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Prize Draw! - try our course and clubhouse

Read on for the prize draw and more about our events, course & clubhouse

Does your Club's course bring you back to the Clubhouse after nine holes, and then let you play a second nine with lots of additional holes and variations? Ours does!

Founded in 1891 as a 9 hole course, Bearsden has developed over the years, and now has sixteen greens and several extra fairways and tees allowing a really varied experience over 9 or 18 holes.

Many of our members come up for just a few holes in the evening, as there are several greens very near to the Clubhouse. Take your "19th hole" reward almost whenever you wish!

The Clubhouse has great views of the first tee and the 9th and 18th greens, as you can see below, and is a great focal point for our medals, competitions and championships, as well, of course, for our annual Gala weekend in late August.

All of our golfing and other events are in the online diary that you can check by clicking here. We hold quiz nights, Sky and ESPN TV sports evenings, Karaokes (with a dedicated sound system) and a number of Texas scramble golfing events, all accompanied by our chef Madeleine's excellent catering. Our next Texas Scramble, for example, is May 25th, on the early evening of the night of the Champions League Final, when members will enjoy coverage on the TV well into the evening having competed for a Champions League trophy of their own!

The Clubhouse is open 11 until 11 every day of the week in summer, and every daytime and three evenings a week through the winter. We offer the most friendly welcome of any Golf Club in the area, and we are renowned for the social and entertainment wraparound we offer our members.

Take a look at the panoramas here (or fixed images for non-Flash viewers) as part of a virtual tour of the course by clicking here. 

Flash-based viewers can navigate around the panoramas by clicking and dragging your mouse, or via your keyboard with the up/down, left/right arrows (for pan and tilt) and the +/- keys (for zoom in/out).

For more information on individual bookings and parties, call Madeleine or the Clubhouse bar on 0141 577 1891, 07949 692408 or use our contact page.

Better yet, give yourself the chance to try our course and enter our monthly PRIZE DRAW by clicking here and sending us your contact details.

Membership offers at Bearsden Golf Club

Following the success of our 2013 Spring Open Day, and strong demand for membership, we are holding open our 2013 season offers to give you the chance to come and see us in a little better weather!

We have many new members who already took advantage of our Spring membership offer at our Open Day (and many more who simply took our 2013 Early Bird offer at 2012 prices for 15 months golf). We can still offer you our Spring deals, and give you the chance to try out our Club and course before the season gets up to speed, and maybe before you have to make up your mind about any current membership(s) you have. We keep ALL competition entries open until mid April to give new members (like you?) the chance to enter all competitions and qualifiers after joining.

Our course is open nearly every day despite the colder and wetter than ever recent weather!  We are recognised as having the best draining course in the North Glasgow area.

We have a vibrant, local social scene for you to enjoy along with golf on your doorstep - our members make full use of this, as you can see from our website pages, for example the photo gallery here. We just held our very successful Opening Day Texas Scramble (click here to see results) and you still have a couple of weeks to join AND enter all our knockout competitions.

Our Club offers a comfortable, modern Clubhouse with Sky and ESPN, WiFi, electronic secure access and competition bookings (both on-site and web-based) together with panoramic views of the course as you enjoy lunch - after or before your game, or as a convenient 9th hole interlude

Whether it is medal play against some good competition, social Texas Scramble golf, Valentine's night, Night Golf, private party bookings, one of the many excellent catering lunchtimes and evenings we put on, or one of many other opportunities, Bearsden Golf Club is recognised as the prime Club for a welcoming and social environment for your golf, and our chef, Madeleine Valente, is particularly well known for her culinary creations, whether they be for full three-course dinners or home baking. Here is just one of many unsolicited compliments:

“Thank you for all your help around the arrangements for my party, the sound system worked a treat and everyone had a great time and commented on what a great venue it was. Scott and Ashley did a great job and were great ambassadors for the club and Madeleine and Alan worked their cotton socks off to keep us well fed.“

In summary, take a look at what we have to offer. A very accessible course that suits all categories of player; great golf at the club that has developed several current Scottish Junior squad players; the club that is home to several recent Dumbartonshire Gents, Ladies and Junior matchplay champions including a 2012 Scottish Amateur finalist (click here to see more); a great social programme that you can see from the coverage on these website pages; a very balanced membership across gentlemen, ladies and juniors including many, many families; and an all-day welcome from a very friendly and informal club that is renowned for its hospitality and its bar and restaurant catering.

