Members’ News 2005 (23 December 2005)

Bothwell Castle Pro-Am supports Local Charities
The Pro-Am, held on July 17th, has now been running for over 20 years and over that period has raised over £170,000 for charities. The Pro-Am is always held on the last day of the Open Championship, and draws a strong field of Tartan Tour Professionals and amateur teams sponsored by many local businesses.

One of the attractions is that the Clubhouse is specially equipped with many televisions for the event, and participants can come off the course and then enjoy watching the final rounds of the Open leaders in a crowd atmosphere. The Club expects strong competition for places in 2006, because the Open will be at Royal Liverpool Golf Club (Hoylake), and many local golfers will want to play competitive golf and then watchTV rather thantravel down.

The Club’s policy is to support local charities. This year’s event raised £8400, with Kilbride Hospice, Meningitis Trust, and Disability IncomeGroup(DIG) each receiving £2800.

Photo shows Nagy Iskander (Kilbride Hospice), Lynn Stirrat (Ladies Captain BCGC) Alec Gray (Captain BCGC), Margaret Anderson (DIG), John Young (Convener of Pro-Am Committee BCGC), and Sharon Campbell (Meningitis Trust)

National Recognition for two Bothwell Junior Golfers

SLGA Training Squad
Congratulations to Pamela Pretswell for being selected for the Scottish Training Squads for 2005/2006. This follows a very successful 2005 golfing season, and we wish every success in the coming season.

Golf Academy Programme
Colin Baird our Junior Champion has been selected as one of the most promising 42 junior golfers in Scotland to benefit from the Golf Academy programme recently set up by the Scottish Golf Union. Along with 5 other West of Scotland boys he will receive intensive coaching from Brian Gemmell at Dumfries over a two year period. The main purpose of the SGU Golf Academy is to raise the standard of coaching, support services and and advice available to young, developing players who have aspirations to compete at national level.'

Christmas Menus
Now is the time for you and your friends or company to book your Christmas Day meal and other Festive Period meals.
Click on the links below to view the menus available

Christmas Day Menu (PDF)

Festive Evening Menu (PDF)

Festive Lunch Menu (PDF)

Note that discounts are available if you make your course selections in advance. Make your reservations by calling 01698 801973 or emailing clubhouse@bcgolf.co.uk

Winter Hours
With the end of the golfing season the clubhouse opening hours have been reduced.

Morning opening time are 8.00am during the week and 7.30 at weekends

Closing time will vary as follows;
Sunday - 8.00pm
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday - 7.00pm
Tuesday - 10.00pm
Friday and Saturday - 11.00pm

Youths and Juniors
The Boys’ team finished second in their section of the Lanarkshire league, winning all the home matches but struggling away at Bellshill, Blairbeth and Cambuslang. The League trophy was won by Lanark, beating Hamilton in the final at Bellshill.

Colin Baird has been selected for national coaching and has now started regular visits to the national coaching centre at Drumoig.

Between 15 and 20 boys have played in the Saturday stroke competitions this season and single handicap boys have been allowed to play in senior competitions for handicap only. This has worked well with 2 or 3 boys using this facility.

Finals Day
A fine, sunny day resulted in a very high standard of scoring in all matches and a good turnout of members supporting the finals.

Club Championship Gents Final: (left image) In a very closely contested match between Ian Hynds and Kevin Morris, fortunes swung both ways several times. After 18 holes Kevin was 2 up but the match was eventually won 2 and 1 by Ian Hynds.
 
Youths Final: An excellent display by Sean McInulty resulted in a convincing win against Paul McCormack over 36 holes. Centre Photo shows finalists on 1st tee with Captain A. Gray and referee I. Reid

Junior Championship Final: All square after 18 holes, Colin Baird eventually beat Ian Williamson on the 36th hole after a thrilling match. Right Photo shows finalists on 1st tee with R. Read (Y & J Convener) and Captain A. Gray.

