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History has been made. The 13th year of the trophy and the first time it was opened up outside of those who knew Lee, and straight away it goes to a new comer.
Mike’s mate Beckett – who to be fair has played with us before - came through to victory on the last hole by collecting 3 points against Paul’s 0 and take the trophy on 37 points to Paul's 35.
Many players were renegotiating their handicaps as we met at the Weald of Kent. The committee were in generous mood as plenty have not played recently and a few shots were awarded back.
Beckett, having a golf club handicap was allowed to go off on his official 20……it won’t be anything like that next year. And that’s guaranteed.
From the usual regulars, we lost Charlie, Patrick, Ian, Les but they were slightly mitigated by the returns of Matt and Pete after a few years absence.
A lovely sunny warm day, but not too hot greeted the 12 players as we got ready to play and as I teed off in the last group I saw plenty of decent drives and thought scoring would be good. Well, looking at the cards now, and after seeing the rough out there I am not surprised only two players got in to the 30’s.
The rough was severe. You strayed off line and finding your ball was almost impossible. Many players reporting lost balls and the blobs on the scorecards bear that out.
Pete had 6 blobs on his card. A decent run of holes to the turn put him on 14 points and well in contention, but a run of three successive blobs killed is chance. But 24 was a decent return considering he has not picked a club up in 2 years.
Mike is still struggling to get near his best that we saw in Hastings on his debut. Despite getting some shots back, he only managed 25 mainly due to a poor start where 1 point in the first 4 holes gave him too much to do.
Tony B also made 25. This included a 5 point hole on the way out, but only 10 points in total on the way in, including just one point in the last 3 sealed his fate.
Nando screamed a drive up the first and I really through he could do something. But proving that you drive for show only, he got no points on that hole and only 10 on the way out. 16 back was better and he may be wondering “if only” as there were not too many blobs really.
My BT mate Jon – only recently back from shoulder surgery struggled to match his playing ability as he was a 10 before his injury. He also managed 26 points but far too many single point holes.
Cliff managed 25 despite a consistent run to the turn and was well in the frame at that point with 16, but 1 point in 5 holes after killed the round. A comeback of sorts at the end with 5 points put a gloss on a card that should have been so much better.
Matt returned well with a respectable 28 points. 5 blobs stopped him from making a real go, but he was another that was in contention and a little more consistency may have made the difference.
Mike’s dad Rob played with his official club handicap too and was leading at the half way stage on 17. But the middle of the back 9 where only 2 points came from 4 holes ended his challenge.
I made 29, but never felt like I really got going. This year I did not miss any silly little puts, but I never sank anything of any length. So despite having one of the lowest amounts of blobs of anyone on the day, I had too many 1 pointers and that did for me.
Paul was super consistent with only a single blob. 17 out and 18 back should have been enough, but his only blob came on the 18th. Looking at the cards he actually needed to birdie it to win as Beckett also had him on count back. However, he does have the consolation of winning the longest drive.
Beckett had an incredible card. Starting out with a blob on a really easy hole, he consistently picked up blobs, but when he scored, he scored well. Lots of net birdies in his round and he picked up no fewer than 10, including all four of the mini round which also netted him a crate of beer. So a double win for him and well played.
So on to next year. First Friday in June….keep it free eh?
1 - Beckett 37
2- Paul 35
3- Danny 29
4- Rob 28
5- Matt 28
6- Cliff 26
7- Jon 26
8- Nando 26
9- Graham 25
10- Tony 25
11- Mike 25
12- Pete 24