Hillaby’s been making his Mark at Macc

MACCLESFIELD Golf Club’s course manager Mark Hillaby took up the role in 2015 after enjoying 12 years of great and invaluable experience working at at Wilmslow Golf Club.

Since his arrival he has drawn numerous remarks from members and visitors whose comments and feedback speak for themselves – ‘great course’,’ fantastic greens’, ‘greens are better now (April) than ours at any time’, ‘what a treat to play’.

Macc captain Neil Jackson added: “Mark is a massive asset to our club, his work ethic is unquestionable and he continues to present a fantastic course week after week.”

Mark explained the reasons for his success: “I started my green keeping career at Wilmslow GC in 2001 working under their well-known and respected course manager Steve Oultram and in the 12 years that I worked there it was a great experience learning all about what goes on in setting up a championship course – the attention to detail and most of all the hard work that is required.

“Wilmslow was an outstanding golf course for learning all about traditional green-keeping methods.

“I moved to Macc in April 2015 and this has been a very challenging but very rewarding time with the club being very supportive along the way and I cannot thank them enough and we will as a team continue to improve and move the course forward.

“Course improvements over the winter months were very challenging with the wet weather but we managed to complete what we set out to achieve with the main project being to resolve the problem we had on the 16th hole.

“A natural spring had appeared on the bank on the right of the hole which was causing huge problems flooding the bank and the fairway.

“The plan we came up with was to catch the water at its highest point and then make a feature out of it and we also needed to drain the bank using more than 400 metres of pipe in the process.

“There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into the job but the end result was very satisfying.

“Rebuilding of several bunkers was also a main priority which will be a huge part of the winter work over the next couple of years. Some of the bunkers are looking a bit sorry for themselves and we felt that they needed freshening up and reshaping.

“Working closely with course architect and European Tour star Jamie Donaldson some exciting plans have been drawn up to change and move several of the bunkers around the course and redesigning some of the holes so it is very much a work in process.”

Macclesfield juniors played for the Captain’s Cup and it was won by Thomas Kirton after a cpo on 66 with Thomas Silcock, one less than Callum Atkinson.

Macc’s men played the Barnaby Stableford and in division one it was tight at the top with Chris Pattison posting 39 points, one more than Nicholas Jeavons, Stuart Purves and Jake Bowers.

Brian Welch romped home in division two with his hot 43-pointer seeing him three clear of Chris Fisher and Bob McGrouther.

A Sunday Open to All Stableford at Styal was won by Andy Clear with 39 points, one more than Mike Burchell and Victoria Parry.

Four Styal seniors were locked on 68 in a seniors medal and winning the cpo was John Folds from Harry Reid, Mike Moore and Michael Hannon.

Styal ladies were in Stableford mode with Enid Laverty firat past the post with 32 points from Janice Whatley 29 and Diana Prow 28.