Moortown Golf Club

Congratulations to Alysia Rigg who has enjoyed her first hole-in-one. Alysia, who plays off 7.5, has been a member of Moortown for six years and she produced her bit of magic at the 136-yard 4th during a social '9 and wine' with the ladies' section.

"I hit an 8-iron, a baby draw, which landed 15 feet short of the pin and rolled in. We all saw it go in and couldn’t believe it, I have had a few very close calls so I was in a bit of disbelief. For the rest of the round I was still in shock more than anything and we then sat outside after the comp and had a glass of wine to celebrate."

Well played!

Five years ago Moortown's 5th underwent some sweeping changes and today it sits as one of the strongest holes. It remains a risk-reward par 4 but it now appears and plays very different to in years gone by.

Clyde Johnson oversaw the changes and he would carry out much of the work himself.

"This was almost universally recognised as unsatisfactory among the membership. This pocket of the course had been changed quite a bit from back in the MacKenzie day and the original intention was to reward the golfer who could hook one against the camber.

"A pair of new holes, at 6 and 7, were added by Donald Steel in the last century. But, with much-needed tree removal to integrate those into the remainder of the course, the 5th opened up a more direct line of play. With this came the opportunity to create a tempting and teasing short 4 for the better player while restoring MacKenzie’s strategy.

"The ditch that runs down the left is beautiful so we have tried to take advantage of that. Three bunkers, sat naturally into the face of the bank, charm the golfer towards the direct line and we’ve hopefully ended up with a pretty playful short 4. We also restored the back bunker, a classic MacKenzie feature, which is staggered deceptively beyond the new drive bunkers. When approaching the green from the fairway, this bunker seemingly sits beyond the huge, restored front-right bunker."

Martin Heggie has seen the course evolve since taking over as Moortown's Head Professional in 2003 and the 5th stands out as one of the highlights in terms of moving things to another level.

"No hole has changed more dramatically in my time. The tee shot is totally unrecognisable with the removal of the trees and then Clyde Johnson came in and transformed it alongside our greenkeeping team.

"You now have a proper decision to make. From the yellow tees, if you can send it 240 yards, you will have a chance of making the green. It has also opened up things visually as you can now see more of where your ball’s landing whereas previously this was a lot harder to pick out with any certainty.

"The 5th was historically probably one of our weakest holes, now it’s become one of the strongest."

What a fantastic day for one of the highlights of the Moortown golfing calendar – Captain's Day 2026. A huge thank you to everyone who took part and, of course, to our Captain for hosting such an enjoyable competition. The course was presented in excellent condition and with a full field competing, there was some outstanding golf on display.

Congratulations to Stuart Santon, who claimed the title with an excellent 40 Stableford points off a handicap of 6.

The leaderboard was incredibly competitive, with four players tied on 39 points.

Top 10

1Stuart Santon 40
2 Jonathan Townsend 39
3 Theo McCormick 39 (Best junior)
4 Tim Brown 39
5 Joshua Pearce 39
6 Rory Wilson 38
7 Graham Hunter 38
8 Oliver Groves 38
9 Philip Murtagh 38
10 David Sayers 38

Scoring 40 points on Captain's Day is no easy feat, particularly under the pressure and atmosphere that comes with one of the club's flagship competitions. Stuart's consistent play proved enough to edge an exceptionally close leaderboard. Best gross went to Simon Stephens, who shot 35 points gross, special mention to Theo McCormick, who was round in 66 gross to take the junior prize with 39 points.

With 161 competitors taking part, the scoring demonstrated the strength in depth across the membership and 23 players returned 36 points or better.

Beat The Pro
Captain's Day means the traditional Beat the Pro at the 10th hole, Gibraltar, and 54 groups, 161 players, 29,000 steps and 13 miles later, 31 players came out on top – Karandeep Sohel was the lucky winner of the draw of those 31 people. Thanks to everyone who contributed over £1,500 to the Captain’s Charity.