Why not take up this early 2013 offer and guarantee yourself (and/or your loved one(s)) the best opportunity for play from the start of the 2013 season! Contact us for more details.

The 2012 Kerr MacKenzie Memorial Trophy

Here is the event report for this year's 29th Kerr MacKenzie Memorial Trophy competition. You can see all results by clicking here.

We were very lucky with the weather this year, and exactly 100 competitors enjoyed the beautifully crisp day, and the keen competition.

As usual the MacKenzie family and friends formed the core of the competition, with many other Bearsden members joining them, some for the first time. Graham McLean, a prizewinner this year, and Bearsden member for only 18 months, had "the best round of my life", playing with Les McAllister, the competition winner 2 years ago, who also won a prize this year. 

Once play had finished, just in time before dusk fell, it was time for prizegiving, and Master of Ceremonies, David Halliday, handed the stage to Colin MacKenzie who made an inspiring speech, highlighting Joyce MacKenzie's love of the game and the fond place the Club had (and has) in her and the family's hearts. Joyce sadly died this year, and at this, the first competition since then, her presence was missed by all. I'll be placing Colin's speech on our video page shortly.

Then it was time for the presentations. First up were the Magic 2's, and there were quite a few! Those who weren't able to collect their prizes may collect them from the Club Bar at any time.

We see, in the first few pictures here, Scott Conlon, Kenny Allan, Craig MacKenzie and Graham McLean.



I mentioned Graham before, playing his best-ever round (Match Secretary Paul Donnelly has his number for a handicap cut, I believe!)

After nine holes he was already amazed at his progress (as was playing partner Les McAllister) and the back 9 was just as good, when he had his Magic 2. He only just falied to get into the top 5 prizewinning places, with 36 points, so we'll look forward to more progress from him over the next year.

Other Magic Two's were achieved by Bruce Swadel, Malcom McKenzie, Colin McVicar, John Killin, Brian Machaffie and John Campbell. Malcolm McKenzie's Magic two was also nearest the pin on the 14th hole.
Event Director David Halliday also managed (and I quote him) "a fantastically well played Magic 2 to within 12 inches of the hole on the 16th hole". This shot also won nearest the pin on that hole, and here is the aforesaid extremely (justifiably) modest David receiving his prize from Club Captain Mark Ferguson.

Also winning a nearest the pin prize was Graham McLean Jnr, on the 7th hole, so a good day for the McLean family!

Ross Colsh, last year's winner, had the longest drive this year.

Now we move to the prizes for the leading places in the competition. Fifth this year was Les McAllister (just missing fourth on count-back) and here we see him receiving his prize from Mark.

Next up was Gordon "Gibby" Gibson in fourth place, both he and Les on 37 Stableford points.

In third place was Bearsden's Greens Convener, Past Captain Jim O'Brien, on 38 points, again just missing out on second place on count back.

Alan Colsh, Ross's brother, was the competition leader for a long time, and unfortunately for him not only had to leave for work, but also was demoted into second place, also on 38 points, by a late finish on 39 points from the eventual winner, Jon Maclean, a previous long serving Bearsden Golf Club member. Alan did have the consolation of best gross score, and more of this later.

Jon delivered a very gracious acceptance speech, thanking the Greens staff for the very well presented course, and of course the MacKenzie family for their continued support of the competition. A very popular winner, he is seen here being presented with the Kerr MacKenzie Memorial Trophy by Club Captain Mark Ferguson.

Mark announced that there would henceforth be an additional trophy, in Joyce MacKenzie's memory, for the best gross score in the competition. This year, that accolade went to Alan Colsh, for his gross 69, and his will be the first name on this new trophy.

Craig MacKenzie, in turn, gave an amusing (as always) impromptu speech, an edited version of which will also find its way to our video page  once I have worked out how to edit the soundtrack!

Finally David Halliday expressed all our thanks to Greens, Clubhouse and kitchen staff for their essential contributions to the event, and attention turned to the serious matter of calculating how much champagne might fit into the Trophy.

Let me me finish by congratulating all 100 players (and especially David Halliday) in contributing to such a successful day. This is the largest number playing in the last few years and highlights the enduring support in the Club, and amongst MacKenzie family and friends, for this memorial event, which has been running for 29 years.

