Results from Golf Days

Our results for the 2023/2024 season are as follows

(most recent event first):

Enterprise Cup
Shrewsbury Golf Club - 19th April 2024
18 hole stableford (95% handicap)

Write-up by Alan Tolley
26 players turned up at the picturesque Shrewsbury Golf Club to contest this year’s Enterprise Cup.

The first thing to negotiate for most was the southern approach from the A49 which was just wide enough for a Fiat 500 let alone anything wider. Those approaching from the north had no such problems but how last year’s captain Gary Tyler and his huge ‘machine’ managed to negotiate the route from the south is anyone’s guess.

In the weeks leading up to the golf day the weather had remained wet and, ominously there was a notice on the club’s website the night before stating that buggies could only be hired with a medical certificate. Jeff Sackett has, of course, negotiated his way out of many, shall we say ‘tricky’ situations in his previous life with the US Air Force and he equally didn’t have any problems finding himself a buggy for the day, when asked by the pro on arrival whether he could walk 27 holes Jeff simply answered ‘No’ and promptly got his ‘wheels’ for the day!

The implication from the club was that conditions might still be fairly wet in places but things proved to be very different. The morning practice session got under way in grey, cold and windy conditions, and perhaps a hint of a shower, but the course overall was fairly dry and played really well. The highlight for many was the condition of the greens,They were easily the best the society has played on for some time, but with the added ‘attraction’ (if you’re a sadist) of being incredibly quick. The stimp meter reading was given as 11, which matched the first 2 days of the recent Masters tournament.

The greens may have been a pleasure to experience but they were faster than some of the passing trains which meant that low scoring proved to be really difficult for most. Indeed, it was almost impossible to ‘lag’ a putt from long range and any putts narrowly missing the hole, even from close range, invariably ended up 4 or 5 feet past the pin so a day of many 3 putts (or more) was the norm for many participants.

Everyone seemed to like the course – even those with really ‘low’ scores (no names mentioned but at least Bobby Ho made it into double figures). Most difficult hole appeared, quite rightly, to be the stroke index 1 par four 12th hole, 434 yards of undulating territory on an otherwise fairly flat course. If anyone did get a par they weren’t shouting about it – instead, at least 5 players admitted that they had putted off the green, the slopes, and pace, proving far to difficult to master.

Onto the prizes:
The morning practice was won by Dave Borasinski, Booby Ho and Steve Lloyd, with 35 points, sharing £15 each

The Captain’s ingenious challenge of nearest the ‘bin’ was won by Kevin Armitt.

3 players managed to get the ball in the hole by taking only 2 shots – Darren Penny, Wayne Taylor and Alan Perkins, three of the society’s genuinely ‘nice’ guys (that doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of us are ‘bad’ boys).

Nearest the pins:
2nd hole – Alan Perkins
6th Hole – Craig Fallon
8th hole  -  Mark Johnson
17th hole – not one single player managed to hit the green all day!
Nearest the pin in 2 on the 18th – Peter Meaney
Longest Drive – Alan Perkins (a man having a fantastic day, at least prizes-wise)
Captains Par 3 Charity Challenge – not won so the ‘pot’ carries over to the next golf day
Blackout Competition – Bournemouth was the winning team and Darren Penny the recipient of the prize, which he promptly donated to the captain’s charity

Onto the main prizes of the day:
1 to 18 handicap best score : Jason Cooper with 29pts (17 shots)
19 to 28 handicap best score : Alan Tolley with 29pts (25 shots)
In 4th place it was Steve Owen with 30 points (8 shots)
In 3rd place, on countback, was Kark Hughes, also with 30 (9 shots)
In 2nd place, in only his 2nd BUNGS event was Wayne Taylor, with 33 points (9 shots)

In 1st place was society secretary Steve Lloyd, who had hardly played any golf recently but, nevertheless, after pocketing the money for the morning practice round, Steve went on to be the best player in the afternoon, scoring 34 points off 12 shots to secure his first golf day win in 5 years, his 11th in total (in 30 years mind). Well done Steve!

View full results and handicap adjustments from Shrewsbury

Gross 2's Scored by the following

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Ballesteros Bowl
Kilworth Springs Golf Club - 21st March 2024
18 hole stableford (95% handicap)

Write-up by Alan Tolley
28 players – including no less than 5 new members of the society - turned up for the first event of 2024 at Kilworth Springs Golf Club.

Kilworth is known for always being open, whatever the weather conditions but, given how much rain had fallen generally in the days and weeks prior to the event, most were expecting the course to at least be soggy and perhaps the greens to be far from their best.

