COVID-19 Coronavirus: 24 March 2020

COVID-19 Coronavirus: 24 March 2020

On Saturday, the ALCGA Management Committee and officials notified cancellation of County events until the beginning of May. Yesterday we discussed our next steps.

Consequently, guided by the government announcement that everyone must stay at home except in exceptional circumstances, the introduction of a 12 week isolation period to shield the most vulnerable people, the closure of non-essential shops, facilities and services, and the possibility that the disease peak may not occur until May/June, we are now making the next difficult decision to cancel ALCGA events that are scheduled up until the end of June.

Consequently, the following events will be cancelled:

·       County Opens at Banchory on 14 May, Fraserburgh on 16 May, Westhill on 11 June and McDonald Ellon on 26 June

·       Watt Duffus Inter-Club Trophy at Newburgh-on-Ythan on 18 May.

If you have placed an entry for any of these competitions, the relevant club rep or Karen will be in touch with you.

At the moment, I am in touch with the Captain of Angus Ladies County Golf Association who is in charge of organising the Northern Division Jamboree from 13 to 15 June at Monifieth to find out what action is proposed with this inter-county event.

Always with the wellbeing of our community of members at heart, we are continuing to monitor advice and developments and will update you when there is any news.

Please take care and stay safe.

Lorna

Lorna M Johnson

Captain, ALCGA

COVID-19 Coronavirus: 21 March 2020

At this challenging time, the ALCGA Management Committee and officials have decided that we must take steps to protect the health and wellbeing of our members. Consequently, at this point, we have made the following decisions.

·         County Squad Practice sessions that are scheduled for 29 March and 05 April will be cancelled.

·         Junior Competitions that are scheduled will be cancelled – Strabathie on 12 April and Paul Lawrie Centre on 04 May.

·         County Opens that are scheduled in April will be cancelled - Ballater on 24 April and Aboyne on 30 April.

·         The County Championship will be postponed from May until 11-13 September (provisional dates at present) at Meldrum House.

·         Golf View League matches will not take place in 2020.

·         Sheena Wood Rosebowl matches will be put on hold until further notice.

·         The date for payment of fees to Club Reps will be moved to the beginning of July.

If you have placed an entry for any of these competitions, the relevant club rep, junior convenor or Karen will be in touch with you.

Because the County Community is important to us all, I am sure these decisions are very disappointing for all members but it is essential to restrict our gatherings. I want to thank those of you whose time and effort are essential to ensure the success of our events and competitions and whose efforts are now thwarted by these unprecedented circumstances.

We are continuing to monitor advice and developments and will update you about other competitions in due course.

Please take care and stay safe.

Lorna

Lorna M Johnson
Captain, ALCGA

Welcome to the new ALCGA website

I am delighted to welcome you to the new ALCGA website.

Huge thanks are due to Karen (Stalker) and Carol (Wilson) for volunteering to create this website and for spending so much of their own time on designing, setting up its structure, and populating it with initial content. Thank you, Karen and Carol.

The old website has been in existence for many years and has served a very useful purpose until new technological developments have threatened its suitability. Huge thanks are due to Kathleen Esslemont, Cruden Bay Golf Club, who has volunteered and been committed to maintaining and updating the website for us for such a long time. Thank you, Kathleen.

I do hope you like the new website as much as I do.

Lorna

Lorna M Johnson
Captain, ALCGA

Lyon Foursomes

Good luck to all the players involved in the Lyon Foursomes at Aboyne.

Click here for the results

Inter County Jamboree

Good luck to the County team at the Inter-County Jamboree this weekend at Ballater. If you’re free this weekend, the team

would love to see you there as they try to retain the trophy they won last year at Strathmore.

Full results can be found here

The team selected to represent Aberdeenshire is

Kim Beveridge (Aboyne)

Carmen Griffiths (Aboyne)

Sammy Leslie (Murcar Links)

Jasmine Mackintosh (Hazlehead)

Donna Pocock (Murcar Links)

Megan Robb (Banchory)

Carol Wilson (Murcar Links)

Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies)

 

Reserves

Rachel Polson (Murcar Links)

Gillian Mackenzie (Banchory)

Kimberley Beveridge	Carmen Griffiths	Sammy Leslie	Jasmine Mackintosh
Donna Pocock	Megan Robb	Carol Wilson	Sheena Wood

 

Watt Duffus

Many congratulations to all the ladies who participated in the Watt Duffus Inter Club Trophy played this year at Inverurie.

