NEARLY 100 members took advantage of the glorious early spring sunshine to tee it up in last Saturday’s individual stableford at Douglas Golf Club.
And with some run on the ball at last it was no surprise that, with winter tees still in use, scoring was as hot as the weather with almost half the field returning par or better. Happiest camper on the day was 31-year-old Windsor Road resident Neil Smith who, just a fortnight ago, was winning with 45 points off his then 16-handicap.
Last Saturday off his reduced 14-handicap he went one better in carding 46 points to take the star prize along with an exceptional scoring reduction in his handicap which now stands at 10. Retired Premier Print boss Kevin Clarke (8) took the runner-up spot with his 42 from a card spoilt only by bogeys at the 8th and 14th. Young Matthew Savage (16 but now 15) continues his progress and his 41-point return on Saturday - the highlight being a four-pointer at the 2nd - got him the third place money.
He in turn was a point to the good over four players - Jack Carty (20), Richard Riley (17), Jack Shimmin (22) and Chris Corran (13) - who went into the card play-off for the fourth and final prize voucher with Carty getting the nod. The other three will each have to take consolation in having carded one of the 18 twos on the day each worth a shop credit of £7.50.
The draw for the make up of the 14 teams which went to post in Sunday’s four-man Texas scramble had been arranged to ensure that they each comprised players of approximately similar standards and the success of this approach was reflected in the result when the whole field was covered by just a handful of shots. Taking the better of the two sets of vouchers on offer was the team of Stephen Skillicorn (2), Stephen Broadbent (10), Chris Costello (13) and Jesper Hemy (26).
With the handicap allowance set at one-tenth of the combined, their gross 58 became a winning nett 52.9. Runners-up with a net 54.4 was the team headed by Captain John Slattery (24) with Lee Savage (6), Brian Lindsay (14) and Clive McGreal (12) for company. Five bottles of the hard stuff were up for grabs as nearest-the-pin prizes and these went to Anthony Crawley (1st), Gary Shilling (4th), Lee Savage (8th), Simon Colquitt (11th) and Barry Skillicorn (17th).
An 8am shotgun start on the day the clocks went forward ensured a lot of tired looking faces in the clubhouse for the prize presentation (including for the Winter League and FBBB Championship) but they were soon perked up by the excellent carvery lunch and the news that Colas will renew its sponsorship of the Winter League for 2012-13.
This Saturday a medal for the Red Cross Salver will hopefully be played off the summer tees to be followed on Sunday by a FBBB stableford for those not involved in the Isle of Man Golf Union’s Am-Am at Peel for the Island Games.