Our Lady Captain's Day was a huge success, with 42 ladies playing a Stableford competition, started off by the Captain, with a leisurely stop at the halfway house for fizz and treats prepared by Stuart.

The golf was followed by over 50 ladies attending a fabulous dinner (more food and drinks!), with some of our Academy Ladies attending.

Not nearly enough ladies went in the charity bunker at the 10th, Gibraltar, but they still managed to raise plenty of money for Breakthrough T1 Diabetes, with help from the very generous visiting party who were playing behind and who finished off the refreshments and said it was the best halfway house they have ever used and loved the playlist.

A very memorable day for this year's Lady Captain, Tracie Trewin, and brilliantly supported by our marvellous ladies' section; a day full of fun, laughter, friendship, eventual sunshine and some very good golf.

Notable congratulations to the overall winner, Judith Barnes (40 points) whose name will now be added to the board.

Moortown’s part in Walter Hagen's final Open win

One of the great side stories of the 1929 Ryder Cup was the one of Ernest Hargreaves, a 16-year-old clothing factory worker from Leeds and a caddy at Moortown, who would spend the week of the matches on the bag of the US skipper Walter Hagen.

“On the Monday before the Ryder Cup I was watching the professionals arrive. Everybody had come except Mr Hagen, (Johnny) Farrell and (Gene) Sarazen. I saw a taxi coming, somebody said Mr Hagen was inside and so I just walked up to it as it pulled up and offered my services. He said it would be alright. Later I asked him if he was fixed up for the Ryder Cup match and he said again it would be alright.”

After the matches Hargreaves would be asked to caddy at the Open at Muirfield and Hagen duly won by six shots. It would be the American's fourth Open win and his last Major victory.

"It is probable that the crowd figure was 12,000. The spectators were orderly enough but there was just as much stampeding down the fairways as at Moortown, especially when Hagen was playing the last hole," wrote the Yorkshire Post.

"The hole was lined all the way from tee to green by people four or five deep and when they all congregated at the last green they made an immense ring, standing 20 to 25 deep. Photographers and film men had to stand on ladders, chairs and the roof of the starter’s box to take the pictures.

"Hagen was bunkered at this hole but he pitched up well to be sure of his five and before putting he relaxed
completely and promised his small and radiant caddy, Ernest Hargreaves, the ball he was playing in the last round, the one he had established the record, and a handsome gratuity.

"Young Hargreaves looked the proudest person of the course - “We have won, sir,” he said when he came to the press tent afterwards to show me the ball which Hagen had given to him."

The American gave Hargreaves his winner’s prize of £75 and they would work together again, back at Moortown, for the Yorkshire Evening News 1000 Guineas Tournament. Hargreaves would go on to caddy for Henry Cotton and write a book ‘Caddie in the Golden Age: My Years with Walter Hagen and Henry Cotton’.

Final Qualifying for the 154th Open will take place at on Tuesday across four venues; Dundonald Links, West Lancashire, Burnham & Berrow and Royal Cinque Ports.

Two Moortown members, Will Swarbrick (0700 & 1245) and Oliver Cage (0805 & 1350), will tee it up at Dundonald with the top five golfers progressing to Royal Birkdale in a fortnight.

Robert Rock is among those also competing on the Ayrshire coast, likewise Angel Hidalgo, who has secured his place at Dundonald in each of the past two years.

Elsewhere Sergio Garcia, Danny Willett and Matthew Jordan are in the field at West Lancs.

Eliot Baker, runner-up in the recent Brabazon Trophy at Moortown, is in the field at Burnham & Berrow, alongside Marc Leishman and Sahith Theegala, while Branden Grace is at Royal Cinque Ports – the South African famously shot a 62 the last time the Open was at Birkdale.

Luke Poulter, Thomas Detry, Zane Scotland and Thriston Lawrence are also playing in Kent.

Link to Dundonald draw here..

Final Qualifying | Dundonald Links | The Open Read all about Dundonald Links, one of the four Final Qualifying venues for The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale in 2026.

