Match Report Bentham Golf Club 2017
The 11th round of the Parrots 2017 season took place at Bentham Golf Club last Wednesday. A perennial favourite on the society’s calendar, Bentham has traditionally been a course where some big scores have been recorded. But with the scoring within the society being so low generally throughout the season to date, would that be the case this year? Prior to today only two rounds out of a total of 141 this season have beaten handicap.
One factor counting against this was the course conditions. The last few time we’ve been to Bentham it has followed a dry spell meaning that the notoriously wet course has been dry and firm underfoot. However, just a night or two before, a torrential downpour, accompanied by a thunderstorm, had soaked the course and hence this year it was very wet! In fact a local rule of preferred lies throughout the course was in force by the club. That together with a tricky wind, meant that distance control was going to be very difficult.
Here’s an interesting puzzle for those that weren’t at Bentham last week. 16 players went to Bentham, but only 15 played in each of the morning and afternoon rounds. Any ideas why? Answers later.
The morning round was again 11 holes, as Bentham seems to have finished tinkering with the layout of the course. Much building work, though, seemed to be taking place at two points within the course confines, and enquiries found that the club are building lodges for people to stay and play. So at some point in the future get ready to hear ‘Resort Bentham’ being mentioned!
First out were myself, John Cottam, Simon and JP. No sooner had we got off the first tee, and JP found he was having a problem with his electric trolley. One shot later, the Irishman’s angry alter ego surfaced and JP was heading back into the clubhouse as conditions were far too wet to push an ailing trolley round Bentham. So therein lies part of the answer to the earlier puzzle.
Some good scores though were posted by those that did make it round the 11 holes. Notably, 20 pts from Franky, 21pts from Mike, 22 pts apiece from Mossy and Bentham specialist Phil Matthews. But all these were eclipsed by that sleeping giant of golf, who can take money off anyone at Fleetwood, but hasn’t yet fulfilled that potential on tour. Congratulations to Jim Clayton, who took the morning prize money with an excellent 24 pts.
Over an al fresco lunch, Bill Pye unfortunately decided that he was unable to continue for the afternoon. The wet conditions had placed restrictions on the routes that buggies could take and this meant more walking than poor Bill could manage, so he decided to sit the afternoon out.
In order to facilitate a speedy departure, a three-ball made up of Knott Enders JP, Trevor and Si, were out first in the afternoon. That was the last we saw of them, but their left card suggested a tight game with JP on 29 pts and the others on 30 pts apiece.
Next out were Mike, JC, Paul and Geoff Moyle. Not much to write home about from the scores in this group, with Mike being a shortlived leader in the clubhouse on 31 pts, John Cottom having lost his mid season form with 29 pts and Paul and Geoff on 25 pts each. Although, I understand that Paul injured himself on the second hole but bravely carried on, I wish I had more of ‘the right stuff’ that Paul obviously has!!
Next out were Jim, Tony, Phil and Mossy. Jim slipped back to Parrots mediocrity after his morning glory to finish with 26 pts (just two more than he managed for 11 holes a few hours earlier!). Mossy recorded his best score of the year so far with 33 pts. However, the day was brought into life by the Last Orders Two of Phil and Tony. 19 pts each way for Tony, including a birdie on the Par 3 6th hole, gave Tony 38 pts, only for his old mucker Phil (Bentham specialist don’t forget!) to pip him by one point with 39 pts. Surely this would be good enough for Phil to repeat his win here in 2015 with the same score?
Last out were myself, Pete Hoole, Pete Whiteside and Franky, who had finally climbed to the summit of the leaderboard last time out. This game was memorable for two things.
The first was an amazing sequence of events on consecutive holes. On the 3rd, Frank nearly drove the green and got down in 2 for a very nice birdie. On the 4th, I made three nice shots to the green and sank a 15 footer for birdie on the Par 5. On the 5th Pete H smacked a monster of a drive over the trees to leave himself a chip onto the green and, another putt later, also had a birdie. Know where this is going yet?! Yep, you guessed it, next hole, a great shot to about two foot on the Par 3 by Pete W was followed by a converted putt for a birdie two, meaning each of our four-ball had secured a birdie on consecutive holes, amazing! Unfortunately Franky blew the sequence on the next hole, where he had a putt for yet another birdie but missed!!
However, this was a day when Franky’s driver was purring like a well tuned Ferrari, and you know you’re in trouble when that happens. Frank left us all in his wake with 23 pts out and a more modest 17 pts back to finish on 40 pts taking the win from Phil by again just a single point with a necessary fine par on the 18th having nearly put his drive out of bounds.
So Bentham lived up to its reputation for producing high scores in the end, and congratulations to Frank, who’s score not only won the day, but is now the highest individual score of the season so far, and has put plenty of daylight between himself and the chasing pack in the overall table.
Handicap changes from Bentham are as follows :-
Frank Healey 11 to 9 (the price of success Franky!)
Phil Matthews 21 to 19
Tony Johnson 22 to 21
Geoff Moss 15 to 14
Paul Greenaway 26 to 27
Mike Barnes 12 to 13
The updated leaderboard has already been posted to the website by Phil. Frank now has a 12 pt lead with TJ moving into second place, JC in 3rd and Phil Matthews joining a whole gaggle of players in joint 4th place.
The next outing for the Parrots is at Whitefield next Wednesday with its fearsome Par 3’s. See you then.
Glenn
