Simon Byford’s golf column: Bury St Edmunds Golf Club member Graham Sykes lands two trophies in same week
Graham Sykes has had a week to remember. The Bury St Edmunds member and Suffolk seniors representative came roaring through the field to win the Bury St Edmunds GC Seniors Championship in dramatic fashion. Then, two days later, he triumphed in the Suffolk Seniors Championships to cap off a remarkable double.
First up was the Bury St Edmunds Seniors Championship. As we reported last week, Garry Clark held the first-round lead with a 79, but faltered to an 81 in round two. This was great news for Sykes, who reversed that scoreline. Carding a 79 in round two to follow up his 81 in round one, this left both players on 161 tied at the top of the leaderboard. Unfortunately for The Count, their services are not required in a gross competition, but just like on TV, a play-off was in order.
Both players headed to the par-five opening hole. After good drives, Graham hit a good fairway wood down the fairway and pitched to the fringe for three. Garry slightly pushed his second shot meaning he could only get on the green in four shots. After regulation two putts each, it was Graham’s five that trumped Garry’s six and the first trophy of the week.
Suffolk Seniors Championship
Hintlesham was the venue for the Suffolk Seniors Championship, held over 18 holes with gross, nett and age group prizes up for grabs.
Graham Sykes improved his scoring from the Bury champs on Monday to card a fantastic gross 72 to win by three shots. Speaking after the event, he commented that the win meant a huge amount to him, and follows other Bury members – John Cullum (2008) and Andy Ball (2018) – who have won the event since the millennium. PGA professional and Suffolk county coach Joe Cardy was following Graham, and highlighted Graham’s 17th hole as a major factor in his win.
“After hitting his tee shot right on the par four, Graham had to hit his second shot towards the 18th tee, but then he made a special up-and-down to complete an unreal par.” he said.
It’s moments like these that often define the winner, well done Graham, a hugely-deserved week of quality golf.
Rounding out the placings in the gross competition were Peter Brady (Ipswich) on 75, Trevor Hellyer (Hintlesham) and John Newsome (Woodbridge) both on 76. In the nett overall competition, Nigel Fosker (Felixstowe) carded a 69, Graham Sykes’ score was good enough for a nett 70 and second place, with Trevor Hellyer just behind on nett 70.
Stowmarket GC
The Stowmarket Ladies held the Elizabeth Smith Cup, a Stableford event. In first place was Maggie Beverage with 34 points. Second, after confirmation from The Count, was Rosemary Stutely on 32 points, ahead of Yvette Youngs on the same score.
There was a Midweek Medal across two divisions for the men. In Division One, Ron Gilchrist topped the table with a nett 72, followed by more work for The Count adjudicating that Gareth Knowle’s 74 was greater than Steve Brightwell’s. It wasn’t the end of the day’s tasks for The Count, as in Division Two the top three all recorded nett 70s. After some quick maths, Martin King was crowned the winner, Steve Brown second and Dave Kemp third.
The Stowmarket juniors also hosted a Stableford competition this week. It wouldn’t be a junior competition at Stowmarket without the mention of at least one of the Edwards brothers, as they continue to make great waves at both club
and county level. This time it was Reece Edwards (the younger) who was winner with 35 points,
ahead of Henry Ridgeon on 32
points.
To round off the Stowmarket competitions, there was a weekend of men’s medal action. On Saturday, Division One was won by Ray Nicholls with a phenomenal nett 63, but not to be outdone, Neil Bell achieved the same score to win Division Two. The Sunday iteration also produced some hot scoring. Rick Brothwell topped Division One with a nett 66, with a little help from The Count to dent Mike Toon’s hopes after he also returned nett 66. In Division Two, Andrew Coxhead was the clear winner on nett 65, Max Skinner second on 67.
Bury St Edmunds GC
There was success for both the men’s Hambro team and the ladies’ Western team in their latest round of matches. Firstly, the Western team comprises of five ladies playing 18-hole scratch singles matchplay. In this Champions League-style format, their latest match was against Aldeburgh at home. The team comprised Alice Barlow, Jasmine Points, Mariette Robbertse, Liz Bezance and Bianca Theeruth.
The first three matches went the way of Bury quite convincingly, with Alice and Jasmine winning 6&5, and Mariette winning 4&3. The last two matches were close all the way round. Liz was all square after the 15th, but with wins on 16th and 17th came through with a 2&1 win. Bianca was making her Weston debut, and after going 1-down on 17th she made a great comeback by winning the 18th to tie the match. This gave Bury a 4.5 – 0.5 margin of victory.
The Hambro team consists of four male pairs playing 36 holes of foursomes matchplay. Again it seemed to be going in Bury’s favour in the morning as the team were 5-up at lunch. The afternoon matches, however, always make it feel tense, and the matches were ebbing and flowing. In the end, Bury came through to record a 10-up win and successful progress to the next round.
For you
With the ground starting to firm up I have a challenge for you to improve your chipping. Take five balls and five random clubs to the edge of your practice putting green, or at home in the garden (somewhere safe please) then pick a random flag/target. Try chipping one ball with each club to see which one gets to the hole the easiest. You never know, you might unlock a new chipping shot with a hybrid/6 iron. You may learn that a shorter swing with a bigger club is easier to strike more consistently, than a longer swing with a more lofted club. Or, it might cement the knowledge that what you do already works best. Either way, you will gain a positive and some more skills to your
toolset.
Have a great golfing week.
