STRATHMORE 1 TRAVEL TO LAST YEARS BELL SALVER WINNERS

Today a very young inexperienced Strathmore team travelled to Auchterarder to play their opening Bell Salver league match. Keir led out the team and although getting 19 shots couldn’t cope with a very on form Lucas and lost his match. Olly halved with James. Archie lost to Angus on the 18th and Joe won on the 17th. Result Auchterarder 2.5 v Strathmore 1.5. Hopefully the players have learned a lot and we certainly noticed some development areas which we will work on with the players to assist in their individual development. Taking into account Auchterarder won the Bell Salver last year this was a decent result and with some better decision making there could have been a different outcome. Next up we welcome Crieff 2 then North Inch, so all to play for. 

PRESIDENTS DAY, CAPTAINS DRIVE IN AND RESULT FROM WEDNESDAYS CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIER

That’s been a busy day. First up Presidents Day with 10 juniors playing. Cameron Redden won with a fantastic 40 points, with Broden on 37, Keir on 36 and Olly on 34. Conan won the longest drive on the 7th hole finishing 15yds short of the greenside bunker. Next up Captains Drive In with 15 playing. The spot prizes for nearest the pin were won by under 12’s Archie, Forbes and Ally. Over 12’s won by Angus and Stuart x2. 4 teams took to the field with 3 teams returning scores of 1 under par 26’s, Stuart’s team as Vice Captain took the honours with a 2 under 25 and along with Angus’s team combined to win Phil’s Putter and the Alba Tapes Captains Cup, donated by Jackie’s late husband Frank Moran. He would have loved seeing all these youngsters out playing today. We then had a delicious buffet courtesy of the Centre. The section is buzzing just now with both individual and team successes and it’s Strathmore 1 tomorrow in the Bell Salver at Auchterarder. Wednesday night saw Angus topping the gross with a 78 and Archie the net with a 70. 

ANOTHER DAY AND MORE GOOD NEWS

First up a phone call from Kathryn who is over at Portmarnock in her Curtis Cup selectors role at the Woman’s Amateur Championship. She has confirmed 6 August dates for our Autumn coaching sessions, three Wednesdays, two Thursdays and one Saturday. She is also offering to run sessions during the summer and I will be sending out details soon. Past junior Captain Megan Ashley has been selected to represent Scottish Ladies at the European Team Championships. Fraser becomes our 15 new member for 2024 and we look forward to welcoming him into the section. Our 2 Bell Salver squads have had all their games confirmed and we have entered a Scottish Golf GolfNines event at Dunblane and hope to have 2 pairs playing. Been a busy Tuesday !!! 

ONE STEP CLOSER

What a fantastic score by Cormac Sharpe today at The Open qualifier. He has reciprocated our support of his progress by supporting our Club Hire scheme. Stuart and Angus our 2 lowest handicappers are playing with clubs he donated. He invited Dawn and I to his 18th birthday party before heading off on a scholarship to America. He has 100% support from everyone at Strathmore as he never forgot his roots.

FIRST BELL SALVER MATCH FOR STRATHMORE 2

Crieff were the hosts today and the weather was very kind to us. Angus led out the team and was giving Ethan 8 shots. He was all square through 14 but lost 15 & 16 giving shots on both holes, and he lost 2&1. Cammy who was out 3rd was always ahead and he took advantage of the 10 shots he was getting from Mark and won 5&3. Tom who was getting 3 shots was finding it tough against a very consistant Kieran and lost 5&4. Stuart had been 3 up but was pegged back to all square. On 14 he drove out of bounds but made 3 off his second ball with a fantastic approach to five feet and holing the putt for a five. Standing on the 17th all square he found the green and went 1up and secured a 2up win by finishing on the fringe of the 18th green with a 3 wood. A great start for Strathmore as Crieff is a difficult place to get a result but a draw was a fair result and all 4 players should be proud of how they played and represented the Club. Stuart also made a very impressive speech thanking Crieff for their hospitality.

5th CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIER.

Reid brothers come out on top today. Conan won the Scratch by 3 shots with Keir winning the handicap by 1 shot. 13 players took part today which was a great turn out. 

Andrew Coulson achieved his first WHS Handicap of 27.8 and with his best back 9 today of 45, I believe he will be reducing this soon. 

Off to Crieff tomorrow for our first Bell Salver match with Strathmore B. Strathmore A head to Auchterarder next week. Then GolfSixes team back in action the following Sunday. 

