Good afternoon everyone,

From a sun kissed Langley Park, long may the sunny days continue! This week we have a competition round up including the Medal, report from the Vets league final, have a result from a recent Captain & Pro challenge, and update you on a Par change. Enjoy the read!

Medal

Last Saturday saw the last of the medal competitions of the year played in the September Stroke, Kevin Walder found his way to some form late in the season and recorded the best score of the day with nett 67. He pipped Neil Lewens on countback, with Alistair Stevenson back in 3rd place with nett 69. In Division 2, Andrew Buchanan topped the list with nett 69, also winning on countback from Ray Behan.

The winner of The Top Dog was also decided, Simon Hurry is this year’s winner with his 4 best medal scores of -15, beating Dan Butler by an agonising one shot on -14 with Max Jordan and George Perry back on -9.

Kent Veterans League Final – Shooters Hill

On Tuesday, the unstoppable Vets team played in the Veterans Kent final representing group two as winners of their League. The final consists of 5 pairs playing better ball stableford off 90% handicap and the 5 scores added together make a grand total to produce a winner.

It was a tremendous day but I have to report, sadly, that they came second. For a long while they were in pole position on 193 points but then Hever came in with 193 points so it went to count back on the back nine (all cards). We came second by one point!

It was not to be, but the team played tremendously well and for their efforts they each received a Golfstream trolley golf bag and a glass decanter.

Ladies Goodhart Cup Results

36 holes for the ladies on Tuesday, so not surprisingly a slightly smaller field than usual, with the scores as follows:

• 1st - Tereza Russo 74+78=152
• 2nd - Lesley Compton 74+78=152
• 3rd - Mari Brooks 76+83=159
• 4th - Ann Greatorex 83+77=160

Captain update

The Junior section are pleased to announce that Ed Soars has accepted the honour to be the next Junior Captain. Ed has been with the Club for 10 years, starting with a 54 handicap and now plays off 7. He has been an integral member of the junior section over the years, playing in most internal competitions, representing the Club on many occasions. We hope you will all be able to come and support Ed at his drive-in on Sunday 15 October, where there will be a junior competition after.

Captain/Pro Challenge

Andy and I played our last Captain/Pro match of Andy’s tenure last Sunday, against the tough opposition of Gary Tommy and Russ Thomson. With Gary receiving 10 shots and Russ 20!! This looked like it would be a tough match, but we were soon off to a fairly rapid start as wins at 2, 5, 6, and 7 took us into a commanding 4 up lead as it looked like Russ Thomson had forgotten to turn up!

Garys had a 4/3 at 8 and Russ then arrived on 9 with a 4/3, quickly followed by 3/2 at 10 and all of a sudden we were back to 1up! A 4 at 11 was good enough to cross the road 2up before Russ made 5/3 at 12 and Gary’s 3 at 13, it was game on at all square! My 3 at 14 and 4 at 15 restored our 2up lead, Andy looked to have sealed victory with a 3 at 16 only to be matched by Garys 4/3, he then recorded another at 17 to take the match to the 18th where Russ appeared after a 5 hole rest to fire his tee shot to 6 feet and duly roll in the putt for a 2/1!

A great match that finished all square, and a fitting way to round off a highly entertaining and enjoyable season of Captain/Pro matches. The list to take on Phil McBrown and myself will be going on the wall shortly…….

Change of Par

Most of you will already be aware but as of this week, the 14th hole has now been changed to a Par 5 from both white and yellow tees. This will mean that the par of the course will now be 69 from both tees, and the stoke index on the 14th will change to 8 and the 17th will become 4 from the yellow as well as the whites.