There were several excellent scores with Julie Henderson , Inverurie, producing the round of the day, a gross 71, to win the Mrs

J P Kennaway Cup. Karen Mackay, Murcar Links, playing off a handicap of 11, played an excellent round of golf to win the

Individual Handicap Trophy with a gross 78 nett 67 by the better inward half from Dot Mackinnon of McDonald Ellon.

Julie Henderson, Ann Smart

Karen Mackay, Ann Smart

 

Murcar Links had a clean sweep in the team events. Murcar Links 1 quartet of Sammy Leslie, Donna Pocock, Rachel Polson and Carol Wilson won the Watt Duffus Trophy for the best scratch team total of 223 and Murcar Links 2 team of Melanie Clarke, Emma Gissing, Karen Mackay and Olive Robb won the Handicap Trophy for the best nett total of 211 by the better inward half from McDonald Ellon.

Ann Smart with Murcar Links 1 - Carol Wilson, Donna Pocock, Sammy Leslie, Rachel Polson

Ann Smart with Murcar Links 2 – Melanie Clarke, Olive Robb, Karen Mackay

Our grateful thanks go to Inverurie Golf Club who kindly granted us courtesy of the course and to all the members and staff who

made us feel so welcome and helped make it a fantastic day.

County Championship

The County Championship was held at Murcar Links and what a fabulous three days we had. The weather was mixed –
hailstones, wind and rain! The course was in great condition and proved to be a fantastic venue for the most prestigious event

in the calendar.

    18th green at Murcar Links (luckily the hailstones melted quickly!)

    30 ladies teed off on Friday afternoon with Fiona Campbell (McDonald Ellon) being the leading qualifier with a superb 77.

    Leading qualifier – Fiona Campbell (McDonald Ellon)

The following day the match play stages in both the Scratch and Handicap sections started (A full list of all the results can be

found on the website under competition results). The matches were all closely contested and played in such good spirit and it

was obvious to the spectators that all the players were thoroughly enjoying the challenges the course had to offer. On Sunday

morning the final of the handicap trophy was between Julie Lees (Westhill) and Jill Harrison (Cruden Bay) which Jill won 6&4.

    Julie Lees, Ann Smart, Ros Dunsmuir, Jill Harrison

The semi –finals of the scratch event were between Robyn Fowlie (Edzell) and Kimberley Beveridge (Aboyne) and Carol Wilson

(Murcar Links) and Sammy Leslie (Murcar Links) with Kim and Sammy winning through to the final.

Robyn Fowlie, Ann Smart, Kim Beveridge

Carol Wilson, Ann Smart, Sammy Leslie

 

In an extremely close contest both girls played some excellent golf in very testing conditions with Kim managing to win at the

18th to become the 2019 County Champion for the first time. Many congratulations to Kim and all the Ladies who reached to

match play stages.

    Champion of 2019 – Kim Beveridge

Click here for the scratch matchplay results and here for the handicap results.

Our grateful thanks go to Murcar Links Golf Club who kindly granted us courtesy of the course and to all the members and staff

who made us feel so welcome and helped make it a fantastic weekend.

Update

The season is well and truly on its way now. We’ve already had two County Opens at Ballater and Aboyne with some great scores returned.

Remember, entry forms, draws and results can be found on our fixture page here.

The draw for this year’s Sheena Wood Rosebowl is as follows

    Lorna Johnson (Meldrum House) v Jackie Guthrie (Inverurie)

    Kath Emeleus (Hazlehead) v Hannah Bycroft (Alford)

    Kelly Guthrie (Inverurie) v Nita Dervish-Uman (Kemnay)

    Lindsey McNiven (Aberdeen Ladies) v Morven Adam (Hazlehead)

All ties to be played by 30th June. Good luck to all the competitors.

Finally, good luck to all the players at the County Championship at Murcar Links this weekend.

