Pic by Nev Appleton
Words by Jonny Bramley
Hailstorms, gales, torrential rain – everything that Mother Nature could throw at us she did at the PGS Northwood meeting on Monday 15th April. But not even a huge branch crashing to the ground seemed to disturb Ben Todd who manages crises for Simon Cowell and averted his own on an apocalyptic day of weather.
Ben was the only player to hit his handicap and take home the Division 2 Prize and the News of the World Trophy with 36 pts. Having departed before prizegiving to make a theatre date, he later quipped “I actually can’t believe it. Sometimes in golf things just click. Clearly I owe any success/luck to my mentor Kevin Price…as long as he and Kevin Mitchell haven’t drunk all my wine!”. Rick Evans on 31 and our Captain Tony Smith on 30 filled the other Division 2 podium places.
Newsletter Editor Felix Duckworth won Division 1 with a highly commendable 34 points, but the difficulty of the day was highlighted by the other places – Ian McIlgorm was 2nd on 28 and Duncan Farmer 3rd on 25 pts. In fact, there were no fewer than 6 players scoring 19 – and that wasn’t the worst of the day! Felix agreed: “It was tough, very wet but I liked the course – it was tight, fair and in good condition. I played ‘nervously’ – the driver largely stayed in the bag all day”.
In marginally improved conditions in the afternoon Andy Glen and serial Greensomes winner Colin Hancock took the Sir Leicester Harmsworth Trophy with 35 points ahead of Secretary Tim Allan and Kevin Mitchell with 34 and Jono Baker and Roderick Easdale on 32. Colin thought that he’d blown it by missing a 2 foot putt on the last, but he hadn’t reckoned on our Secretary missing from 6 inches earlier on. We are sure his partner Kevin saw the funny side…
Northwood GC was a new addition to the PGS rota, intended to be a more economic alternative to some of the other top courses we play. Despite witnessing all four seasons in one day the course played well, and the general feeling about the venue was favourable, with the lunch also being well received.
Following pics by Nev Appleton, Tony Smith, Ian Woods, Evan Samuel & Jonny Bramley
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- Pic by Nev Appleton
