involved.

 8 girls played in our junior County Championship over the course of the season with the final being played at Eastwood GC at the end of August between defending Champion Jennifer and last year’s runner up Anna. The standard of golf had significantly improved from last year with birdies required to win a hole. Jennifer got an early lead then hung on to win 4&2, although it was a closer game than it sounds.
Both girls have been playing in many national competitions this year and gaining loads of experience along the way. I’d like to update you with a few highlights of their season…

Jennifer’s 2016 achievements-
Plays off 3.
Finished 2nd in the Junior Tour Finals
Made the cut in the Helen Holm
Won the Clark Rosebowl at the Scottish at West Kilbride beating some very tough, experienced opposition.
Won Scottish Schoolgirls Championship
5th in Stephen Gallacher Foundation Trophy
Selected for the Girls Home International Team in Wales
Finished 12th in the Scottish under 16’s
Jennifer and Anna
Won the Haggs Castle Club Championship for the 2nd time
Won the County Junior Championship for the 3rd time.
Won the Haggs Castle Championship for the 2nd time.
Runner up in the Junior Champion of Champions


Anna’s 2016 achievements-
Down from 10 to 7
Finished 21st in the Scottish under 14’s in a very International field
Finished 25th in the Scottish under 16’s amongst very low handicap players (around half the 75 players played off 5 or less and they’re all UNDER 16! Amazing!)
Won the East Ren Ladies Club Championship and Junior Under 15 Championship.

Some significant handicap cuts for the juniors were-
Alison MacNab from 19 to 14
Sophie Kyle from 27 to 20
Emily Crusher from 20 to 17
Romy Erskine from 19 to 14

Regrettably the Campbell Clock  was not played this year. Numbers were poor until 3 days before and then they were abysmal. There seemed no point in running 2 competitions with only 5 girls playing in each. Hopefully there will be more girls playing in 2017 and we shall try again.
I have had a good response from an email I sent out to all the clubs a couple of weeks ago and I hope to meet up with representatives from all clubs who have girl members in the new year and get some ideas for encouraging more girls in the game to get their handicaps.

We are still searching for a new Junior Convenor so if ANYONE would like to be involved, please speak to me at the end of the meeting.

2016 CAPTAINS REPORT - BY GILLIAN KYLE


I shall now give you a brief report of our 2016 season. I’ll not go into great detail as it was all on the website as it happened.

We started our Junior and Senior squad training on Jan 31st with a joint session at the Indoor Golf Centre led by Karyn Burns -. We had 11 players in the Senior Squad this year and we met a further 3 Monday evenings for coaching sessions. We have found that the Indoor really is the best place for coffee on a Monday night! A game at Portland and a match against some of our caddies at Douglas Park in March got us all ready for the season ahead.

The Beetle Drive in February was another great afternoon raising just over £1300 towards funds. Grateful thanks to all who attended and those who donated raffle and auction prizes.


Eilidh and Jennifer 
April saw the season begin. The County Championship at East Renfrewshire produced a great final with Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm) playing some excellent golf to beat Jennifer Rankine (Haggs Castle)  3&2. (despite sleet and snow showers!) The Peggy Clark was won by Donna Jackson with a super net 69. Our new trophy for a Handicap Singles, donated by Jean Irvine and aptly named-The Irvine Trophy- was won by Linda Ellery (East Renfrewshire) who beat Elizabeth Russell (Ralston) 4&2 in the final. I do hope this new trophy will encourage more ladies to play in the qualifying round of the Championship in the future. 
15 Past Captains attended the Past Captain's lunch and enjoyed catching up with old County friends.

The Winter foursomes final was held at East Renfrewshire on Friday 22nd April between Fiona Roger and Evy McGregor (Ranfurly Castle) and Birgit Clark and Marilyn Muir (Old Ranfurly) on a lovely sunny day. Jennifer Mack kindly refereed the match and the Old Ranfurly couple won 4 and 2.

37 couples played in the County Foursomes at Old Ranfurly. The Scratch winners were Donna Jackson and Liz Stewart and handicap winners Audrey Mackenzie and Lorna Boyd of East Renfrewshire.

