Junior open held at Worlebury

WORLEBURY Golf Club held its junior open, sponsored by national house builder St Modwen Homes.

Proving a huge success, the annual junior golfing event attracted some 30 golfers from across the region to Worlebury.

The winner of the competition was 18-year-old Thomas Hamilton from Lansdown Golf Club in Bath, who scored a gross 72, which included a number of birdies and an eagle at the par five 15th hole.

Jackie Ireland, sales manager at Locking Parklands, attended the event and helped give out prizes to the winner and runners-up.

Colin Chandler, the junior open organiser at Worlebury, said: “The course offers a good challenge to both high and low handicap players. Although short in length, its narrow, tree-lined fairways and boundary walls present a number of ‘risk reward’ shots. Both the winner and runner-up in the event displayed fantastic course management.”

THE fine spell of weather has led to a hive of activity at Worlebury Golf Club.

The senior section in particular have had a busy time. Seniors’ captain Gerry Miles held a wonderfully supported captains day. Winners, in a full field were Alan Hartree and Nick Extence with 58 points, followed by John Langdon and Mike Strang on 55, with John Horobin and Dave Treleaven claiming third place with 53.

Nearest the pin prizes went to John Langdon and John Taylor.

There was a feather in the cap for the seniors’ scratch team who knocked out the holders Clevedon, at the quarter final stage of the Somerset Bowl.

Congratulations go to the team of Alan Hartree, Keri Allchurch, Frank Hopkinson, Dave Treleaven and Mike Usher-Clark, who recorded a fine 3.5-1.5 win.

Club professional Gary Marks held his fun weekend with a singles competition on the Saturday and pairs on the Sunday.

Joe Dale won the first division with 42 points, closely followed by Nick Carter on 41 and Kevin Marshall on 40. In Division 2, Martyn Chambers had 42, Gary Freeman 41 and Andrew Ullyott 39. Stuart Brown came out on top in the third division with 44. Second was John Hobbs on 42 and Graham Hewlett on 40.

Nathan Talbot and Dave Collard won the pairs with a fine score of 50 points. Jim Skinner and Pete Wyatt made a rare visit to the podium, their 49 pipping James Walton and Paul Shearing, who came third by a single point. The minor placings, were taken by John Keight and Dick Gorton and Gerry Miles and Philipe Vibert, both pairs scoring 47.

Club captain Keith Wharton hosted a highly successful captain’s cocktail evening with 130 guests enjoying fine food and wonderful entertainment which was provided by Kick the Cat.

Keith paid tribute to the social committee who organised a fantastic evening and thanked members for the sizeable sum which was raised for his charity, Weston Hospicecare.

A delighted Gerry Miles flanked by the competition winners.

WESTON lady captain’s day took the form of a fun bowmaker competition, with 36 ladies taking part in this team challenge.

Each team of four were given amusing instructions to use to their advantage on the course to improve their score.

The longest drive with a six iron was also recorded with a random joker hole enabling the team score to be doubled. The winning team who amassed an incredible 106 points were Gay Long, Angela Cook, Tessa Williams and Carol Harris, who were nine points ahead of the runners-up.

The amusement continued in the clubhouse with a comical sketch performed by captain Di Walker and fellow golfers Di Brown and Caroline Poole, with a strawberry cream tea and prize giving for all competitors.

The Grandmother’s Cup this year was won by a recently new grandmother, Sue Andow, securing the cup with 37 points. The Half Century Cup was won by Julie Ward scoring 38 points and who also achieved a recent hole-in-one. The Youth and Beauty Shield was won by Pam Hudson with 34 points.

Australian Spoons winners were Angela Cook and Wendy Homer with a best overall club score of 38 points. The Brockenshaw Bowl winner with a nett 71 was Joan Jenkinson. In second and third place on countback were Angela Cook and Sue Andow. In fourth place was Moira Parish with 72.

Boulton Cup bronze summer knockout winner 2013 was Tessa Williams.

Weston ladies are also through to the semi-final of the regional Rogers Cup competition after some tough opposition.

Pictured on the first tee are lady captain’s day winners (left to right): Gay Long, Angela Cook, Tessa Williams and Carol Harris.

WESTON Golf Club welcomed 80 visitors to its 57th seniors’ open, with a total of 122 golfers who enjoyed a gloriously sunny day.

