Fylde coast golf review: Captains' events at Herons' Reach and Knott End, plus a top tip for finding fairways

The annual charity golf event continues to thrive at Herons’ Reach Golf club and was especially poignant this year.

Teams compete for the Chris O’Keeffe Memorial Trophy and this year’s captain at the Blackpool club is Chris’ brother Steve.

First introduced to reunite Chris’ friends after his premature passing in 2003, the competition has grown into an open team event, with more than 80 players taking part.

Over the years the charity event has raised more than £35,000 and this year’s competition saw more than £1,000 collected for Trinity Hospice.

This took the total raised for this year’s captain’s charity in the names of Steve and his wife Louise, the Lady Captain, beyond £5,000.

The winning team, Fallan’s Fruits, comprised Jason Fallan, Mark Nordwind, Phil Hay and Jed Starkey.

Phil also won the best individual prize after a card play-off and shared the best pair’s prize with Mark.

Steve O’Keeffe said: “I was delighted that we managed to have the event this year, despite some obvious restrictions. It was brilliant that everyone could support us by playing, donating prizes and giving freely of their time.

“The weather was fabulous and so many players come back to play each year. While it was disappointing that we couldn’t hold a full presentation, it was fabulous to see so much support

This week’s tip from Alastair Taylor, teaching professional at Herons’ Reach, will help you to hit more fairways from the tee...

After another great win this week, Dustin Johnson spoke about the importance in hitting fairways to gain more control over the ball.

Many golfers miss too many fairways because they are trying to hit the ball straight and cannot achieve this with their driver or 3-wood.

This week I tested one of my students, who felt he hit more fairways when trying to draw the ball but was actually more accurate when hitting a fade.

Next time you practise, take 10 balls and aim to hit them straight at two outer targets on the edges of the fairway.

Note how many times you miss the fairway and on which side you miss.

Then hit 10 more, aiming down the opposite side from your miss and see if you hit more fairways.

This may not be how you want to tee off but it might be how you need to tee off to hit more fairways.

To contact Alastair at Herons’ Reach, email [email protected] or check out his YouTube channel AliTaylorGolf for more free tips.

The weather was kind for Lady Captains Day at Knott End Golf Club on Sunday.

Instead of the usual evening dinner and presentation, Lady Captain Brenda Braithwaite arranged a picnic for all the ladies to enjoy.

The winner of the captain’s prize was Carol Kershaw with a score of 74 + 73 = 147. Jean Gates was runner-up (75 + 74 = 149) and Pauline Fawcett was third (76 + 76 = 152). The best gross winner was Joanne Kay (88 + 90 = 178).

Other winners were as follows: First round nett, Karen Lee (75); second round nett, Jayne Emmington (69); first round gross, Kath Wright 94; second round gross, Kath Coleman 96; best nett for 37+ handicap, Janet Gorry (83 + 86 = 169): hidden holes, Jean Molloy (15).O

Overall winner of the Ladies’ 18-hole stableford at Fairhaven was Anne McFeat (division two) with 36 points. The division one winner was Sharon Youles (33) and for division three Susan Prater (35).

Ladies’ 9-hole stableford winners were Theresa Clarke (18) and Helen Armstrong (15). Winner of the Ladies’ Medal over 18 holes was Yuyao Wang (div. three) 75, while Lynn Griffiths was first for div. one (76) and Paula Leah for div. two (82).

The Men’s Texas Scramble was won by the team of Simon Bone, Stephen Brownlow, David Uphill and Andrew Wood with 58.7. Runners-up were Daniel Butterfield, Nathan Chase, Christian Lane and Mark Lane (59.3).

Overall winner of the Men’s Medal was Andrew Tiso (div. one) with 69. Other winners were Andrew Lavin (div. two) 73 and Michael Wilkinson (div. three) 74.