Tough conditions for Weston trophy

ON a day of strong winds, extremely fast greens and long rough, the Grand Atlantic Trophy, a 36-hole medal at Weston Golf Club was a tough test.

No-one played under par either in the morning or the afternoon rounds and despite the torrential rain during the night before, the course held up well.

The winner of the nett event was Stuart Hardy from Forest Hills Golf Club with 72, 72 = 144 and Stuart also won the gross event for the Centenary Trophy with 146.

A special mention to Ollie Bliss (Weston), the course got the better of him in the morning, returning a nett 97 but in the afternoon he returned a 25 shot improvement with a 72.

He and his brother Luke (runner-up) were one of the few players with a handicap reduction.

Results – Grand Atlantic Trophy winner: Stuart Hardy (Forest Hills) 72, 72 = 144; Luke Bliss (Weston) 77, 71 = 148; Andy Balcombe (Weston) 75, 73 = 148.

Centenary Trophy: James Popham (Weston) 74, 75 = 149; Adam Sloan (Weston) 78, 74 = 152; Frank Ellis (Burnham & Berrow) 72, 80 = 152.

Nett pm: Nigel Browne (Weston) 71; gross pm: Thomas Lowe (Long Sutton) 75. Nett am: Robert Allen 71 (Broadstone); gross am: Justin Lane (Burnham & Berrow) 77.

The photo shows Stuart presented with his trophy by captain Mark Short.

WESTON EGU Gold Medal - Division 1: A Fernley 70; R Davidson 70; E Stephens 70; Gerry Taylor 71. Division 2: A Smith 69 (best nett and winner of the EGU Gold medal qualifier); M Jenkinson 70; C Rimmer 70; P Eastman 70.

WEDMORE held an open Stableford for the PGA Trophy and a tricky wind did not prevent good scores being achieved.

The men’s event was split into two divisions. In Division 1, third place went to Darryl Cornelius whose 37 points left him two points behind Mike Snelgrove. He was only one point off the winner Alan Chambers, who claimed first place with 40 points.

In Division 2, Mike Garbutt was third on 39 points with the first two places being settled by countback. In a good day for the the Snelgrove family, Perry Snelgrove, just held off Geoff Windsor to win, both players scoring 40 points.

This just left the overall prize and trophy for the best score of the day and this went to another family enjoying a purple patch. This time it was Josh Barwell, son of recently crowned club champion Ben, who had his day of glory, building on a front nine of 26 points to take the trophy with 41 points.

There were some good scores in the ladies’ section as well. In Division 1, Judy Cutter was second with 32 points, but this was five points behind divisional winner Claire Biggs on 37.

Val Webber finished as runner-up in Division 2, but was four shots behind Eileen Gillibrand who scored 34. The trophy for the overall winner went to Wendy Lucas, who came in with a handicap reducing 38 points to claim the title.

The ladies held their Summer Bowl, a trophy for the best gross score in the monthly medal which went for the second time to Liz Hill who carded a gross 84.

This was also good enough for her to win the medal with a nett 73, putting her one shot ahead of Eunice Bond who was a further shot ahead of Maggie Morris in third.

The next three places went to Aileen Robertson, Sue Painter and Wendy Lucas all of whom scored 76, places being awarded on countback.

PGA trophy winners Josh Barwell and Wendy Lucas and other prizewinners receiving their prizes from captains Cathy Olive and Ian Robson.

WORLEBURY opened its doors to players from local, as well as members of courses further afield for their annual invitation day.

An excellent turn-out of 144 participants in 72 pairings took to the course, which was in fine condition.

The winners on the day were Worlebury member Kevin Pearson and guest R Harris with a superb return of 42 points. Second was member Mark Otterburn and M Lyons also scoring 42, just ahead of Julian Winn and partner J Parrot on 41. Mike Amesbury and J Neary were fourth. The nearest to the pin prize was won by guest player J Tozer.

Frank Hopkinson put himself into the hall of fame by taking the Centenary Cup in the seniors’ competition with a 40 point haul in the first division, just beating Malcolm Summers on 39 points in second and Alan Hartree on 38 in third.

In the second division, Fred Toms took the honours on 39 points from Roger Clouter on 38 in second and Ivor Doel with the same score in third place.

