East Lothian Ladies' County Golf Association

5 A-side draw and match dates

All the dates and times for this years matches have been agreed.

Click on the link to see the full details.

Download DRAW & DATES 2016

Change to Junior Fixture Card

Please note:-

The first tee off time for the Spring Meeting at Kilspindie Golf Club on Sunday 24th April 2016 - is now 12noon  

 

PRE-SEASON LUNCH AT GULLANE GOLF CLUB ON SATURDAY 5th MARCH

The 2016 pre-season lunch was held at Gullane Golf Club on Saturday 5th March and was a lovely start to the season. 78 members attended the lunch including many new members and by the noise at the tables everyone enjoyed getting together before the season started. The event started with a glass of prosecco and a chance for everyone to see the newly furbished Gullane Golf Club and everyone admired the new decor and feeling of space in the upstairs area. The members were welcomed by the Captain Barbara Biggart who also mentioned ELLCGA guests Janice MacLeod, Captain of Whtekirk, Beryl Morris former chair of the East Lothian McMillan Committee and Nicky Black, Captain of Gullane Ladies Golf Club.Janette Buchananan our President gave the Grace and we all enjoyed a lovely lunch.

After lunch Elaine Dick, Vice Captain gave us a potted history about Babe Zaharias, a very talented athlete and golfer from America. She was the first American winner of the British Ladies amateur championship held at Gullane in 1947. She started her athletics career playing basketball and her team reached the National Finals 3 years in a row with Babe awarded the stop amateur award of All american Player. She then developed her athletics and won 2 golds and a silver medal in the broad jump, javelin and high jump respectively. She then was introduced to golf and loved it. At that time her drives were 240-260 yards which is amazing when you think of the equipment then. She had problems with her amateur status so played many exhibition matches including trick shots with Gene Sarazen and Tommy Armour. In 1938 she married George Zaharias and with his encouragement gained back her amateur status. She came over to Gullane in 1947 after successful events in America and beat local member and Scottish Champion Jean Donald in the semi final of the British at Gullane. She then turned Professional and continued to win tournaments but sadly lost her fight with cancer age 45 years. Her husband donated money to Gullane golf Club for a junior prize to be played for by members of Gullane Primary School. In 1963 Torphin Golf Club asked her husband to donate a trophy in her memory and George donated the wonderful Babe Zaharias Trophy seen today at the lunch. This was the last trophy she won before her death. The trophy and the Ultraplast Trophy for handicap has been played for ever since and many big names have won this including Belle Robertson, Margaret Pickard (nee Nichol), Jean Bald and Jessie Valentine. The trophy moved around and then was played at Whitekirk in many different forms. Janice MacLeod approached Nicky Black to see if Gullane would take over the trophy. Gullane agreed to host the competition for 2 years and Nicky approached ELLCGA to see if we would facilitate the competition. ELLCGA committee agreed to facilitate the competition with it rotating round East Lothian Golf Clubs and the other lady captains agreed . It will revert back to a stroke play with scratch and handicap prizes. After this overview Janice MacLeod handed the trophies to Nicky Black for the tournament this year to be played on 22nd August 2016.

After this the draw for the raffle and the draw for the 100 club took place and the winners are below.

100 club winners

1st Liz McLelland 

2nd Gail McKill

3rd Jane Herd and Linda Henderson

Raffle Winners

Round of golf for 4 at Dunbar Liz McLelland

Spa Voucher for Archerfield £90 Carol McLeod

Blue Sky Pilates voucher Janice McLeod

Lesson Alistair Good Liz Dunn Butler

Lesson Martyn Huish Jean McNeil

Barbara McIntosh kindly gave a vote of thanks on behalf of the members to Gullane Golf Club and to the ELLCGA committee. I personally would like to say thank you to Gullane Golf Club and to Steven Marshall and his team for working so hard to make ELLCGA members so welcome . I would like to thank Elaine for her organisation and her speech about Babe Zaharias and to Linda Henderson and Janet Fairweather for selling tickets for the raffle so successfully. It really was a very happy day.

Below are pictures of the event

Thank you to all our lady members for supporting the event.

 

Barbara Biggart 
Captain ELLCGA

Pre Season Lunch 2016

The Annual Pre -Season Lunch was held very successfully on the 5th March 2016 at Gullane GC and a report and photos will be posted shortly.

