Bentham 2023 Match Report
The grand finale to the 2023 Parrots golf season took place at Bentham last Friday. With the closeness of the table going into the last match it promised a day full of drama and it didn’t disappoint!!
The only dampener to the day was the dodgy weather which, on the back of the wind and rain at Shrigley Hall earlier in the week, meant that some players were making their fourth appearance of the week in less than clement weather. There was wind and there was rain but not throughout the day (just most of it!), so good scoring seemed unlikely, which no doubt suited Mr Barnes! Not only that but because of the weeks rain, the ground underfoot was to say the least soggy!!
In the morning, eight players claim they got round 11 holes without getting wet at all, the rest of us were not sure whether to believe them or not! But amazingly Mike B wasn’t one of them as he was protecting a wrist injury (no jokes please!) incurred in a game the previous week and which curtailed his involvement at Shrigley Hall to just 42.59% (that was just for you Mike) of the intended holes to be played. Whether it would hold out today was just one of the many questions to be answered?
In what could be the last planned morning round for the Parrots (more on that in the close season) there was some very decent scoring indeed. Stuart, Frank and Matt all scored an impressive 23pts, but all there were eclipsed by Derek, no doubt grateful to be able to buggy again after Shrigley, with 24 pts. Well done Derek, an excellent score and a good confidence booster for one of the overall title chasers.
So let’s get to the afternoon action. 17 players and as tight as the table looked, realistically, the winner was likely to come from someone in the last two groups. However as my group, the fourth and penultimate group, reached the 9th tee, Frank, Matt and Tommo, the third group, were already on the 13th tee. Hold on, we weren’t that slow?! It turned out that this buggy charged group were seeking to break the Parrots speed record and had gone through the groups in front. They would go on to complete their round in just over 3 hours! More interestingly though we learned that Matt had had a 21pt front 9, which when you considered his 27pt discard and 9pt arrears made life very interesting. We’ll park that for later!
The first group out (and second to finish) were Robbo, Dave B and Gareth. Gareth has been unable to effectively defend his title this year, and finished with 23pts, but the other two both scored 30pts apiece with no doubt Robbo’s best shot of the day coming at the Par 3 10th hole where he won NTP.
2nd out (3rd to finish, of course) were Stu, Luke and Martin P (who was officially still working on the 1st tee) Only 27pts for Luke, but he left his best till last and took the longest drive prize for his effort on the 18th hole. 30pts for Martin beaten by just 1pt for the group win by Stu.
But what of the speed merchants? Tommo got off to a nightmare start with four straight blobs, so when you consider that, his eventual total of 23pts was quite a recovery. Frank blobbed only one hole for an excellent 35pts, considering the conditions and was probably the only person to hit the green on 17 for the NTP prize. I say this must be the case, as the marker was just on the front of the green for a pin towards the rear! And so onto Matt. Whilst not being able to repeat his front 9 performance on the back 9, he did score a further 17 very good points, posting a total of 38pts …… having blobbed the last!! Amazingly this achievement put Matt as leader in the clubhouse for the Parrots title on 175pts, two clear. The leading groups would need to improve on their discards to dislodge him!
With me in my group were Andy, Pete and Paul F. Having got off to a good start, Pete blobbed the last two holes of the front 9 and thereafter stuttered to 28pts, no discard improvement. Paul was my partner for the day and we saw the other off by two points overall. Paul only blobbed 2 holes in the round, but as a self confessed hater of wet weather golf was also unable to beat his discard, scoring 31pts. Andy, meanwhile, played well in the conditions and to say he could have scored more than the 33pts he got is an understatement as putt after putt shaved the hole or lipped out. By the time another one went by on the 14th it looked like Vesuvius was about to blow! Blobless, but 33pts only matched his discard, no improvement. Having got off to a triple par start, I then survived a couple of wobbles before capping off a good front nine with the remaining NTP prizes on both the 6th and 8th (both birdies missed!) for 19pts. All told, no blobs in the round either and the 16pts back gave me 35pts total, not enough to break into the top four.
And so to the last group of Glenn R, Steve F, Derek and our leader going into the day, Mike. Of these Steve didn’t beat his discard with just a 29pts total. But how was our leader going? Well after 9 holes, he had amassed just 13pts (!) ….. he would need at least 20pts on the back 9 to tie Matt and win the tie-break …. a tall order in the wind and rain. Meanwhile the other two were blob free, Derek 15pts and Glenn R 18pts. They would need 18pts and 17pts back 9’s respectively to match Matt and also win a tie-break, much more achievable.
After 14 holes, Mike had added 10pts but still need a minimum 10pts from the last 4 holes, surely out of reach on the tough closing stretch. Glenn R’s back 9 challenge was dented with a blob on the 10th and finished with a total of 34pts, a discard beater but a season total of 172pts, Matt still leads!
Back to Derek, with 9pts in the last four holes the magic number of 18pts back was achieved giving him a season total of 175pts, matching Matt but with a better tie-breaking 6th score, Derek was now in first place, Matt’s title challenge was over. Just Mike to go!
Much mirth has been made (not least by me, and himself) over the last year or two of Mike’s lack of scoring over the last four holes of a round, particularly when leading. I think I actually calculated it to be about 5pts and that was at a Fleetwood course he knows well! Remember he needed 10pts minimum, but amazingly stood on the 18th tee, he had managed 9 of those 10pts with three pars! Just one point required.
A good drive on the last meant a decision whether to go for it over the ditch in front of the green. When has Mike ever played safe?! One fairway wood later and there came the familiar cry of ‘where did that go?!’ Was it over the ditch? The whole season was in the balance. Despite none of his playing partners seemingly interested in helping him find out, there it was just a foot or so over. Unbelievable!
But now he had that pesky tree in his way. Now we all know, after putting, chipping is Mike’s next biggest nemesis, but still the golfing gods shined on him as he somehow managed to knock his ball under the tree to finish just two feet from the pin! Double unbelievable! One putt later, a quad par finish had secured a 35pt round and with a 177pt season total, Mike was confirmed as Parrots Champion for 2023 in his 17th attempt to win the society he started way back around 2007!!
Just think, a blob on any of those four closing holes and Mike’s chances were blown. And, whilst Matt may be ruing that final blob, when just a bogey would have given him the title, it was a magnificent final day effort. So congratulations Mike, an amazing finish and worthy of taking the season crown. Well done also to Derek who finished in second place, just ahead of Matt in 3rd on the tie-break.
Let’s not forget the day’s prizes. Matt had the undisputed best score of the day with 38pts, which propelled him up to 3rd in the table, well done Matt. The other prize places needed countback to split myself, Mike and Frank on 35pts apiece. I ended up 4th, Frank took 3rd and Mike took the 2nd place prize.
To complete the season’s prizes, the high score of the season was won by Steve Fineman with his ’fine’ 40pt winning score at Stand earlier in the year, Well done to Steve and even more well done mate in managing to eat the after game dinner that you actually ordered. That must be a first?!
Handicap changes from Bentham :-
Mike Barnes 15 to 14
Matt Murphy 26 to 23
Gareth Lunn 13 to 14
Pete Whiteside 20 to 21
Mark Thomas 21 to 22
So that’s it for another Parrot’s year. Thank you to all those that attended the events. 40 people played at least one game in 2023 with 20 of those completing 5 games or more (how neat!). Now that the famous Parrot’s myth about the weather has well and truly outed, let’s hope for better days in 2024. In the meantime enjoy the winter golf on offer or your golfing hibernation, depending on your approach to the colder weather to come!!
Glenn
