This was the most northerly meeting of our 2025 itinerary and unlike previous visits we were able to enjoy glorious warm weather on both days.

Day one we played The Northumberland Golf Club, which is quite an unusual layout with most holes being within the confines of Newcastle Racecourse. Both Harry Colt and James Braid were involved in the design of this heathland beauty which dates back to 1898. With many bunkers and numerous gorse bushes to contend with, not to mention the race track and rails, this is a challenging but fun course to play.

We had been thwarted by heavy rain on our previous visit here but there were no such issues this time around. Despite a moderate wind the scoring was very good with almost half the field registering 32 points or more.

In the evening 48 members were joined for an excellent meal by club Captain Mr Ally MacDonald and Ladies Vice Captain Mrs Louise Baker, mother of Jess Baker, former British Amateur Champion and now member of the Ladies European Tour.

Ally entertained us by speaking of the club’s very successful junior section before being presented with a £600 cheque for the benefit of the juniors by GSGB Chairman Robert Hill.

Day two we relocated to the pretty parkland course at Hexham Golf Club. Hexham sits on rolling ground offering many spectacular holes and a thoroughly enjoyable round. The great Harry Vardon had a hand in laying out the course in 1907 with James Braid making further changes in 1921. More land was made available by the estate in the 1950’s and Ken Cotton was engaged to remodel the course, creating seven holes from the new area.

With temperatures in the high 20’s conditions were perfect for good scoring and that proved to be the case with even better Stableford scores. It should be noted that both courses were in wonderful condition and very playable. Hexham certainly had the quicker greens which were as good as many of us had seen all year.

The Founders Trophy for men was won by Alan Ashbee (Scarcroft) with 68 points, narrowly beating Terry Hayward (Cavendish) on a card play-off. The ladies Founders Trophy was won by Sue Lockley (Gog Magog) with 73 points followed by Janet McAleer (Headingley) with 72 points.

Well done to all prize winners, a full list can be seen below.

The next event will be at Cirencester/Burford on July 15th/16th.

If anyone wishes to bring a guest to any of the remaining meetings please let me know.

Brian