The lunch saw the formal re-launch of the Babe Zaharias Competition as a stroke play competition With The Babe Zaharias Trophy for the best Scratch score and Ultraplast Trophy for the best handicap. Further details of the competition are now available on the website.

 

Babe Zaharias Competition 2016

EAST LOTHIAN LADIES’ COUNTY GOLF ASSOCIATION in conjunction with GULLANE LADIES’ GOLF CLUB

invite entries for

THE BABE ZAHARIAS TROPHY

(single round of stroke play with scratch and handicap prizes)

22 AUGUST 2016

GULLANE NO 1

Entry £20 (cheques payable to ELLCGA)

Liz McLelland Elmsford, Main Street, Gullane, EH31 2DR

Email – [email protected]       Phone - 01620843131

This tournament is held to perpetuate the memory of Babe Zaharias who was an exceptional US athlete and golfer, winning the British Ladies’ Amateur title at Gullane in 1947.  She then turned professional and went on to win every major title before she died of cancer in 1956 aged just 45 years.

Her husband, George, donated a solid silver bowl inscribed “Serbin Open – Miami 1955” to be competed for by "Lady Golfers in Scotland”.  Torphin Hill GC hosted this prestigious championship for many years until Whitekirk took up the mantle, raising many thousands of pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support.

This is a new era for the rose bowl with East Lothian Ladies’ County Golf Association taking guardianship of the trophy and Gullane Ladies’ GC kindly offering to host the event for the next two years – 2017 marking the 70^th anniversary of Babe winning the British Ladies at Gullane Golf Club.

Proceeds will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.

PRIZES

Babe Zaharias Trophy      Ultraplast Trophy

1^st Scratch £100               1^st Handicap £75

2^nd Scratch £75                 2^nd Handicap £50

3^rd Scratch £50                 3^rd Handicap £25

Download Poster and entry form

Download Babe Zaharias competition rules

 

MATCH V GULLANE GOLF CLUB ON SUNDAY 28th FEBRUARY

ELLCGA team played a friendly match with Gullane Golf Club on Sunday 28^th February. It was a glorious sunny crisp day and all the competitors had a lovely day. Willie Biggart, Captain of Gullane Golf Club and all their team members made ELLCGA team very welcome. All the matches were played in a very competitive spirit but with a very convivial atmosphere. Afterwards the teams were given a delicious high tea and the presentation of the cup to the winners. I am delighted to say that this year ELLCGA squad managed to win back the trophy we lost last year winning 4-2. ELLCGA would like to thank Gullane Golf Club for hosting the match and making us all feel so welcome. We look forward to our match next year.

The results were as follows:-

Alastair Brown and David Hardwick beat Joanne Free and Lauren Lee

Davy Saunders and Kevin Thomson lost to Mary Lou Watkins and Keren Ward

Gavin Boyd and Stewart Maxwell lost to Liz Dunn Butler and Stacey Cameron

Willie Biggart and Richard Gibb beat Anne Henderson and Barbara Biggart

Dave Hinsley and Robin Mather lost to Hazel Saunders and Lesley Johnston

Ken Wright and Paul Anderson lost to Pam Hall and Dawn Young

 

 

Winter Foursomes Result

The final round of the Winter Foursomes took place yesterday with Mary Lou Watkins and Gail McKill playing against Irene Gray and Janet Fairweather on Gullane 1.  Mary Lou and Gail played very well and won at the 14th hole.  Congratulations!

Download Winter Hole & Hole 2015 v2

Letter to Eleanor Cannon

Dear Eleanor,

 

The Future of the Counties

 

The East Division Counties recently had a scheduled Meeting and it was useful to be able to discuss some of the matters which were raised at the Forum. As was said at the forum we had no mandate to speak for our clubs since we do not represent the clubs in our area and indeed since we had no advance knowledge of the questions we were to discuss we did not even have a mandate from our own Counties. We could only voice personal views.

The East Division Counties, are agreed that while you are considering the way forward we also need to have a conversation in the first place with our respective committees. I have now had a preliminary discussion with my committee and would welcome some further clarification on the following points.

