York Union OF GOLF CLUBS

Trial of Online Entries for Rounds 1 to 6 York Union Cross Trophy 2021-22 

Further to the York Union Executive Meeting on Tuesday 27th July at Fulford Golf Club and the approval to progress the above I hereby set out the following proposal. 

Cross Trophies 1 to 6 will open to online entries from 1st September 2021 

Payments will continue to be collected by home clubs and paid over to the York Union once the round has been completed and the entrants confirmed. 

All Tee times booked are not guaranteed at time of entry. YU Competition Secretary has the authority to move tee times of pairings booked for the following reasons. 

To avoid 4 ball groups made up of pairs from the same Club 

To evenly space out as far as possible to enable Clubs to have equal access to early, middle and late tee times 

To accommodate fair and reasonable requests made via email to compsec@theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk 

12 tee times will be reserved, one for each Club to have their nominated pair to receive. This may be, but not exclusive to the best scoring pair from the previous Cross Trophy round. Each Club is to specify its nominated pair by the entry deadline by email to compsec@theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk. To obtain the preferred tee time for each Clubs nominated pair, this will be done on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Once entered, any players wishing to withdraw must inform the Competition Secretary by email at compsec@theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk. Replacement player or pair are submitted by the playing partner or Club will be appreciated and confirmed by the Competitions Secretary. 

Refunds for situations other than the above are at the discretion of the York Union Officers and to be decided at the earliest possible Executive meeting 

It is the responsibility of each Club to inform to its Members of any restrictions they place on their Membership status that prevent them from entering York Union competitions. The Competition Secretary cannot regularly filter through the entrants and remove those for example with 5-day status playing on a weekend YU Championship. Any Clubs requests to remove players entered must be by email to compsec@theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk and have the player in question copied into the email. The same request is made of any Club’s suspended players. 

All apologies and reasons for non-attendance on the day after the final start sheet is published is to be by email to compsec@theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk and the York Union Executive has the authority to impose the York Union Rules as it sees fit. 

Trial of Online Payments for Rounds 7 to 12 York Union Cross Trophy 2021-22 

Assuming the above trial is successful, the next step is to advance to online payments at the time of booking Cross Trophies. 

Online payments to be enabled via the ClearAccept platform that runs in tandem with the YU Intelligent Golf booking start sheet accessed by players via the York Union website. 

There will be alternative options to enter and pay by credit or debit card. Transaction to be conducted over the phone by prior arrangement with Competition Secretary. Requests to do so made via email to compsec@theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk and subject to the Competition Secretary’s availability 

Last minute entries on the day will be inevitable and therefore if the ClearAccept facility is not available before play then retrospective payment will be acceptable. Also, if there are technical or personal issues other retrospective payments will be considered 

Once entered, any players wishing to withdraw must inform the Competition Secretary by email at compsec@theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk. If a replacement player or pair are submitted by the playing partner or Club, then the original player or pairing will get a refund at the earliest opportunity 

Should the Competition be cancelled by the Competition Secretary, or the course is closed due to bad weather or course conditions, then all players will receive a refund at the earliest opportunity 

Refunds for situations other than the above are at the discretion of the York Union Officers and to be decided at the earliest possible Executive meeting 

Andy Robson, York Union Competition Secretary, 27th August 2021 

NEW FOR POST-LOCKDOWN 2021

York Union Events Spring and Summer 2021 24th February 2021 

Spring & Summer 2021 

Further to the announcement from the Government on when we can return to golf, after consultation with the Clubs hosting the April events, I have amended the Events Calendar as attached. The cancellation of the Junior Champion Club for 2021 will mean the YU Executive will look to nominate a Club to represent the District in the Yorkshire Inter-District Championship. The Fletcher Trophy will be postponed until later in the year and the Crossley Trophy will now be played at Pike Hills on Sunday 2nd May and the Thompson Trophy will be awarded on the same day to the best gross score. 

The York Union of Golf Clubs will continue to work closely with our Clubs and its Members for safe and enjoyable competitions as set out by Covid-Safe procedures and advice from England Golf. In the meantime, it would be foolish not to review how the York Union operates and to try new systems such as we did with cashless Cross Trophy entry payments collected by home clubs. This has been very successful and thank you again to everyone who embraced it. It will continue through the year and may I refer you to the attached documents with dates, courses, entry fees and tee times. 

