Sad to be saying goodbye to our Scottish Golf Venue Management System (VMS) Customer Account Manager, Gary Hamilton, who has been of great assistance and support to the County bedding in and trouble-shooting VMS. Some of you may have seen him making an appearance at some of our competitions last year and he follows our Facebook page so he had became very familiar with how the County operates.
One of Gary’s last tasks was to be treated to lunch on Tuesday at Douglas Park GD by County Members Carol Fell, Fiona Armour and Marianne McKelvie during which we thanked him for his services and wished him good luck in his new job in the golf travel industry.
Gary’s replacement will be appointed shortly and we will endeavour to build up a similarly good relationship with his successor.
Annie Donald [Gourock] and Jayla Kepler [Greenock] played the final of the WINTER box league on Wednesday evening this week over Kilmacolm Golf Course in true winter conditions despite the May date! The game was played in friendly style with some excellent PAR golf to start. Annie took an early lead that she never relinquished, although at the 16th Jayla had closed the gap and took the game down the 18th in very windy and wet conditions. Well done to both girls for reaching the final and to Annie for winning the match 1 up.
Annie Donald [Gourock] receives The Orr Quaich L to R Clair Barclay [Junior Secretary] Annie Donald [Winner] Pear Orr [Honorary President]
Spectators and players sheltering from the wind and rain at the 17th
L to R Jayla Kepler and Annie Donald
Thanks go to Kilmacolm Golf Club for the courtesy of the course, Donna Jackson [County Captain] and Pearl Orr [Honorary President] for coming along to support the girls.
What a tussle yesterday morning between Renfrewshire County Ladies June Irons and Anita McMillan in the Stewart (Handicap) Trophy final in what was sunny but breezy conditions at Renfrew Golf Club.
Stewart Trophy Finalist June Irons (left) and Anita McMillan
After a hard fought battle Anita finally won at the 20th hole. Here is a beaming Anita, who incidentally was the runner-up in the County Irvine Handicap Trophy final at Erskine at the beginning of May, being presented with the Trophy. Well done Anita and commiserations to June, who put up such a good fight.
Anita being presented by Captain May Hughes
Anita McMillan – Winner of the 2022 Stewart Trophy
The morning Championship semi finals were also tight finishes with both finishing on the 18th, 1 up. Renfrewshire’s Gillian Kyle was victorious over the Counties Vice Captain Liz Stewart, while Lanarkshire’s Ruth Hunter won against Ayrshire’s Debbie Peberdy. Here are some photos from this morning;
Gillian Kyle and Liz Stewart in this morning’s semi-final
The afternoon Emirates flight over the 10th hole
Gillian’s daughter Sophie on caddy duties
Afternoon Championship Final
The finalists Gillian Kyle (left) and Ruth Hunter
The sun continued to shine for the afternoon finals match with Ruth Hunter from Lanark winning the SVLGA West Divisional Championship 3/2 at her first attempt in a very close match against Gillian Kyle.
The West Vets Captain May Hughes extended her thanks to all the spectators who came along to support the players and RLCGA join her in wishing Ruth good luck in the finals at Blairgowrie later in the year.
Thanks to Donna Jackson and SVLGA for the photos and to the West Vets for the contents of the report.
Our RLCGA VMS Development and Webmaster Fiona Armour was delighted to be asked by our SG VMS Customer Account Manager Gary Hamilton (pictured with Fiona on the putting green) to be one of his three invited guests at the VMS Golf Day on St Andrews Old Course on Thursday (14th April). The other two members of the team were Joe O’Neil, Club Secretary at Cochrane Castle GC and William Fleming, Vice Captain and Match and Handicap Secretary at Ballochmyle GC. The other teams comprised of Accounts Managers and their invited representatives from VMS Clubs and Associations under their responsibility and members of the SG VMS Team.
First visit for Fiona to the Old Course and it is indeed a challenging course hence the Women’s Green Tee Course Rating of 75.5 and Slope Rating 138. It has tight fairways and is littered with bunkers, especially those deadly pot ones, that you don’t see until it’s too late ! While Fiona managed to miss most of the bunkers the mile long putts on the huge greens were her downfall with too many three putts so had to settle for 27 Stableford points. Fellow team mate Joe O’Neil played very well coming first with 39 points so it was good to bring home the eventual winner of the event.