County Finals

Good luck to the County team at the Scottish County Finals this weekend at Kilmacolm Golf Club. Full results can be found here The team selected to represent Aberdeenshire is Kimberley Beveridge (Aboyne) Sammy Leslie (Murcar Links) Gillian Mackenzie (Banchory) Jasmine Mackintosh (Hazlehead) Shannon McWilliam (Aboyne) Vikki Thom (Kemnay) Carol Wilson (Murcar Links) Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies)

Lyon Foursomes

Good luck to all the players involved in the Lyon Foursomes at Deeside.

Click here for the results.

County Jamboree

Good luck to the County team at the Inter-County Jamboree this weekend at Strathmore.

Full results can be found here

The team selected to represent Aberdeenshire is

Kimberley Beveridge (Aboyne)
Carmen Griffiths (Aboyne)
Sammy Leslie (Murcar Links)
Gillian Mackenzie (Banchory)
Jasmine Mackintosh (Hazlehead)
Vikki Thom (Kemnay)
Carol Wilson (Murcar Links)
Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies)

Kimberley Beveridge	Carmen Griffiths	Sammy Leslie	Jasmine Mackintosh
Donna Pocock	Megan Robb	Carol Wilson	Sheena Wood

County Championship

Good luck to all the players at the County Championship at Banchory this weekend.

Click here for the scratch matchplay results

and here for the handicap results.

Start of Season

Congratulations to Shannon McWilliam on her selection for the Curtis Cup Team to play at Quaker Ridge, New York State from 8th - 10th June. A great achievement for 18 year old Shannon. We wish Shannon great success against the Americans. Shannon pictured after her recent win in the Borders Trophy in South Africa (Photo courtesy of GolfRSA)

Carmen Griffiths (Aboyne) has also had a great start to the season finishing the top Scot and 6th place overall at the Scottish Under 18s Championship at Monifieth and also winning the first Under 18s Scottish Junior Tour at Southerness. Carmen Griffiths

Some of the County squad recently played a friendly against Banchory Gents’ Pennant team. It was played in great spirit and enjoyed by everyone.

Vikki Thom, Rachel Polson, Donna Pocock, Gillian Mackenzie, Louise Anderson, Jasmine Macintosh Julie Lees, Kimberley Beveridge, Carmen Griffiths, Sammy Leslie

End of Season

With the recent spell of warm sunny weather it is hard to believe that the end of season is fast approaching and with the darker evenings you are now only maybe managing 9 holes after work.

The final of the Sheena Wood Rosebowl was recently played at Banchory Golf Club between Michelle Finnie (Aberdeen Ladies) and Mary Robinson (Murcar Links) which Michelle won in a keenly contested match. Congratulations to both Ladies in reaching the final of this popular competition.

 

Mary Robinson and Michelle Finnie

The Commonwealth Spoons was held at Alford Golf Club on Tuesday 22nd August. 36 Couples took part and despite a bit of rain the course was in excellent condition and everyone enjoyed their day. Penny Smith (Rosehearty) and Elaine Pirie (Duff House Royal) (17.5) won with a score of 67.5. The other qualifiers are Michelle Black (Murcar Links) and Emma Gising (Murcar Links) (12) 70, Sheila Wilson (Duff House Royal) and Beverley Pirie (Duff House Royal) (21) 70 and Mary Robinson (Murcar Links) and Helen McIntosh (Murcar Links)(18) 71. Good luck to all 4 couples when they represent Aberdeenshire in the Scottish Finals which this year is being played at Alyth on Monday 11th September.

 

Penny Smith and Elaine Pirie	Michelle Black and Emma Gissing
Bev Pirie and Sheila Wilson	Helen McIntosh and Mary Robinson

The North of Scotland Girl’s Championships was recently held at Portlethen Golf Club. We witnessed some excellent golf with Jodie Taylor (Downfield) winning the Championship with an excellent score of 73 playing to 8 under her handicap. The Handicap winner was Megan Ashley (Strathmore) (3) 75 and the runner up was Kirsty Brodie (Strathmore) (1) 76. The girls all conducted themselves in such a great manner and they are a great credit to their families, Clubs and Counties and I look forward to watching their progress over the coming years.

