Catriona Matthew - has been made an OBE

Catriona Matthew (Getty Images)

Scottish golfer Catriona Matthew, who captained Team Europe to Solheim Cup victory over the US, has been appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours list

The 50-year-old has been recognised for services to golf, 10 years after becoming an MBE. 

Catriona, who grew up in North Berwick was absolutely delighted when she opened her post to find the news that she was to receive the honour. 

She said it was "quite a surprise" and she was "very excited" to get the recognition for her achievements. 
 "It's a huge honour for myself, for the team and for woman's golf", she added. --- She said the victory on "home soil" had been "very special". 

 Her family are looking forward to travelling down to Buckingham Palace to see her receive the honour.

SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM SCOTTISH GOLF

On behalf of the whole team at Scottish Golf, we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support throughout 2019.

We hope you have a fantastic time during the Christmas break and send our best wishes to you all for the New Year and 2020 golf season!

Seasons Greeting from Douglas Park Golf Club

Douglas Park in the Snow

Over 80 Douglas Park ladies attended their Christmas lunch this month in what is a busy schedule for the catering staff with approximately a 1000 lunches this year !

Ladies Captain Denise Macnaughton welcomed everyone and there was much festivities, laughter and fun with a big singing input again by the GetIntoGolf Girls. 

Hole in One at The East Renfrewshire Christmas Turkey Trot and £560 Raised for the Glasgow Care Foundation

East Renfrewshire Ladies

The Ladies of East Renfrewshire held their Turkey Trot and Christmas lunch on Wednesday 11th December. Although the weather could only be described as frightful, 5 ladies set out to play 9 holes from the blue tees. Adding in a tee shot using the bendy driver made for a more enjoyable round that could have been hoped for.

East Renfrewshire Captain -- Carole Spy presents
Eileen Ferguson (left photo) and Vi Fraser (right photo)
with their prizes

The high spot of the morning was definitely a hole in one by Eileen Ferguson at the 13th.

Eileen has obviously settled well into playing at East Ren by also winning the longest drive with the bendy driver and being part of the winning team.

With at Tri-am score of 45 points the winning team was Eileen Ferguson, Vi Fraser and Janet Stevens.

The overall winner of the Turkey Trot with 21 points (BIH) was Vi Fraser.

The Christmas lunch was attended by 49 ladies plus one gentleman. Chris Steward (Chairman of the Glasgow Care Foundation) joined us to explain the work the charity does to alleviate some of the problems of poverty in Glasgow. The Ladies were delighted to be able to present Chris with a cheque for £560.

Before sitting down for lunch Janet challenged us to some left handed putting and indoor chipping. Perhaps some for practice is required.

A very tasty meal was enjoyed by everyone along with a quiz,some singing and a great deal of Christmas cheer.

Merry Christmas 

Carole Spy (Ladies Captain)

SCOTTISH GOLF UPDATE ON THE WHS IMPLEMENTATION - SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

Since our last communication, Scottish Golf have met with a number of Golf Clubs through various meetings and regional forums. A key topic of discussion was about the upcoming implementation of the World Handicap System (WHS) in 2020.

A common piece of feedback was about the proposed solution from Scottish Golf to push handicap/scoring data from the WHS system to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in order for them to continue administering club competitions and publish results. However, ISVs were concerned about the technical challenges this presented and some Golf Clubs preferred a solution that supported continued use of recently purchased ISV software / hardware products.

As the national governing body, it is our duty to work in the best interest of our affiliated clubs and the end users. With this in mind the decision has been taken to allow accredited ISVs access to pull player handicaps from the Central Database of Handicaps (CDH) for competition purposes only. This solves the technical challenges raised and supports some Golf Club’s requests to continue using their current system.

It is, however, important to note that Scottish Golf are the only authorised body responsible for affiliated members’ handicaps and therefore all competition scores must be sent to the WHS CDH for handicap processing. Any golfer can review their handicap record via the Scottish Golf platform on any of the following available sources: Scottish Golf App, Scottish Golf iPad, or Scottish Golf website. 

No ISV will be licensed to present any handicap data to affiliated members via any other source. 

The above covers competition results only and where it comes to General Play scores being submitted for handicapping purposes, members will need to use a Scottish Golf iPad supplied to Clubs free of charge (i) by Scottish Golf or via the Scottish Golf App. General play scoring is a new requirement under WHS that means any golfer can submit a score for handicapping at any golf club on any day as long as they have pre-registered their intent prior to submitting a score. This will ensure that players get a consistent interface when entering general play scores as they travel around the country.

We would like to thank all clubs who have contributed to this process, and we look forward to the implementation of WHS in November 2020.

(i) These iPads are optional for all affiliated clubs. 

CLARE QUEEN TELLS YOU WHAT THE SCOTTISH GOLF PERFORMANCE ACADEMY IS ABOUT.

CLICK HERE FOR MOR INFORMATION

Clare Queen is responsible for all Performance activity within the Scottish Golf strategy, leading the development and implementation of all training and competition programmes. 

THE COWGLEN LADIES WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY CHRISTMAS

On Friday was Cowglen Ladies held their  Christmas lunch and the choir, professionally coached by Moira Kerr, was in action! 

