Chris Boughton's Golf Column: Great run for Culford in ISGA finals
A team from Culford School had a great run at the national ISGA (Independent Schools Golf Association) finals finishing tied in third place, at the end of April.
The tournament comprised of individual stroke-play over 36 holes with one round played at Princes Golf Club and the final round at Royal St Georges.
A cold and blustery day faced the players and scoring was challenging. At Princes GC, young Tyler Weaver returned a superb level par 72 and Culford finished day-one in 3rd place which was a great position going into the final round.
A bright, sunny and calm day welcomed the players on day-two on next year’s Open Championship Venue (Royal St George).
Max Weaver, despite struggling with his game, battled hard throughout showing real strength of character.
Despite driving the ball excellently Tom Auchterlonie didn’t quite get going around the greens and had to settle for a 1 over par 71.
After starting with a bogey, 14-year-old Tyler Weaver bounced back with birdies at the 2nd & 3rd holes and continued to play super golf throughout the round. Despite giving up 60-70 yards to some of the older competitors, he finished with a 2 over par 72 to match his day-one score and finish 6th in the individual event.
This kept Culford in a tie for 3rd place in the team event overall, a superb result. Congratulations to Culford’s Director of Golf Lawrence Dodd and his young golf stars.
Dodd said: “It was great to spend 4 days with the lads preparing them for the event at two such great courses and what a treat for them to have played a course that the world’s best golfers will be competing on next year.”
He added: “It was an excellent performance from the Culford boys, and I was very proud of how they played and conducted themselves.”
Tyler Weaver heads off to Jakarta this week to play in the World Junior Golf Championship and Tom Auchterlonie will be heading for the Grand View University, Iowa in August.
Eleven Culford golfers across prep and senior school travelled to the challenging Thorpeness Golf Club, on the Suffolk coast recently, to battle it out for the Bell Cup.
Dry and cool conditions welcomed the players but with the winds due to increase and the course playing hard and fast, scoring wasn’t easy.
Lower 6th Pupil Samuel Jensen led the team off with a fine long iron that just cleared a fairway bunker setting up a solid par.
Christian Wall made a solid start to the front 9 but when a couple of bad shots led to a quadruple bogey 9 on the 9th he looked to be derailed. However, Christian bounced back with a chip in birdie on the 10th and proceeded to play well throughout the back 9 showing great resilience carding a nett 69 to take 3rd place in the nett trophy.
Samuel finished par-birdie-par to shoot a gross 74 and win the Bell Cup on countback from local star Dominic Rudd.
Suffolk Ladies’ Golf Association
The Ladies’ Suffolk County Division 4 Championships were held at the Suffolk Golf Club last week and home players took full advantage of their local course knowledge to win both the individual and team crowns.
In appalling weather conditions the Suffolk’s Carole Saunter won the individual trophy and the club also picked up the team shield (Carole Saunter, Shirley Byrne & Pat Day).
Local golfing legend Barbara Wells who played at the Suffolk right up until she passed away earlier this year, famously won the Division 4 Championship when she was 89, in 2015.
The Suffolk’s Ladies’ Captain, June Smart, said: “To be honest the ladies from our club took a bit of persuading to enter but they all did it in memory of Barbara and she would have been so very proud of them all today. She would have been out there with them.”
The Suffolk County Ladies’ 1st team had a successful first match of the season against Bury St Edmunds Ladies last weekend.
Even though everyone experienced all four seasons of weather during the day, it was an enjoyable round of golf played in a competitive, but friendly atmosphere from both sides. Bury ladies’ put up a good fight only losing to the county team by 3.5-2.5. For individual match scores see Results page.
Thetford Golf Club
The Nunthorpe Cup was first contested at Thetford GC in 1913, having been presented by the first captain, Herbert Burrell.
He named the trophy after winning a considerable sum in the Nunthorpe Stakes, a famous horserace at York. The trophy is now presented to the winners of a Pairs Better-Ball event and Peter Croker (7hcp) and John Ward (9hcp) combined for a brilliant 45pts to win this year’s event on Sunday.
Ward had set the ball rolling by starting his round with four 3s, two pars and two birdies for 10pts.
Crocker took over the scoring responsibilities on the back nine with birdies of his own at the 14th and 17th as their better-ball score added up to level par 72.
The runners-up were Peter Allott (5hcp) and Ray Hamilton (8hcp) with 42pts, beating Matt Harben (5hcp) and Gareth Mills (5hcp) on countback.
Harben-Mills combined for a better-ball score of 71.
Thetford Club member Peter Martin recorded his first hole-in-one with a well-played seven-iron at the 156-yard third on Wednesday May 1.
He was playing with Terry Young and Paul Garnham.
