Weston ladies gain national recognition in Turnberry final

WESTON Golf Club ladies played in the national final of the Volvo Help for Heroes National Golf Club Challenge at Turnberry in Ayrshire.

The event was held on the famous Ailsa course, which has hosted four Open Championships. The team event was the culmination of local competitions and regional semi-finals.

The Weston team of Sally Brosnan, Joan Jenkinson, Moira Parish, Cathy Preston and Melanie Rossi, were supported by non-playing captain Di Walker and caddies.

The first round was day one of the individual Stableford, a combined event for ladies and gentlemen and was played in breezy and wet conditions. It was Jenkinson and Brosnan with 31 points each, who ended the first day in joint seventh place.

The final of the national team event took place on the second day in near gale force winds that made every point count. As the players reached the Turnberry lighthouse and started playing back towards the clubhouse, the wind provided a severe test which meant that very few of the 60 players scored over 30 points.

In the end, the combined Stableford points of the four top players of each team saw the ladies of Richmond Golf Club in Yorkshire take the title. The next four teams were separated by only a handful of points with Weston’s ladies finishing in fifth place in the team event.

After the second round of the individual event, Weston’s Jenkinson was in seventh place with 62 points, Brosnan was 10th with 59 and Preston finished 15th with 56.

The individual winner was also from Richmond Golf Club with a total of 68. The Turnberry event raised an additional £3,000 for the Help for Heroes charity.

THERE was a good turnout for the monthly Stableford at Worlebury.

The places in Division 1 were decided by countback with the top four all having 38 points. Stuart Fawcett’s strong finish helped him take the honours from Andy Nicholls, who, for the second week running was pipped at the post.

David Mellor came third with Terry Bradley pushed into fourth place. The best score of the day was returned by Henri Josling, the Frenchman continuing his rich vein of form to win Division 2 with a fine score of 41 points.

Lynden Squires came second with 40 points, while Barry Newson took third with 39, beating Stan Henderson on count back.

The weather took a turn for the worse and this was reflected in the scoring for the seniors in their monthly medal. Played in one division, former seniors’ captain Brian Eleanor came first with a good round of 69, narrowly beating Mike Amesbury by a single shot. Kenny Yam was third with a nett 71.

DAVE Bradley and Pete Barton combined perfectly to win the pairs aggregate Stableford competition at Brean.

Both players scored 38 points which were some of the joint best individual scores of the day and took top spot on 76.

The winners only enjoyed a one point winning margin though. Another player with 38 points, Tom Broom, paired up with club champion and his cousin Dan Broom, who returned just one less, to run the winners close.

Another 38 point scorer in John Mardon was complimented by 32 points from Tony Groves as they were awarded third spot with a total of 70.

The following day in the opening round of the Winter League, John Cullinan posted 42 points in gale force winds. He triumphed by six points over Kevin Davies. Cullinan was 10 points clear of third place finisher Roger Phillips as the majority of the field struggled to reach 30.

Ken Ponter won the last round of the eclectic with a nett 73. He beat Tony Roper on countback over the back nine, while Pete Douglas was third one shot further back. With the scores from the final round added to the previous rounds, Ponter ended up as the joint winner with John Sherwood, as they both finished with nett scores of 55 over the five rounds.

The last of the summer knockouts finals have been decided with Eamonn Wynne defeating Stuart Wills to win the Ian Ross Trophy for Division 1 players and became the current holder of both the summer and winter singles titles at Brean.

Murray Parsons and Ian Adams won the Brean Down Trophy for the third time as a partnership after beating club captain Brian Read and Phil Hodgson in the final by 2&1.

THERE was a real change in the weather at Wedmore as strong winds and rain took its toll.

Only one player bettered his handicap in the club monthly medal. This was Barry Whitcombe, who came in with a nett 69 to win Division 3 by three shots from David Coggan, with Marcello di Mascio a further shot back in third.

The Cornish family also seemed to thrive on the conditions, taking the first three places in Division 2. Mark and Robert finished tied on 70 with Mark just taking the win on countback. Darren Cornish had a 72 to take third place.

Division 1 was a close affair with both Steve Lockley and John Melwani finishing on 71. Lockley took the win on countback, dropping just three shots to par on the back nine where a triple bogey eight on the difficult 15th cost Melwani the win.

Most of the ladies wisely stayed away with Su Chambers being the best score of the day.

Earlier in the week there had also been rain for the seniors’ captain/director challenge. Paul Burkhill and Ken Abraham scored a respectable 35 points, but were still six points off the winning score.

This was shared by the pairings of Nick Bennett with Peter Searle and John Hurdman with Malcolm Timmis, with Bennett and Searle just winning on countback. John Russell and John Vowles were a point away in third and the event raised over £100 for the captains’ charity.

The ladies held a step aside Texas scramble for their competition. Two teams scored gross 82 so handicap was crucial. This resulted in a win for the team of Sue Tarry, Maggie Morris and Pauline Warner. Their nett score of 75.1 was just 0.2 better than Ann Adams, Diane Miller and Hazel Gough with past, current and future captains, Cathy Olive, Deidre Wheadon and Ange Webber two shots back in third.