Here are some views from the course including the scary drive that faces you at the 17th Road Hole. Big hitters cut the corner by going over the adjacent hotel property. Fiona took the conservative ‘chicken’ route and landed on the fairway avoiding the bunkers.
17th Road Hole
18th Hole from the Tee
18th Green
Fiona had a thoroughly enjoyable day and a big thank you to Gary Hamilton not only for inviting her to represent the County at this event, and the hospitality extended by SG to all the invited guests, but also for the invaluable assistance and ongoing support that Gary provides to the County in our use of VMS to manage our membership and run competitions.
Members will be interested to learn that we have just launched our new VMS websiteunder the same address as our previous site (www.rlcga.co.uk).
This website is based on a VMS template that is designed for Clubs so not all the menu headers are relevant. It is hoped that a template that is better suited to Associations and Unions will be introduced in the near future but in the meantime we have worked round the restrictions and tried to make it a user friendly site where members and prospective members can find out all about the RLCGA past and present via 11 sub-menus that are located under the ‘Club’ Menu.
As with all websites they tend to look different when viewed on different mediums so what you see on a mobile screen is very different to what you see on a tablet or computer. This diagram should assist in showing the different layouts and where the information is contained. Incidentally, news articles can also be accessed from the ‘News’ icon at the bottom of your RLCGA homepage on your SG App. Unfortunately there is no mobile notification alert for newly published articles hence the reason we have to send you an advisory email.
As the diagram highlights there is a Members Login area of the website where members can book on to competitions; view results; and, access guidance documents. Further information on this will be included in the news article advisory email.
RLCGA FACEBOOK PAGE
You will also see from the diagram that there is a link from the website to our longstanding public Facebook Page;
Members are encourage to follow our page and like and share posts where relevant. It primarily features posts about County golf but there will be an occasional post about county related and other events and players that may be of interest to members. More on this in the advisory email.
Kilmacolm Golf Club kindly provided courtesy to the junior girls for the final session of the winter ahead of the season. Eight girls played 18 holes with three pre-handicap girls playing 7 holes on a dry but windy afternoon.
The scoring was very impressive in tough conditions, Jayla Kepler [Greenock] took first place in the 18 hole with a staggering 50 stableford points, followed by Natalie Sayers [Kilmacolm] and Ruby Thomson [Kilmacolm] both with 37 points. In the 7 hole Eliza Taher [Old Course Ranfurly] took best gross score. Well done to the prize winners and to all the girls who participated – some exciting handicap reductions ahead.
Winter Box League
During the winter season 2021-22 nine girls have participated in a winter box league to develop their match play experience. There was a play off today for the 4th spot due to a tie on points, Amelia Cochran [Kilmacolm] secured the spot to meet Jayla Kepler [Greenock] in the semi final. The other semi final will be Rosie Maguire [Pollok] against Annie Donald [Gourock]. This is a handicap match play and the semi-final and final will be scheduled over the coming weeks on a neutral course, date to be finalised. Some pictures from the group B matches are included below.
The county squad had a get together at Kilmacolm Golf Club on Sunday 27th February. Many thanks to Captain Megan and the club for their hospitality and use of the indoor simulator. Carnoustie and Pebble Beach were playing very tough, with Liz and Julie coming out on top. It was nice getting the girls together after a long winter. Looking forward to our next squad session.
The RLCGA AGM and prizegiving was held was held at Haggs Castle Golf Club on the Wednesday 3rd November.
Despite travel restrictions due to COP26 in Glasgow there was a very good turnout.
2021 County AGM Attendees
Donna Jackson (Troon Ladies) (pictured right) is the new County Captain taking over from Sandra Littlejohn (Erskine) and Liz Stewart (Greenburn) (pictured left) the new Vice Captain.
For further photographs of the AGM and the 2021 County Competition winners see this album of photographs courtesy of Fiona Armour.
There was home success in the West Division – Scottish Medal Finals last week with former Renfrewshire County Team member and former Williamwood Women’s Club Champion Sara McCorkell winning the title with a 2 over par 74 and progress to the grand final over St Andrews Golf Course in August
Other County Member Roisin Black (Gleddoch Resorts Ltd) also qualified However other Williamwood member Gillian McLeod (RLCGA) lost out in a card countback on the same score of 4 over par 76
There are six Regional Finals with six men and six women at each event qualifying for the Grand Final at The Duke’s, St Andrews.