The 2019 Ladies Open was held on 3rd July

22 teams travelled to Leek to play and thoroughly enjoyed playing our course. One lady flying in from Dubai!! We received lots of compliments so many thanks to the Greens staff for all their hard work providing the great conditions.

The ladies were greeted by Deb Barnett and Nel Boulton as they entered the club house with coffee and tea provided on arrival. Thank you to both Nel and Deb and also the kitchen staff.

Linden Davies and Mr Senior Captain were at the helm on the 1st entertaining the ladies. Giving them hints and tips of the best way to play the course!

The sun was shining and the ladies were very grateful for the juice and cakes provided in the halfway house. Thank you to both the Ladies section and Senior section for providing the refreshments and also Mr Trevor Smedley and Mr Senior Captain for serving them.

Some great scores were achieved and the Winners were

1st Place: Anne Cockersole (Leek) Sue Simmons (Enville) Sandy Couch (Stafford Castle) 86 points

2nd Place: Ester McNeal, Denise Martin, Sam Barley (Barlaston) 81 points

3rd Place: Paula Parkes, Helen Grocott, Elizabeth Hindmarsh Trentham 81 points

 Thanks to the Chef and kitchen staff for the excellent food and service. The salads on the specials board were amazing!

 Lady Captain held a raffle and raised £137.05 for her charity

A very good day was had all round

Many thanks again to all involved

 Lisa Davies

This new system is due to be introduced from November 2020 and every Club, worldwide, will have a ‘Slope Index’ to indicate the degree of ‘difficulty’ of their Course (a system already in use in America, etc).

Preliminary work has begun, and, following on from changes to our Course and in accordance with the USGA Course Rating System under the authorisation granted to England Golf, Leek GC Standard Scratch Scores (SSS) are now :-

White Tees – SSS 70, Slope Index 128

Yellow Tees – SSS 69, Slope Index 123

Red Tees – SSS 71, Slope Index 123

Ongoing, Handicaps will now be calculated according to these SSS ratings.

M Barker Match Secretary (27/06/2019)

On Friday 24th May North Staffs Lady Captains Society held a match against the Cheshire Lady Captains Society. We had good weather, good company, an excelled meal and a win for North Staffs 5-3.

The secretary from Cheshire wrote and asked me to pass on her comments, she said how they had all enjoyed being at Leek Golf Club, saying the course was in excellent condition, Jake in the pro shop was most obliging and that the food was excellent. They all looked forward to playing at Leek again.

Ann Cockersole

Lady Captain- NSLCS

A BIG THANK YOU FROM LADY CAPTAIN TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED MY CHARITY XMAS RAFFLE

THANKS TO YOUR GENEROSITY £315 WAS RAISED FOR THE MIDLANDS AIR AMBULANCE

WINNING TICKET 56 (DRAWN BY Mr CAPTAIN)

THE WINNER OF THE HAMPER WAS DAVE BESTWICK

ONCE AGAIN FROM LADY CAPTAIN JANET THANK YOU AND HAVE

A GREAT XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

1 -   Drop from knee height (NOT shoulder height)

2 -   Measure the area to drop in with the longest club in your bag (except a putter)

3 -   Drop in and play from the relief area

4 -   When dropping back-on-the-line, your ball cannot be played from nearer the hole than your chosen reference point

5 -   Time to search – 3 minutes (NOT 5 minutes)

6 -   If you accidentally move your ball when searching for it, replace it without penalty

7 -   No penalty for a double hit – it only counts as one stroke

8 -   No penalty if your ball hits you or your equipment accidentally after a stroke

9 -   No penalty if your ball strikes the flagstick when you have chosen to leave it in the hole

10 - Spike mark and other shoe damage on the putting green can be repaired

11 -  Ball accidentally moved on putting green – no penalty and replace

12 - Ball marked, lifted and replaced on putting green is moved by wind to another position –replace ball on the original spot

13 - Penalty areas replace water hazards, and you can move loose impediments, ground your club and take practice swings in penalty areas without penalty, just as you can on the fairway or in the rough

14 - You can’t take relief from a penalty area unless you are at least 95% certain your ball is in the penalty area

15 - In bunkers you can move loose impediments

16 - In bunkers you cannot touch the sand with your club in the area right in front of or right behind your ball, during your backswing or in taking practice swings

17 - Free relief is allowed if your ball is embedded on the fairway or in the rough (but “embedded” means that part of your ball is below the level of the ground)

18 - Unplayable ball in bunker – extra option to drop outside the bunker for 2 penalty strokes

19 - You cannot have your caddie or your partner standing behind you once you begin taking your stance

20 - Pace of Play - it is recommended that you take no longer than 40 seconds to make a stroke (and usually you should be able to play more quickly than that) and Ready Golf in stroke play is encouraged