Simon Byford’s golf column: Bury St Edmunds Golf Club’s new Centenary Driving Range offers something for everyone.
Bury St Edmunds Golf Club officially opened its Centenary Driving Range facility this week.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was hosted by club chairman Jeremy Tattersall, who spoke of the pride within the club at adding such a special facility to enhance the value of the membership, and for a place that people of the town and surrounding areas could enjoy.
The 14-bay range is equipped with Trackman ball-tracking technology, so golfers can be fully informed of their distance of each club, but also play virtual golf on courses around the world.
Families will also reap the benefit, with fun games that any aged golfer can be involved in. Magic Pond is a particular early favourite amongst primary school ages!
Club captains Garry Clark and Wendy Flack took the scissors in hand to mark this exciting new venture as open.
The range will be available to members and same-day green fee visitors from 6.30am-12pm, then welcoming the public from 12pm until 9pm. With a fully stocked bar, food offerings (the pizzas are excellent!) and staff on hand to assist, the Centenary Driving Range will I’m sure prove popular.
County Champions
Alice Barlow of Bury St Edmunds GC and Gemma Du Feu of Thetford GC had double success in their respective County Strokeplay Championships.
Alice was the victor in the Suffolk Championships after rounds of 75 & 81 at Woodbridge GC.
Coinciding with this was the Norfolk Championships at Barnham Broom, where Gemma was the winner with a 74 & 80 respectively.
Well done to both ladies and great to see both Championship trophies in our patch.
The other similarity is that the top qualifiers then go into a Matchplay event.
Gemma was victorious in the first round but fell in the quarter-finals to Tracy Williamson. A true veteran of top amateur golf, Tracy even secured the match with a hole in one.
It was better news for Alice ,who won the Suffolk Matchplay event, with a 17th-hole victory against Josie Knights of Ipswich GC.
This means Alice becomes the first player in Suffolk Ladies Golf history to win eight County Championships. Well done Alice.
Flempton GC
Flempton Old boys (FOBS) played Haverhill at home and lost convincingly on a cold and windy day.
Next up was Flempton Men’s Invitation day. It all went well and the winning pair were Tim Pitt of Flempton and his guest, Andrew Thurston.
The highlight of the week, however, was the Staddon Flag competition. This is open to all married and co-habiting couples. The joint handicaps are halved and added to the course standard scratch which for Flempton is 70.
Every pair, therefore, has a total number of shots they are allowed to play as foursomes.
Last year’s winners with their playing partners started off taking the flag with them. They are followed by the rest of the field. When the previous winners have used up all their shots, they plant the flag in an obvious position near where their ball came to rest. The next pair along with shots in hand then collect the flag and continue playing until they run out of shots and they then plant the flag. When a couple have used up their allocated number of shots they are finished.
The winners were Peter and Fiona Hilder, who managed to complete all 18 holes with shots to spare, completing the 19th hole and eventually driving off the 20th hole, at which point they planted the flag of victory.
Haverhill GC
Congratulations go to Jackie Condon and Lyn Fish for winning the Coronation Foursomes with 42 points from Sharon Mattheus and Kirsty Iron in second place with 39 points.
In third place was Linda Alexander and Pat Kennedy on 36 points.
The Haverhill Juniors Arthur Morton Putter (Foursomes) was won by Oscar Olen and Bobby Eley on 40 points from Freddie Swinburn and Rhys Turner in second place on 33 points. In third place with 22 points were Tommy Efford and Finley Gordon.
There was also a Men's Monthly Medal, which won by Tim Daniels with a nett 66, great scoring in tough conditions (dry and windy). In second place was Dom Bowers with 68 and Robert Jeffs came in third place on 69.
The Men's Midweek Stableford was won by Terry Pickney on an outstanding 45 points! In second place was Jim Walker on 39 points with the assistance on The Count from Ollie Fish.
The Ladies’ Midweek Stableford was won by Lindsey Cornish on 39 points, with Teresa Spittle coming in second place with 38 points. In third place was Sheila Price with 37 points.
Thetford GC
The first round of the Carrick Cup was played this week, a County Foursomes scratch match play competition.
Thetford players Kath Malvern and Sue Saunders had home advantage and won the match against Wensum Valley convincingly 5&3. They await their next round opponents.
After a flying start to the season Thetford’s 5 Counties Scratch League team fell to a defeat away at Peterborough by six matches to two.
Having beaten Peterborough in the home leg the team were optimistic, however Peterborough proved too strong.
Thetford remain in a strong league position with two wins and one defeat this season as they seek to qualify for the play-off final.
The Suffolk GC
The Suffolk Seniors continued their pursuit of the Dudley Potter Trophy with round three of seven.
Alexander MacCormick had a remarkable 44 points on the day, which saw him hold a six-shot margin of victory over Norman Hartley on 38. Alan Horne burrowed into third with 34 points.
Brian Hay and James Laflin must have thought they’d done enough to win the Midweek Stableford, but as they both returned 41 points it was left to The Count. Hay emerged victorious this time around but I’m sure James will exact revenge soon.
There was also time for a Sunday Stableford, which Don Lynch won, in no small part due to his new weapon in the bag.
The secret new fairway wood proved most useful as he scored 41 points to edge out Barry Franklin on 36 points and John Dale on 33.
Personal note, its great to see Don back to the winners’ circle at The Suffolk, well done.
Have a great golfing week.