The Ultra Golf Challenge - seven rounds in one day (a heatwave) - in aid of MND

Moortown's head professional Martin Heggie on a long but incredible day's golf...

'Well we couldn’t have picked a hotter day! It was a 3am alarm to be on the tee at Headingley for 3.54am. Following the ball for the first few holes was tough but 1h 31m later the flag went in the 18th hole and it was off to Alwoodley. Fresh socks and shoes and at 5.38am we were off again.

We played some of our best golf, inspired by their vice-captain Steve Ellis walking the full round. Alwoodley is a great foursomes course and it was our quickest of the day at 1h 24m. Back to base camp for showers, a full change and more fuel from my wife, Jo.

Then off to Sand Moor where the greens were lightning fast and after 1h 35m we were finished – 54 holes and it was only 9.30am!

Straight to Roundhay and a first for Annie. It was great to see Roundhay in good condition and we flew round. Highlights were both of us threading it through the trees on the 9/18th to leave eagle putts that sadly we left short after the speed of Sand Moor. Round in 1h 26m.

Back to base again, Dave Holden came and sorted all the kit into his car and then it was off to Leeds GC which was the toughest of the day, 1h 41m in the blistering heat.

Roger Limbert was there with the air conditioning blasting to take us to Scarcroft, here we made our best decision in having another shower and change.There were a few more tired shots but we skipped through a few groups and finished 1h 50m.

Steve Holliday was waiting with another chilled Audi, then back to base for one final time and then it was back on home soil. It was so encouraging to see a crowd around the 1st tee as we walked up from home and grandson Rory was very excited that PopPop was playing with his friend!

At 6.41pm Annie cracked another drive straight down the middle with the boss, Peter, on the bag and I had the best-dressed caddie of the day in Kaz.

We had some fantastic support and, while the golf was definitely deteriorating on my behalf, Annie drove the ball superbly and we were round in 1h 45m.

We did a combined 125,000 steps, covered 61 miles, we were a long way off our 493 target of shots which really was a pipe dream (493 being the number of games Rob Burrow played for Leeds). We took 544 shots, averaging under 78 in foursomes with not lining up a putt which is still pretty impressive.

We are both totally blown away by the support we received having raised now over £8,000 with Gift Aid. We have a few fantastic raffle prizes that we will sort out this week and hopefully we can get that over £10,000.

To the caddies – Cav, Eddie, Dave Ellis, Nick Collins, Antony Burrows, Martin Gaffney, Kenny Miller, Paul Emmett, Russell Hudson, Peter Jones and Jonathan Sheffield – a huge thank you.

And thank you to everyone, we are both so proud to work at such an amazing club – and let’s hope our little bit of pain helps those in so much more.’

North Leeds Ultra Golf Marathon for Motor Neurone Disease Association Help Martin Heggie raise money to support Motor Neurone Disease Association

Bryon Hutchinson obituary

Bryon Hutchinson, a former PGA Captain who competed at the game’s premier level, was an influential figure on and off the course as a member of the Association and served Moortown Golf Club for 40 years.

Bryon was born in Sheffield and encouraged at early age to play golf by his father, a member of Beauchief Golf Club in the city. And showing a clear talent for the game, a career as a professional soon became inevitable.

On turning professional in 1954 at the age of 17, he joined the PGA and was elected to membership in the same year. He initially worked as an assistant to Harold Lees at Dore and Totley Golf Club in Shefield before moving to Sitwell Park Golf Club near Rotherham.

He followed up with a spell at Hallowes Golf Club in Dronfield in neighbouring Derbyshire. However, such was Bryon’s loyalty to and love for Yorkshire that when his first wife, Romaine, was expecting their first child, he had her moved back to his home county to give birth.

“In those days, if you weren't born in Yorkshire, you couldn't play cricket for the county,” his son Gary explained. “So mum was shipped back to Yorkshire to have me.”

