Match Report 2015 Morecambe Golf Club
The final outing of the Parrots golf society took place at the usual venue of Morecambe on Friday, and whilst the weather was dry for the whole day, there was a chilly breeze blowing for much of the day, making for testing conditions for the 16 players that competed on the day.
Sadly the Morecambe greens were not at their best having been recently had some winter preparation work done on them. Nevertheless, the morning 9 holes saw some good scoring with Glenn Wellard taking the win with 19 points (including a birdie on the very first hole!) from Pete Whiteside on 17 points. It all boded well to maintain my position at the top of the overall leader-board for the afternoon.......
After a soup and sandwich lunch, it was time for the final round of the season. Despite myself having a 10 point lead at the top going in, there were a number of people who could still push themselves into the top 3 prize money positions by the end of the day, particularly with the absence of Mark Rhodes from proceedings.
But let’s start with the last group out first. Should this group fail to improve on their best 5 scores, the door would be opened for players in front of them, and so it proved. None of the final group players of Glenn Wellard, Tony Johnson, Mike Barnes and Jim Clayton (despite having the best score of the group with 31) could beat their discard, meaning that on moving day, they were all standing still.
So what of the chances of the penultimate group of Frank Healey (3pts off 2nd), Pete Whiteside (6pts off 2nd), Mark Thomas (7pts off 2nd) and Trevor Middleton (12pts off 2nd with a 23 discard)?
No significant improvement by Trevor with 25pts ended his hopes of a placing. Similarly so Pete, who didn't beat his discard with only 28 pts. Sadly for him, a fine score of 32 pts from Mark Thomas left him agonisingly one point behind that 2nd place target and in a three way tie with Mike Barnes and Mark Rhodes.
So it was left to Frank to be the major mover of the day. An excellent round of 35 points propelled him up to 2nd in the overall table, however it was only good enough to give him second place on the day (making it his third 2nd placing of the year).
Winner for the final day, with a score of 38 points was Peter Williams, finished off in style with a birdie on the last hole! So congratulations to Peter, another first winner of the season.
With Franks final round score, Tony Johnson finished the season in 3rd place overall, pushing Mark Rhodes, Mark Thomas and Mike Barnes out of the money (in Mikes case for the third year running, bless him!). But, as it turned out, nobody could overhaul his hefty lead going into the final round, meaning that Glenn Wellard becomes the Parrots Golf Society champion for 2015. Hurrah!!
Taking the prize for the highest individual score of the year was Mel Johnson with his 42 pointer (winning the day at Clitheroe), which Mike still gave Mel despite his mauling of Mike’s admission at having been chased a number of times by cows whilst out walking! Don’t worry Mike, I got one of the bastards back for you with my Opel Manta 20 years or so ago!
Handicap changes from Morecambe were :-
Glenn Wellard 7 to 6 (yikes!)
Peter Williams 23 to 21
Frank Healey 14 to 13
Stuart Weston 12 to 13
Tony Duncan 25 to 26
For those that are interested in these things, here are a few statistics from the 2015 Parrots Golf Society season :-
Average players at each outing : 14 (not including the Portal weekend)
No. of players achieving 5 scores or more : 19
Most attending players : Mike Barnes / Tony Johnson with 13 each
No. of rounds where handicap was beaten : 16
Highest individual score of the year : 42 by Mel Johnson at Clitheroe
Lowest score of the year : No, we shouldn’t go there should we, especially as he’s related to Mel, it could cause a family feud!
Lowest winning score of the year : 32 by Jim Clayton at Whitfield
Score with the most occurrences : 33 (15 occurrences)
Average of all scores : 29.5 (exactly middle of the buffer zone!)
Scores above buffer zone : 49 (28%)
Scores in buffer zone : 73 (42%)
Scores below buffer zone : 52 (30%)
Thanks to everyone who took part in the Parrots Golf Society for 2015, enjoy the Winter break and we’ll see you all again hopefully in 2016............