Just a final reminder to any winners who have yet to collect their prizes from the Club bar.

Club Finals Days

A great day at Bearsden Golf Club culminated with the presentation of the trophies, with Cameron Kirkwood triumphant in the Gents' Championship for the Scott Hardie Cup.

It was a day for all seasons, to coin a phrase; warm sunshine for most of the day; a flash deluge which interrupted play of the last three matches for a short time, complete with hailstones(!), thunder and lightning; and then a warm balmy evening for the presentations; finally we had light drizzle as some of us walked home.

But none of this fazed the players, with the standard of play being incredibly high all day.

For those following the fortunes of a previous Club Champion, young Richard Docherty, he won his quarter and semi-finals of the Scottish Amateur Championship at Royal Dornoch on Friday. Playing in the final on Saturday, he never really recovered from a poor start in the Final, losing the first four holes, doing well to steady the ship and keep it to that margin for the first 18 holes in the morning. But then the afternoon proved more difficult and his opponent, Grant Forrest, played out to a 9&7 victory. It's a massive achievement for Richard to reach the final; we look forward to Cameron's future, encouraged by seeing what one of our recent champions can do!

I'll be adding to this report through today, so watch this space for photos and coverage of the presentations.

Lady Captain Florence Graham began with the Ladies presentations to Christine Holt for the Ladies Bronze Trophy, and to Helen Faulds for the Ladies Championship. As we shall see, the Holt family nearly took over the day, but Stuart, Chrissie's son, just lost out on the final (36th) green to Cameron Smith for the Norrie Dall Trophy, the Junior Championship.

As for Helen Faulds, the winner of the Ladies Championship, as Florence said, watch out Michael Phelps; Helen is now on her 17th Championship, and counting. It's a remarkable record, and she won her final against Lynn McColl (who won two years ago) to get to this mark.

Chrissie Holt beat Anne Nicoll in the thunderstorm interrupted Bronze final, which had stopped (for safety in the thunder and lightning) with Chrissie lying one hole to the good and two shots to the good at the 18th green. A chip into a residual puddle ended Anne's strong challenge.

Next up were the winners of the three Gents' Divisional Finals for the Turner Trophy, the Cassels Cup and the Chalmers Cup. Stephen Connolly beat Mick Irvine for tghe Turner Trophy, leading all day despite a fight back by Michael in the middle of the day. Here is Stephen receiving the Turner Trophy from Captains Mark and Florence.

Winner of the Cassels Cup was Brian Machaffie, defeating Marty Hughes by 5&4. 

The Divison 1 competition for the Chalmers Cup was won by Paul Semple, a previous multiple Club Champion, and a very popular winner, beating Craig Littlejohn (who knew where the pins were but to no avail!) by 5&4.

Next up were the Juniors, with Cameron Smith the winner, one up at the 18th. Stuart was on the green in two, and hoping to take the match to extra holes. 

Cameron, from the long wet grass produced a stunning up and down to two feet, however, and holed the winning putt as we see here, Stuart having missed his long putt for birdie.

Cameron went on to receive the Norrie Dall Trophy, as Junior Champion, and if he goes on to the kind of sucess that previous winners have had recently, he has a bright future indeed.

Finally, we end where we started, with Cameron Kirkwood, Bearsden Golf Club Gents Champion and winner of the Scott Hardie Cup. 

As Mark said in his closing speech, the quality of Cameron's play was unbelievable throughout the day. 3 under for his first round, and 3 under for the 9 holes he played in the afternoon made it very difficult for Chris Prior, his opponent, to get anywhere near. Here is Cameron receiving the Scott Hardie Cup.

We also see that Chris has a strategy for next time!

Well played to all of our finalists. As Captain Mark Feguson said, there are no losers on Finals day, only winners; everyone who made the finals today have won many ties to get here.

Mark warmly thanked the Greens staff who by common consent presented the course in the best condition ever. He also thanked Clubhouse staff and head chef Madeleine Valente for the fantastic hospitality all through Johnstone Cup weekend and Finals week. Just to prove the point, here is an unsolicited accolade from a member who emailed me today:

"I would like to express my congratulations to Madeleine and Alan for the catering provided. The food was outstanding value for money and at only £10 per head they spoiled us for choice, from the starters of Soup or Prawn cocktail to the succulent steaks in peppercorn sauce through to the Hot Toffee apple pie and Ice cream absolutely superb. We had a table of 16 persons and everyone around that table commented on the food supplied by Madeleine as excellent. You could also hear other members at the bar commenting on the food and as always the presentation was outstanding."