That problem was never likely to reoccur as Bryon was poached by Moortown in 1963 to succeed Ted Large as head professional and, remaining there until he retired in 2003, became the club’s longest serving head professional.

Moortown had staged the first Ryder Cup match in Great Britain and, ironically, Bryon missed out playing in the event at Royal Birkdale in 1969 due to a quirk in the selection process.

“These days selection for what has become Team Europe is based on performances produced over two years,” clarified Gary Hutchinson, who also became a PGA Professional.

“He had a good year in 1968, but selection was determined by performances in odd not even years and, as he did not do so well in 1969, he missed out.”

That good year included him setting a course record at Southerndown in the Vale of Glamorgan in finishing third behind Brian Huggett in the Martini International.

Then in the News of the World Matchplay Championship at Walton Heath in 1970 he defeated Australia’s five-time Open Championship winner Peter Thomson.

He enjoyed another memorable day at the top level when he was paired with Arnold Palmer in the Open Championship. “He told me it was the most frightening tee shot he'd ever had because he got to the first tee and all he could see was people left and right,” Gary Hutchinson recalled. “He said it was like playing inside a tunnel, but he knew they weren’t there to watch him.”

Bryon qualified to play in three other Open Championships with his best result coming at Muirfield in 1972 when he finished tied-60th, a stroke ahead of one of his successors as PGA Captain, the current incumbent David Llewellyn.

Closer to home, Bryon won the oldest trophy in professional golf that is still played for, the Leeds Cup, four times in five years from 1968, missing out on five in a row by a stroke when Hedley Muscroft denied him victory at Leeds Golf Club in 1970.

Bryon’s final success in the tournament came in 1972, the year before he was selected to represent Great Britain and Ireland in the inaugural PGA Cup match against the USA at Pinehurst, North Carolina.

The match is now contested biennially but in the early days it was an annual event and Bryon returned to Pinehurst the following year as Captain.

Bryon was PGA Captain in the same year, a spell that was extended to 18 months when his successor Harry Riseborough passed away half way through his term of office. His time as Captain and as a member of the PGA Board coincided with a period of turbulence for the Association and ultimately change as the members who made their living primarily from playing in tournaments wanted more control over their affairs.

The upshot was the formation of what became the European Tour and, with the PGA based at the Oval cricket ground in London prior to its move to the Belfry in 1976, Byron made frequent trips to the capital to play his part in what were protracted and often stormy negotiations before the situation was resolved.

Bryon continued to serve on PGA committees and play a part in its affairs thereafter and compete in its tournaments. He also represented Moortown for the first time in the MacKenzie Cup at Royal Melbourne in 2000 and played in the event until he retired in 2003.

By then he had become Moortown’s longest serving professional by some distance and the club recognised his service and loyalty by granting him a testimonial year prior to his retirement.

Events included a testimonial pro-celebrity golf day to which many of his old professional friends were invited including Christy O'Connor Sr, Maurice Bembridge, John Garner and David Snell.

And the year concluded with a dinner at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate at which Bryon presented the club with a silver salver, to be known as the Hutchinson Salver to be played for annually.

Byron, who was made an honorary member by both the PGA and Moortown, is survived by Frances, his wife, son Gary, and daughter Kay. The PGA extends heartfelt condolences to them, and Byron’s other family and friends on their loss.

This article first appeared on the PGA website

Regional Qualifying for The Open At Royal Birkdale is taking place today, always a special day on the calendar

More than 2,000 golfers, including no fewer than nine who are representing Moortown*, are teeing it up over 18 holes across 16 different courses

The leading finishers will then advance to Final Qualifying at Dundonald Links, Royal Cinque Ports and two of our reciprocal clubs – West Lancashire and Burnham & Berrow on June 30

Good luck to everyone involved

* Will Swarbrick, Thomas Wrigglesworth, David Liversidge, Theo McCormick, Oliver Cage, Chris Green, David Houlding, Sid Beadle and Nick McCarthy

Live blog here 👇

Regional Qualifying | The Open | Royal Birkdale 2026 Details of Regional Qualifying for The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale in 2026.