The Inter County Foursomes Finals took place at Hamilton GC on June 6th with Donna and Liz taking the honours again.

 2016 RLCGA County Team 
The Inter County matches, the Jamboree, took place at Douglas Park from 20th-22nd June. Our team was:
Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm), Denise Cowan ( Ranfurly Castle), Donna Jackson (Troon Ladies), Gillian Kyle (East Renfrewshire), Gillian McGinlay (Troon Ladies), Jennifer Rankine (Haggs Castle) and Carol Whyte (Milngavie)

With confidence high, we had a great win over D&A on day 1 winning 5.5 to 3.5.
Day 2 continued well with a good victory over Lanarkshire winning 5.5 to 3.5 again.
So Day 3, we’re confident and raring to go but Ayrshire just have that little more fire in their bellies as they have not won a match yet.  A loss 3.5 to 5.5 this time which was bitterly disappointing for everyone, especially as 4 of the singles matches finished on the 17th or 18th hole but just not going our way. D&A won on a countback with ourselves and they represented the West at Aboyne in September but unfortunately finished 4th. Grateful thanks go to our caddy mistress - Carol McNally, all our caddies and supporters which make the event extra special.
Next year we really hope to win the Jamboree back for Renfrewshire when it is played at Hamilton GC in 2017 and welcome your support again. Carol loved being caddy mistress so much that she has agreed to do the role again next time.

The rearranged West of Scotland Championship at Bonnyton was played in rather dreich conditions on July 24th. Only 18 played which is very disappointing when the 4 counties are all involved. 
However Renfrewshire did well with Megan Briggs winning the title and Renfrewshire's team of Megan, Donna and Carol Whyte also won the Team Trophy.
Winning West of Scotland Team - Megan, Donna, Gillian and Carol
Lanarkshire won the Junior event.
The West Committee are aware that the support for this event has been poor over the last few years esp when the weather has caused the fixture to be cancelled in May the last 3 years then it clashes with other events when rearranged. They will continue to monitor the situation.

Shirley Back - County Rosebowl Champion
The Rosebowl Final was played at East Renfrewshire between Shirley Back (Gleddoch)  and Marion Stewart (Kilmacolm)  on a lovely evening in September. A very close match until Marion had a bit of a meltdown on 17 and 18 so Shirley won 2up.

Autumn Greensomes at Cathcart Castle. 37 couples played on a bright warm day.
Winners were June Lockhart and Shirley Back (Gleddoch) with 40 points and Runners up were Muriel Young and Margaret Gray (Old Ranfurly) with 39.

We were well represented at Eyemouth GC on Sep 7th in the Commonwealth Spoons and Marilyn Muir and Maureen Mitchell (Old Ranfurly) came a very commendable 3rd place.

The TriAm was postponed at Greenock until October 4th. What a good decision although it did present Fiona Armour with even more of a headache rearranging the teams. Thanks again Fiona!
Winners were Chris Fowler (Cowglen), Mo Neilson (Greenock) and Fay Storey (Old Ranfurly) with an amazing 77 points.

The Winter Foursomes is up and running and all results and stories should be reported to Linda Ellery.

Congratulations to all the ladies who are Champions of their clubs. I’ll just take a moment to tell you a little about some individual achievements this year-

Eilidh’s 2016 achievements
Made cut in Helen Holm
3rd in St Rule Trophy
Qualified for Scottish Amateur Strokeplay, unfortunately lost in 2nd round against Past Champ Gabrielle MacDonald.
Won Royal Birkdale Scratch Championship
Runner up in Scottish Champion of Champions
Selected for the European Team Championships in Iceland
Selected for the Home Internationals in Wales
Gained a 1st at Stirling University in PE Teaching!


Other notable successes came in the Senior ranks.
Carol Whyte played in the Mary McKenna Perpetual Trophy at Lahinch GC in April against Ireland and was runner up in the West Vets Championship but work commitments unfortunately made her unavailable for selection for other events in the season.

