Northern Golf Masters 2025

On the day...

After what was looking to be a 30+ degree heatwave, thankfully the temperatures settled around the mid 20’s, but a very challenging wind added some theatre to the day.

In the balloted field of 60 players, after round 1 there was a three-way tie on +2, 74, between Richard Wheatley (Bradford GC), Michael Calvert (Wearside GC) and Cameron Pipe (Rockliffe Hall GC), where the leaderboard was stacked with a further 20 players all within 4 shots of the lead.

For the second round, the challenge of the near 14,500 yard competition began to show, with a few of the early leaders dropping down the leaderboard upon the competition of round 2, and it was looking that a few rounds of over par would make the top of the leaderboard. However, after starting round 2 in T4 position, Gavin Nesbit had a flying start of 3 birdies in a row, and a further 3 birdies on the back 9, secured him the low round of the day (68), on his way to victory with 75-68, total 143 (-1).

The only other sub-par round of the day belonged to our back to back reigning champion, Adam Rochester of Blackwell Grange GC, with his second round of 71 (-1). After a round 1 of 76, Adam would finish in second place with a 147 total.
Richard Wheatley (Bradford GC), Tom Smith (Eaglescliffe GC) and Jack Burton (Wynyard GC) complete the top 5 places respectively. 
Cameron Pipe (Rockliffe Hall GC) receives the Lowest Round 1, and Ryan Riley (Wynyard) takes the Lowest Round 2.

Words from the winner...

Northern Golf Masters champion, Gavin Nesbit, said, “I'm delighted to have won this year's Northern Golf Masters, I've had a 2nd and 4th place finished in a couple of 36 hole scratch tournaments this season to date so it's nice to be able to get my name on the trophy this time around.

I had some putting coaching with Rockliffe's Stuart Clayton recently and he gave me some advice which has been really useful and my improved putting was the contributing factor to my scoring this weekend.

I got off to a fast start birding the first 3 holes in my afternoon round which set me up nicely for the rest of the round and despite a couple of mid round bogeys, 3 more birdies coming in was a nice way to finish off a great day."

Head of Golf at Rockliffe Hall, Tom West shared his thoughts on this year's competition, “It’s great to host the Northern Golf Masters as we enjoy showcasing the golf course at Rockliffe Hall from the Black Tees. 

It’s great to have so many of our Rockliffe Hall members playing in the event, along with some of the top amateur golfers from around the North of the country. 

We hope that with the inclusion in both Order of Merits, and the benefit of a challenge you can’t find anywhere else, the competition will continue to grow in the fashion it was originally intended to.”