The course was in great condition considering the hard fairways, but with excellent greens making for true links golf. Scoring however, was moderate, as there was a tricky breeze.

Visitors enjoyed their day by the seaside rather more than the home golfers, as most of the winners were visitors. Overall winner was Peter Harris from St Pierre with 39 points, and the runner-up was Rob Amphlett from Gaudet-luce (Worcester) with 38.

Best Weston player was Allan Tucker who won the Hutton Cup with 36. Age category winners were Chris Middleton from Brokenhurst (over-55) with 36, Chris George from Clevedon (over-65) with 38 and John Biggs from Worlebury (over-75) with 37.

Next year’s event will be held July 9, apply online at www.westonsupermaregolfclub.com

RICHARD Broom was joined by his son Dan to win the annual Father and Son Greensomes at Brean.

They totalled 43 points to relegate director of golf David Haines and his son Ben into the runners-up position, the second year running the Haines’s have dipped out on countback. In third place, just one point behind the leaders were Graham Foy and Mike Carter.

The annual trip for the Avalon League Division 2 to the tight and tricky confines of Vivary Park in Taunton ended in a tied game. They won one match, halved three and lost the final game on the final green.

As Brean were the away side, they collected more points than their hosts in the league table. The Division 6 side faced Orchardleigh at home the following day and enjoyed an emphatic 4-1 win.

The ladies played for the Secretarys Shanker and the format of the competition sees them restricted to just two clubs and a putter to complete the 18 holes. The lack of clubs seemed to sit well with the leading two players as both Annie Williams and Sheila Rouse handed in superb cards of 41 points, with Rouse winning on countback. Gail Mason was third.

The ladies have recorded their first victory over their senior counterparts for a while. They won 2-1 to claim the bragging rights for the year.

The monthly Stableford saw two players total 42 points, with Phil Aspinall claiming the Division 2 top spot, while Nigel Hodges matched it to take Division 3. Russell Shaw edged out Stuart Wills on countback for first place in the top flight.

Dave Barthram also topped the 40 point mark, but had to settle for second in Division 2, while Bob Masterman was runner-up in Division 3 with 36.

Back using her full set of clubs, Sheila Rouse matched her 41 points of the previous day to take the ladies’ Stableford top spot. Suzanne Hatfield was second on 33.

Graham Foy won the Super Series Stableford round with 42 points. Despite failing to score on a few holes, he took top spot by a single point from Pete Dunn with Ian Adams in third place on 39.

IT WAS the seniors’ championship at Wedmore, with John Russell seeking his fourth title and looking to become the first man to win both club and seniors’ titles in the same season.

In the event, he achieved this comfortably with none of the drama of the club championship. The first round, which also incorporated the monthly medal, saw him shoot 77 to establish a three shot lead over Terry Clark, with Frank Denniston and Steve Lawrence four shots further back in third.

In the second round, Clark went out of bounds on the third hole and his challenge fell away. Lawrence started impressively and began to reduce the deficit, but when Russell played the middle 10 holes in level par the contest was over.

A strong finish including an eagle at the 15th secured second place for Lawrence, but no-one was in touching distance of the winner.

Other prizes went to Chris McGowan, whose nett score of 132 was eight under handicap and sixth best gross. Best gross on day two went to Tony Glover with a steady 82 following a disappointing first day.

Best nett on day two was Derek Osborn with a 66. Best score from the Monday medal came from David Adams, who had a nett 61 to win Division 3 by five shots from Clive Williams and David Hollingdale.

Malcolm Timmis also had an excellent round of 64 to win Division 2 by two shots from Terry Stew and Chris McGowan. Frank Denniton took Division 1 from Russell and Clark. Highlight of the day was a hole-in-one from Ray French, a stalwart 28-handicapper.

The ladies enjoyed good scoring in their Stableford in sunny conditions, particularly in the bronze division. Vera Ireland led the way with 40 points, one ahead of Maggs Willetts, who needed countback to edge ahead of Sue Painter.

Liz Hill tok first place in silver division, her 37 points being one better than Rachel Lockley, with Judy Cutter a further shot back in third.

Prizewinners from the Wedmore seniors’ championship: Chris McGowan, Derek Osborn, vice-captain Peter Rowntree, champion John Russell and Steve Lawrence.