Gillian Kyle
I myself enjoyed success in the Senior ranks this year-winning the West Vets Championship and representing them at Blairgowrie in the Scottish Vets Championship. I also played at Panmure in their Jamboree and represented the Scottish Seniors at Sierra GC in Poland in the European Team Championships and then at Alyth GC at the Home Internationals. A great experience.

So it was fantastic that Renfrewshire had representatives in all the National Teams-Girls, Ladies and Seniors and hopefully we can continue reporting similar success in the future.

That is the end of my report for 2016.  As I said before, it’s been a very quick year and I’ve hopefully learned a lot about being Captain of the County and can take that forward for next year. It’s a team effort though and my Committee have been terrific especially when a couple of the major roles saw a change of personnel. 
Sandra Littlejohn has taken over as Results Secretary and after a few tutorials from Carol Fell and Freda Tuck, she has been amazing. Carol McNally our new Honorary Secretary has also been thrown in at the deep end and seems to be enjoying the role as well as being super efficient.
My loyal Vice Captain, June, has been such a great support all season and despite being so ill last month, she has managed to be here and looking absolutely brilliant. Thanks so much for all your support June.
Thank you also to Jennifer Mack our President who has attended all of our events and to Past Captain Gillian McGinley who was always at the end of the phone if required.
Coming off the Committee are Shirley Back, Donna Jackson and Elaine Robb. Grateful thanks to all of them for their hard work and support over the last 3 years.

Election of Office Bearers..
Honorary Life President-Wendy Cameron
President - Jennifer Mack
Vice Captain - June Lockhart
Honorary Secretary - Carol McNally
Honorary Treasurer - Tracy Masterton
Results Secretary - Sandra Littlejohn
Membership Secretary- Gillian Kyle (at the moment) -But I’m hoping 1 of the new committee members may take on this role in 2017/18.
Junior Convenor- Gillian Kyle (at the moment) -volunteers appreciated.
Our committee members for 2016/ 2017 are Fiona Armour (Renfrew), Linda Ellery (East Renfrewshire) -- And new to committee-  Sandra MacDougall (Greenock), Liz Stewart (Greenburn) and  Marilyn Muir (Old Ranfurly) .

Linda Ellery is our new “Sweater girl”.

A couple of dates for your diaries-
Beetle Drive on Sunday 29th January from 2pm-5pm at Ralston GC
Biennual Dinner on Thursday 16th March here at Haggs Castle with Catriona Morrison MBE as our speaker. Cat was Scotland’s most successful triathlete and should provide us with a very motivating talk.

Gillian then asked the members to decide their preference for winning a spoon, a paperweight, a glass or gift card as a medal prize by slotting a pink counter into the appropriate box. Also she asked everyone to take back a poster to their home club to advertise how good it is to join the County.

Maureen Mitchell from Old Ranfurly then gave an update into Course Rating within Renfrewshire.  9 courses have been rated this year and Renfrewshire is up to date. Each course has to be rated every 8-10 years and more volunteers are needed to keep it all under control. Marilyn Muir form Old Ranfurly has joined the team READ MORE AT SCOTTISH GOLF

In any other business -- Carol Fell asked that it be minuted that Renfrewshire County had a mention in their Women and Golf Magazine July/ August edition  CLICK HERE to read more.

Finally Vice Captain June Lockhart thanked everyone for their kindness and messages over the last couple of months during her time in hospital.


Carol McNally then read out the  prizewinners and President Jennifer Mack presented the prizes.

Date of next AGM November 1st 2017 at 7.30pm at Haggs Castle GC.

