Last weekend saw Rose Hill Golf Club achieve new records at the NAPGC (National Association of Public courses) national finals weekend hosted at Staverton Estate Golf Club, Daventry. The small club established in 1921 and based at Lickey Hills Golf Course have played throughout the season against other regional clubs in order to represent the midlands at the finals and managed to get an incredible 4 teams to the national finals in competitions aimed a wide variety of ages, genders and handicaps.
The Seniors (over 55’s) playing in the Mitchell Thompson Trophy came a very credible 4th and in the Siemens trophy (for players of handicap 16-28) the team, playing betterball format, shot a very credible 153 points equalling 9 under par but unfortunately narrowly missed out on defending their 2018 title by a mere 3 points! There was however trophies won by the club in both the Hawtree Trophy and the Clapham Common Shield.
In the Hawtree Trophy which is an 8 person mixed event consisting on 4 women and 4 men, playing greensomes format, the Ladies and Gents played some excellent and consistent golf to shoot level par and take the title by a margin of 7 shots. This meant the club defended the title they won in 2018 and it also held extra significance as it was the 10th time the club has won the trophy, the first time being 1950, making Rose Hill the most successful club of all time in the competition over Cocks Moor Woods (9 time winners). Each pairs scores were: Carole Harvey and Steve Green 34, Martin L Smith and Karen Gilman 37, Helen Clegg and Steve Frost 39 (best score on the day), Kerry Frost and Stuart Green 34.
The next day the Clapham Team (for 18 and below handicappers) manged to win a second trophy for the club. The team of 12, 6 pairs again playing greensomes, played an almost carbon copy of the day before and finished level par for the day. It came down to the last score with Royal Epping GC needing their final pair to equal the best score of the day with 43 points to take the title but the pair could only manage 31 giving Rose Hill a win by a considerable 11 points. This was the 8th time in the clubs history the title has been won, again a record in the competition, but was the first time since 1987 a huge 32 years ago and 7 years before the clubs captain was even born! Each pairs scores were: Steve Frost and Gary Henderson 40, Emmett McNamee and Bill Corbally 35, Brett Heath and Russell Beard 32, Andy Beard and Craig Williams 34, Steve Green and Martin L Smith 37, Stuart Green and Garry Mercer 38.
Captain Stuart Green shared his thought on the weekend, ‘For us to get 4 teams that range through all the sections of our club to the finals and follow up on last years success was incredible enough but for us to bring home two titles just shows the great spirit and mentality shared throughout Rose Hill GC, for a relatively small club we always strive to give our best and represent the club well and I think we have achieved that this weekend’.