FINAL NIGHT OF SPRING COACHING

Kathryn mixed it up tonight with different formats for different group sizes. Assisted by Dawn and helped out by Jessica’s dad a skills challenge took place with Keegan, Harry, Angus and Annie running out winners in session 1. Andrew, Louis and Owen won the 2 hole challenge in session 2. Session 3 did course management. Phoebe was presented with her 1st Certificate. With the School holidays approaching I hope all our juniors will be out playing as much as possible. When I was a child and lived in Coupar Angus, after a day at the berries we headed up to Larghan Park to play pitch and putt or have a putting competition on the 18 hole putting green. Let’s get back to basics and all get out playing more, it’s the only way to improve. 

Summer League

Well done Archie, great score

 

JUST ANOTHER WEDNESDAY

Invite to Royal Garden Party ✅  

Played 18 holes with past junior member Conner Hughes who has rejoined and is keen to get involved with assisting with the Juniors and helping out. He played really well with back to back birdies on 12 and 13, and was disappointed when his drive on 10 finished on the fringe of the green. Great to have past juniors coming back and when I told him Callum Ewan had also rejoined he is going to contact him for a game ✅ 

Three sessions of coaching with Kathryn tonight and her enthusiasm is certainly paying dividends as the juniors are improving so much. 

Andrew was fitted for a new set of irons and fairway woods from our hire scheme and Alasdair also joined tonight and picked up a set of Golphin 112’s. Both were hitting them really well and will need to work out their new yardages. 

Ben, Lucy and Tom were presented with their 1st Certificates and are keen to get their 2nd. 

GARDEN PARTY INVITATION

So proud today to be recognised for my services to Junior Golf. I have been Junior Convenor at Strathmore for over 15 years and have been fortunate to have guided so many talented youngsters on fantastic journeys. None of this would have been possible without the total support and the all work Dawn puts in as well. I was also involved at County level for a number of years and my unique Club Hire Scheme which was adopted and rolled out nationally have also been factors in my nomination. I love what I do and this is definitely the icing on the cake. 

WHERE DO I START

What a day. Hugo and Frederick got fitted for hire clubs and trolleys and Hugo immediately went out and reduced his fun handicap to 38 (19 over 9 holes)  Frederick got himself a pair of size 6 golf shoes from our free swap scheme. 

Huge thanks to Fraser Rowan who donated  two sets of his old clubs today, hugely appreciated. 

Dawn and I took out Andrew and Arthur for cards for handicap and were really impressed, both had birdies, Andrew after nearly driving the 2nd green then thinning a chip over the back, holing it from 30yds. Arthur was a bit more traditional on 11, Good tee shot, great second shot to 3 foot and holing putt. 

Elsewhere past juniors were doing well.

Tarah won girls handicap section at Barrie Douglas by 13 shots, 

Cormac helped P&K. Gents beat Northern by winning his foursomes and singles. 

At the Ladies jamboree P&K ladies lost 5&4, with Kirsty losing in the foursomes but winning the singles along with Katy. 

So many positives. 

NORMAL SERVICE RESUMED

Andrew made it 3 wins in a row with 38 points in today’s Summer League. This is a great level of consistency. 

Some of our past junior girls are doing great things. Katy, Kirsty and Megan are playing in the Jamboree at Newmacher and helped beat the hosts 8-1, winning 4 points. Katy and Megan won their foursomes 6&4. In the singles Katy won 2&1, Kirsty won 7&5 and Megan won 7&6. In the Barrie Douglas Junior Masters at Strathmore Tarah is leading the Girls Handicap by13 shots !! Shooting net 69 and 63, big handicap cut coming up, local knowledge was key. 

ROUND UP

What a great result for Strathmore GolfSixes young team today. With Forbes and Leighton, two 7 year olds, making their debuts leading them out, they shot 24 for a fantastic 42 points, Hunter and Tom who was making his debut returned 39 points with Andrew and Kieran who was also making his debut returned 37 points. All these 6 players did the club proud today and this experience will have huge benefits for the future. Strathmore finished 2nd today playing against much older players and now sit joint top of the League with North Inch and Kinross all on 6 points. 

Yesterday we had some fantastic scoring in the June Medal - White Tees. Andrew, winning for the 2nd week in a row, shot a nett 68, Jack a nett 69, Keegan another nett 69 and Conan a nett 71. 4 well deserved handicap cuts. 

On Thursday night Cameron had the best score in the 4th qualifier of the Club Championship with a nett 70.