Chris Boughton's Golf Column: Absent Ivan Snelling holds on to clinch Midweek Order of Merit title at The Suffolk Golf Club
The Midweek Order of Merit, for the first quarter of the current captains’ year, concluded last Wednesday at The Suffolk and despite his absence, Ivan Snelling held on to the top spot, which he has held from the start, to be crowned the champion.
James Edgar did play on the final day but his 6th place finish left him two points short in second place overall.
Steve Moye only played in four of the 11 matches but amazingly still managed third place in the final league table.
In the final match Stephen Christopher scored 35 points from his 11-handicap to take top spot and Stephen Seale came 2nd pushing John Dale into 3rd on countback.
Bury St Edmunds Golf Club
Best score in the Monday Freeplay Stableford competition at Bury was David Snow (Division Two) with 38 points from his 19-handicap. Graham Staff carded the top score in Division One (37pts).
There was also a Freeplay Stableford at the club on Friday which 22-handicapper Chris Bugg won with 40 points
The January Junior Stableford winner was Jasmine Points with 37 points.
After three rounds of the Winter Goblets, Steven Bradford & Robbie Burt are in a strong position leading the overall points table with a 116.
Second placed Kevin Coogan & Fred Bennet have 108 and third are Sam Renville & Adrew Cunningham with 107.
With the best three scores from the four rounds deciding the overall Goblets winners, both pairs will need a very big points score to overtake the leaders Bradford & Burt and hope that they do not improve on their low score of 37.
The final round is on Sunday, February 9.
Suffolk County Golf Union
Suffolk County have published the dates and venues for their popular 2020 Championships: Amateur Foursomes at Diss GC on Sunday, April 19 (36 holes), Amateur Championship at Felixstowe Ferry GC on Sunday, June 14 (36 holes), Amateur Match-Play Champs for Presidents Mashie also at Felixstowe on Saturday and Sunday June 20-21, Seniors’ Championship (18 holes) at Rushmere GC on Friday, June 26, Seniors’ Match-Play finals day (date and venue to be announced), Junior Championships (36 holes) at Halesworth GC on Monday, August 3, Suffolk Open Champs at Ipswich GC on Sunday, August 9, Junior Match-Play at Aldeburgh on Thursday and Friday August 27-28, Race to Aldeburgh Order of Merit Final at Aldeburgh on Sunday, October 18.
Suffolk Winter Alliance
There were two Suffolk Winter Alliance meetings in January. The first event was held at Bungay and Waveney with a 115-golfers taking part including three Professionals and despite all the rain during the month the course was in fine condition.
The Alliance Secretary Doug Renyard reported: “There was a keen wind on the day which made the temperature feel a little on the low side but that did not stop a team scoring 88 points to win by some distance.”
Seckford’s Mark Edgerey, Clive Seward, Sam Pollexfen and Pete Last finished with 88 points, seven ahead of a strong Stoke-by-Nayland team (Richard Bland, Trevor Warren, Dean Brace and Trevor Brace).
Stowmarket’s Sam Forgan chalked up another Alliance win, in the Professional’s competition with a round of 71 and leads the Pro’s order of Merit with 14 points.
There was a hard-overnight frost at Flempton for the latest Alliance meeting but an entry of 47 players still enjoyed the 9-hole gem. Strangely, the better scores were recorded on the first time around, despite the fairways and greens being very hard and bouncy.
For most of the competitors the second-9 holes were played on greens that were relatively frost-free.
The winners of the Four-Ball-Better-Ball Stableford competition were Kenton Jameson & Glyn Clouting (Stowmarket) with 41 points beating two other pairs, who also scored 41, on count-back: Stokes’ Ian Benson & Mark Chaplin and Haverhill’s Steve Piotrowski & Jon Wiseman.
In the individual Sweep Order of Merit table, the Forgans (Ben & Sam) are joint leaders with 41 points followed in joint 3rd place by Mark Baxter and John Partridge.