As it turned out any fears we had were unfounded. Despite the recent poor weather which has seen many golf courses closed at times during the winter, Kilworth proved to be perfectly playable with the areas around one or two greens (notably the 17th) being wetter than others but only one fairway, the difficult par 4 13th showing signs of standing water.  

Having ‘crusty’ bacon rolls before play set everyone up nicely and, although there was a threat of rain throughout the day, other than a few spots here and there no one needed to put a brolly up at any time. The day started breezy and a little on the cool side but it gradually warmed up an, by the time the last group came in the sun was out and the weather almost perfect.  

Most players praised the quality of the greens, especially given all the recent bad weather so scoring was pretty good too, players needing at least 35 points just to get among the prizes.  

This being Ian Ronson’s first golf day as Captain of the society there was a decent crowd gathered around the 1st tee to watch his opening drive. With all the pressure – and under some constant barracking from a few who will remain nameless, Ian managed to hit a really decent drive, eventually measured as 212 yards. Wayne Tandy was the lucky man to have predicted exactly that figure so well done Wayne!

Newlyweds Marcho and Heather were making their first society appearance since tying the knot, as it were, but Marcho had more cause to celebrate as it was his birthday so he handed out pieces of birthday cake at one stage to players in the group behind. This kindly gesture didn’t prevent him from putting 2 balls into the water on the same hole later. Coincidentally, the Captain’s other challenge on the day was a ‘Wetballs’ competition, in other words to have a guess at how many balls would end up in the water during the 18 holes. There were some wild and wacky guesses, Karl Hughes predicting more ‘wet’ balls than his beloved Everton have scored goals this season, Shaun Mullaney on turning up at the clubhouse at the start of the day was asked for his entry, Shaun immediately reaching out for the first number that came into his head and said ‘9’ and that, against all odds, proved to be the winning prediction.

On to the prize winners and fourth went to Wayne Tandy with 16 shots on 35 points, pipping newbie Steve Owen (9 shots) with a better back nine. One point ahead was Marcho (8 shots) on 36 points. Jacko finished in the prizes again so, as he intimated over coffee and bacon rolls earlier that he wanted to get his handicap down, he’s definitely going about it in the right way. Jacko also scored 36 points (23 shots) beating Marcho into second with a better back nine.

It may have been Ian Ronson’s debut as Captain but it was Ian’s day in every sense as he walked off with the Ballesteros Bowl with a mighty 39 points off 17 shots. Well played Ian!

In Kev’s absence the prize for longest drive was up for grabs. Darren Penny’s last society outing at Maxstoke Park coincided with one of his worst-ever rounds of golf – and one of his miserable drives which didn’t make the Ladies tee being captured on film by the society’s captain and put on the web site for all to see. At Kilworth, Darren came back fighting and got his name of the longest drive. Nearest the pins went to Paul Jobbins (2nd), another of the newbies Clive Copeland (6th), marcho at the 11th and Howard Holliday at the 18th. Nearest in 2 at the 8th went to Pete Meaney.

View full results and handicap adjustments from Kilworth Springs

Gross 2's Scored by the following
No 2's scored

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Christmas Cup
Maxstoke Park Golf Club - 14th December 2023
18 hole stableford (95% handicap)

Write-up by Steve Lloyd
A few days prior to this event the course at Maxstoke Park was closed and for the preceeding two days, only 12 holes were open so we were lucky to have all 18 holes open for play on the day of our visit. Unfortunately it was 'carry only' so seven of those due to attend had to cancel so there were just 19 BUNGS members plus one guest to compete for the 2023 Christmas Cup.

There was some light drizzle as the first group teed-off but luckily that was all the rain we had and it remained dry but chilly for the rest of the day.  As we 'squelched' down the first we were ominious about the state of the rest of the course, but considering the rain that had fallen in the month prior, it wasn't that bad to be honest. There were some very wet patches in places and the course was playing long, but the greens were decent, so we were glad to be playing a full round of golf.

Scoring wasn't fantastic with several scored in the low 20's. Darren Penny didn't have the best of days although he did have a couple of decent holes and a monster drive at the third amongst his last place finish on 16 points.

With less that 20 BUNGS members there, prize vouchers for the the top three only and in third was incoming Captain Ian Ronson scoring 18 on the front nine and 15 on the back nine for 33 points off 22 shots.

