2025 Letter from our President

Dear HGS members,

It has been another enjoyable golfing year, with all venues well attended by both existing members and a number of new 'Guests'.

Congratulations to our Trophy and Cup winners. Mark Wray retained the President's Cup, and Rob Holliday won the John Pollock Cup for most birdies and Dominic Rawcliffe was crowned winner of the Summer Knockout competition.

I would also like to say a personal 'thank you' to our Committee and all those who have assisted in the organisation of golf days or in any other way throughout the past golfing season.

Golf Days 2025

For 2025 we have retained a similar calendar of events, with 5 President's Cup competitions, our annual match against the Fox Inn Golf Society and two golfing breaks in June and October.

We have been fortunate that some members have been able to assist in negotiating preferential rates at some of our venues next year, which has enabled us to maintain a base cost of £47.50 for some of the golf days. However, we have had to increase the price for some of the premium courses to £57.50, which is a sign of the inflationary pressure that we are all currently experiencing. For clarity, the prices will include a bacon roll and coffee on arrival, 18 holes of golf, a 1 course meal afterwards together with prizes and a £1 tip for the catering staff. Please be aware that, even with the increased costs this year, the Society continues to subsidise the cost of most Golf Days from a combination of member subscriptions and capital reserves.

The courses booked for 2025 are:

Golf Club	Date and Cost	First tee time

Catterick	Mon 28th April - £47.50	11.08am
Leeds (Cobble Hall)	Fri 23rd May - £47.50	11.08am
The Bradford	Mon 28th July - £57.50	10.30am
Thirsk & Northallerton	Fri 29th August - £50.00	10.30am
Wakefield	Fri 26th September - £57.50	10.30am

Please put these dates in your diary!

Competitions

We will be running competitions as in previous years:

The Knockout Trophy will run throughout the summer. The singles draw will be made in late March so that the first round can be completed by the end of May. I will be asking for entries nearer the time. (The knockout is played off the member's Course Handicap unaffected by any HGS handicap adjustment).
The President's Cup will be awarded to the golfer accumulating the highest number of Stableford points over a maximum of 3 out of the 5 golf days in the table above.
The John Pollock Cup (in memory of one of our founding members) will be awarded to the golfer who makes the most gross birdies over the above 5 golf days (Eagles to count as 2 birdies etc).
There will be a team competition and individual competitions at both the UK Trip to Carden Park and the Sunday Driver at Macdonald Portal Hotel.

UK Weekend Away - 22nd to 24th June 2025

Next year's event has again been kindly organised by Nigel Cooper.

The trip is already fully subscribed with 25 golfers off for a two night/3 round break at Carden Park in Cheshire.

Fox Challenge - Wednesday 9th July 2025

The annual challenge match will be held at Aldwark Manor Estate. After two years of narrow losses we hope to regain the Trophy in 2025. Thanks to Martin Gaunt who will again act as Captain.

Sunday Driver at the Macdonald Portal Hotel - 5th/6th October 2025

You should have already received an email inviting you to participate in this event. Please ensure that you respond as soon as possible as space is limited to 28 golfers.

Annual Christmas Dinner

We are very much looking forward to returning in early December to The Victoria at Cattal for our Christmas Dinner and prize giving, kindly hosted by Keith & Carol Nicholson. There are 40 booked in for this year and we hope to repeat the event in 2025.

Casual Golf Days

Our festive Golf day at Sandburn Hall GC is being held on Monday 30th December 2024. An Invitation email will be sent out in late November for this event. (Next year's event has also been booked at Sandburn Hall for Tuesday 30th December 2025).

Website and Communications

Thank you again to Peter Bollands for maintaining and also further improving the website. Details of next year's events are already posted at www.hgsgolf.org.uk.

As the web is our primary method of communication with members please advise either Peter (pbollands@ntlworld.com) or myself (mark.wray247@gmail.com) of any changes to email, phone number, home golf club or anything else pertinent to HGS.

Please also remember that we have an HGS Whatsapp group for communications outwith the main email announcements and an Instagram account to access all the latest HGS photos. (You will need to set up an Instagram account, if you don't already have one, with a userid and password, search for 'Hillcrest Golf Society' and then click on 'Follow'. It's a great way to remind you of some of the memories of 2024).

Please note that a new UserID and Password combination has been set up for 2025 for access to the 'Members' area of the website. Contact Peter Bollands if you need reminding of these (details are also in the email version of this President's Letter).

Membership and Subscriptions

If anyone is intending NOT to renew their membership perhaps they could let me know at the earliest opportunity.

I am pleased to announce that a number of 'Guests' who played in various Golf Days during 2024 will become full members of HGS in 2025. Phil Morton, Lee Chadwick, John Smith and Mike Jackson are a very welcome addition to the Society. They will be joining alongside Chris Rigden who is an existing member of Easingwold G.C. where he acted as Chair of Handicaps & Comps for a number of years. Now that he has stepped down from those duties he is able to focus his golfing energies on our Society.

After increasing the Annual Subscription to £30 in 2024 the HGS Committee felt that it is appropriate to hold the amount at that level for 2025. Going forward the Committee will be considering how best to achieve the best mix of quality venues at 'value for money' prices against the background of continued price increases in the golfing marketplace.

The subscription becomes payable by the end of December. Many of you will pay electronically in the normal way (details from 'jones.maurice53@gmail.com'). Otherwise you could send a cheque made payable to ‘Hillcrest Golf Society’ to our Treasurer, Maurice Jones, whose home address is: 1 Newton Farm Court, Sutton on the Forest, York YO61 1EZ.

And finally.......

Thank you to all members of HGS for another 'memorable' year and, on behalf of the Committee, I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and good golfing in 2025.

MARK WRAY, President – Hillcrest Golf Society (mark.wray247@gmail.com)