 

Sheila McNaught, Megan Ashley, Kirsty Brodie and Jodie Taylor

The Lyon Foursomes was played at Royal Aberdeen, Balgownie Course on the 7th and 8th August. 12 teams took part and the course proved an excellent venue and a real test of all the player’s match play skills. Unfortunately we had some heavy downpours on Monday afternoon but we still managed to complete all the matches so were then all set to play the semi finals and final the following day.

In the first semi final Aberdeen Ladies 1 (Fiona Seedhouse, Michelle Finnie, Kim Watt and Lesley Marnoch ) played Kemnay 1 (Rachel Polson, Sammy Leslie, Donna Pocock and Vikki Thom) and lost by 9 holes and in the other match Aboyne (Carmen Griffiths, Kimberley Beveridge, Georgette Hollingsworth and Maryla Sime) played Hazlehead (Morven Adam, Karen Thow, Kath Emeleus and Karen Pottinger ) and won by 8 holes.

 

Aberdeen Ladies 1 Michelle Finnie, Lesley Marnoch, Kim Watt, Fiona Seedhouse	Kemnay 1 Donna Pocock, Rachel Polson, Sammy Leslie, Vikki Thom
Aboyne 1 Maryla Sime, Carmen Griffiths, Georgette Hollingsworth, Kimberley Beveridge	Hazlehead Karen Thow, Morven Adam, Karen Pottinger, Kath Emeleus

In the afternoon Carmen and Kimberley beat Sammy and Rachel by two holes but Donna and Vikki managed to beat Georgette and Marlya by seven holes so Kemnay 1 won the 2017 Lyons Foursomes for the first time and Aboyne were awarded the Godsman Quaich as runners up. Vikki and Rachel were also awarded Lyon brooches as first time winners.

 

Sheila McNaught, Georgette Hollingsworth, Rachel Polson,
Vikki Thom, Donna Pocock, Sammy Leslie, Maryla Sime,
Margaret MacNaughtan, Kimberley Beveridge, Carmen Griffiths

It was very fitting that in their 125th Anniversary year, Aberdeen Ladies hosted this event as Charlotte Lyon who donated the trophy in 1936 was a member of the Club for over 80 years and was their secretary for 51 years. A huge thank you to Fiona Seedhouse, their Lady Captain, and all the members who worked so hard both before and throughout the two days in making this event such a success. You made us all feel so welcome and the home bakes were a real treat!!

Charlotte Lyon’s photo beside the trophies

 

Unfortunately Shannon McWilliam (Aboyne) , Jasmine McIntosh (Hazlehead), Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies) were unable to play in the Lyon’s Foursomes as they were all away on International duty. Shannon was representing Scotland in the Home Internationals and Jasmine was representing the U18 Girl’s Scottish team in the Girls’ event with both competitions being played at Little Aston. Both teams finished third and both girls contributed to their wins over Wales on the final day.

Sheena was selected to represent Scottish Vets in the Veteran Ladies Golf Association Jamboree at Frilford Heath Golf Club and although Scotland finished in fourth place it is great for Aberdeenshire to have 3 of our players representing Scotland and I am sure their achievements will be a huge incentive for other county members to work towards.

Aberdeenshire was also represented in the Management team of the Scottish Vets with Ellie Whyte (Aberdeen Ladies) as Vice- Captain.

Congratulations to Lynne Terry (9) (Cruden Bay) who reached the semi finals of the Handicap knock out stages at the Strathtryum Tournament at St Andrews before being beaten by the winner, Elizabeth Doyle from Ireland who was playing off 25.

Carmen Griffiths headed over to the States to represent Scotland as one of 6 young Scottish golfers to be selected for a trip of a lifetime to this year’s Solheim Cup at Des Moines Golf and Country Club, Iowa to be part of the hand- over ceremony for the 2019 Solheim Cup coming to Scotland .

Catriona Matthew with the Scottish girls. 

Carmen is standing 3rd from the right

(Photo courtesy of Scottish Golf)

 

Good Luck to Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies) who is playing for the Scottish Senior Women’s team in the European Team Championships this week at Skalica, Slovakia and in October Sheena will again represent Scotland in the Senior Home Internationals at Newport in Wales.

The next date to put in the diary is Saturday 11th November – The County AGM – which is again being held at Aberdeen Curl at 11am and I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Sheila McNaught (Captain)

Lyon Foursomes

Good luck to all the players involved in the Lyon Foursomes at Balgownie.

