Chris Boughton's Golf Column: Stowmarket to host popular event
The popular Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds Golf Day will be held at Stowmarket Golf Club, this year, on Thursday, April 9.
This golf day, one of the largest charity events in the eastern region, is in its 10th year having raised many thousands of pounds for the theatre and its community involvement.
This year’s event at Stowmarket Golf Club is a Stableford teams of four competition with the best three scores to count on each hole. The cost to enter is £130 per team which includes coffee and bacon roll on arrival followed by fish and chips after playing 18 holes.
There is always a generous prize table and various surprises.
Organiser Ian Duncan said;:“Please book your team early to avoid disappointment as the list of entries is building up quickly.”
Contact Ian Duncan on 01359 244537 or email golfjobsuk@gmail.com for an entry form.
Thetford Golf Club
Dean Scott was in hot form to play the last five holes in three under par to win the January Medal at Thetford on Sunday.
Five-handicap Scott was five-over-par when he birdied the 427-yard par-four 14th. After two more pars he had an eagle-three at the 17th and a par at the last for a round of 74-5-69 to win Division One.
He finished three strokes ahead of Brian How (12hcp) with Paul Pearce (5hcp) third with nett 73.
Ed Cole (19hcp) beat Ken Kirwan (20hcp) on count-back to top Division 2. Both finished with nett 72.
Thirteen-handicapper Kevin Ulla finished in second place with nett 73.
Neil Elders won the December Midweek Stableford with 38pts from his 11 Handicap. James Wren came second and Steve Campbell third. Both scored 37 points from 16 handicaps.
In the December Seniors’ Stableford held at Thetford, Andrew Bloom and Brian Youngs both carded impressive scores of 42 points with Bloom taking the honours on count-back. John Brown was a point further back on 41pts for third spot.
In the Ladies December Stableford, Liz Robinson headed Division One, Pam Ellis topped Division Two and Sandra Gordon returned the best score of the competition (37pts) to take Division Three.
John Lynch recorded his first-ever hole-in-one after more than 30 years of playing golf at the 146-yard third at Thetford.
He hit a hybrid five iron and it was on-line all the way until it disappeared behind a bunker. Lynch said he had a fuzzy feeling as he walked to the green and could not see his ball. He did check behind the green first, just in case, but then found the ball nestling in the bottom of the cup.
His playing partners were Frank Knight, Peter Yule and Doug Atkins.
The Suffolk Golf Club
Despite a reasonably mild winter’s day last Wednesday, the participants in the Midweek competition at the Suffolk did not return the high Stableford scores recorded in recent events at the club.
George Pedro needed only 36 points to take top spot with in-form golfer Steve Moye the runner-up with 35, pushing James Edgar into third place on count-back.
With long-time Order of Merit leader Ivan Snelling finishing well down the field it could be a very close finish to the current league, with four golfers still in contention and just two rounds remaining.
Snelling still leads with 51 points followed by Edgar on 45, Moye on 38 and Martin Levens on 36.
It was very windy on Sunday, with gusts up to 40mph, but the golfers playing in the 5th round of the Winter League at The Suffolk coped well and there were five pairs who returned Greensome scores in excess of 40 Stableford points.
Ron Hazell and Dave King posted a winning score of 43 points to pull themselves up to third place in the league with just one round remaining. Alf Sandford and Val O’Neill also scored 43 points but had to settle for second place on count-back.
The league winners are decided by taking the best four scores from the six rounds and Paul Dufosee and Simon Hodson just held onto their lead despite not improving on their four results total. They now lead by just one point from Len Hopkinson and Chris Tate who finished in third spot on Sunday.
The league is still wide open with only six points separating the leading six pairs.
Bury St Edmunds Golf Club
Bury Golf Club also held the penultimate round of their Winter Goblets series of Foursomes matches on Sunday with 98 members taking part.
The best score came from Tom Crouch and Trevor Durant with 44 points. Robbie Burt and Steven Bradford took second place with 39 points followed by Keith Cougan and Fred Bennett. The fourth and final round is scheduled for Sunday, February 5.
Richard Mortlock carded a fine score of 42 Stableford points to win Division 2 of the Midweek competition at Bury, posting the joint best score of the day.
Mike Brooks also returned a score of 42 to win Division 1, just beating Steve McClellon by one point.