Adrian Marchant won the prior event at Seacroft golf club and it looked like he was going to go 'back to back' after scoring 16 on the front nine and 18 on the back nine for 34 points off 8 shots. He was ahead of playing partner (and defending Christmas Cup champion) Steve Gibbons as they stood on the 18th green. However, a monster putt from Steve for a par and three points on the 18th, took Steve to 35 points to pip Marcho by a point. Steve's 35 points comprised 17 on the front nine and 18 on the back nine off 22 shots to take the Christmas Cup for consectutive years. Well played Steve.

View full results and handicap adjustments from Maxstoke Park

After another fantastic Christmas meal, the prizes were given out along with the trophies for the 2023 season long competition winners. Gary Tyler signed-off his year as Captain where he raised £1719.01 for Macmillan Cancer Support and passed the baton onto Ian Ronson who has chosen Leukaemia UK as his charity for 2024. He'll provide further in due course.

A brief AGM followed then it was time to scrape the windscreens again and head home. Merry Christmas to all BUNGS members.

Gross 2's Scored by the following

 

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The Cliff Thompson Salver
Seacroft Golf Club - 11th November 2023
18 hole stableford (95% handicap)

Write-up by Steve Lloyd
16 BUNGS members headed up to North Shore Hotel and Golf Club in Skegness on the Thursday night for an extra night's stay. Most journeys were pretty uneventful apart from traffic for some and near death experiences for others. It's a good job Anthony Jackson and Steve Lloyd brought along extra boxers as they were soiled after Tim Thacker nearly killed them all! John Martin had arranged a meal at a local Italian for some and Gary Tyler had sourced an all you can eat international buffet for others. Unfortunately after the long walk to the buffet restaurant, the wait was quite long (it didn't open until March 2024) so a further long walk in the cold finally found an Indian. Everyone headed back to the hotel for a few drinks, some more than others, with John Martin stubbing his toe in his room 'pissed' as he described.

Friday morning was dry and bright but chilly and we were joined by the other 16 attendees at North Shore for breakfast and onto the course for the fourball-betterball competition. The weather stayed dry apart from a few drops of rain at the end for the later starters, but the course was in decent condition and was a good venue for the first day.

Gary Campbell joined the BUNGS Hole in One club after aceing the par four ninth with his driver and purchased several bottles of wine for everyone at the evening meal, thank you Gary and well done!

Gary's five points at the ninth helped him and Chris Dewes to win on 41 points, taking £15 each. Second were Steve Harris and Adam Thompson on 39 points (£10 each) and third, also on 39 were James Shipman and Gary Tyler (£5 each).

Nearest the pins were won by John Shaw (3rd), Steve Lloyd (11th), Steve Gross (14th), nearest in 2 on the 17th by Marcho and longest drive by Valey on the 10th.

The late afternoon was either spent in the bar, having a stroll into Skegness or catching a few Z's in bedrooms before a really good evening meal at the hotel with a free drink for everyone plus the wine for Gary's hole in one. Most people stayed at the hotel, a couple did head into the bright lights of Skegness but a good evening was has by all.

Saturday morning was again dry, bright and chilly and after another good breakfast we took the short drive to Seacroft Golf Club (the walk from the golf club car park to the clubhouse was almost as long as the drive there). John Martin had to unfortunately head home as his toe had ballooned and turned black and he struggled to walk at North Shore and couldn't make it round Seacroft, which is a fine championship links course and was a good test. The greens had been recently hollow tined which was a shame, but for the green fee paid, represented excellent value for money.

People were finding the course difficult though and there were some pretty low stableford scores and 33 points was enough to get into the top five prizes.

Fifth went to new Matchplay Knockout Champion Mark Johnson scoring 33 off 8 shots, pipping Gary Tyler with a better back nine. Fourth with just one shot, Rob Hallworth scored 34 points, aided by a tap in eagle at the ninth. Also on 34 points was Lee Bullock with a better back nine, not only did Lee not have any shots, he had to give one back to the course playing off +1.

With a great front nine of 21 points, Steve Raji with 13 shots but couldn't keep it going and had to settle for 14 points on the back nine for 35 points and second place. The winner, and not drinking any alcohol during the trip, was Adrian Marchant. With 10 shots, Marcho scored a level 18 on each nine for 36 points to take The Cliff Thompson Salver. Well played Marcho - perhaps there's something is this zero alcohol thing!

Nearest the pins were Marcho at the 4th, Kev Armitt at the 10th, Leigh Bullock at the 12th and Ginger Gordon at the 14th. Nearest in two was Steve Lloyd at the 6th and Longest Drive Kev Morris at the 17th.

View full results and handicap adjustments from Seacroft

Gross 2's Scored by the following

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