Greetings golfers,

Holland was the stage for last week’s European Tour event as the pros played for the KLM Open. None of the 'Heswall' players were in action but it was still a fun event to watch. Lee Westwood had another good showing, he always finds another gear when Ryder Cup points are on offer. The winner though, with a score of 15 under par, was Romain Wattel.

Over in the US the FedEx playoffs are hotting up. The most exciting thing in the BMW Championship was Sergio’s drop on the 18th hole, it was straight out of Seve's book of tricks as he bent the rules to his advantage meaning he qualified through to the next stage of the playoffs having scrambled a par. Australian Mark Leishman was outstanding all week and couldn't be caught.

Midweek stableford

Now that the Trotter has finished we are back to midweek stablefords until the light stops us. This week in the men's event Lee Pennington beat Brian Vincent to top spot after a countback on 36 points. Runner up with 35 was Phil Carlisle. Anne Maria Kitchen was the ladies event winner.

Saturday was a singles stableford event, conditions were a big improvement on last week’s medal, although scoring still proved tough with a comp SS of only 33 points. Steve Skupski was Division One's winner with 38 points, runner up on the same score was Ryan Hanna, third with 37 was Martin Battishill. Ben Kelly triumphed in Division Two with 37, three back in second was Simon Carter, third was Mark Leat also with 34.


Finals Day

There was a miserable start for Finals Day on Sunday as the Captain's prize semi-finals tees off around 8 am, by 11am the sun was out and it stayed around all day.

The first winner on the day was Helen Billington who defeated Alka Tank in the Dora Bennett trophy final.

The Captain’s prize semi-finals were close. Steve Skupski telling me that he was just beaten by the better player as Russ Favager advanced to the final. Stu Kearon and James Smethurst both had a chance to win it with a shortish putt on 18, neither could take it, James edging it eventually on the 19th.

In the final there was some great golf from both sides, Russ threw everything he had at James but couldn't crack him. Some solid tee shots and exceptional wedge play saw him eventually run out 6&5 winner.

The Wirral classic started on Monday meaning the ladies played their weekly comp on Wednesday, the results will be in next week’s mail

We have just taken delivery of our ladies Autumn/Winter clothing range and it looks great. We also have a nice new range of fashion detachable bobble hats with our HGC crest on.

Some very strong opposition

The results sheet makes for poor reading for the Captain and me this year, however we've been under par most of the time! In the latest matches we have been beaten 4&3 by Andy Wallis & Paul Jenkins, won on the last against Guy Payne & Dave Thomas, lost by one hole to Bryan Baldwin & Alan Jones and also lost 2 & 1 to Brian Edwards & Roy Christian. We have had a real knack of bringing the very best out of our opponents each week. With 2 matches to go the current best winning margin is 4&3.