The Ladies of Cowglen wish all your readers a Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2020 

Thanks go to Sue Fordydyce for the video

Nominations Sought for Scottish Golf Junior Vice-President

Do you know someone at your Club, County or Area who would be deserving of the role of Scottish Golf Junior Vice-President? 

Scottish Golf are seeking nominations for a rewarding role within our Presidential team to represent Scottish Golf in an ambassadorial capacity at various events and functions over the next 3 years. 

Ideal candidates should have made a significant contribution to the game at the grass roots and have had a positive impact on golf, either locally within their own community, or at regional or national level. 
To find out more information on the nomination process, please CLICK HERE

CHANGE OF DATES FOR THE 2020 SCOTTISH VETS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Blairgowrie

The date of the Senior Home Internationals has been changed, and now clashes with the Monday of the Blairgowrie weekend (Monday 21st September 2020)  

The SVLGA Championship has now therefore been scheduled to the following weekend - Sunday 27th and Monday 28th September- to be played over Lansdowne at Blairgowrie. 

Tee times are similar to previous years. The quarter finals will be played from 1pm on Sunday 27th, the semi-finals from 9am on Monday 28th and the Final at 1pm on Monday 28th.

The SVLGA Committee Meeting will take place on Sunday 20th September at 6pm in the Blairgowrie Clubhouse, the Patrick Rosebowl will be played on Monday 21st September, the AGM and Prizegiving will be at 7.30pm on Monday 21st, and the Beddows Quaich will be played on Tuesday 22nd September -- As notified previously.  

JEAN MACINTYRE RECEIVES HONORARY MEMBERSHIP OF STRATHAVEN GOLF CLUB

Jean - photo courtesy of Strathaven GC - Click to enlarge

At Strathaven Golf Club A.G.M. last night, Jean Macintyre was presented with Honorary Membership. 

This very worthy honour was presented to mark Jean’s contributions to golf in our own club, Lanarkshire Ladies County Golf Association,  West Of Scotland Ladies and The Scottish Golf Competition Committee as well as her Grade 3 R&A refereeing duties at national and international levels .

This is added to her Honorary Membership of Lanarkshire County that she received last month

Well done and many congratulations Jean. 

CHRISTMAS FUN AT WEST KILBRIDE AND A MESSAGE TO CAROLFELLGOLF

Normally West Kilbride Ladies would have a Christmas themed golf competition but with the wind and rain last Thursday a change of plan was put into action.   

Fun Games with Elf Catherine Garrett (Ladies Convenor) 

Catherine Garrett (Ladies Convenor), ably assisted by Linzi Dye (Assistant Pro), put together indoor golf games......teams of 6 undertook chipping, chipping with left handed clubs, and putting, all using rather unorthodox golf balls and playing to very small targets that included water hazards which made scoring rather difficult!!  lots of laughs 'tho 🙂    

There was throwing/rolling a £1 to a bottle of prosecco which raised £50 for the Salvation Army and a Christmas Quiz followed while we enjoyed lunch.   

Catherine presented Nancy Chisholm with a gift from Santa.....a 'thank you' for Nancy's Nuggets which we all enjoyed reading in the monthly newsletter from the Lady Convenor.   

All in all we had a fabulous time and definitely voted indoors was better than on the golf course!

"Wishing you a very Happy Christmas, Carol   ...........had to put the comma after Christmas otherwise it reads like a song" 🙂

Merry Christmas to all the ladies at West Kilbride and thanks go to June Kerr for the news and photos 

GEMMA DRYBURGH LEADING SCOT IN KENYA

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Esther Henseleit carded a course record eight under par 64 to win the inaugural Magical Kenya Ladies Open presented by Safaricom’s M-Pesa by one shot and clinch the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit title on a dramatic final day at Vipingo Ridge near Mombasa.

The 20-year-old first-year professional golfer from Hamburg became only the third player in the 41-year history of the Ladies European Tour to capture the Order of Merit and Rookie of the Year titles in the same season, following Dame Laura Davies in 1985 and Carlota Ciganda, in 2012. -- CLICK HERE FOR FULL REPORT

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 scores and positions after final round in @LETgolf's Magical Kenya Ladies Open:-

 SCOTTISH SCORES

-3 Gemma Dryburgh T7

Par Kylie Henry T12

+1 Michele Thomson T16

+2 Kelsey MacDonald T22

Won by 🇩🇪's Esther Henseleit with -14 total

CLICK HERE FOR FINAL TOTALS

CATRIONA MATTHEW WINS THE COACH MANAGER OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Sunday Mail Scottish Sports Awards was held on Thursday 5th Decemeber 2019 at the DoubleTree by Hilton, Glasgow Central.

Catriona Matthew was honoured as Coach/Manager of the Year last night at the Scottish for leading Team Europe to Solheim Cup glory at Gleneagles.

SCOTS ARE DOING WELL IN KENYA

Click to Enlarge

The last European Tour Event is being played in Kenya.
Four Scots are playing - Kylie Henry, Gemma Dryburgh, Kelsey Macdonald and Michele Thomson.

Kylie is in 7th place and the other 3 tied in 11th place. -- The final round is tomorrow - Sunday.

For all the scores go to the European Tour Website