The course looks beautiful in the frosty conditions (image)
Senior Men’s Golf Chairman’s Report
It has been a difficult last two weeks for senior golf, as the weather has got colder again, and the number of temporary greens needed to protect the course from damage has increased. Seeking an explanation from Peter Bradburn about the restrictions he quickly explained to me the potential long-term damage to greens by overplaying when conditions were as they have been. Interestingly a friend of mine said that the same risks were also being mitigated against at Walton Heath.
Despite the limitations, the seniors were able to play a four-clubs-and-a-putter-team-Stableford competition on 1st February where there was some very good scoring.
In a field of 23, a team of Geoff Bradford, Simon Lucas, David Todd and Stephen Jones amassed a score of 81 points – reduced to take account of their four players against mostly teams three. It never ceases to amaze me how well some players seem to cope with just a few clubs in their bags.
Another competition was also scheduled for yesterday, 8 February. Unfortunately, heavy frost caused the course to be closed till 10 am. In the event only three intrepid golfers out of an entry of 24 managed to play and those three had a combined age of around 250 years. With the sun shining, we played the back nine as our reserved slots were between 9 and 10am from the first tee. Michael Godfrey scored a total of 19 Stableford points from 9 holes. An excellent result!
With no major competitions on the course, the highlight of the past fortnight was the talk on golf psychology by Karl Morris last week followed by a quiz on golf rules and history. A seniors table among those attending achieved a respectable result although our interpretation of the rules of golf left a little to be desired! What the event did achieve was to demonstrate the enthusiasm for golf at all levels in the Club and I hope this will be repeated in other club events in future. We were grateful for the efforts of Simon Baker, Louis Laville and Matt Fidler for organising the event and to the Men’s and Ladies Captains for sponsoring it.