Ladies’ final: In another impressive display 16 year old Pamela Prettswell beat Amy Davies.

Seniors’ Final: John McMeekin beat Dick Willan.

Ladies Section
Ladies Champion: Pamela Pretswell our new champion has had a very successful season reducing her playing handicap from 10 to 2 within a 14 month period. Only 16, she qualified in 25th place from a field of 144 for the British Girls Open played at West Hll, but unfortunately was knocked out in the 1st round.
Her other atchievements this year have included:
Reaching the semi-final of the Scottish Girls Championship at Tain, only losing by 1 hole to the eventual winner of the competition.
The best handicap aggregate score in the 36 hole Monros Trophy at Montrose.
An albatross at the par 5 2nd hole In the St. Regulus Medal over the Old Course at St. Andrews.
These are just a few of the competitions in which Pamela has taken part and we wish her well in the coming season.

Ladies Team: Congratulations to the Ladies Montgomery Team who finished 2nd in the league by 1/2 a point, thereby securing promotion to the Park League next season. Thanks to all team members who participated this year.

Ladies Open Day: This year’s Ladies Day was very successful, raising £1500 from entry fees and the raffle. The monies raised will go to th Kilbride Hospice. The Silver Handicap prize was won by our own Amy Davies.

Upcoming events: Altough the golf season is almost at an end, there are many opportunities for us to continue playing golf and socialising over the autumn and winter months.
The popular Round Robin Competition will begin in October and the entry sheet will be on the board in early September. Some other dates for your diary include:
Saturday 8th October - Coffee Morning in the clubhouse
Monday 24th October - to be arranged
Friday 11th November - Annual Prizgiving Dinner
Please watch the noticeboard or check the website for further updates.

Cabaret Night 28th October
This event originally scheduled for Saturday the 29th has been re-arranged for Friday 28th. The band will be the very popular “Time of your life”, so please make sure you book in time. More information to follow.

Club Newsletter
A newsletter was circulated to all members at the end of July. A copy of the newsletter is available to download by clicking here.

Men’s Club Competitions
This year’s MacMillan Salver winner is Iain Hynds(6) with a net score of  135, just one stroke ahead of  Stephen Simpson(8) and David Blakemore(9). In a close finish all three players shot a final round of  68 net.

The Sinclair Salver winner for this year is Douglas McIntosh with a gross score of 143, finishing with a 70 in the afternoon. He won by 2 strokes from Craig Faskin, with last year’s club champion Forbes Butterfield in third place a further stroke behind. The top 16 players from this competition qualified for this year’s club championship.

The 16 qualifiers for the club championship have since been reduced to 4 with Iain Hynds versus Forbes Butterfield and Kevin Morris versus Donald Blair in the semi-finals.

Youths and Juniors
A team of Y & J s were entered in the pro Am. Colin Baird, Ian Williamson and Sean McInulty were 4th with Alan McCloskey. The boys’ entry was sponsored by the Seniors Section, and thanks are due to the Seniors and also to the Pro Am Committee for their support.

Colin Baird finished 19th out of 90 in the Scottish under 14s Boys’ Championship at Craigielaw. He also qualified for the last day, finishing 25th out of 120 in the Scottish under 16s at Longniddry.

A team was entered in the invitational Whitecraigs Junior Pro Am with Fraser McLaughlan. Kieran Muldoon, Eliot Ardrey and Ross Taylor had a successful day finishing 7th in a substantial field of Glasgow clubs.

In the Lanarkshire Boys’ league the team won all 3 home matches and lost all 3 away matches. The final league positions are not yet decided.

3 boys, Ian Williamson, Sean McInulty and Colin Baird played in the McMillan and Sinclair salvers. Colin Baird would have qualified for the match play stages but due to holiday commitments he had to withdraw.

Jonathan Glen (below) won the prestigious Braidwood Cup over 4 rounds with a net total of 269. Honorary President Alex Braidwood and Mrs. Braidwood kindly made the presentations.

