Barrow Gurney CC held their spring golf day last week at Thornbury Golf Centre. As the sun (eventually) shone, there was the usual mixture of unbelievable play both good and bad. The overall outcome being met by cries of “bandit” although that was perhaps inevitable.
Despite a promising weather forecast, mist had settled over Thornbury on the morning of Barrow’s spring golf day. As we devoured a bacon roll or two, it lifted slightly but as we were playing the Par 3 course in the morning visibility was not at a premium.
13 players in all including some Barrow’s famous names of yesteryear and some non-cricketing friends assembled for the day’s stableford competition. It was interesting to see the different approaches to the Par 3 course with many favouring lob wedges hit high into the mist and a long wait for the ball to land, whilst your correspondent favoured the chip and run approach whenever possible. (Some might unkindly suggest a few were mishits and they might not have been wrong, but they rather worked!).
After 9 holes the mist cleared and as the sun began to shine so the greens
quickened up which caught out a few on the back nine. But those of us favoured
by the handicapping committee (organiser Ali Hood) continued to do rather well.
As players began to dispense with jumpers and change into shorts over the lunch
break the leading scores of the morning read:
Mark Forge – 41 Points
Ali Hood – 40 Points
Gordon Ladd – 39 Points
Connor Jones – 39 Points
With the lunchtime leader launching one into the trees (never to be seen again) on the first hole of the full course in the afternoon, there was all to play for. But overall scoring proved a lot harder with few playing to their handicaps.
Sam Turner was pleased to win the long drive competition, whilst the nearest the pin went to Simon Scammell who also ended with the highest number of points in the afternoon. The best scores being:
Simon Scammell – 40 Points
Mark Forge – 36 Points
Ali Hood – 35 points
Jon Hood – 34 Points
Thus your correspondent, having received the leniency of the handicapping committee at lunchtime, recorded an unexpected overall win, grateful for the Stableford format which wiped out a couple of horrendous holes, including 2 balls in the water on the penultimate hole of the day!
Many thanks to Ali for organising and to all who joined us for an enjoyable day, we look forward to the Autumn competition in September.