Match Report 2014 Stand Golf Club
The second Parrots Golf Society day was held at Stand Golf Club yesterday, and this time there was no doubt that the competitors were going to experience wet conditions at some point during the day. Given the forecast, which had been consistently saying that there would be increasingly persistent showers through the day, it was agreed between the 12 competitors that had arrived to only play 18 holes.
As was hoped, the 18 holes were played in the best of the weather available on a very nice albeit hilly course (sadly, I missed the sight of the usually ‘weary’ Geoff Moyle having to push an out of condition Trevor Middleton’s trolley up a hill as well as his own!). There were a number of none too heavy showers affecting play, with the worst of the weather coming after everyone was safely back in the clubhouse munching. Incidentally, the course featured a par 3 hole with no less than 9 bunkers circling the green!
Nevertheless, this was a day where many scores were not going to feature in the end of season ‘best 5’s’ for a number of people, with eight out of the twelve returning a score that would see their exact handicap increase! Not least your handicap secretary who will be playing off 8 next time out (it won’t be as tough as playing off 7!), hurrah!
At the half way stage there was not much between all 12 players (three were on 14pts, seven on 13pts, one on 11pts and one on 10pts), but three players shone on the back 9. Bucking the trend of ‘the luck of the Irish’ was John Patterson, who despite a fine 18 point back nine, found himself losing £7 in his 4-ball (supplementing a fellow retired teachers already considerable pension in the process!) and finishing in 3rd place. That fellow teacher was Jim Clayton, who came in with a fine 19 pts having played a very steady round all day, sinking far more putts than his opponents would have liked (including a birdie 4 on the par 5 12th), for a total of 33 pts.
However, Jim was destined only to take 2nd place for the day as a fine 20 point back 9 from Stuart Weston won the day on the infamous card playoff. Stuart’s back nine didn’t have a bad hole, with no score less than 2 pts and only 41 strokes in total, including a par on the aforementioned Par3, achieved by firing over all 9 bunkers and the green and chipping and putting, excellent strategy!
So congratulations to Stuart, another new winner on the Parrots Golf Society tour, prompting Michael Barnes to congratulate the handicapping strategy, which in turn caused the handicap secretary to have to sit down in shock!
Handicap changes from Stand were :-
Stuart Weston 15 to 14
Glenn Wellard 7 to 8
Geoff Moss 16 to 17
Trevor Middleton 22 to 23
Paul Greenaway 26 to 27
Tony Johnson 26 to 27
Luke Palmer 26 to 28
Next up will be Windermere on 21st May, which will be only a (scheduled) 18 hole day. Confirmation, through the new booking facility on the website, of planned attendance would be greatly appreciated.
See you then, Glenn