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The second Cookie Jar Spring Meeting was held on the 10th & 11th May at Moortown and The Alwoodley Golf Club. A two day handicap Stableford competition for 33 supporters, friends, and golf obsessives.
Moortown & Alwoodley both hold a special place in the history of golf course architecture: Alwoodley being the first design by the great Dr Alister MacKenzie who would go on to work at Royal Melbourne, Cypress Point and Augusta National but not before Moortown which was his second creation and our first stop of the tour.
The story is well documented in his seminal book; The Spirit of St Andrews (which we would highly recommend buying), however in short his first effort at Alwoodley was a universal success. Colt was requested by the club to come along and check the work that this young physician had turned his hand to, and provide assurance to the club that this wasn’t a waste of money. Following the successful opening of the club in 1907, he would go on to build Moortown Golf Club across the road from Alwoodley in what was essentially a more old fashioned form of crowdfunding. A prototype hole was built for prospective members to view which would then lead to nominations from founding members to enable the construction of a 9-hole course. The stunning 10th hole – ‘Gibraltar’ – was built and to such fanfare that enough money was raised to enable a full 18 hole course to be built.
Gibraltar: The hole that made Moortown
Whilst the routing has not changed vastly at Alwoodley throughout its history, Moortown has been moved around a bit more with general development around the local area, and in recent years both clubs have enrolled the services of Clyde Johnson (a.k.a @Cunningolf) of Cunnin’ Golf Design and protege of Tom Doak to oversee the restoration of these MacKenzie masterpieces; a process which has involved painstaking research, no doubt many hours around committee tables and the physical work to reintroduce the original features and restore the playing lines which underpin the strategic nature of MacKenzie’s design. The works are extensive but include micro-bunkers at the back of greens like 18th at Moortown, or the 12th at Alwoodley. Holes have been reimagined like the 5th at Moortown or playing lines opened up and years of entropy removed to enable better playing corridors. It’s restoration in its purest sense, reverential to what was built all those years ago.
An arrival time of 11am came and went, and within 15 minutes the cacophony of 33 guests – many now stalwarts of our events as well as a good smattering of fresh faces – all getting straight into the spirit. The atmosphere, and conversation was truly exceptional from the very first minute.
The excitement did however lead to some unexpected requests of the club: by lunchtime Moortown had officially run out of Guinness, no doubt influenced by Dr Darragh Garrahy over from Dublin and leading the charge on ‘the black stuff’. Replenishments came from Sand Moor Golf Club over the road and lunch was served. A tapas lunch was followed by some welcoming words from Bruce, and some more context about the course, its history and the format which included 3-ball groupings.
The opening tee shot was struck by our pod guest from Corballis Course Diaries episode, Darragh Garrahy with Ross Horsman from Rye Artisans and James Day alongside. Ross Horsman’s concerns – having confessed to a week of worrying and sleepless nights leading up to the opening tee shot in front of a braying crowd – soon vanished as he striped one down the first as the sun shone across the expanse of heathland…
First tee nerves
Sadly, the sunny weather was about as short lived on the 1st as the Guinness supply behind the bar at Moortown and soon a steady downpour left the remainder of the field patiently waiting for their tee off in the shelter of the starters hut, peering out and offering sarcastic words of encouragement. Our events have had a good track record with the weather, however despite Sam’s jesting with club secretary Peter Rishworth on the lead up to the 10th May that ‘he was in charge of organising the weather’ it seems that that was the only thing that was left to chance. It didn’t last long and spirits were once again in the sky as they turned the front 9 with Gibralater in front of them.
Golf course historian Simon Haines seeks refuge from the rain
Live music was played across the 18th green as groups made their way in and for those that weren’t there in person and have the stamina for it, the near-two-hour playlist from the set can be found here which Tom went to the trouble to record and publish. Link here
After a well fought 18 holes which saw all four seasons in one afternoon, only 15 players managed to find 30 points or more with Ryan Noades of The Addington taking the spoils with 35 points. A sensational 3 course meal followed with the highlight from the evening being a toss-up between the ‘chimichurri steak-frites’ or Tom’s rousing speech about the two venues and what Alister MacKenzie would think if he were to see us at the clubs today.
18th Green: smiles all round
Another thing Moortown boasts is arguably the greatest snooker room in golf. Two tables, raised benches around the sides of the room and lots of lovely wood, all dinked from the exploits of previous generations having enjoyed themselves and no doubt a room full of stories if the walls could speak. It’s the same room we recorded our podcast with Clyde Johnson back in 2022. Organised fun can be a bit of a disaster at times, but on this occasion it seemed to work. The game was simple, everyone took it in turns to try to get the white ball from the ‘D’ at the top of the table, around the triangle and back into the ‘D’ in 3 shots. The only trick is that you cannot touch the cushions with the white which makes it much harder than you would expect. Suffice to say the atmosphere was raucous and there were a few sore heads the following morning as everyone descended on The Alwoodley for day two. Graeme Morton who came in with a pedestrian 28 points managing to secure the win in the snooker room.
With Ryan Noades leading the field by 1 stroke after his 35 points the day before, and Blackwell member and Cookie Jar event debutant Tom Burn nipping at his heels at 34, a further 7 players were trailing at 33 & 32 points, including the youngest ever winner of the Presidents Putter – Steve Seman, head of security and founding jar member Cal Wing as well as Hoylake Club Champion Cal McDougall. Last year’s second place Sam Clapham was hoping to finally get this one over the line as well as Matthew Reid who looked to have played his way out of the tournament after a late night in the hotel bar.
John Holmes starting the day in T6 and asking for an earlier tee time meant he was unable to hang around for lunch and prizes. With 30 points around Alwoodley he was out of the running sadly, despite a solid two day performance both on and off the course. Matt Dyke also with the same 30 points failing to threaten, as well as Steve Seman and Tom Burn both showing signs of fatigue on the back 9 and fading away, a few names were starting to emerge.
Ryan Noades had started his second round well, however some trouble around the turn had seen the leader drop well back. As the cameramen diverted their attention elsewhere, further up the field – local Leeds-man – Nick Khoshnaw was making a charge getting himself into the clubhouse with a stellar 1-over gross and 37 points to set the clubhouse lead with 67 points for two days. This was now clearly the number to beat with Cal Wing starting to take on water and the critical putts not dropping meaning he too would fall short. Cal McDougall shooting mirror scores of Cal Wing with a 33 point second day also coming up short, however a very solid two days golf from the Hoylake man playing off +2.
Cal McDougall on 14 @ Alwoodley
Last year Sam Clapham held second place position overnight at Prince’s before being drawn in the foursomes with Pippa Bonsall who was leading in first place. This meant he couldn’t beat her score and win regardless of what happened. Pippa went on to win the Spring Meeting at her home club, and today – in control of his own ball and without the obscurities of foursomes draws overnight – he was quietly going about his business, however only managed to match Nick’s 67 points with a 34 point second round.
In the final group, Matthew Reid from Gleneagles had been going along well all day, staying out of mischief and managed to hold on through the tough closing stretch at Alwoodley which is quick to penalise an errant shot to card a wonderful 35 points – an even par gross round – for the day with only a small handful of hours sleep. In doing so he pipped the 67 mark in the clubhouse by one, collected his award and delivered a few lovely words to the circular dining room in the Alwoodley clubhouse.
Huge congratulations to Matthew on his win which he takes back up to Scotland with him. An immense thank you to Peter Millar for their support with this event, as well as Alwoodley & Moortown!
How on earth will we top this next year!?