Catering
Buckley Catering have tendered their resignation from the catering franchise. The club have advertised for a replacement and interviewing is already underway.

The club have been in consultation with Environmental Health and we voluntarily closed the kitchen (June 24th-28th) to seek re-assurance that the club was not the source of the recent spate of viral infections. We have subsequently received full assurance from the Environmental Health not only that the club was not the source of the infections (due to an airborne bug), but also that the hygiene in the kitchen is exemplary.

Clubhouse Surroundings
The pathway area between the Pro-shop and the 8th green has been dug up and replaced by a new paviored path including the shoe and trolley cleaning area, which has also been screened off to improve the tidiness of this area. A golf club cleaner has also been installed. The area around the course map erected recently will be landscaped.

Men’s Team
Our team currently in the 3rd division of the Lanarkshire League has been performing well over the last few weeks including their last win 6-4 against Torrance House. One more win should be sufficient to secure promotion to division 2.

‘The Herald’ Player Profile
One of our own professionals, Kenny Monaghan was the subject of a half page profile of the young professional golfer entitled ‘On the ball with plans for the future” in The Herald on Tuesday June 28th. It highlighted his progress and commitment during his 4 years at Bothwell, the PGA requirements of being a professional, plus his aspirations for the future as a professional golfer. Kenny has already won the Royal Dornoch Master’s tournament, and a successful golfing year to date has already seen him qualify for the Powerade Assistant’s tournament at The London Club in August. Later this month Kenny will be at the Silloth course in the Solway bidding to qualify for the Open at St. Andrews.

Fraser McLaughlan one of our other professionals is also having a successful season winning the Calloway 36 hole event at Craigielaw, and he is currently lying in the top 15 of the Scottish Order of Merit.

Family Golf
Monday 4th July sees the begining of the Braidwood Cups, a 4 day event for Youths and Juniors. Monday is also the one day of the year where you can compete with other members of the family in the Family Foursomes competition over 15 holes. Give it a try!

Charity Pro-Am
This year’s event is on Sunday 17th July. The club is hoping to raise £10,000 for charity. If you are not already in a team but would like to participate in this event, enter your name in the entry sheet on the notice board and your name will go into a ballot.

The Four Castles Tournament
The club will host this year’s competition on Sunday 31st July (tee closed 9am-1pm). Clubs participating are Ranfurly Castle, Buchanan Castle, Haggs Castle and ourselves. Each team will comprise of 21 ladies and gents across all handicap groups.

Lady’s Day
For once the day was blessed with fine weather allowing some relaxation on the balcony after a trying day out on the course. This year’s happy and relaxed winners were Roshin Sharp and David Lingard (even if it did cost him a bottle of champagne – ask Ewan Kirk all about it).

Gents - Competition Results & Handicaps
In future, competition results and current handicaps will be published using the Club 2000 web site facility ‘How did I do’. In compliance with the Data Protection Act, for members not wanting their name displayed, we can arrange for it to be ‘blocked’ and not appear on the web site. Please contact the Match Secretary.

To view your results and handicap click on the ‘How did I do’ link. This will take you directly to Bothwell Castle’s page in the list of clubs, then select your desired option.

Ladies - Use of Computer system
The ladies section is currently looking at the possibility of using a similar system to the gents for entering and publishing competition scores. More details in the near future.

Youths and Juniors
The club has developed procedures for compliance with the new Child Protection Agency requirements. (The Protection of Children and Young People - Quick Guidelines)
The Youths and Juniors Convenor has also set up a series of golf promotions, assisted by the Club Professional, to encourage our young golfers. Check with the proshop.

Club Opening Hours
The clubhouse is now open from 10am until 10pm Monday to Thursday with last food orders at 9.00pm, and last drink orders at 9.30. Friday and Saturday closing time is 11.00pm.
From the 27th April full summer opening hours will apply with closing time at 11.00pm every evening.

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