A busy weekend of action at The Suffolk Golf Club
It was a tale of two halves for Chris Tate at the Suffolk Golf Club last week in the Midweek Medal.
Things did not start out at all well for Tate on the front 9 with a double bogey 7on the 1st hole and another double on the 3rd.
A birdie followed, however, on the 4th and then he parred his way in for a score of three over gross on the front nine.
But he really came alive on the back nine with four birdies (10th, 14th, 15th & 18th) to finish the inward nine 3 under gross and consequently level par for his round.
After applying his 5 handicap Tate finished with an impressive net score of 67, three shots clear in first place.
This result took him to third place in the Midweek Order of Merit with 31 points.
Jim Chapman returned to form to take second place on the day with 81-11=70 and he also lies in second place in the Order of Merit on 34 points, just one point behind the current leader Joe Symonds, who was third on Wednesday with 81-10=71.
Symomds, Chapman and Tate will fight it out to be Order of Merit champion for the current series over the last three rounds, while Alf Sandford looks to have too much to do to catch up, lying in fourth place with 24pts.
But if the top three falter and Sandford has a couple of wins, he could still mathematically win the league.
Last weekend the Suffolk held the penultimate round of the Saturday Order of Merit in horrible weather conditions.
It was cold with constant rain and not surprisingly the scores reflected the weather.
Christopher Smith coped best and returned a winning card of 83-11=72.
The highlight of his round was a birdie on the long and tricky par three 17th hole.
Len Hopkinson had three birdies but also three bogies and two double bogies and finished runner-up with 76-3=73.
However, with a competition scratch score of 74 he will play off 2 next time out.
Hopkinson now leads the Order of Merit with 37 points just two ahead of Simon Hodson who finished fourth on the day.
With one match to go to decide the Saturday Order of Merit Champion nobody can overtake Hopkinson and Hodson so they will battle it out to be the leader of this series of the league.
Chris Tate, however, could share the title if he wins and Hopkinson and Hodson both fail to collect any more points. Steve Cable came third on Saturday.
It was also the penultimate round of the Sunday Order of Merit last weekend at the Suffolk and the weather was even worse than on Saturday with golfing conditions extremely difficult.
Anyone who stayed out on the course for the full 18 holes got very wet.
Ten handicapper Christopher Smith did complete his round and played to his handicap to win for the second day running with a score of 82-10=72 to complete a superb weekend of golf in horrible weather conditions.
Four golfers were one shot back, finishing in the following countback order: Martin Main 96-23=73, Paul Dufosee 85-12=73, Lee Reynolds 91-18=73, Simon Hodson 83-10-73.
With just one round to go in the current Order of Merit series, Smith leads the way with a return of 20 points followed by club captain Gordan Markham on 15 and Reynolds 13.
Gary Last on 11 and Danny Hawkins on 10 are the only other golfers mathematically able to finish on top but Smith has a three shot lead over the field, he’s is in top form and looks like the hot favourite to be the Sunday champion.
Bury St Edmunds Golf Club
The Lovelle Cup was played at Bury St Edmunds GC with a large field of 142 members taking part on either Saturday or Sunday.
The format of the fixture was Bogey (match-play against the course).
Both days were won by a score of five with Sunday winner James Poulson shading Saturday winner Jon Wiseman on countback to win the trophy.
Steve Finch played on Saturday and took second spot on the day and third overall on countback from Gary Warren (Sunday) and Josh Nichols (Sunday).
Also on Sunday at Bury, the juniors held their annual Michaelmas Bowl with Charley Goodridge and Harry Meadows teaming up to take first place with a total of 33 points.
Stowmarket Golf Club (Results)
Seniors Men’s Stableford – Div 1 M Helliwell 36pts, B Smith 36, G Knowles 36 – Div 2 M Waspe 39, T Lucas 36, W Valentine 36. Men’s Midweek Medal – Div1 D Penny 67, S Ribbon 67, D Smith 67 – Div 2 N Collins 68, W Valentine 68, D Robinson 69. Men’s Saturday Stableford - Div 1 M Turnbull 39, M Rawlings 38, J Brown 36 – Div 2 J Bean 39, N Carrick, 36, R jewers 34. Men’s Sunday Stableford- Div1 R Brotherwell 41, T Lord 39, B Samuels 39 – Div 2 N Stiff 38, M Taylor 37.
