Seniors celebrate in style

It was a great day to be out on the course and a group of 30 seniors were delighted to take to the links on a calm morning with very little wind. It should have been 34, but a ban on buggies meant that at least four members were unable to enjoy this benign climate.

The conditions suited most who took part, as shown by the scorecards, with 20 out of the 29 who competed scoring 30 or more points. Peter Williams joined his group, without a card, not knowing if his knee would allow him to complete the course. With an adjusted swing he still managed to demonstrate to his partners, Bart Youll and Des Stone, how to play the course. His score over the first five or so holes was greater than the combined score of his two partners.

Des was working up a sweat, and a lather, as he struggled with a wayward swing and his poor score was matched by his playing partner, Bart. At the end of nine holes the pair had a total of 19 points, 10 for Des and nine for Bart. Things did improve, marginally, as they struggled on, managing 25 and 24, respectively.

Peter was delighted to finish the round and must have rued the fact that he did not complete a card.

Despite his grand total of 35 points, Tony Ranoe was a bit at sea on the 15th. He was frantically searching for his ball in the bunker on the left, raking through the water in desperation. He was delighted when one of his playing partners pointed out that his ball was sitting on the opposite side of the fairway.

Joining him on 35 was Stan Hudson. He may not have been on the podium, but he was fortunate to have his number drawn out of the bag in the prize draw.

There were four 2s scored this week. Mick Whale enhanced his score of 30 with one on the sixth. The other three were scored on the 12th, with Idwal (36), Keith Hubbard (37) and Adrian Palmer (27) all delighted to receive their acclaim.

So, who were this week’s top dogs? Chris Sierwald just missed out with his total of 36. Also missing out on 37, along with Keith, was Jim Moffatt. Even closer still, on 38 points was David Blackmore.

Derek Cole and Ross James both scored 39 points, with Derek claiming second place due to a better back nine. With a reversal from last week’s Chapman Foursomes, this week’s champion, with a total of 40 points was Mick Seal, showing how to take advantage of the superb weather and ground conditions.

Edwards makes his Mark

After a rained-off week, there were 14 eager Rabbits in the clubhouse keen not only to see who they would be wandering around the famous Championship course with for the next few hours, writes our links reporter, Warren Hacker, but also to endeavour to improve their eclectic scores and climb the ‘Best Eight Scores’ Winter League table.

In the first group away were Steve C along with travelling companions Chris and Mike and one of the group had a few issues with his newly-acquired equipment as he managed to lose three of his brand new balls in the first four holes, but got to grips with things soon enough. They had eight blobs between two of them, but putting Chris’s front nine (21) with Mike’s back nine (20), they would have come first!

The second group consisted of Tom, Robin and secretary Peter and one of them managed to match ‘New Balls Boy’ with one score of two points on the front four holes, one had a back nine to write home about and one decided not to score any points on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th holes!

The next group was a fourball containing Rees, Shaun, Grant and Adrian (he’s leading the Seniors Eclectic, you know!). One couldn’t quite manage a point a hole on the front, while one got 20 (then four on the 10th!), before ‘cooling off’, with two of them notching 19s on the back, but they were unable to please the crowd with a two on the 18th.

The final fourball consisted of the ‘Rabbit Hierarchy’ - captain Paul, vice-captain Steve W, acting treasurer Mark, plus Kieron - Winter League champ in 2016. Our leader was second in the group at the halfway stage, but the others improved on the back and he didn’t, although he managed a point-and-a-half a hole, with the Coloured Ball Boys (Kieron’s being yellow and Steve’s a bright red!) having varied fortunes with their birdie attempts in front of the packed crowd watching the shortened 18th par three - one horseshoeing out and one plopping in!

When the results were announced, it was pleasing to see the talent within the ranks of the Rabbits, as nine scored 30 or more, with the best half-a-dozen being Adrian, Grant and Mike (6th, 5th and 4th) all on 34, bronze winner Steve C on 36, who was beaten to second place by Back Side Peter, living up to his name with an excellent 21 points on the last half, but the honour of being the ‘Rabbit of the Week’ goes to Mark the Money Man with an extremely fine 40 points, topped with three pars and tailed with four more.

Kieron’s yellow ball final birdie earned him a third share of the Twos Pot with Missing Balls Mike, who took two-thirds after draining a long putt on the sixth, then repeating the trick with an even longer downhill putt on the 17th - perhaps he can afford more new balls now!

On the Eclectic front, there were several improvements, with Mike now being the new leader on 58, a point clear of Steve W, Ian J and Grant on 56, with six on 55 and three more on 54 - very close at the top, but Grant, last year’s winner, scored 63 - pull your fingers out chaps.

In the Winter League ‘Best Eight’ contest, Mark’s win consolidates his second place on 269, ahead of Robin and Steve W on 259, Steve C on 258, Peter on 257 and Chris on 256 - all of them behind leader (and current champ) Grant with a 10-point lead on 279, although there a three ‘Lurkers’ not too far adrift - Ian J on 246 after seven scores, Mizuno-sponsored Mike on 226 after six and John B on 225 after seven - keep an eye on them!

Weather permitting, there’s possibly five weeks remaining for the Lurkers (or anyone!) to catch Grant and maybe even beat the score of 309 he managed last winter, so it’s all to play for... watch this space!

