Match Report Bentham Golf Club 2016
It’s truly a British thing to be constantly talking about the weather, but when it comes to golf, it is a big factor in deciding whether a day on the golf course is going to a good one or not. In the run up to the 4th Parrots day out at Bentham, there had been a very warm spell interspersed with some heavy downpours and thunderstorms as a result of the humid air.
Bentham was forecast to be very warm, but also a prime candidate to catch a thundery downpour due to the surrounding hills. Which was would it go?
Twelve competitors made the morning round, and with buggies aplenty, they included the welcome return of TJ and Phil, who were to return with a vengeance! A good number for golfing, making three 4-balls.
Due to the recent tinkering of the Bentham course layout, the nearest hole to the clubhouse used to be the 9th, which then became the 8th before finally becoming the 11th (follow that?!), and so 11 holes it was for the morning, level 2’s of course making the par 22 pts.
There were some very good scores produced in heat of the morning round, but there were two standout scores. Phil Matthews, making his first outing in the Parrots this year, must have thought he had won it with an excellent 26pts. However, it wasn’t to be, as your organiser Mike Barnes returned an amazing score of 28pts to take first place. I’m sure if you ask him, Mike will take you through his round shot by shot! So congratulations to Mike who took the morning win.
Now when you have 12 players on a day out, just imagine how popular it is for someone to join for the afternoon! Cue Mel Johnson, hot off a plane from Portugal, making the players up to a nice round 13 for the afternoon! And he didn’t even have any new jokes to tell us.
Following a hearty, although all too brief lunch, it was time for the afternoon round, but there were some storm clouds building! As the players set off, a few rumbles of thunder could be heard from the surrounding hills and there was a risk that the match could have been halted had things got worse. But miraculously, the rumbles never seemed to work their way in the direction of Bentham (although the hills did disappear in a deluge of rain for 15 minutes or so at one point), and by the back nine the clouds had cleared again and the heat was back on.
The result of another good weather day then and a course in excellent condition, was another bumper set of high scores.
No player scored below the buffer zone, with Phil and the runaway train John Cottam the lowest scorers on 30. Is the runaway train running out of steam? With 36pts I briefly led in the clubhouse (or so I thought) from the 2nd group out.
However, as the next group approached the 18th green it was apparent that that was going to be short-lived. In the same group, Mike Barnes was on 37pts, and Martin G was on 36pts with one to play, both greenside in two. As Mike looked up the watching gallery his heart must have sunk, there was the ‘master heckler’ from a previous day out at Bentham, Jim Clayton! Cue a repeat capitulation from Mike who took four to get down from greenside for 38pts, whilst Martin got up and down in two shots, allowing him to leapfrog Mike as the new clubhouse leader (or so we thought) with 39pts. An excellent gross score of 77 by the way and the best of the day.
But the drama was not over. In the last group, Bill Pye was ‘running rings round’ the other players in his group to record an amazing 41pts, surely the winning score, or so we thought?! But no, that wily old campaigner, Tony Johnson, had sat through the unfolding drama on the 18th green, having been in the first group out, and then triumphantly produced a scorecard showing 42pts, like a flamboyant poker player!
Finally we had our winner! So congratulations to Tony, taking the win on an excellent return to the Parrots tour on a high scoring day, with Bill Pye taking the prize for runner-up.
You might think with some high scores recorded that there would be yet more swathing cuts to handicaps, but in fact there were only three, as the following adjustment show :-
Tony Johnson 22 to 20
Bill Pye 21 to 19
Martin Greenaway 9 to 8
The updated leaderboard has already been posted to the website by Phil. John C still leads the way, with myself and Mike continuing to occupy false positions.
Another good score from Kev G means he is only a round of 32pts away from being able to tie John or overtake, with Martin also well placed with two good scores in the bank.
The next outing for the Parrots is the weekend away at Portal, where two rounds will count towards the championship, following which I calculate seven players will have already reached five scores or more making the table look more realistic.
For those not going to Portal, the next day out is Windermere on 23rd June, which is a Thursday by the way. You might have heard that date mentioned in the news a number of times over the last few weeks as it is EU Referendum day, so don’t forget to vote!
Glenn
