Having seen a multi-year run of trophy wins come to an end in 2016 (losing in the final to Polmont GC), Glenbervie men’s team were keen to regain the county team championship in 2017. This knockout competition follows an unusual format – two sets of pairs playing foursomes, with the scores from both matches combined to deliver the overall team score / result.

The draw for the 2017 competition saw Glenbervie receive a bye in round 1, but faced up to Dunblane GC in the second round in a match played over Kilsyth GC. The Glenbervie pairs on the night were Graeme Robertson / Mark Hislop and Colin Mundie / Ross Kane, and the team ran out comfortable winners by a margin of 14 up with 12 to play! The semi-final tie was played over Stirling GC against the host club, with the Glenbervie team again featuring the same pairs. This was a much closer match with Glenbervie victorious by a combined margin of 3 up.

The final, played at Bonnybridge GC, saw Glenbervie take on Kilsysth GC. Due to prior holiday arrangements, Mark Hislop was replaced by the in-form Jamie Lynch in the Glenbervie team line-up. Straight from the off, the Kilsyth team looked to be on top form and by the turn each of our pairs were 3 down (i.e. 6 down in the overall team score). However, the Glenbervie boys are nothing if not resilient, and Robertson / Lynch applied constant pressure over the back 9 holes to come back from 3 down to be 3 up after 18 holes. Likewise, Mundie / Kane piled on the pressure and came back to be all square through 17 when the overall team match finished. What a result, and what a way to banish all thoughts from the losing 2016 final.

Congratulations to team manager, Brian Price, and all the team members for bringing this prestigious county team trophy back to Glenbervie. Well done boys!

Glenbervie Golf Club are delighted to announce a new working partnership with Braes High School in our "School of Golf" programme.  Professional Steven Rosie and Bobby Rushford met recently with staff from Braes High School to design a programme that will see pupils from the school develop and enhance their golfing ability.  As well as honing their skills on the practice ground, the young people will be able to further focus on their commitment to fitness, health and wellbeing.

Iain Livingstone, headteacher, commented that "the values inherent within golf (such as ambition, respect and integrity), chime with those of Braes High School, and we look forward to seeing how the young golfers progress in the coming weeks".  From their experience of working with Bobby, the pupils also hope to gain an understanding of the multiple career opportunities within the golf industry and associated businesses.

This new programme with Braes High School follows on from the similar relationship already in place with Larbert High School.   Steven, Bobby and all the staff at Glenbervie look forward to welcoming the Braes High School pupils to our club.

After featuring in the Golf World magazine "Top 100 Scottish Courses" list for the first time in 2015, Glenbervie has risen 20 places to number 74 in the just released list for 2017.   As one would expect, the magazine biennial list is dominated by links courses, meaning that Glenbervie is ranked among the very top "parkland" courses in the country.  The Golf World judging panel verdict on Glenbervie including the following: "Entered [the list] in 2015 and keeps getting better with improved greens.  Interesting and challenging, the clever 9th leads the terrific holes."

All members, and especially staff, of Glenbervie should take great pride in this public recognition of the quality of our golf club.

Good news - Fraser Moore has just recorded his first win on the Gecko Professional Golf Tour (www.thegeckotour.com) at the La Quinta Golf tournament in Spain.   A 36 hole strokeplay competition, with a field of 84 players (including 3 European Tour players), Fraser shot 5 under par for the two rounds and then triumped in a 3 man play-off over 2 holes.   Very well done Fraser and let's hope this is the first win of many !

Fraser passes on his personal thanks to the members of the golf club for their continued support.

PS.  You can watch a short video on the tournament (albeit with most commentary in Spanish) at the following link:

The Gecko Tour Westin La Quinta Golf Tournament

As part of his ongoing commitment to providing the Glenbervie membership with the very best teaching and coaching service, Steven Rosie has recently taken delivery of a brand new Trackman 4 radar unit. Trackman is the industry leader in measurement of ball flight and club parameters and the launch of the 4th generation unit represents a further leap in accuracy and data provision. Many of the top 50 golfers in the world rankings, renowned coaches and manufacturers, all chose Trackman as their preferred supplier.

From a coaching perspective Trackman data can be used to provide the player with feedback which is not usually available to them, and when combined with critical coaching skills, can really accelerate learning and refinement of golf skills. The feedback from ball and club tracking can be provided across all areas of the game with the new Trackman 4 accurately measuring parameters from a 320 yard drive through to a 6 inch putt.   The new unit will also take the fitting service that Steven and his staff provide to a higher level of accuracy with the provided ball flight data easily allowing fine tuning of equipment specifications to ensure that the optimum club specification is in your hands.

If you wish to view a sample of what a coaching session using Trackman looks like and get an idea of the feedback it provides, please click on the link below to view a short video. As well as providing a better service, Steven will include the Trackman unit within coaching sessions at no extra charge, thereby providing even better value.  Please contact the Proshop if you wish to book a session.

Glenbervie GC and Larbert High School recently established a new ‘School of Golf ’ partnership, designed to bring more young people into the game and to support those existing young players wanting to improve their skills.  With Glenbervie keen to boost their junior membership numbers and the school having a number of keen golfers, Bobby Rushford (club PGA professional) and the school’s Derek Paterson worked closely to offer a new golf academy for youngsters. Launched in August, the academy provides a junior membership and coaching package and has recruited 10 players, aged from 11 to 17.