Online Entry 

So, again with your cooperation, for the foreseeable Spring and Summer events we will trial online entries for the first time. As Clubhouse access may remain limited and therefore the manual input of entry sheets filled out and returned by your YU Representatives an ongoing problem, it is hoped the word can spread to visit our YU website and sign up for competitions. 

Online entry can be found at www.theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk  

Click on Competitions and drop-down list Opens, and Online Signup can be clicked on. Here you will require to fill out the regular details of name, address, email and phone number. For singles events, you will need your CDH number to progress. If you don’t know it, your Club will be able to inform you. I would advise making a note of this for future use. For pairs events, at the present time, there is no requirement for CDH numbers. 

For the first few competitions we will trial 2 types of entry. One whereby you can pick a tee time, the other will be at the discretion of the Competitions Secretary. With this updated database of players and contact details, emails will go out with start sheet links as well as the usual updates on the website and on the Facebook page. 

For any withdrawals, please email compsec@theyorkunionofgolfclubs.co.uk 

Entry fees will again be collected by your Clubs and prize vouchers issued by back to the email provided on entry. We haven’t discarded the possibility of online payments and this may be introduced in the future after further discussion with the YU Executive. 

The re-introduction of Trophy presentations on the day of competition will be reviewed in due course as the season unfolds and the C-19 restrictions allow. 

Wilkinson Trophy and Pike Hills Cup – Matchplay Championships 

The above Gents knockout competitions are now open for online entry up until 1st April. After that a drawsheet will be created and sent to players and Clubs and accessible on our website. 

York Union Open Championship 

As we had to cancel all last year's summer Championships, we never got chance to celebrate a change in the rules and for the first-time welcome Lady golfers into our Open Championship. May I again commend the YU Executive for this modern initiative and impress on as many Category 1 junior girls and Ladies to enter.  

For all competition entry rules and information, please go to our website and click on the following. 

York Union Rules and Conditions 

On our website if you click on About Us – Constitution you will find 4 sections under Rules and Conditions. The website is due an update, especially after the introduction of the World Handicapping System. Please bear with us on the update and to get more information on how the new WHS will be applied to your golf competitions, visit www.englandgolf.org/whs/golfers/ 

York Union Scratch League 

For anyone new to the Union, YU runs 2 Gents scratch leagues throughout the summer, and this is kindly administered by Ken Tuite of Forest Park GC. If you have a new scratch captain or have a new B Team, then please inform Ken at ken.tuite@metsagroup.com who will assist and include you and your team. 

York Union Executive Opportunities 

Marketing & Media 

With regards YU activity, we are actively seeking a volunteer to be responsible for Media and Marketing. Should you be interested, or know of a likely candidate we can approach, please contact our Union Secretary, Tina Readman on treadman1967@gmail.com 

Welfare Officer 

We are also actively looking for a permanent Welfare Officer to comply with our requirements to safeguard children and vulnerable adults at any of our YU events and teams. Tina has an information pack and application form if you are interested. 

York Union Treasurer 

Graeme Almond has been our Treasurer for a few years and will be retiring from office next April, 2022. Our thanks go to him for continuing his ‘sterling’ work and commitment to the Union. However, it would be great to have the incoming Treasurer work alongside Graeme and then takeover next year. If you are, or know of a likely candidate we can approach, please contact our Union Secretary, Tina Readman on treadman1967@gmail.com 

York Union Sponsorship 

We are delighted to announce that this year we have 2 new headline sponsors for the York Union that have contributed to the extent that new Men and Boys IDU Teamwear can be purchased for the forthcoming season. Our thanks go to, 

Why Queue

DCD Teamwear

Their support of the York Union is most welcome and throughout the year you will no doubt become more familiar with their work and hopefully support them if possible. We will always welcome more sponsors so if anyone would be interested, please contact treadman1967@gmail.com 

With your continued support The York Union of Golf Clubs will strive to provide social and competitive golf for its 12 affiliated clubs and the 5000 or so golfing members within the York Union. 

Thank You, 

Andy Robson 

Competitions Secretary