PRIZEGIVING

WINTER GREENSOMES 2015/2016 (SALVERS)
WINNERS:​Marilyn Muir and Brigit Clark Old Ranfurly
Runners up:​ Fiona Roger and Evy MacGregor (Ranfurly Castle)

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP  - 13-15 April, 2016 - East Renfrewshire

Scratch​:   Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm)
Peggy Clark Trophy : Donna Jackson (Troon)
Irvine Trophy - Linda Ellery (East Renfrewshire) 
Winner: Blythswood Trophy​ Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm)
Runner up​: Jennifer Rankine

COUNTY FOURSOMES 5th May, 2016 ​
SCRATCH: 
1st: Donna Jackson (Cochrane Castle) & Liz Stewart (Greenburn), 
2nd: Gillian Kyle and Linda Ellery (East Renfrewshire)
3rd: Gillian McGinlay (Cochrane Castle) and Maureen Woodhead (Gourock)

HANDICAP​: 
1st: Audrey Mackenzie and Lorna Boyd  (East Renfrewshire), 
2nd: Gillian Kyle and Linda Ellery (East Renfrewshire)
3rd: Marilyn Muir and Maureen Mitchell (Old Ranfurly)

​SPRING​ MEETING​May 17th, 2016​ (Paisley)

SCRATCH​: Eilidh Briggs ( Kilmacolm)
HANDICAP 0 – 12​: 
1st: Anabel Kane (Kilmacolm), 
2nd: Cathy Morton (Eastwood), 
3rd: Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm)
Handicap 13-28​​: 
1st: Niamh Kennedy (Erskine), 
2nd Janet Livingstone, 
3rd: Alison Macnab (Ranfurly Castle)

COUNTY ROSEBOWL​: Shirley Back (Gleddoch) beat Marion Stewart (Kilmacolm)

​JUNE MEDAL​​: 7th June, 2015​6 (Over Eastwood)

SCRATCH​​: Gillian Kyle ​(East Renfrewshire)
HANDICAP 0-12​: Cathy Morton (Eastwood)
13-28: ​Linda Anderson (Erskine)

MEDAL FINALS​: Muriel Young  (Old Ranfurly)


JULY MEDAL​: 27 July, 2016 - Haggs Castle

SCRATCH​: Denise Cowan (Ranfurly Castle)
HANDICAP:  0 – 12:Denise Cowan (Ranfurly Castle) 
13 – 28​: Alison Macnab​ (Ranfurly Castle),

AUGUST MEDAL: 15 August, 2016 (Caldwell)

SCRATCH​: Denise Cowan​ (Ranfurly Castle)
HANDICAP 0-12​: Liz Hale (​Caldwell​)
13-28: ​Muriel Young​ (Old Ranfurly​)

AUTUMN GREENSOMES - 29th August 2016 (Cathcart Castle)

Winners: June Lockhart and Shirley Back (Gleddoch)
Runner Up: Margaret Gray and Muriel Young (Old Ranfurly) 

SEPTEMBER TRI-AM
1st​: Chris Fowler (Cowglen), ​Mo Neilson (Greenock), Fay Storey (Old Ranfurly​)

County Champion Eilidh Briggs then gave the vote of thanks after the 
prize giving.

FIXTURE DIARY 2017
Championship - 12/13/14 April - Pollok 
Foursomes - Monday 1st May - Williamwood
Spring Meeting - Friday 19th May  - Ranfurly Castle am/evening Ballot 
Inter County Finals Wednesday 7th June - Cochrane Castle                                 
June Medal - Week Commencing 19th June - Bonnyton  am / evening Ballot        
July Medal- Wednesday 5th July - Erskine am / evening Ballot
August Medal  - Wednesday 16th August  - Whitecraigs 
Autumn Greensomes - Tuesday  29th August  - Gleddoch
September Tri Am - Wednesday 13th September - Elderslie

Other Events :
Beetle Drive 29th January - Ralston
Biennual Dinner - 16th March Haggs Castle
Helen Holm - 21 - 23 April Troon Ladies and Royal Troon
West of Scotland Championship - 7th May - Kilmarnock Barassie
Scottish Amateur - 6th - 10th June Royal Aberdeen
Inter County Jamboree 12th - 14th June Hamilton GC
Kennedy Salver 19th June Clober
Scottish Senior championship 28th June - 1st July Blairgowrie 
   

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

WINTER FOURSOMES NORAH AND SANDRA WIN THROUGH TO QUARTER FINALS

Played today at Kilmacolm. 
 Winners, Norah Adams and Sandra Winter. Most enjoyable game with Dorothy Cartlidge and Julie Dickson. Close match, perfect conditions.