History
In April 1991 The Hadden Hill golf Club opened but it wasn’t until March 1994, following discussions with Mike Morley, that a meeting of those interested in forming a ‘Seniors Section’ was held. It was formed to give the older members who were retired, or had just started golf, the opportunity to meet and play with others in a like situation during the week.
There were 17 members of the Club at that meeting. There are still 6 of those founder members who are still members of our Society out of our present membership of over 60. We decided to call ourselves the ‘Hadden Old Golfers Society’ or as we are affectionately known ‘The HOGS.’ Tuesday was to be our ‘Golf Day’ and we started having qualifying competitions when our society handicaps were changed by a variety of methods!! We also started playing friendly matches, home and away, with senior groups from neighbouring clubs and this continues. We also play several charity matches, some with the Ladies Section of the Club, and we also have several competitions to raise funds for Charity. To date this has amounted to a sum in excess of £12,000. The ‘Charity’ is nominated by the incoming Captain at our AGM.
As The Society has developed, so have our own Rules and Objectives. We look after our own finances, prepare our own programme of qualifying competitions and matches and also run a series of society summer and winter knockout competitions. Since 1999 we have assessed handicaps using a method based on the CONGU system. Onerous hand calculations have been replaced by the use of our own laptop computer.
As we have our own handicapping system we also have our own HOGS Handicaps. Our qualifying competition cards are also entered for Club handicap purposes, so any of our members wishing to enter Club competitions has an up to date ‘Club’ handicap. We are a Society of ‘recycled teenagers’ encompassing a wide age-group and are still enjoying our golf. I hope that gives you a brief history of the ‘HOGS’ as I remember it!
Eddie Lennon