Weston ladies finish fifth in national competition

WESTON Golf Club ladies played in the final of the National Golf Club Challenge at the prestigious Turnberry Golf Club.

This is the second time the club have qualified for the final and the charity has now raised almost one million pounds for the Help for Heroes charity.

The event, now in its seventh year, was played on the Kintyre course, as the Ailsa course is being remodelled following the acquisition by Trump International.

With unusually calm conditions, the course played long and the high number of pot bunkers made scoring very difficult.

With the best four scores to count out of a team of five, it was clear that the most consistent team would win. The ladies - Jan Bishop, Sally Brosnan, Sue Garrett, Sue Osman and Tessa Pitt all played well at times, but were unable to string a run of points together.

The ladies finished on 105 points in total, which left Weston in fifth place. Tessa Pitt had an eagle on the par five, 539-yard 14th hole.

The overall winners were from the Rayleigh Club in Essex. Another local team from Long Ashton finished in sixth place. However, the Players Club from Bristol won the Lee Westwood Trophy in the men’s competition.

Weston past lady captains got together for an 18-hole Stableford competition, followed by an excellent meal in the clubhouse. Last year’s captain Tessa Williams hosted the event and the golfers were joined in the evening by non-playing past captains and current lady captain Julie Ward.

Winning the trophy this year with 33 points was 2007 captain Diney Costeloe. Runner-up was 1996 captain Wendy Homer and Sue Andow, captain in 1978 came third.

A tricky wind and fast greens greeted Weston seniors competing in the first qualifying round of the Alan Holt Trophy. This annual competition sees four qualifying rounds over the course of the winter, with the first two in each round progressing to a knockout tournament, which will be held next summer.

The winner of this first leg was Dennis Chilcott, who shot a three under par, nett 67, beating Anthony Barry into second place by one shot, with Barry gaining second place by virtue of a countback over three other players.

THE seniors held the first of the festive season’s competitions at Worlebury and it was Ken Hirst who had most to be merry about when he top scored with 41 points to win Division 2.

Fred Toms was a clear second on 39 points, but third place was highly contested, with Pat Balchin coming out on top of a host of fellow competitors, each of whom had 38 points.

Tony Foster won Division 1 with 40 points. Countback was needed to determine the other places with Geoff King pipping Nick Extence and Pete Gilpin.

The seniors followed this up with their October Stableford, which once more saw Division 2 returning the highest scores. David Brimfield and Kenny Yam both played exceptionally, scoring 42 points, but the latter lost out on countback. Seniors’vice-captain Ron Stevens was third with 40.

Division 1 was won by Dave Clark, his 38 points beating Ron Jamieson by one. A clutch of five players each had 36 points including the unlucky Pete Gilpin, who missed out yet again as Stuart Lock took third place on countback.

The first of the winter mixed greensomes was also held with a good field turning out. This was round one of a series which will be held during the winter, culminating in a contest for the Philpott Trophy in March 2016.

With the weather kind, the scoring was high and Kate and Martyn Chambers took full advantage to accumulate 45 points, edging out Michelle and Darrell James by two. Cheryl and Barry Saunders came third with 42.

The ladies held their Breast Cancer competition, a team event with two players scoring out of three. This was won by Judith Nicol, Cheryl Saunders and Julie Stafford with 81 points. Runners-up on 79 were Janet Keight, Lorna Macivor and Jane Wakerley. Pamela Douell, lady captain, Maxine Gardiner and Lynn Pope came third on 77.

The ladies also held a medal which was won comfortably by Louise Goodrum. Gardiner finished runner-up, pipping Julie Knight on countback.

The Foursomes Trophy was recently won by John Wright and Stuart Fawcett, who used all their guile and experience to beat Adie Marshman and Mark Puddy in the final.

THE week at Wedmore Golf Club started with what is classed as a fun event, a seniors’ greensomes, although it was still closely contested with only a single shot dividing the five prize-winning pairs.

The first two pairs both came in with 43 points, but a stronger back nine was enough to give first place to Phil Rogers and Derek Moody. The unlucky runners-up were Ivor Monelle and Brian Kidd.

The next three pairs all scored 42, so again countback was required to sort out the places. A birdie on 15 worth five points certainly helped third-placed Chris Donald and David Summers-Cooke, who just edged out John Stent and Barry Royal, who in turn finished ahead of Pete Bendell and Derek Osborn.

The ladies opted for a more serious medal, but had a similarly close finish with three shots covering the top seven.

Shot of the day undoubtedly came from Anya Patten, who scored a hole-in-one on the 18th hole. This undoubtedly moved her up several places, but was not quite enough to catch winner Linda Roberts whose score of 72 was the only nett par of the day.

Matching Patten’s score of 73 was Eunice Bond in third and then came four players all on 74. Deidre Wheadon took fourth place on countback with Hazel Gough in fifth, Cathy Olive in sixth and Saybria Sims the unluckiest of all, missing out on the prizes in seventh.

A PAIR of amateur golfers from Somerset has just missed out on an expenses-paid trip of a lifetime to Morocco at the southern regional final of the 2015 Morocco Matchplay, powered by HowDidiDo.

Eleven-handicapper Stephen O’Connell, aged 56, from Weston, and 65-year-old Brett Halling-Brown, a 12-handicapper from Compton Martin, both of whom are members at Burnham and Berrow GC, just failed to secure one of the two qualifying spots up for grabs at the Manor House Golf Club, Castle Combe, in Wiltshire.

A STUNNING nett 59 in the final round was enough to see Ray Byatt improve his score by no less than seven strokes and propel himself to the top of the leaderboard in the Brean seniors’ eclectic competition.

After the four completed rounds, his nett score was 53, 17 under par, and was two better than Pat Mullholland and Barrie Tucker. Mullholland was unable to improve on his overall score, but Tucker gained three shots but still ended up one shy of the winner. Seniors’ captain-elect Barry Fisher was fourth on 56.

The wet and windy weather didn’t stop some excellent golf being played in the pairs aggregate Stableford. The lower handicap players seemed to fare the best and one fourball provided the first and second place finishers.

Best individual score of the day came from Russell Shaw with 40 points, helped by an eagle two at the sixth when he holed his second shot. His partner Murray Parsons weighed in with 37 points to give them the winning total of 77.

Runners-up were their playing partners Jason Kidley and Matt Shaw, Russell’s son. Matt was not to outdone by his father as he also notched an eagle three at the par five 14th as he racked up 38 points to add to Kidley’s 36. More low handicappers came in third as the Broom cousin’s Dan and Tom combined for 72 points.

Nigel Hodges won the re-arranged Tom Childs Memorial Flag competition as he almost completed 19 holes with his shots allowance.

In the delayed event, he beat his handicap by four over the normal 18 holes and he ended within 18 inches of the hole. His nearest challenger was club captain Stuart Wills, who used his three remaining shots to find the middle of the first green.

Third place went to Matt Haskins who also had three shots like Wills and propelled his ball to just short of the first green.