Simon Byford’s golf column: Matt Perks making his mark at Thetford Golf Club and Bury St Edmunds members show their generous festive spirit

Thetford is a course often recognised by many as one of the finest in East Anglia.

However, the management team are not ones to sit on their laurels. The recruitment of leading course manager Matt Perks has been a key statement of their desire to advance and realise the potential of the course and club.

Since joining in early 2024, he has led a programme of course improvement and development. The early work across 2024 has borne fruit with plaudits received for the improvements in course condition.

The winter offers a chance to carry out major course renovation work, and one of the initiatives Perks and his team are doing is a bunker improvement programme.

The changes involve lining and shaping bunkers to a style consistent with the heathland nature of the course. Further benefits include the ‘playability’ of the bunkers as well as the visual aesthetics.

Commencing with the 1st (pictured below) and 2nd holes, this programme will be rolled out across the course in coming years.

Perks said: “Thetford has so much unrealised potential, and the bunker improvement work is just one piece in the jigsaw.

“I have a great team here at the club and together we are delivering changes that will make this hidden gem shine.”

Stowmarket GC

The Stowmarket Senior Men competed for the Gren Hibbert Shield and individual Stableford but with only three clubs and a putter.

As is often the case with events like this, it goes to show that we probably don’t need all those clubs in our bag, as the scoring was excellent.

Our fictitious ‘The Count’ was required to decide the winner in Division 1 with Jon Brighton just edging out Nigel Burch after both players scored 39 points. Alan Hull was third on 38.

In Division 2, David Robinson dominated the centre as he scored 39 points alone to top the board.

‘The Count’ stepped in to decide second and third place as two players scored 36 points. Stephen Bushell was delivered as second place and Terry Lucas handed third.

There was time for a midweek Stableford for the Men’s section too. Dave Munro had 38 points to win Division 1, with Glyn Clouting second on 34 and Alan Holness third on 33.

In Division 2, Stuart Harland was first on 36 points, Neville Howes finished second with 33 and Ray Parker third on 32.

Bury St Edmunds GC

With Storm Darragh putting paid to any competitive golf at Bury, attentions at the club turned to more charitable matters.

The annual Charity Christmas Gift donation has been in full swing, and this week saw chair of social Pam Madams and Ladies’ captain Wendy Flack present Major Deborah Nield from the Salvation Army with a cohort of presents for children across the county. The initiative is a great was to recycle unwanted and unused gifts, but the generosity and the amount of new gifts that were donated was astonishing. The range of gifts covered birth to teenage years, ensuring those across the age spectrum in childhood could benefit.

Suffolk County Juniors

With the winter training programmes for Suffolk Junior age groups ongoing, the draw this week has been made for The Suffolk Junior Team Championship. This is an opportunity for Juniors to represent their club in a major county competition, with the winners progressing to Woodhall Spa for the national finals. Diss were the winners last year and competed admirably in the national finals.

The competition pits three juniors from each entered club head-to-head in a knockout format. The players will complete a Stableford round, with the top-scoring team progressing to the next round. Three clubs in our patch are in the draw with only Stowmarket receiving a home tie, against Aldeburgh. Haverhill will travel almost the entirety of the county as they go to Felixstowe and Bury St Edmunds will visit Woodbridge.

I’ll be taking a break next week but, as ever, have a great golfing week.