Hancock’s half handicap

A dozen of Tenby’s finest Chickens fluttered their feathers and Trotted off in the quest to win a bit of money (not a great amount, a ‘poultry’ sum in fact). Half of them were in the ‘sin-bin’ after previous results and little did they know that three more of them would be sent there after the results were announced (yes, Monsieur Renard, the Official Result Announcer, was there again to carry out the task!).

The Keen One was prowling the first tee area waiting patiently (ish) for his playing partners to join him and they hit off into the pre-sunrise distance. Things didn’t go too well on the first for John Hancock (the ‘prowler’!) and he ended up in the bunker, then against a stony bit of the Black Rock mound, resulting in a blob for him - but that was the only blot on his blue scorecard as he finished the round as the ‘best in his group’ with an excellent 28 points.

His playing partners (Paul Bradley and ‘The Chicken Arranger’) were both playing off reduced handicaps and, despite Paul birdieing the first for four points, his ‘bogey hole’ (the 6th) was his only blob in a decent round, to leave him one adrift of John on 27, whilst Steve C hit bunker trouble on the eighth for one of his two blobs and he ended up with a reasonable 24.

Next in were the ‘Wheely Boys’ of Hywel and Ron, with Mr. Probert bemoaning the ‘worst round of his life’ (Mr. Murphy smiled and nodded!) as he rattled up more blobs than scoring holes and his three points on the first was a quarter of his final total - a score Ron equalled on the 12th and he finished with seven more (including four points on the last).

The next threeball contained two sin-binners - the previous week’s winner Des Stone, missing five, and David Rees, cut one from February 24 last winter - plus buggy-sharing Steve Decosimo. They had decent front nines (2 x 13s and a 14), with only two blobs between them, but Steve finished sixth on the back side, from David seventh, both on 23, with Des getting nine less than his winning score last time out.

Would any of the final fourball grab the Chicken Crown from John? Meurig Jones and Geoff Aston warmed up somewhat on the back six, but had struggled on the front side to come in with 21 and 18 (but he also got four points on the 18th!), so that left Bart Youll and Neil ‘something to do with the paper’ Dickinson the only ones able to snatch top prize. Bart grabbed fourth place from Steve C with a four-pointer on the 18th to get to 25 and got a mention on the ‘Result Sheet’ plus a 30p reward - and no cut.

The Birthday Boy had helped himself to 18 on the front nine (the best of the day), but blobs on the 11th and 12th left him in bronze place on countback with 27, although that earned him a prize of 60p and a cut of one to 25 next time. His score does give him a two-point advantage over Steve C in the Booker Prize ‘best five scores’ battle - at the moment!

Paul was there to gratefully accept his winnings (90p = three free weeks!) for being runner-up, although he spluttered a bit when he was told he was being cut a further three to 13, but he was delighted to hear that the ‘Top Chicken’ John would be getting his handicap slashed by five to six next time out! John’s £1.20 reward will be waiting in a brown envelope for him to try to soften the blow of losing half his handicap (almost!).

Hywel will also have a brown envelope in the ‘Trotter Book’ containing 30p for his booby winning exploits and he’ll have his handicap increased by two to 30, so hopefully he’ll have a better round!

The par of the day was 24, with a total of 35 blobs and, despite the fact that there was an extra chance of a two on the 18th, no-one could manage it. Maybe this week?

Ladies’ Section

January - Part Two

And so the latter part of January comes to an end after having battled high winds, plenty of rain, soaked clothes and the odd puddle here and there! At least we have been lucky to still be able to play, if so inclined.

There was a Sunday Medal played on January 14, with Angie Gottwaltz leading the pack, Sue Ensor coming in second, with Rita Collins in third place.

On Thursday the 18th, 21 ladies went out in teams of three to play a ‘Waltz’ competition - for those who are curious, this format involves the best score counting on the first hole, the two best counting on the second hole and (hopefully!) all three scores counting on the third hole - this being repeated five times over the 15-hole course.

This format tends to be popular as a ‘fun’ comp and the top three teams appeared to gel very well together as they all scored better than the ‘par’ of 60. In third place were Heather Morgan, Angie Gottwaltz and Bev Owen with 62 points. Second place went to Penny Cope, Gill John and Carol Beecher with 64 points, just one point behind the winning team of Julie Tordoff, Linda Tordoff-Evans and Pam Cole on 65.

There was another 15-hole competition on Thursday 25th - this time it was a Chapman Foursomes, where you play your partner’s drives, then select the best ball and play alternative shots into the hole.

Fourteen ladies took to the course, but the day was VERY windy, with rain appearing halfway round, which thankfully was blown through quite quickly, but another batch turned into a monsoon for the tail-enders!

Considering the difficult conditions, the scoring was pretty good, with Heather Morgan and Irene Gilman coming third with 27 points, Gill John and Penny Cope runners-up on 29, but lady captain Pam Cole and her vice-captain Bev Owen were the Queens for the day with 31 points. Good teamwork!

Congratulations are extended to Helen Hughes, Bev Owen and Trevayne Keohane, who were informed recently that they are the West Wales Area ‘Jubilee Three’ winners for 2017. Don’t spend your winnings all at once ladies, but well done indeed!

Fingers crossed for drier weather in February! For any ladies that I haven’t seen recently (or anyone else reading this article), I have tickets available for the club Valentine Dinner and Dance on Saturday, February 17. Get in touch if you would like to go.

P. C.