Glenbervie, already a strong supporter of the national junior programme ClubGolf, are providing the Larbert High School players 40 hours of coaching over the course of a year, (with sessions taking place from 4 – 6pm after school on Thursdays), as well as the chance to enjoy junior membership.  The coaching currently takes place on Glenbervie’s excellent short game facilities, and will move indoors over the winter months.

Larbert High School already offers various activities for pupils outside of school hours, with the school acting as the thriving base of the Tryst Community Sports Club, and Paterson is delighted golf is also now included.  “We’re just looking to get more people involved in golf,” said Derek. “So with Glenbervie keen to boost their junior members, this new partnership has been a good fit.  Bobby has been a massive factor in pushing things on, with the package of coaching and special junior membership. Ten players have signed up to the programme, with only one a previous member at Glenbervie. As well as the golf playing and coaching, they are also learning other life skills like social relationships, decision making and working in a group.”

Ian Williamson is one of the youngsters participating. The 15-year-old said: “I’ve enjoyed it since I joined, using the day membership in the summer and now the coaching after school. The professional coaching is good for my ability and since I’ve joined my dad, Stuart, and his friends have joined Glenbervie too.”  Connor Draycott, 12, added: “I saw on Twitter that there was the chance to get involved in this. I’ve loved the coaching and really like the team events.”

Rushford, meantime, hopes the partnership continues to go from strength to strength and added: “We’re delighted to welcome these new youngsters to Glenbervie and are looking forward to working closely with the school to further develop the programme in the future. One way we are looking to do this is offering the young people the opportunity to achieve an SQA accredited qualification through Golf”.

See the photograph below showing Bobby Rushford and some of the Larbert High School students.

The GGC 2016 gents prize-giving dinner was held in the clubhouse on Friday 4th November and followed the traditional agenda.   The evening started with the serving of a superb 3 course meal - many thanks to David, Mark, Kelly and all the staff for this - followed by the presentation of prizes and two after-dinner guest speakers. The first guest speaker, Duncan Wilson, wowed the audience with some impressive magic tricks (a chosen card appearing on the outside of the clubhouse window being especially impressive), although he did forget to deliver the toast to the game of golf.  Duncan was followed by (Cumnocks finest) Buller Reid who provided many laughs to the attendent audience and did remember to close with a toast to Glenbervie Golf Club. 

The presentation of prizes included the Glenbervie team members present receiving the Stirlingshire County Golf Association league trophy (again !) and, as normal, ended with the presentation to the gents champion golfer of the year - Mark Hislop.    All in all, a very enjoyable evening for all those present. 

Glenbervie Golf Club is delighted to announce Fluid Performance Solutions Ltd (FPS) as a new silver corporate partner. FPS provide standard pump energy auditing and performance optimisation to the water and waste water industry.  Both Glenbervie GC and FPS are excited by the opportunities presented by our partnership and look forward to a long-term mutually beneficial relationship.

Glenbervie ladies team (sponsored by Stirling Audi) have won the Harper Kennedy League title for the third year in a row, (having never won this prior to 2014).   The Harper Kennedy League is a scratch competition involving teams of 7 players (who play in handicap order, lowest first) from Dunblane, Buchanan Castle, Helensburgh, Balmore, Stirling, Hilton Park and Glenbervie golf clubs.   Unlike last years win which was decided on a count-back of individual games, Glenbervie won all their fixtures this year, leaving Balmore GC to take the runners-up spot.

Congratulations to team captain Lyn Fleming and all the ladies who have contributed to this latest Glenbervie success.

Glenbervie have won the Stirlingshire County Inter Club League competition for 2016.  This is the fifth year in a row that the club has won this particular county competition - a fantastic acheivement and testament to the high quality of players who are members at Glenbervie.   

The competition format involves two qualifying leagues, each of five clubs (playing home and away) with the winners and runners-up progressing to the semi-finals.  Glenbervie topped their qualifying league, with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss, narrowly edging out Grangemouth GC.  The other qualifying league was won by Kilsyth Lennox GC, with Falkirk GC finishing runner-up.   The semi-finals and final were played at Glenbervie on Sunday 28th August 2016.  Semi-final results were Glenbervie 6 - Falkirk 2 and Kilsyth 5 - Grangemouth 3.   So, the two qualifying league winners met in the final with Glenbervie coming out on top 6 and 1/2 to 1 and 1/2.   

Many congratulations to Glenbervie team manger, Brian Price, and the boys who delivered the sem-final and final wins: Mark Hislop, Colin Mundie, Richard Johnston (Snr), Richard Johnston (Jnr), Ross Kane, Mark Cox, Tommy Wilson and Gary Shepherd.  However, to win the inter club league requires a strong pool of players and so congratulations must also go to the following team members who contributed over the course of the season: Graeme Robertson, Graeme Roughead, James Yarnell, Mark Findlay, Peter Maxwell, Jamie Lynch and Ellis Hart.  As you might gather from looking at the complete list of pool players, Brian had a very difficult job choosing a team of eight to represent the club in the finals.    Very well done lads !