You can see this article again, and all the results by clicking here.Job done!! (*PS accolade - a fizzy substance in bottles!)

Our second finals day was held on Saturday 20th August with a good turnout of supporters.

A grey day turned sunny quite quickly, leading to a sunny afternoon - at least for half of the players! Team results for the Macleod Cup and the Mackie Tropy can be seen on the team Finals Day page by clicking here. 

The Macleod Cup ( 4 ball better ball with 3/4 of the difference between lowest handicap) went to Gavin Gough and Iain Russell by 3&2. The Mackie Trophy went to the McDonald brothers, Marc & Gerry over Michael O'Neill and Chris Pugh. 


For the singles competitions, John Wotton overcame Charlie Inglis in the Bob Semple Trophy, retaining the trophy he won in its inaugural year, last year.

The Rankin Quaich went to Colin McVicar, who defeated Bryan Brown after a very extended match, going to the 5th extra hole. These singles results can also be seen by clicking here.

Here we see the presentations in the Clubhouse shortly afterwards. 

Our Jubilee festival day

Bearsden Golf Club's Jubilee Day

Our Club played its full part in the celebrations of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with a full day of golfing and social activities for families and friends of the Club.

As you can see, Greens Convener Jim O'Brien had engaged the best possible support in our Winter programme to get the course in tip-top shape for the Jubilee Texas Scramble! Our tree planting fund came into its own to recruit the best possible help!

The golfing events of the day were the Jubilee Texas Scramble in the morning, and our regular Bank Hoiday Social Mixed Foursomes in the afternoon. 

As you can see from the pictures in our gallery by clicking here, the Club was dressed in appropriate bunting for the day, and many members entered into the spirit of the day, especially Walter here!

We had over 100 players golfing in the day's competitions, and at the peak up to 150 members and guests present for the prizegiving and evening entertainment, focused around the Buckingham Palace concert on the TV and PA system.

Our local weather supported us as usual by allowing members to sit and enjoy the golf and conversation outside utilising the new seating kindly donated by many of our members recently.

The atmosphere was one of celebration, good humour and enjoyment of the events, but the golf was no less competitive than usual, and the Texas Scramble was won by the very good score of 53.5 strokes, one ahead of the field, with some very close scoring with all 19 teams in the field covered by 10 shots.

So who were the lucky winners? It was the Hughes-Littlejohn team of Martin and Craig Hughes and Stevie and Craig Littlejohn, two father and son combinations. Here we see the team receiving their prize from Master of Ceremonies and Club Vice-Captain Dougie McBride. Their gross score was also the best of the day, a grossly (sorry!) outrageous 57, fully three shots better than anyone else (the Wood Group team on a gross 60).

Second in the competition were the Holt family team - Chrissie, Marion, Andrew and David - pictured here on the left receiving their prizes from Dougie, with a net score of 54.4, well done!

In third place, with a net score of 55.5 and that very good gross of 60 were Ian McFarlane's Wood Group team with his guests, Wood Group colleagues Jim Fitzpatrick, Gary Pollock and Harry McGowan. Here is Ian on the left receiving their prizes, with their team logo so you'll know when to look out for them in their next outing! Wood Group were also the winners of nearest the pin in two shots at the 18th. As you can see from this shot, Dougie was one of those entering into the Jubilee spirit - or maybe he was just winning a bet by wearing that hat!


There was special recognition for Graeme Kendall's team who had a very good score of 54.4, but seemingly realised only when they got in that they were playing with five players! Here they are with Dougie, and as we can clearly see there are five of them! But Bearsden is the kind of Club that wants everyone to enjoy their golf - and they did!

There were also prizes for nearest the pin at the 14th and the longerst drive at the 9th. 

Winners of these were Paul O'Brien and Scott Conlon respectively, seen here collecting their prizes from Dougie, still winning that bet with the head bunting!

You can see all of the Texas Scramble results by clicking here.

Ian and Clare Stuart organised the Social Mixed Foursomes with their usual skill, complicated somewhat by fitting in with all the other events on the day. Winners of that event were the Mary and Ian Freshney team with a net 70, looking very proud here with their prizes.