Click here for the results.

Tri-Am

Despite the weather, we had a great day last Friday  at the County Tri Am competition which this year was held at Deeside Golf Club. 28 teams took part and there was some excellent scoring with Penny Burrows (Banchory), Gladys Ward (Banchory) and Margaret Ogden (Banchory) the winning team with score of 62.

Margaret Ogden, Penny Burrows and Gladys Ward

 

The longest drives went to Rachel Polson (Kemnay) winning the Silver and Grace Porter (Deeside) the Bronze. Carol Wilson (Murcar Links) was nearest the pin at the 1st for the Silver and Linda Moore (Deeside) the Bronze.  Christine Dallas (Banchory) had the straightest drive at the 11th and Carol Whicher (Kemnay) was nearest the Pin at the 17th with her second shot. Special thanks must go to Jenny Skene the Deeside County Rep and Alison Graham their Lady Captain for all their help both before and during the day and to all the ladies who supported the day and helped make the event such a success and I am sure this will now become a regular event on the County calendar.

Scottish Seniors Women's Championship

In the Scottish Seniors Women’s Championships held at Blairgowrie Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies) finished 8th and then qualified for the match play stages which were played over the following 2 days. In the first 2 rounds Sheena beat Donna Jackson (Troon Ladies) and Jennifer Bryans (Harburn) to reach the semi -finals when she beat Gillian Kyle (East Renfrewshire) at the 19th. In the final Sheena played Fiona De Vries (St Rule) but unfortunately lost 5&4 however Sheena is to be congratulated on her excellent performance all week.

Fiona De Vries and Sheena Wood
(Photo courtesy of Scottish Golf)

North of Scotland

Aberdeenshire was well represented at the North of Scotland Championships which this year we were hosting at Kemnay.  After the stroke play round on a blustery Monday, Kimberley Beveridge (Aboyne), Camila Davies (Dunecht House), Sammy Leslie (Kemnay), Vikki Thom (Kemnay), Megan Robb (Peterculter) and Lauren Whyte (Kemnay) all qualified for the Scratch Knockout stages. However the highlight of the day was Kimberley’s score of three under par 70 which set a new course record.

Kimberley Beveridge

 

Kimberley and Sammy both won their first round matches when unfortunately they had to play each other in the next round and after a tremendous match Kimberley won at the 19th to set up a semi- final match against Gillian Paton (Royal Montrose). The other semi- final was between Eilidh Watson (Muckhart) and Jen Saxton (Muckhart).

 

Semi Finalists Gillian Paton and Kimberley Beveridge

Semi Finalists Eilidh Watson and Jen Saxton

Both matches were closely contested with Eilidh and Gillian winning to set up an exciting final. We were treated to some superb golf which Eilidh won 3&2 to be awarded the Gifford Trophy for the first time.

In the Handicap Knockout competition Linda Bell (Kemnay), Rachel Mathieson (Hazlehead), Morven Adam (Hazlehead), Ann Munro (Kemnay), Mary Robinson (Murcar Links), June Cowie (Cruden Bay), Michelle Finnie (Aberdeen Ladies) and Kim Watt (Aberdeen Ladies) all reached the match play stages and after the first 2 rounds Linda, Michelle and Mary reached the semi- final stages.

Semi Finalists Linda Bell and Joan Cooper

Semi Finalists Michelle Finnie and Mary Robinson

Linda had a good win over Joan Cooper (Forres) 4&2 and Michelle and Mary had a very close match which Mary eventually won at the 21st to set up an Aberdeenshire final, with Linda winning 3&1 to win the Angus Trophy. Congratulations to all our Ladies who qualified for the match play stages. You were all a real credit to your Clubs and Aberdeenshire.

Linda Bell

Eilidh Watson

Kemnay proved a popular venue and was a real test in both stroke and match play conditions and special thanks to all the staff at the club for making us feel so welcome and to Karen, our Secretary for all her hard work in organising such a successful event.

Click here for the scratch matchplay results and here for the handicap results.

The draw for Tuesday’s consolation round can be found by clicking here

We are also organising the Junior North of Scotland Championships on Sunday 20th August at Portlethen Golf Club so we are hoping for a good entry from our Junior County members.