Royal Epping Forest Golf Club

02/02/2026

It was another sad day for local golf clubs. After the destruction caused by the fire at West Essex Golf Club, my own club Royal Epping Forest Golf Club was ransacked for it's trophies and memorabilia. We had trophies going back 135 years that took just 5 minutes to remove. The sound of the breaking glass makes it all the more shocking when you hear it. Sadly replacing these items will never replicate the ornateness of some of these pieces. I hope this is a timely reminder to some of you who members of other sporting clubs to guard your precious trophies.

14/11/2025

The Poppy Appeal proved to be a wonderful way to close out the year. With 53 entries, a total of £159 was raised for the Royal British Legion.

A special mention goes to Päivi Mäntylä, whose tireless fundraising efforts deserve huge applause. There’s truly no escaping her when she’s on a mission for a good cause! Through the “Guess the Number of Titleist Balls in the Box” competition, Päivi raised an incredible £435 for the RBL.

The lucky winners each received a bag of 2nd chance Titleist balls — a well-earned prize for a great cause.

The total received in entry fees and contributions from members was a staggering £594.

Credit to the image by The T-Shirt Company.

03/11/2025

03/11/2025

After our annual AGM we had the Drive-In and Putt out. Linda Woods completed her term of office by putting out. Having putted the first putt some 6 feet past the hole managed to hole out with the return.

Next up—the Main Event. Our new Club Captain, Steve Cooper, kicked off his year with the traditional Drive-In. Everything was prepared perfectly: a dummy ball perched on a tall pile of sand. There could only be one result—a spectacular explosion of sand and mud, with the ball barely moving an inch.
Then came the real attempt, same setup, but this time with a genuine ball. Unfortunately, the result was much the same! While most people might have been mortified, Steve, true to form, handled it with plenty of good humour.

On behalf of ALL club members, we wish him well in his year of office.

28/10/2025

A Big Weekend for the Club!
Last Friday we enjoyed the annual Past Captain’s Dinner, always a great evening to catch up and celebrate the year gone by. The dinner precedes the AGM to be held this coming Friday, where members vote in our new Club Captain.
On Sunday, the celebrations continue with the Captain’s Drive-In — a fantastic way to kick off the new captain’s year.
A huge congratulations to Steve Cooper, our Club Captain elect! We wish you all the best for the year ahead.
And a special shout must go to Dudley Barker, who played in the Past Captains’ round of golf before the dinner and returned a brilliant 42 points — well done, Dudley!

08/09/2025

Sunday saw the ladies play in the national final of the NAPGC Whitewebbs Trophy at Winter Hill GC near Cookham.
Two 4BBB pairs entered a total 75 points, finishing in 3rd place.

But there was only a three point difference with the winners Huntswood on 78 followed by Plymouth on 76 REFGC on 75 and Warley Woods on 69 points.
Well done for getting there
Linda Woods
Tracey Sharpe
Paivi Mantyla
Sarah Cooper.

The course is closed daily up till 14:00 from today (Monday) through to Thursday this week as the Corporation carry out essential seasonal maintenance.

11/08/2025

Saturday saw our Captains' Day event in really glorious weather. Not many pics of the day but everyone had a really good time, which went on late into the evening.
What a truly fantastic day it was. From start to finish everything seemed to run smoothly.
There were a few comments about speed of play but other than that everyone looked to be having a good time.
This was made possible by our helpers starting with Thelma Edwards, at the registration table. As organised as ever with our scorecards prepared that would put German efficiency to the test.
Brian Sinden who was our starter for the day. Not only that but he helped out by bringing the drinks, table and, chairs back.
Sue Taylor and Lisa Chinnery on the halfway house with enough cake on offer to feed half of Chingford.
Our wonderful bar staff who kept the queues down and the table clear of glasses. Sue, Alice B, Alice J, Jack
Matt Hartnell & Steve Cooper for wrestling with the halfway tent and replacing our club flags at the end of the day with the CoL flags and putting out all the NP and longest drive markers.
Finally, the food. Andy Shaw provided a fantastic feast. There was next to no queuing for food which was plentiful and varied. All in all a great day made possible by our helpers, staff and volunteers.
Now the results for the day
Alan Higgs - Winner (Best Back 9) Louis Pereira
Nearest Pin - 3rd Tom Dallender
Nearest Pin - 7th Paul Lovney
Nearest Pin - 13th John Crafer
Nearest Pin (In 2) - 12th Steve Herber
Nearest Pin (In 3) - 17th (Ladies) Linda Woods
Nearest the Line 15th Mark Dennant
Longest Drive Men - Tom Dallender
Longest Drive Ladies - Linda Woods
Guest Winner - Sadeem Abutrab
Guest Runner Up - Stean Pennicott
Guest Third Place - David Woods
Ladies Winner. - Tracy Sharpe **and Lady Captains Salver Winner
Ladies Runner Up - Paivi Mantyla
Ladies Third Place - Andrea Keeble
Cat 3 Winner - Louise Pereira
Cat 3 Runner Up - Dave Edwards
Cat 3 Third Place - Richard Ahlstedt
Cat 2 Winner - Pav Latif
Cat 2 Runner Up - Martin Hacker
Cat 2 Third Place - Bob Taylor
Cat 1 Winner - Tom Dallender
Cat 1 Runner Up - Luke Randall
Cat 1 Third Place - Jason Arnold
Overall Winner - Tom Dallender - Winner of the Captains Chalice

