Competitions

ESTEC Golf Club

Competitions

The Club has a full programme of internal competitions, ranging from Social Competitions, intended as a gentle and fun introduction for newcomers to the Club, to the Club Championship, a strokeplay competition played off scratch over two days. In between there is a wide range of individual and team competitions suitable for all levels of ability.

As well as internal competitions, we play matches against other clubs in the Netherlands and participate in several international competitions. The key events are shown below and the dates (which vary from year to year) can be found on the calendar.

In principle all Club members with a valid handicap are eligible for any competition although there may be specific limitations for some of them. To participate in a competition you have to register either on the sign-up list in The CheckInn or via email to the event organiser.

The Monthly

The EGC Monthly Competition is held every month - normally on the first Sunday of the month. All members of the EGC are eligible to play. They may introduce greenfee paying guests if there is space although guests may not win prizes other than “nearies”.

Players with Exact Handicaps of 22 or lower (Category 1) play a strokeplay competition. Players with Exact Handicaps greater than 22 (Category 2) play a Stableford competition. For the purposes of the competition, the maximum number of 'Strokes Received' shall correspond to an Exact Handicap of 36.0.

The Club Championship

This is the Club's premier competition. It is played over both days of a weekend, usually at the end of the Summer. It is open to all Club members with an EGA handicap or a Club Handicap of 36.0 or lower. All participants play from the yellow tees. The format is strokeplay, without handicap adjustment. The first 18 holes, played on Saturday, determine the best 27 players, who go through to the final 36 holes, played on the Sunday. The winner is the player with the lowest score over the 54 holes. If necessary there is a sudden-death playoff.

Club Matchplay Competition

This is a knockout matchplay competition and is open to all Club members with an Exact Handicap of 36.0 or lower. Matches are played throughout the season, with deadlines for the completion of each round.

Ladies Matchplay Competition

This is a knockout matchplay competition for lady members with an exact handicap of 36.0 or lower. Matches are played throughout the season, with deadlines for the completion of each round.

Presentation Tournament

This is usually held on the last Saturday of January and is open to all Club members. It is played "against Par" with handicap adjustment. It is followed in the evening by a dinner at which the previous year's trophies are presented.

Pea Soup Tournament

This is a strokeplay tournament, with full handicap adjustment, for those with an Exact Handicap of 45 or lower, played in late February. Afterwards we gather for erwtensoep, rookworst etc.

Social Competitions

These are held about five times during the season. They are strictly for fun, with the aim of welcoming to the Club those players with little or no experience of (competitive) golf. The format, usually some form of scramble, is chosen to be very forgiving and allows even beginners to win prizes.

Christmas Charity Competition

Traditionally, this is the last competition of the season, held on the Sunday after the December Monthly and the day before the Club AGM. It is also the final Social competition, the objective of which is to raise as much money as possible for the nominated charity of the year - usually chosen by the Ladies Captain. After the competition there is a gathering in ESCAPE for food (provided by the participants), drinks and a raffle.

Masters Competition

This is an individual matchplay competition between a team of "Category 1" players (Exact Handicap 22.0 or lower), captained by the Club Captain and a team of "Category 2" players (Exact Handicap > 22.0), captained by the Club Chairman. It is usually held in April.

The Geel Open

This is a two-day (36 hole) competition organized by the Joint Research Centre at Geel in Belgium and open to golfers from a range of European institutions. It is held at the Kempense Golf Club. In addition to the Geel Open Champion (best individual gross score over two days) there are individual prizes for both low (strokeplay) and higher (Stableford) handicap players.

Ryder Cup

This competition against the European Patent Office (EPO) in Rijswijk is played in four parts, for a total of 24 points. The formats are Foursomes (home), Greensomes(away), Four ball, better ball (away), and Singles (home).

Bedrijfs League

This consists of five teams (at the momeThe ESTEC, Shell, Pakzout, EPO, BP Rotterdam and BHP Billiton).

The format is individual matchplay, with six players in each team, selected by the Club Captain. Each team plays all the others, both home and away.

Matches are played on weekday evenings. A separate "Finals Day" is held, with a dinner afterwards.

JRC Plate

This competition is played on a Friday in the Spring against the EC's Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Petten (NH). It is usually played at ESTEC in "even" years and at JRC (usually at the "Noord Hollandsche" - Sluispolder) in "odd" years. The format is individual Stableford.

The day ends with a good dinner and the prize-giving.

J. v.d. Noort Trophy

The van de Noort Tropy is the most important ladies competition of the year, being the Ladies Championship Competition. It is an individual strokeplay competition competition with full handicap adjustment.

Dunhill Cup

The EGC 'Dunhill' Cup is a medal match-play competition between teams representing different countries (or geo-political groups). A team comprises a squad of three to six players. Teams play matches against each other, with a match comprising three individual games of members of a team playing head-to-head against the other team. The lowest score, after handicap adjustment winning the game.

The Colin Rolls' Competition

This is a four-leg (greensome, scramble, better ball, foursome) team competition held between April and July. The Competition, previously known as the EGTEC is named after it's founder and long standing club member Colin Rolls. Any Club member is entitled to set him/herself up as a team captain and to recruit team members, usually with some loose sort of theme. Nominally a team submits any number of flights of 2 golfers per leg with the scores of the best 2 flights making the team score. Players can participate in the rounds that they wish but the main purpose of the competition is to have fun.

Tespelduyn

The Club has an annual competition played at home and away against Tespelduyn - a club located in Noordwijkerhout.

Sponsors' Day Competition

This is a lighthearted Stableford competition in which our sponsors are invited to provide one or two teams each. Normally there is plenty of room to make up "ESTeC" teams as well.

Captains' Day

The Club Captain and Lady Captain will host separate competitions for (gentle) men and ladies respectively, held on the same day, with an event in the evening.

Captain's Challenge

Each year, the Club Captain invites former captains to participate in a competition played on an outside course (plus "aprés-golf").

Serco Challenge

This is a Stableford competition between a team from Serco and a team from ESTeC. The team with the highest aggregate score wins.

Chairman's Challenge

This is a pairs better ball stableford competition, but the par for the course is set by the Chairman and Captain who play a pairs better ball in the morning of the competition. The par for each hole is only revealed after the competition play has been completed.

EOGTT

The European Organizations Golf Team Trophy is an international competition for teams of up to six players. The best four Stableford scores over two rounds are counted and the team with the best aggregate score wins. It is usually played in September.

Ariane Cup

This is an international competition for teams of four from companies and organizations involved with the development of Ariane. It is usually played in September.

The ESA Cup

The ESA Cup, established in 2009, is an annual event that takes place in the spring, usually in May. It rotates amongst ESA establishments, who host it. This competition is played over two days, has a Stableford format and the top best scores are combined to determine the winner.