Why Moortown duo will be playing 126 holes in one day

On Tuesday June 23 Moortown's Head Professional Martin Heggie and Assistant Secretary Annie Bailey will embark on an ultra golf marathon in support of MND.

Martin and Annie will be playing seven rounds on seven of North Leeds' famous courses in one day - Headingley, Alwoodley, Sand Moor, Roundhay, Leeds, Scarcroft and Moortown.

Inspired by Kevin Sinfield’s ultra marathons, in aid of his lifelong friend Rob Burrow’s fight against MND, Martin and Annie explain why they will be playing 126 holes of golf in just one day.

MH - Martin Heggie
AB - Annie Bailey

What inspired you to do this?

MH: Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow brought me to tears. So in 2022 I played 493 holes – the number of games Rob played for the Leeds Rhinos – in one week. That was very humbling and inspiring to me and I needed a new challenge and it’s all about seven. Annie told me one of her friends had lost her mum to MND so I said let’s do seven rounds in a day. We know that it’s a difficult challenge but people with MND face much worse every day.

AB: We both know people who have been affected by the condition. It can take away so much from someone and their loved ones so we agreed it would be great to do our bit and raise awareness. Rob always wore the iconic number seven shirt throughout his career with Leeds Rhinos so we decided on seven rounds in one day.

What are the logistic challenges that you will be facing?

AB: We will be playing seven different courses in the North Leeds area so trying to get our heads around timings to play each round and travelling to get to and from each course has taken some planning.

There will be times throughout the day when courses and traffic on the roads will be quiet and busy, outfit changes (because who wants to play 126 holes in the same pair of socks!) and thinking about what and when to eat and drink, so there’s a lot to consider.

I’d like to think that we have thought about every possible challenge that can come up but you never know what can happen on the day! The support we have had so far has been amazing, family, friends, and members have offered their help whether it be caddying or driving us to and from venues which will make a massive difference on the day and has made our lives easier to plan.

What will the format be?

AB: It will be foursomes, a favourite for Martin but it also means that it will help us get round fast – 493 is a significant number but that would mean under 71 shots per round, not impossible and it would be great if we could do that but the main goal is to make sure we complete the challenge.

MH: It’s not everyone’s favourite format even though it is possibly my favourite form of golf. We just need to be quick and there is no quicker format of golf than foursomes. We won’t be beating ourselves up to beat the 493 but that’s what we would love to do though basically finishing is all we want to do.

What do you anticipate being the biggest challenges?

MH: The timings of rounds 3-6 when everybody is playing and we want to steamroll – hopefully the caddies will be persuasive!

AB: Yeah, the biggest challenge will be when courses get busy and trying to keep up with our pace to get all seven rounds in.

What part of your body are you most worried about?

MH: It’s got to be my feet. FootJoy have kindly provided us with socks and shoes so a fresh pair of socks after every round should do the trick.

AB: Considering the number of steps we’ll be doing, I am worried about my feet. Martin arranged for me to get my feet measured by FootJoy to make sure I am wearing the best shoes along with a fresh pair of socks for each round so a massive thank you to Martin and FootJoy for that!

What’s the most holes in a day that you’ve played before?

MH: I’ve played 100 holes a few times and obviously the 493 was a special challenge and will stay with me forever.

AB: Honestly, not a clue. I think one time I played more than 36 in a knockout competition but certainly nowhere near the number of holes we’ll be playing on the 23rd.

Which will be new courses to you?

AB: I haven’t played Headingley, Roundhay, Leeds (Cobble Hall) and I’m yet to play all 18 holes at Scarcroft. I know Martin has played them all in the 493 challenge so I know who to ask if I need a line off a tee.

To sponsor 👇

North Leeds Ultra Golf Marathon for Motor Neurone Disease Association Help Martin Heggie raise money to support Motor Neurone Disease Association