Golf: Ladies loving season being in full swing

It has been a busy few weeks for Bognor's golfing ladies.
Bognor ladies' recent prizewinnersBognor ladies' recent prizewinners
Bognor ladies' recent prizewinners

The EGWA Greensomes, re-arranged from March, was won by Sue Doughty and Sue Monger. Nicki Vincent and Pat Fitzgerald won the high/low foursomes.

The first qualifying competition of 2016, the spring meeting for the Thorpe Cup, was won by Chloe Court.

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Scratch foursomes pair Chloe Court and Heather Tidy lost in the quarter-final on the 19th hole at The Dyke to Royal Ashdown, last year’s winners.

There were two winter knockout competitions concluded in April. The winter foursomes was won by Caroline Pilbeam and Suzanne Taylor and the Thin Cup was won by Sue Sidebotham. The spring meeting foursomes was won by Chloe Court and Nicola Holton.

There were a number of matches against other clubs.

Bognor’s Morrice Fours team won 2-1 against Hill Barn but lost to Chichester in the next round.

The division-one team had a win against The Dyke while the division-two side had wins against Cooden Beach and West Sussex. Bognor’s division-three team lost to Haywards Heath.

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There were two friendlies which resulted in a draw with Ham Manor and a loss to Chichester.

In an excellent turnout, more than 70 Bognor men took part in the popular Glover Cup, a bogey competition. Most scores reflected the bright but blustery conditions but leading the way by a considerable margin was Richard Barnett with a great score of plus six.

He was followed by Bradley Knowles on plus four and third after another good day was Andrew Field on plus three, who last month won the Spring Tankard.

Results: Div 1 - Andrew Field +3, 2 David Groves +3, 3 James Woosley +2; Div 2 - 1 Richard Barnett +6, 2 Charles MacKendick +2, 3 Willie Dunn +1; Div 3 - 1 Bradley Knowles +4, 2 Richard Beresford +2, 3 Chris Hickling +2.

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Bognor seniors hosted Worthing, and on a lovely day, the course had been transformed into lush green fairways and super greens, where the new growth had allowed them to be cut.

The Bognor boys were able to eke out a victory against a strong Worthing team by 4½-3. There were excellent wins for 2015 senior of the year Steve King and partner Clive Millett by 6&4 and also for Alan Fitzgerald and Peter Lott by 5&4.

Results: David Turner & John Woodhead won 3&2, Steve King & Clive Millett won 6&4, Alan Fitzgerald & Peter Lott won 5&4, Terry Kuhler & Allan Delves halved, Frank Hodder & John Chapman won 3&2, Bob Lee & Peter McCormack lost 3&2, Barry Forey & Roger Selway lost 3&2, Trevor Till & Peter Collins lost 2&1.

COWDRAY PARK

Cowdray Park welcomed in May with their Monthly Medal. In addition to the usual prize for the winner, club pro Tim Allen offered the winner the chance to travel to Walton Heath on June 21 to partner him in the south region PGA’s pro-am, the largest in Europe.

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Lucky recipient of the prize was former club captain Sean Gallagher, who won with nett 67, the day’s lowest score, and incurred a reduction in handicap to five.

Second in division one was David Turner on 69 on countback from three other players: Paul Westwood, Scott Dormer and Trevor Challen. First place in division two, with 69, was Richard Smith, from Brian Dormer on 71. Alex Steward took division three with 68 from Barney Dixon on 69.

Results: Div 1 - 67 Sean Gallagher; 69 David Turner, Paul Westwood, Scott Dormer, Trevor Challen; 70 Howard Kasey; 71 Chris Cummins, Mark Upton. Div 2: 69 Richard Smith; 71 Brian Dormer; 72 Terry Adsett, Frank Cheevers; 73 Mick Fillary. Div 3: 68 Alex Steward; 69 Barney Dixon; 71 Dave Fowler, Eric Morrish; 72 Micky Shotter; 73 Bernie May.

Cowdray Park seniors registered their first away win of the season when they won 4-3 at Liphook.

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The course was in superb condition, with the greens surely the slickest Cowdray will face all season long.

The first match featured the top two players in each side, and it was the Cowdray duo of Dave Lucking and Nick Austin who drew first blood, with a 2&1 win.

In the next match, which again featured closely-handicapped players, Cowdray’s Chris Hutchings and Ken Marjoram doubled the lead with a 3&1 victory.

Match manager Brian Carpenter and Allen Sibley couldn’t overcome the concession of shots to the home pair, and were beaten by two down, despite each Cowdray player almost scoring a hole in one.

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Mick King and John Newman just edged home by one up in another hard-fought contest before the home side again reduced the arrears to 3-2.

The Cowdray win was clinched by Sam Howes and Bill Birnie with their 2&1 win, and the final match went to the home team, with the biggest margin of the day, to give a final score of 4-3 to Copwdray.

Results (Cowdray names second): Graeme Fairley & Jeremy Richards lost to Dave Lucking & Nick Austin 2&1; Anthony Collett & Chris Rowe lost to Chris Hutchings & Ken Marjoram 3&1; Bryan Smith & Jonny Talbot beat Brian Carpenter & Allen Sibley 2up; Henry Jones & Dennis Geal lost to Mick King & John Newman 1down; Peter MacFarlane & Jeff Rawlins beat Tony Pike & Rob Doney 4&3; Gordon Musk & Simon Sheppard lost to Sam Howes & Bill Birnie 2&1; Robert Duncan & Robin Rickman beat Colin Tebbutt & Alistair Proctor 5&4.

