Chris Boughton's Golf Column: Teenagers to the fore at The Suffolk
Two highly promising young lady golfers took the honours at The Suffolk GC Club Championships, played over two days at the weekend.
Fifteen-year-old Rio Everitt is the Ladies’ champion for 2019 following two rounds of gross 79, and was also runner-up in the Nett.
Fourteen-year-old Emilie Thomas is the Nett champion with scores of 72 and 75.
Rio, who plays off a handicap of 9, attends the Loretto Golf Academy in Edinburgh and starts her third year in September. Emilie is at County Upper School in Bury.
Ladies’ captain June Smart said: “Rio and Emilie are the youngest lady champions the club has ever had. They both played superbly, and we are very proud of them.”
Last year’s Ladies champion Trish Mortlock took third spot in both Nett and Gross.
The Suffolk GC Men’s champion is Simon Ferrari, who pipped Ivan Snelling by just one shot over the two rounds. Chris Tate came third.
The men’s Nett champion for the second-year running is David Wilbraham, who returned scores of nett 67 for both days (10 under par total off his 14 handicap).
Snelling just missed out again and was runner-up, and the fast- improving Steve Moye came third.
Stowmarket Golf Club
Bryan Graham is the Stowmarket Golf Club men’s champion for 2019 after returning gross scores of 68 and 73. Runner-up was Jack Forgan with rounds of 72 and 74.
The winner of the best Nett prize (Ken Brand Cup) for under 18 handicappers was Kevin Button (66+69=135), with Anton Baxter (72+65=137) the runner-up on count-back from Ryan Turnbull.
The over 18 handicap champion is Carlton Matthews, with David Friend three shots adrift in second place. Jake Taylor aced the 18th hole on Sunday.
Stowmarket’s ladies’ Jubilee Shield team travelled to Gorleston to play them in the quarter final. The format of the competition is four- ball better ball matchplay with Hambro scoring.
Despite an early start and an away fixture, Stow ladies won by an impressive five holes. Their semi-final is away to Newton Green on Friday August 2.
Thetford Golf Club
The prizes headed East, West and South as 160 golfers enjoyed Mike Horley’s Captain’s Charity Day at Thetford.
General Manager Malcolm Grubb reported: “The weather was fine - it was quite muggy at one stage, so a brief cooling shower was welcomed - and players from all over the country combined with club members to battle for the overall prizes as well as additional prizes on every hole.”
The outcome was a total in the region of £6000 being raised for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.
The eventual winners were Jamie Read (Clacton), along with Tom Murton, Adam Grimshaw and Tony Murton from Colne Valley. They came in with a mighty 96 points to finish seven points clear of the rest of the field in the best-two-from-four Stableford competition.
Ashley York (Market Harborough) played alongside Kaye York, Andrew Hill and David Galway (Priors Hall) to claim second place with 89.
They must like the course - last year Ashley, Kaye and Andrew were in the winning quartet at the Thetford Captain’s Charity Day.
Next came Mandy and Brian Overton (Alresford), along with Thetford members Ian Harvey and Chris Clark with 88 points.
The couple from Hampshire are staying in the area this week and asked if the club could find two partners for them. Clearly, they combined well with Ian and Chris to take home prizes for third place.
There were additional prizes on every hole, winning Four-Ball vouchers for various courses in the region.
The star prize was a week in a villa in France for a hole-in-one at the 11th, but that was not won. There were several near misses, and everybody who found the green won a prize.
The host club winners were Sue Pitcher, Doug Stephen, Mark Tudor, Norrie Dickson, Glenn Beardsall, Rob Mill, Simon Moore, Mark Alford, Ross Sanford, Brian Chadwick, Trevor Wignall, Richard Plaistow, Karen Cox, Barbara Bailey, James Tebbit and Nigel Halls.
The Seniors AmAm at Thetford had been sold out for two months and a maximum field enjoyed a glorious day.
The winners were the Stoke-by-Nayland quartet of Graham Vandervord, Paul Sandfield, Tony Carman and Mike Moore with 89pts. They finished four points clear of a closely packed field of 28 four-balls.
The runners-up, with 85pts, were David Yates and Peter Rigby of Braintree, combined with John Smith and John Williams of Stoke-by-Nayland.