Ryan Jones won the midweek Stableford first division on 39 points from Denis Thompson in second on 38 with Charles Lewys 36 in third.

The second division was won by John Phillips (38), beating John Sokol and Joe Joyce second and third both on 33. Division 3 was won by Rob Jones on 35 points, with Rodney Arms (30) second and Rob Gough (27) third.

The seniors’ had two fixtures this week, firstly a good 5.5-1.5 victory against The Mendip club, but they did not do so well against local rivals Mendip Spring, losing by a similar margin.

The seniors’ captain’s day was a victim of the continuing poor summer, after a shotgun start the field managed about three holes before having to abandon the competition.

WESTON seniors’ continued their trophy competitions with the Padre Cup with an entry of 59 golfers.

The competition was won by one of Weston longest-serving golfers, Gordon Robert. He won by five points from John Atherton, with another of the seniors’ fine golfers, Trevor Knott, third.

However, for one golfer the day was even more memorable. Terry Holden had the rare achievement of a hole-in-one on Weston’s difficult par three seventh hole.

Results: Gordon Robert (6) 41 pts; John Atherton (20) 35; Trevor Knott (9) 35; Eddie Langford (9) 35; Tony Chapman (10) 35; Nigel Jillings (13) 35; Tony Hynam (10) 34; Rick Fowler (15) 33.

PETE Douglas was the clear winner of the June seniors’ medal at Brean following his superb nett 66.

His margin of victory was eventually six shots, but it would have only been two if Mike Allen had remembered to sign his card before handing in his nett 68.

As he failed to do so he was unfortunately disqualified and the runners-up spot went to Pat Mullholland on 72. Mullholland’s back nine score then relegated Colin Roberts into third position on countback.

The seniors’ team kept up their winning ways in their first home match over the new layout. Near neighbours Weston were the visitors in what was the return fixture of the one aborted at Weston by the wet weather. The home side just shaded a close and enjoyable game by a 4-3 margin.

The Avalon League Division 2 side made the trip to the centre of Taunton to take on Vivary Park in their latest league encounter. A couple of the Brean pairs found the tight confines of the tree-lined course not to their liking and this combined with good play from the home side saw two heavy losses.

Brean did manage to pick up a couple of wins which gave them some valuable league points as they maintain their challenge at the top of the table.

The ladies’ hosted Taunton Vale in an inter-club match. The weather wasn’t at its kindest and the game ended in defeat for the home side by 2.5-1.5.

It was a close finish in the latest round of the Super Series with Phil Aspinall coming out on top of a three-way tie for 37 points. Ian Adams returned to form in second place, while Clive Goode took third.

Both Brean professionals didn’t enjoy the best of fortunes in the Microsoft Masters event at Bowood in Wiltshire. Andrew March enjoyed a much-improved performance on the second day which moved him up the final standings.

His colleague David Haines unfortunately had a day to forget in his second round and slid down the leaderboard after he had been in a strong position to mount a challenge after his opening level par 72.

They will both now regroup and look forward to the next event at Cumberwell Park again in Wiltshire later this month.

A TRIP to a stunning Mexican beach resort is in store for amateur Mike Edwards and his Mendip Spring PGA professional John Blackburn if they can come through the regional final of Europe’s biggest pro-am competition, the Virgin Atlantic PGA National Pro-Am Championship.

Mike Edwards took his first big step towards a luxury trip to the grand final at the Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort in Cancun, between December 4-8, when he won the club qualifying competition with a nett score of 73.

He and John Blackburn played Saunton Golf Club today (Wed), one of 16 regional finals, where they will play one round of better-ball medal play. The winners at each regional final will secure their place on board a Virgin Atlantic jet for the 36-hole grand final being staged at the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at the tropical resort.

Edwards, is a 56-year-old bar steward from Nailsea. He plays off a handicap of 15. Blackburn, aged 41, has been a professional at Mendip Spring for 20 years.

BURNHAM & Berrow’s Avalon League season got a big boost with a 4.5-0.5 win over Windwhistle.

The 11 points gained puts Burnham in second place in Division 3 with a game in hand. They are now just five and a half points behind Orchardleigh, with another four matches to play.