Thirty-nine ladies played in the Sainsbury qualifier on a beautiful spring day. The top 16 are then drawn to play singles matchplay to compete for the Sainsbury Cup.

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Results: 1 Kate O’Kelly nett 70; 2 Glenda Luff 73; 3 Angela Pike 74.

Members from Cowdray and Goodwood took part in the re-instated marathon match between the clubs.

They had the chance to tee off on either of the picturesque courses. Later in the year, at the reverse fixture, members who played at Cowdray will play at Goodwood and vice versa.

The Cowdray team playing at Cowdray got off to a good start with Chris Strudwick winning the opening match 11 up.

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At Cowdray, Cowdray finished 39 up while at Goodwood, Cowdray were 25 down. Overall, Cowdray are 14 up.

The reverse fixture takes place on October 29.

Cowdray’s director of golf, Tim Allen, was delighted to have resurrected this popular event after a 12-year absence and hopes this match will now return to the annual fixture list.

GOODWOOD

Goodwood junior Ethan Stride struck a memorable hole-in-one as he teamed up with dad Nathan to claim a place in the grand final of the Gloria Hotels & Resorts UK Pairs’ championship.

The 11-year-old from Kirdford holed his five-iron tee shot at the Downs course’s 145-yard par three 17th to fire his team to a winning betterball score of 46 Stableford points.

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And it turned out to be a vital moment of magic from the Plaistow Kirdford Primary School 19-handicapper as runners-up Martin and Nicky Vanstone narrowly missed out on countback after also finishing on 46 points.

It means the father and son duo will take their place among the other regional winners at Stoke Park Country Club in September – with a stunning prize luxury golf holiday at the five-star Gloria Hotels & Resorts in Belek, Turkey up for grabs.

Ethan, who revealed he has been discussing the possibility of notching a hole-in-one over breakfast, could not wipe the grin from his face as he celebrated victory.

He said: “It’s funny because I had been talking about hitting a hole-in-one with my dad that morning. But I just hit it perfectly, it rolled up and went in – then everybody went crazy!

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“There was a group behind us on the tee and they saw it as well - everybody was cheering. It was an amazing feeling and everyone was congratulating me after the round. Now I can’t wait to play at Stoke Park and hopefully win the holiday.”

Dad Nathan said: “Ethan played brilliantly and it was a moment we will never forget. It was his first hole-in-one in a competition - but he’s actually done it twice before!”

Goodwood had some of Britain’s best-known sportsmen testing themselves against the Park course for Paul Jones’ Golf Day on behalf of the Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice.

Former Wales and Southampton keeper Jones has been coming to Goodwood each year for 13 years for his charity event, with a number of stars from the world of sport taking part to raise funds.

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This year was no exception with former England footballers Ray Clemence and Luther Blissett joining snooker’s Willie Thorne out on the Park course.

However, new to the event and with a film recently in the cinema celebrating his amazing journey from his home town of Cheltenham to the 1988 Calgary Winter Games, was Eddie The Eagle Edwards. Edwards joined the teams on course in the brilliant sunshine.

Clemence, the early clubhouse leader, said: “I play a lot of golf but that doesn’t mean I’m an experienced golfer! I love playing these charity days and the Park course at Goodwood is as good as I’ve seen it.”

Having scored well himself, event organiser Jones, whose annual day raises £10,000 to £15,000 for Chestnut Tree House said: “The idea behind the day is to raise money for the charity and have a bit of fun along the way.

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“We have teams of three that pay to play and bring some celebrities along, the likes of Ray Clemence, Willie Thorne, Eddie the Eagle, Luther Blissett and Rocky Taylor, a stuntman who has appeared in Game Of Thrones.

“We’ve been using Goodwood for the golf days for 13 years now – it’s an unbelievable setting, especially on a day like this.”

CHICHESTER

There was a very close contest for the Chichester veterans’ Spring Trophy, their first major of the season.

A medal off the whites on the Cathedral course normally sorts out the best players and this was no exception. It was a beautiful day with a light wind but scoring was difficult and only the winner broke par.

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The early leader in the clubhouse was Mike Harrington with a one-over nett 73.

Later Paul Compton recovered from an inauspicious start where he took seven on his first hole, the par-five 12th, and with birdies on the 16th and the difficult first hole, he went on to score a nett 70 and win by two from playing partner Chris Penny and from Brian Holden.

With good finishes in the first two qualifiers of the season, Penny has taken a healthy lead in this season’s order of merit .

Result: Spring Trophy - 1 Paul Compton 70 nett; 2 Chris Penny 72; 3 Brian Holden 72; 4 Mike Harrington 73; 5 David Galloway 73.

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The veterans have been in fine form in their inter-club matches starting with a crushing 6-0 victory at home to Blacknest. The visitors struggled in the conditions as it was wet and cold, and all are to be commended for sticking at it.

Two difficult away games ended in good wins for Chichester.

East Horton was the first venue on another cold, breezy day which turned wet with hail and sleet for the last few holes. A much improved golf course really suited captain Jim Robertson and his partner David Galloway as they led the way with a 7&6 triumph. Others followed and only one of the six matches was lost.

The inaugural playing of a new fixture away to Meon Valley in warmer temperatures saw the vets win 4½-1½. Three games went to the last hole and the vets didn’t lose any.

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