News Letter

2023 Golf Days – Report by Kate Brown

Cuddington GC – 2nd March

Our first event of the 2023 season was held back in March at my home club, Cuddington. We were lucky with the weather and a great turnout with 28 golfers, including our old friend Nicholas Hercules and Mike Payne’s son Gary, who had been relieved of his pub landlord duties for the day! There was the usual mix of scores but no-one could match the winners excellent results. After a four month layoff due to surgery, I was delighted to be playing again back on my home ground but came in with a very poor score! Third place was Chris Robinson with 35 points, second place was guest Joe Cox with 44 points but the winner with 37 points was Nicholas Hercules. GCGB rules state that a guest cannot win lst prize, hence Joe’s 44 points being placed 2nd. Hopefully he will join up to be eligible to win another time. Nicholas also won the Nearest the Pin on the 8th hole and Nearest the Pin on the 11th was won by Simon Grigor.

Natwest Trophy Pairs Betterball -Tilgate Forest GC 11th June

Next up was our annual Natwest Trophy pairs better ball competition at a new venue, Tilgate Forest Golf Centre. The weather wasn’t so kind to us this time around and due to torrential rain the previous few days, the course was almost unplayable it was so wet. But not to be deterred an intrepid group of 20 golfers braved the elements. The rain did actually keep away during the day but it was very hard going to say the least! In third place was Simon Grigor and Alan Strickley who had driven down from Birmingham, second place on countback with 33 points was Gary Cavill and Mark Hopkins and the winners were Dave McCourt and Steve Saville (with an injured hand!) also with 33 points. Nearest the pin went to Trevor North.

Silver Jubilee Cup -Royal Ascot GC 14th June

This was a return visit to Royal Ascot GC which is adjacent to the race course – preparations were well in hand for Royal Ascot the following week, with the helicopter landing pad being marked out by the 5th tee! The weather was good as we were in the middle of the hot spell back in June. Third place went to Nigel Smith with 31 points, second place was Mike Payne with 35 points and the winner was Cristina Swift with a very impressive 37 points. Nearest the Pin went to Captain Rob McCanna.

Captains Day – Westerham GC 24th August

Those of you who were at Rob’s drive in last year at Westerham will remember it was raining so hard that Rob didn’t even manage his drive in and the day was a wash out. This year was a completely different story thank goodness! I am delighted to report that Ken Mock had agreed to take over as Captain for the coming year and although he got lost on the way to Westerham, took his drive-in as planned. Unfortunately it wasn’t one of Ken’s best but Brian Parry correctly guessed the distance and so won the sweepstake of just over £100.

Westerham is one of my favourite courses and a lot of work has been done recently with trees being cleared and a wide tarmac path replacing the old gravel path. Rob McCanna is now based in the pro shop at Westerham and his local knowledge certainly helped with his golf coming in 3rd with 36 points and also winning Nearest the Pin on the 8th hole. 2nd place went to Gary Cavill and the winner with an excellent 39 points was Dave McCourt. Norman Clarke won Nearest the Pin on both the 4th and 11th holes and Dave won on the 13th Hole.

A very auspicious day all round as it was Gary Cavill’s birthday and also the first anniversary of Golfguard taking over the running of GCGB. I am pleased to say that I will carry on running golf days for the next year and will be preparing the 2024 fixture list in the Autumn.

Overseas Championship – Return to El Rompido

22 golfers and two non-golfers assembled at Gatwick on a hot 11th September, to catch an Easyjet flight to Faro, Portugal, from where a luxury coach took us the hour or so across the Guadiana Bridge into Spain, for GCGB’s second visit to the lovely El Rompido golf resort. There waiting for us were the two final members of our 2023 ‘gang’, GCGB Captain Ken Mock and his wife Janet, who had travelled to Spain by ferry and motorhome, having set off a couple of weeks earlier.

Settled into our rooms, we immediately got into the swing of things with what was to be a daily meet-up for pre-dinner drinks followed by super meals from the varied buffet offerings.

The first full day saw us on the South course, a reacquaintance for many of us with a fearsome first drive, with water all the way down the right and a fairway that seemed to suck balls off in that direction! It was a pairs competition, the better ball on Stableford scoring on each hole. Anne Coulbourn and Kate Brown were the runners-up, pipped by Pauline Ronson and Ken Hall on countback, each with 35 points. Anne especially did exceptionally well as on the 9th green, Kate managed to enact a re-run of her buggy/stake accident in Arizona back in 2011 and stepped off the buggy this time onto a round wooden post, leaving Anne to complete the back 9 on her own. Jan Robinson kindly accompanied Kate to hospital for medical attention and the EU Global Health card was well and truly put to the test! No more golf for the time being for either Jan or Kate!

