Men’s Golf Captain’s Blog
As a long-established golf course, Roehampton Club has seen its fair share of ‘Hole in One’ and the subsequent celebrations in the bar where the ‘lucky’ player gets to buy everyone a drink! This last week has seen another two names added to the honour’s boards – firstly Caroline Leslie during the Men’s v. Ladies match and then Jo Cochrane during the Spring Meeting. Huge congratulations to you both on this achievement.
The annual ‘Men’s vs. Ladies’ match took on an altogether larger scale this year with 13 fourball better ball matches being contested. With many of the usual male ‘Standard Bearers’ away, Captain Charlotta saw the opportunity to deploy a team of 26 highly experienced Ladies in an exciting formation – designed to inflict maximum pain on the Men’s team and ensure a crushing victory for the Ladies.
As it turned out, all of the matches were closely contested with several turning on the final putt … in favour of the Ladies who won by a 7-6 scoreline and have bragging rights for the next year! I like to think those final missed putts were a sign of ‘gentlemen-ly conduct’ although Charlotta assured me it was due to match fitness and mental toughness from the Ladies!
The Men’s Spring Meeting delivered a course where the rough has grown tremendously well and the greens are approaching their pacey, billiard table-like best. We saw some fabulous scoring on both Saturday and Sunday.
The scratch tournament for the Miller Challenge Cup was hotly contested. After day one Luke Gorman led the way in the scratch with a 70 ( -1), closely followed by Connor Hamilton ( 71) and Peter Crocombe and Viresh Mathur ( 73). Day two saw more good golf with Gorman showing a cool hand to shoot level par 71 and a win by two from Connor Hamilton with Tom Benbow in third place.
In the handicap, Viresh Mathur had delivered a masterclass. With only his second card since last year’s Spring Meeting, he recorded gross 73 – 10 handicap for a 63 nett and a lead from chasing pack of Calum Bird, Jo Cochrane, Neil Anderson and Simon Butler. As dawn broke on Sunday, the hopes of many rested with the gods. Vivesh Mathur was not to be denied, lifting the Roehampton Challenge Cup having shot a 76 -10 = 66 nett for 36 hole total of 129 nett and a resounding victory by 6 shots from Jo Cochrane with Simon Butler a further 5 away. Congratulations to Luke and Viresh who will receive their trophies at the Men’s Golf Dinner in November.
We have plenty of golf upcoming. This coming Saturday we have the Captains Charity Day. There are spaces for only three more pairs with the chance to support the Captains Charities and win some great prizes. We will also be having an auction afterwards with various pieces of golfing memorabilia up for grabs.
For those of us who dreamt of pulling on the jersey and signing the National Anthem, the 27th May gives us one more chance. Throughout the Club anticipation is building for the international matches which will see teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Europe, Rest of the World and England compete both on and off the course. Team Captains Neil Anderson, Russell Gooding, Lou Tricario, Peter McGovern and Simon Butler are ready to issue the essential ‘cap’ to those called up so please sign up via IG Golf or via email to Louis at louis.laville@roehamptonclub.co.uk
Simon Butler, Men’s Golf Captain