Yet again the competitors in last Friday's Neil Rees Memorial were blessed with glorious sunshine, although a stiff breeze coupled with Tenby's infamous rough made scoring pretty difficult.
A field of 40 entered, fairly average in recent years, and there were some creditable rounds in all the categories. The main section produced its 21st different winner in the 22 years of the event.
The 2009 Neil Rees Champion is Gavin Scotcher who currently plays most of his golf at Trefloyne. Off a handicap of four, Gavin returned an excellent gross 76 and managed to keep a six off his card. This equated to 36 points.
Three players came in with 33 points i.e. Graham Brace, last year's best novice, plus former winners Richard Ormond and Simon Rossiter, who was awarded the best single figure handicap prize.
In the seniors' section, 73-year-old John Rees claimed 33 points and outscored host Pat Rees. Lennie Fairclough's 31 points was not enough to win the guest section, as Huw Roberts totalled a fine 35 points, the second best score of the day.
Two years ago, Justin Richards took home the Best Endeavour trophy, but hard work and many hours of practice saw him victorious in this year's novices section with 20 points. Harry Bolton retained the Bert Endeavour crown, pipping Dean Bowen by two points following a thorough checking of their cards by the scrutineers. Young guest Andrew Stretton is worthy of a mention; he had not scored a single point after 11 holes, but finished with seven.
Lennie Fairclough's tee shot was good enough to claim nearest the pin on the sixth. Paul Haley, who teed off at 6 am with Nicky Rees, led the longest drive on the 14th for almost 10 hours until along came Gerald Hewitt. Gerald had been hitting monster drives throughout his round, but this time he boomed the ball straight for once and it settled 50 paces ahead of Paul's mark in the centre of the fairway, although he struggled to get his par five!
At the presentations, Gavin emphasised how delighted and proud he was to eventually win the Neil Rees Cup after 21 attempts - he missed one year due to a holiday. Both Gavin and Pat paid tribute to the superb condition of the course prepared by Chris Jenkins and his greens staff and for the excellent buffet provided by Steve and Hilary Turner.
The leading scores for 2009 were: Neil Rees Cup: Gavin Scotcher 36 pts, Graham Brace, Richard Ormond and Simon Rossiter 33, Tim Rowe, Steve Williams and Anthony Griffiths 30 pts, Chris Hughes and Andrew Williams 29, Ian Thomas 28, Tim Jackson 27, John Broomhead, Paul Haley, Mike Evans and John Webb 26.
Senior section: John Rees 33 pts, Pat Rees 29, Mike Evans (Spike) 17.
Guest section: Huw Roberts 35 pts, Lennie Fairclough 31, Jamie Robinson (Wales, Cardiff and now Toulon) 26.
Novice section: Justin Richards 20 pts, Alan Thomas 17, Will Crockford 15.
Best endeavour: Harry Bolton 6 pts, Dean Bowen 8.