Looking equally pleased with their second place in that competition were Lady Captain Florence Graham and husband Jim, seen here on the right. Third were Evie Millar and Ian Sinclair.

Bill Pollock and Fiona Alexander had the lowest gross score, John Wotton was nearest the 7th pin, and Jeff and Pat Hutton were nearest the 18th pin in 3.

Eleanor Norris, pictured on the left here won the prize for nearest the pin at the 14th.

Once the golf and prizegiving were over, the evening festivities began - a raffle with some super prizes, and the evening entertainment centred around the Buckingham Palace concert. The Club had never been busier, and that good weather really helped by allowing members to sit out and enjoy the view!

There were many thanks to those who made the day such a success - not least to the Queen herself for giving us the reason for holding the day!

Key players in organising our day were Madeleine with her usual high class hospitality and buffet; the bar staff who will rarely have had a busier time necessitating unexpected extra hours; and the Greens staff who as usual presented the course in great order for the day.

Greens Convener Jim O'Brien deserves a special mention for all of his extra ideas and detailing work for the club, embracing the new shrubs and flowers, and the seating around the course and at the Clubhouse. There are many others who put their time in too; we and they know who they are - David Halliday for lots of additional help around the course, and Pat Buchanan for today's photography, to name but two.

Finally I would add thanks on behalf of myself and the whole Club to Vice-Captain Dougie McBride and Marketing Convener James Conlon for their hard work prior to the Jubilee festival day, and on the day itself. We know that our Club members will always support the Club in such ventures, and it is amazing what can be done with good ideas, the will and the skill to organise things. But the hard work still has to be done and we are lucky to be able to draw on the resources of all these people, and many others, to get the job done.

May we give them a hip-hip-hurrah too?!

The James Torley Memorial Trophy

This year's Torley Trophy competition attracted a record entry of 24 teams, all vying to wrest the Trophy from Gordon and Ross Gibson, last year's winners.

The Torley Trophy is a competition for teams of two, either an adult and Junior or a family combination of any mix. You can see this year's teams and draw by clicking here.

With a late run at the end of the day, the Trophy was won by Club Captain Brian Howat playing with new Junior member this year, William Nixon, with an amazing score of gross 77, 58.5 net, a full four strokes ahead of the field. William's friend Kyle McGovern was a member of the Gala winning Junior AND Mixed teams a fortnight ago, and it's good to see new members in the Club winning trophies so early on, William having only started golf in April this year just before he joined Bearsden. Captain Howat happily admitted to being carried by William's putting and booming drives!

Second, and with the best gross score of the day, were the Kirkwood team of father/son combination David and Cameron. Cameron has just won a place in the Scottish Junior squad, and David - er - hasn't! Added to Cameron's Johnstone Cup wins this year at both junior and senior level, it's been a great year for Cameron. The whole Club, and of course especially David are immensely proud of him. With Ewen Ferguson, Cameron's close friend, already in the Scottish squad, we look forward to Bearsden and Scottish golf over the coming years being successfully entwined.

A very close third were the team of Marty Hughes and Matthew McGovern, just squeezing out Alistair Creevy and Kyle Reid on count-back.

Additional prizes were offered for Nearest the Pin in 2 at the 18th, won by Graham and Jordan Manuel, and Nearest the Pin at the 14th, won by Cameron Kirkwood.
 
Over half of the field came in with a score under 70, eight of them at par or better, and so this year the large field was matched by some high quality play. You can see all the results by clicking here.

We have to make a special mention of Jim Cumming, pictured on the left, following his half-marathon on the same day, running for charity (for the avoidance of doubt, and contrary to rumour, he doesn't always dress like this). Jim's time of 2 hours and 15 minutes was well outside his personal best, this achieved running from the finish to the Club chased by love-starved fruit-flies, wasps and other sundry Glasgow wildlife. Further comment is left to your imagination...

All competitors and their supporters once again enjoyed Madeleine's hospitality in the Clubhouse; thanks yet again are due to our greens staff under John Brown, and to our bar staff for helping to make the day so successful. Dougie McBride, Junior Convener and James Conlon, Marketing Convener set up and ran the competition, showing once again with their excellent event organisation how the Club welcomes the opportunity for good golf, convivial company and a busy clubhouse. Well done all!

Contact us

If you would like to enquire about membership or a green fee, go to our membership page for details or use our contact page.