1. Funding

 

In the past we paid an affiliation fee to SLGA and in return amongst other things we received some assistance with coaching and a fixed payment to the County qualifying for the Scottish finals to assist with the costs.

We understand that while we are members of Scottish Golf we do not have to pay any affiliation fee at the moment. We understand that the whole question of funding is under review and that in particular that the significant difference between the ladies’ and men’s organisations needs to be addressed.

What we need to know now is what assistance will be given to the counties this year for training and whether the grant towards the Scottish County Finals will be forthcoming this year. Can you please advise?

2. Affiliation/Membership

 

Will Membership/affiliation continue on a free basis for all Counties pending a decision on financing and restructuring?

3. Role and Function

 

While the feelings were expressed at the forum that we should all be thinking about how and to what extent the various counties and areas might work together, the view was also expressed that we did not want to throw the baby out with the bath water and lose over 100 years of history. Scottish Golf indicated that they saw a regional organisation sitting in the middle of a pyramid structure between the clubs and Scottish Golf.

That did not appear to reflect what many of the delegates felt was our role. There was a feeling that Scottish Golf should be working direct with the clubs with the various “regional” organisations working in partnership with the clubs to provide additional opportunities for juniors, competitive golf for the lower handicappers and additional golfing opportunities for all levels.

We would welcome clarification on what Scottish Golf sees as the role of the regional organisations in future. We realise that at this stage there may be various options but it would be very helpful to our discussions if you could provide us with a couple of preferred scenarios.

We are concerned that representing your County team appears to no longer count as a positive on the CV of the “elite” players. It has been noted that the selectors are not out on the course watching the performance of the county teams in the way they did in the past. We are also aware that some girls have been positively discouraged from playing for their County teams so as not to over stretch themselves.

The whole purpose of the Counties when they were established was to provide competitive match play opportunities for low handicappers across the country and the rest of the events and purposes followed on from that. There is no way in which all potentially very good golfers can take part in the development and academy programmes. It is not just the financial cost to Scottish Golf. Many youngsters and/or their families cannot afford the time and financial cost to them of being involved in the programme and if they cannot commit when given the chance they may not get another even if their circumstances change. We would like assurances that if there are young talented players out there playing for their counties and participating in order of merit competitions that they will be given equal consideration to those who have gone through the Academy.

We would also welcome some further thoughts on what the role of the “counties” will be in future.

4. The Decision making process

 

A short summary of the decision making process for how changes would be made would be welcomed.

Yours sincerely

Barbara Biggart

ELLCGA Captain

AMALGAMATION

Following on the amalgamation of the SGU and the SLGA, the new board are looking at how they develop Scottish golf for the future.

There is a view that since we have merged the Ladies and Men at the top and at club level that the Counties and Areas should also be looked at.

We recently had a preliminary meeting with Lothians and Midlothian to discuss if there were more things which might be done jointly, for example a pool of qualified referees available for all to draw on.

Janette Buchanan, Elaine Dick and I then attended a meeting of all the counties and areas at Gleneagles on 31st January. We were mixed up into tables with other delegates to discuss 5 questions on what might be done. The initial thought from SGL seemed to be that the "regions" would be in the middle between the clubs and SGL. There was a lot of talk but no firm proposal for us to take back to our members at the moment.

Following the meeting SGL have amongst other matters been tasked with the following:-

1. improve the website to reflect ladies competitions as well as the men's competitions

2. develop a suite of options for consideration by the Area and County representatives in terms of structure and roles. This will include options for regional forums. This task will be carried out by the Regions and Forums Working Group that has been formed for this task

3. review the inequality in the way the Counties and Areas are funded

4. ensure good communication

Eleanor Cannon has also acknowledged that “to grow participation and build stronger clubs, the full time team should work directly with clubs. The specific engagement with regions, in whatever format they take, should focus around competitions and the playing of golf”.

We are jointly with the other East Division Captains engaging with SGL to try and obtain further information on how they see matters developing.

Once we have more concrete information and/or proposals from SGL we will provide that information to our members so that we can have a constructive conversation.

Barbara

Winter Foursomes

The quarter finals of the winter foursomes have all been played and the up to date results are attached. Commiserations to those who were knocked out in this round.

The semi finals are to be played by 28th February. Well done to all who got this far and good luck in the next round.

 

Download Winter Hole & Hole 2015 v2