Day one of the individual competition saw a switch to the North course. Like last year, the North course proved a stern test, beautiful though it is, and that was illustrated by a winning score of 28, Ken Hall in the frame for the second day running. The less said about Kate Brown and Vera Martin’s lost buggy escapade after they’d finished their round, the better…..What is it with Kate and buggies??

It was back on the South course for day two of the individual event, and Simon Grigor shaded Michael Payne, on countback, after they had each scored 30.

Friday was a rest day. Some went to El Rompido village, either via a nice walk through the nature reserve that surrounds the resort, or by the little land-train that would take you there from the hotel. The village is quaint, with nice restaurants and a pretty harbour, and a ferry can take you across to a spit of beautiful beach to walk on or paddle in the Gulf of Cadiz. The annual GCGB tennis challenge took place early that evening with the usual outcome: spin demon Alan Strickley walloping Simon Grigor 6-1 6-2.

It was back on the North course for the third day of the individual competition, with heavy rain forecast for mid-afternoon. The first couple of groups just about made it back dry but the other four got wet, very wet, as it absolutely hosed it down on the final couple of holes. Ken Mock was the daily winner with 29 points.

Kate added up the scores so as to send everyone out in reverse order on the final day, on the South course. Ken Mock, Michael Payne, Mark Hopkins and Nigel Smith were the contenders who made up the final fourball. But if they were watching each other’s scores they were ignoring, at their peril, Chris Robinson, who was playing in the penultimate group. He had a superb 31 points, best round of the week, that not only won him the daily prize but also the overall championship, with Mark Hopkins second and Nigel Smith third. There were also final day prizes on offer for Nearest the Pin (Chris Robinson for the men; the ladies going unclaimed) and Longest Drive (Ken Hall for the men; Hatsumi Takahashi for the ladies).

So the final total scores for the top five places were as follows:

1st Chris Robinson 84 points
2nd Mark Hopkins 82 points
3rd Nigel Smith 81 points (on countback)
4th Ken Hall 81 points
5th Ken Mock 80 points.

Well done to you all!

Before the final dinner and the presentations there was time for a few to try a new sport: padel. Alan Strickley already plays it, a lot, near his Birmingham home, so his 6-0 6-0 demolition of Simon Grigor was no surprise (!) and this was followed by two doubles matches: Alan and Chris Robinson beat Simon and Ken Mock 6-1, and then Alan and Michael Payne beat Simon and Ken 6-2.

Kate hosted the presentations and rightly received a long, loud round of applause for all the very hard work she’d put in to ensuring that everyone had a great week. She gave particular mention to Linda Rich, there with partner Miles Williams, as it was 25 years since Linda had won the European championship trophy! Special cheers were given to non-golfing partners Diane Smith, Nigel’s wife, and Mike Betteridge’s partner Alison, who had entered into the spirit of the week so completely.

A late night’s drinking (and the El Rompido bar staff certainly know how to pour large measures!) followed and then the next day it was a lunchtime bus journey back to Faro (or for Ken and Janet, a short hop in their motorhome to their next stop) and then the plane back to Gatwick where, unlike in 2022, the golf bags emerged quickly onto the carousel and a super holiday was almost over.

Thank you to every single one of the party for your fabulous company.

Report by Simon Grigor
Clandon Regis Golf day – 19th October

Our last event of the season and 2023 Order of Merit was at Clandon Regis, a return to an old favourite course. We had torrential rain the day before but thankfully the course was fully open with no restrictions. It did rain on an off all day but somehow we managed to keep reasonably dry! Nicholas Hercules was on an extended leave from his work with United Nations in South Sudan and as usual played exceptionally well. We had countback between third and fourth place but Gary Cavill beat Mark Hopkins into third place with 27 points. 2nd place went to John Walker with 28 points and Nicholas won the day with 31 points. Mark Hopkins won the men’s Nearest the Pin and Kate Brown won the ladies.

CHRISTMAS SCRAMBLE

Our last event of the year is the annual Christmas Scramble, to be held at Silvermere Golf Centre on Thursday 14th December and costs £66 a head. This is fun team event followed by Christmas lunch and the presentation of the 2023 Order of Merit award. Please contact Kate on 07836 722583 or email katebrown@golfclubgb.co.uk for further details.

That’s it for this year! Kate will be putting together the fixture list for 2024 which will be sent out by the end of the year. We will have golf days to be held in March, May, June, August, October and December with the possibility of a 2/3 day UK trip in July.