17/07/2025

Our annual REFGC Vets Masters was held at our regular venue The Epping Golf Club. The normal start to proceedings being the obligatory bacon roll and coffee before tee off. The Vets Captain Dudley Barker led the matches out for what was to be a high scoring round for some.
Nigel Reynolds secured the win though with 41 points, with a number of 40 points hot on his tail.

On top of that we had the longest Drive - Pav Latif, Nearest the pins on 2 Terry Playle, 7 John Maloney, 10 Dave Edwards, 12 Terry Playle, 17 Duncan Mitchell.

Prior to the presentations we finished off with the standard golfers fayre of ham egg and chips.

A great day out and well organised as always by Murray Lawton-Dauie.

15/04/2025

Hi everyone, it's a long time since our previous post. Hope to make more regular posts now the season is up and running.

Some good, some not so good news.
We went out in the first round of the EGU Norman Plum last weekend then came through with a great 7 ½ to 1 ½ win against Stoke-By-Nayland in the EGU John Day Trophy.
Round 2 is against either West Essex or Nazeing.

Today (Sunday) Jack and Reg Clayden playing in the Daily Mail Foursomes but unfortunately lost away at Stapleford Abbots GC losing down the last.

Today (Sunday), some of you may not have known but we played our first EGU Leslie F. Wood Trophy match away at Hainault Forest GC, 2023 beaten finalists.

The five foursomes matches left us trailing 3-2 before the afternoon singles matches.

The weather closed in with intermittent showers and a cold wind but done nothing to dampen our spirits.
A mention to Danny Legg who found himself dormy 3 down. But he didn’t panic and stuck to his task. Keeping his ball in play off the tee on the three remaining holes he maintained his composure and got his opponent rattled. He went on to win the remaining three holes securing a well-deserved half.

The team winning 9 ½ to 5 ½ it was a major statement to the rest of the field.

Team was:
John Lindsay, Ted Lindsay, Lee Francis, Charlie Mason, Steve Herber, Paul Wilson, Paul Lovney, Gary Middleton, Tom Dallender and Danny Legg.

The 2nd round is at Home on Sunday 18th May against Garon Park, who had a Bye in the 1st round. We need to keep up our tradition of coming out to support our team as we seem to be the only team that has more supporters than the home team when we’re away.

Sal Dobran played in the EGU Alan Lockwood singles knockout on Friday. After a bit of a Rules discussion with his opponent he managed a good 2 up win.
NOTE: Do yourselves a favour and try to bone up on the rules around Matchplay and how holes can be lost simply by not understanding the Rules.

NEXT Saturday: We have the 2nd match in the Jubilee Cup. At Home to Clacton on Sea we need to make up for our previous loss. As always, I’m sure home advantage will be a major factor as in all matches.

02/03/2025

Saturday was officially the 1st day of Spring except nature didn't know about it. With heavy fog we began play with promise of clear blue skies later.
So it proved to be. With heavy waterlogged fairways the going was certainly hard. If the weather continues to improve we should see leaves starting to appear on the trees which will start to dry out the course.

12/01/2025

For those of us who chose to stay in bed this morning we missed a lovely sunrise over the course.
One of our more hardy members wasn't put off by the freezing temperatures and was rewarded with these amazing scenes looking down the 4th and 8th.

05/01/2025

We have been informed that our closest neighbours, Chingford Golf Club are closing their doors for the last time on the 31st of March. Having reached a milestone, 100th anniversary last year they decided to retire their long history in the area.

See attached link for an outline of their history.
https://chingfordgolfclub.org.uk/?p=8732

During that time, we have had some very good matches against them as well as making up one of the clubs being represented in the Forest Cup which until now has comprised Royal Epping Forest, Chingford, Theydon Bois, Woodford and the Guildhall Golf Society.

We wish them well wherever they play their golf.

Tradesmen Chingford Golf Club was formed in 1923 by a group of local tradesmen who could only join the existing private club as “artisans”. The founding members were: C. Chasney, A.V Marshall, W.J.…