HSC News Item: Sept 17, 2023 – Northern Hickory Tour (2023) Reported by: George Supol, GHSC Hickory Ambassador.

On Saturday, September 16, 2023, fourteen GHSC members travelled to Norfolk Golf and Country Club located in the Town of Simcoe in beautiful Norfolk County. This course is a 90-minute drive from Toronto and is near Lake Erie.

Norfolk GCC is a 9-hole, semi-private jewel of a golf course, built in 1895 with a design influenced by the renowned Stanley Thomson. The course features major elevation changes on every hole which makes it very challenging for hickory play. Yardages are hard to figure, especially since yardage markers are not always present or easily observed. This adds to the charm of the course if you are playing it without the benefit of GPS, as this Reporter did. Hickory golf is all about course management and exercising care and judgement in the selection of clubs to use and types of shots to hit—run-ups, lob, draws and fades, blind shots—and this course met all those expectations. There were also lots of well-positioned bunkers guarding the fast and sloping greens.

For the first nine, we played the yellow tees and there were 2 par 4’s, 4 par 3’s and 3 par 5’s. For the second nine we played the red tees and one of the par 5’s changed to a par 4, and though our group missed it—one of the par 3’s (#15 at 196 yds. uphill) changed to a par-4. Hole #9 was another challenging uphill par-3 playing to about 180 yards. Overall, this historical course measures approximately 4,900 yards but that is misleading given all the elevation changes. It “plays” longer than that.

Our event winner was Mike Stephenson with 24 Stableford points, followed by Gerald Achtymichuk with 22 points. George Supol and Vaughn Perusse won closest-to-the-pin shots on #7 and #11, respectively. George edged out Vaughn on #7, otherwise Vaughn would have won both prizes.

Doug Bowslaugh, Hickory Ambassador, organized the event and did a marvellous job of looking after the players that attended. This Reporter is certainly looking forward to a return trip to Norfolk GCC next year.

Below are pics taken by Frank and Donna Collis, plus three extra taken by Doug Bowslaugh. Frank is a GHSC Member and our Player/Photographer. Click on an image below to see a larger version.