The recent wet weather may have caused some disruptions and closures of several golf courses in the area, but that was not the case at Ross Golf Club with members taking part in the 16 holes Christmas medal scramble, on the weekend prior to Christmas.
The competition was organised by Head Professional Tim Hall and his ‘School of Golf’ team and saw a full house start-sheet of 100 members participate in the event, which went ahead largely due to the successful greens drainage work undertaken 15 months ago.
The star performers on the day emerged from a team of four youngsters who have all been home grown through the Ross Juniors Academy and the ‘continuous improvement’ coaching and training schemes available to all members and delivered by the Tim Hall School of Golf structure. With a score-card showing 9 net birdies and 7 net pars and a net medal score of 49.7 the top prizes were presented to Ross Juniors Captain, Harry Griffiths, scratch handicapper Cam Haines, Matty Dobbs and the emerging 14 years old Harry Unthank.
With an equally impressive 50.4 score-card showing 7 birdies and 9 pars, Ray Freeman, Mark Moore, Richard Osborne and Bruce Richardson, all newcomers to the Ross Club having joined during the 2019 season were runners up with Richard having already made his mark after winning the Club’s 1st Mixed Winter Stableford event in November. This meant that Danny Gear, Pete Neilens, Nigel and Russell Yates had to settle for 3rd place despite their creditable 51.9 medal score which also contained a 7 birdies/9 pars haul.
Taking part on the day in a ‘Beat the Pro’ initiative to raise funds to benefit the activities of Ross Junior players was the Ross Club’s first Juniors Captain Niall Powell appointed in 2013 not long after joining the Ross Club as a 16 years old with a 6 handicap. Since then Niall’s progress in the game has flourished with a current +1 handicap and he will shortly be completing the final year of his International Competitive Scholarship at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.