Simon Byford’s golf column: Bogey golf - originated at Great Yarmouth & Caister Golf Club - is a great variant of a the great game

This week a local club competed in a rather wonderful format of golf, called Bogey.

This format is fascinating to play, and has pretty local origins as we shall now find out. And my thanks go to the Golf Club Managers Association (GCMA) for the assistance with the facts below.

Great Yarmough & Caister Golf Club is the oldest golf club in Norfolk, formed in 1882, and boast the title of the origin of ‘Bogey Golf’.

Now this is not the ‘one-over-par’ that you might also use in your golfing parlance, but rather a form of strokeplay not often played in this modern era of Stableford and medal play.

The origin harks back to the days when all serious golf was fought out over matchplay.

What a bogey competition does is take that central element of winning and losing holes and moulds it into a strokeplay competition. The golfer is rewarded based on how you do against the course, rather than an individual player. This means the scoring system is per hole, and you can only win or lose each hole, rather than in Stableford where you might accrue four points for beating the hole more successfully, or still score one point for not losing the hole terribly.

What has this got to do with Great Yarmouth &Caister then? Well, in 1890, a member at Coventry had the idea of playing a match under a handicap against the number of shots a scratch golfer would rack up in a perfect game, says the club’s website. This became known as the ground score, now referred to as par.

The idea was proposed to Dr Thomas Browne, who founded Yarmouth, at the club’s autumn gathering and was then introduced. Yarmouth’s website continues: “These competitions were played throughout the winter, at the same time a music hall song ‘Hush! Here comes the Bogey man’ was gaining in popularity.”

When one competition participant said to Browne ‘This player of yours is a regular Bogey man’, the bogey score was born. It was the staple term to describe golf’s new scoring system, until par was born, and today we know it as a score of one over on any given hole.

The Bogey format really is great fun, and well worth trying in a friendly game if not already employed at your club in an organised event.

The Suffolk GC

So The Suffolk members, not content just to play the Bogey format explained above, combined it with foursomes play, meaning alternate shots in pairs with just one ball. It was therefore no surprise that the winning score was 1up against the course. Tom Riethoff who continues to impress with his consistent play, was joined by Ben Day to claim first place.

All Square with the course was good enough for second place, and that went to John Pritchard and Terry Hall. Third were Jack Pearson and Stephen Haygreen on 1 down.

A week barely goes by without The Suffolk’s Senior section holding a competition or two, and this week is no different. I often feel some of the Suffolk Senior golfers must be becoming household names to regular readers!

Alexander MacCormick won the first Stableford last week with 31 points. John Ellis was second on 27 and Alan Horne was third on 26.

It was another close shave for Alan Horne in the second Seniors Stableford, 34 points this time for ‘the Mole Man’ and second place. Top spot went to David Broster on 36 points and Kieron Watson was third on 33.

There was also a Midweek Stableford for the main members of the club, and again a familiar name chipped up to the top of the leaderboard; James Laflin scored a more than credible 37 points, Dave King was second on 31 and Rob Kennedy third on 29.

Thetford GC

Thetford Golf Club held its February Medal recently with a large entry field of 100 players, all keen to play in fair weather for this early season event.

Any medal is a tough exam, especially in winter conditions when the ball does not travel very far. However, the winners found ways to master the challenge, with Sean Brighty leading the field scoring a fine net 67. He won the Division 2 competition followed by Stuart Tucker (68) and Joshua Kemp (67).

In the Division 1 competition, Dean Scott shot a very good level-par round 72 (net 70) to claim the prize, followed by Olaf Gent (71), and then Dan Kelly (72) in third.

Players commented after the event how well the course was playing, especially the greens which continue to provide outstanding surfaces across the winter.

Stowmarket GC

The Stowmarket Men held a Stableford across three divisions as is custom at the club. Division 1 required detailed analysis from ‘The Count’ as the top three all scored 34 points. In the end it was Jamie Young who collected first place, Liam Double was second and Henry Cutting third.

Bill Smith produced the round of the day scoring 39 points in a high scoring Division 2 contest. Second went to Max Adderson again with the help of ‘The Count’ ahead of Stuart Scott with both players scoring 37 points.

Division 3 was won by Macauley Taylor on 35 points. Once again two players came in with the same score, 31 this time. Carlton Matthew got the nod ahead of Daniel Glass in third.

I hope you enjoyed our look into the Bogey format, I really hope your club does host at least one Bogey event per year, especially as it was invented not far up the road.

Have a great golfing week.