Simon Byford’s golf column: Old Culfordian golfers qualify Gog Magog Golf Club for the Graftom Morrish National Scratch Knockout
A team of six Old Culfordian golfers qualified at Gog Magog Golf Club for the Graftom Morrish National Scratch Knockout, which is to be held at Brancaster and Hunstanton Golf Clubs.
The Grafton Morrish is a tournament for former alumni pupils of qualifying schools and comprises of three pairs of amateur scratch foursomes. There are nine regional qualifiers to select the 48 teams that make the national final.
Four of the team are members of local clubs. Ben Whittaker, a member of Bury St Edmunds GC and brother Max Whittaker, a member at Royal Worlington GC, provided the stand-out performance of the day with the best score from the field of 54 foursomes pairs, coming back in level par on the back nine to post a score of 34 points.
They were ably supported by the Flempton GC teenage pair of Jack Rust and Ben Mason, with Tom Auctelonie and Jess Waters coming up from busy jobs in the city to complete the team performance.
Culford finished sixth of the 18 teams entering the Eastern Region event to qualify for the finals at the beginning of October.
The final consists of 18 hole matchplay rounds played across three days of gruelling 36 holes per day. Culford will be hoping to better their quarter-final placing in 2022. Good luck to all six players.
Haverhill GC
Matt Farlie and Nick Claydon had a day to remember by winning the HMP Foursomes with 43 points. This is certainly an excellent score playing the alternate shot foursomes format.
In second place was Trevor Broomfield and Glenn Hughes on 39 points, with third place going to John Annand and Nigel Taylor on 37 points.
Danielle Miller also had a fantastic score in the Ladies’ Weekend Stableford with 42 points. Jackie Condon secured second place with the help of The Count on 35 points ahead of Maggie Lambert in third.
The Men’s Midweek Medal was won by Dave Pipe with a nett 66, again with the assistance of The Count from Robert Jeffs. In third place with a nett 68 was Christopher Williams.
Ladies Kyocera Matchplay
Congratulations to Haverhill’s Ladies team on their away win at local rivals Stowmarket GC, winning 3-2 and progressing to the next round.
The team comprised of Linda Alexander, Lynne Hart, Mandy Williamson, Jackie Condon and Anne Reed. Well played ladies.
Bury St Edmunds GC
Bury St Edmunds held the Hallders Trophy, a mixed foursomes flag event.
In similar fashion to Flempton’s event last week, each pairing receives a certain number of shots to complete the 18 holes, but must pick up when they run out of shots.
At Bury St Edmunds there are three flags depicting the top three placings, with pairs collecting the first flag they pass and carrying that onward until completing the shots. This can cause some confusion, especially when three flags end up on the 18th green or in the 18th hole, as happened this time.
Fortunately, head professional Matt Alderton was on hand to ensure correct protocol was adhered to.
In the end, Ian and Viv Whittaker where the winners, taking two shots to the first tee after competing their round, and promptly finishing around 120 yards from the first green.
Second place went to Nick and Elaine Bonney in the hole on the 18th, with Derek and Karen Batch in third, also on the 18th green.
Thetford GC
The Thetford Ladies hosted their annual Invitation Day this week in perfect golfing weather, bright but not too hot.
This is an opportunity for members to invite a friend from another club to play the Thetford course in a friendly, but competitive pairs Fourball Better Ball competition.
The Pimm’s at the Halfway House went down a treat along with a wonderful spread of nibbles and fruit that was much appreciated by all the players passing through.
Due to the dry conditions the ball was running very well, resulting in some very high scores on the day.
Andrea Leigh and her partner Lizzie Cole topped the field on 46 points, with Judith Heffer and partner Siobhan Addison and Carolyn Child and partner Alison Lardner coming in with 45 points.
The day also raised the sum of £187 for the Brain Tumour Research charity thanks to the generosity of players purchasing raffle tickets and mulligan’s on the day.
The ladies’ section also hosted the first round of the Gillieson Cup at the weekend, an inter-club County foursomes knockout competition, against a formidable Royal Norwich GC team. However, the day was all Thetford as they came away with a remarkable 3-0 win, where home advantage definitely paid off.
The pairing of Ruby Reeve and Karen Cox were out first winning 1up, the second pairing of Jane Herrington and Carolyn Beaumont had an excellent 4 & 3 win and the final pair of Kath Malvern and Carmen Batty won 2up.
Overall it was an excellent result and the next round is away to Wensum Valley GC, which will be an even greater test.
The Suffolk GC
The Suffolk Golf Club members held their annual memorial trophy in remembrance of Barbara Wells.
Barbara was a stalwart member of The Suffolk, and this trophy serves as a great reminder of what an amazing woman she was. Anyone who wins a full Ladies’ Suffolk county title aged 90 needs recognition.
The format on the day was a scramble in teams of four. The scoring as you can imagine was incredible, with the winning team posting nett 55. Dome Pettit, Toby Beresford, Rob Dawson and Ryu Kawaguchi took the spoils, but with six teams scoring nett 59 or better, it was a close run affair.
There was another scramble for the Seniors’ Fun Day, this time in teams of three. It still took a nett 67 to win the event with Kerion Watson, Roger McGann and Bob Hope topping the chart.
Lastly there was a Midweek Stableford. The Count swooped in to decide Colin Holder’s 31 points was superior to Dave King’s, with Bob Moye in third on 29.
Stowmarket GC
Michael Eaton produced the round of his life, shooting a gross 77, nett 64 to take Division Two and the best score of the day in the Stowmarket Saturday Medal.
John Allen topped Division One with a nett 68 and Ben Davies headed up Division Three on 66.
On Sunday, Stuart Scott returned the best score with a nett 66 to win Division One. Ian Devlin had help from The Count in Division Two, where his nett 67 was adjudged to be greater than Rob Harvey’s. Mark Winter won Division Three with a nett 70.
Have a great golfing week.
