This year's mixed competitions at Tenby Golf Club are being organised by the ladies' captain, Heather K. Morgan, and her mixed partner, Mervyn Tucker.
It was decided at the beginning of the year to run the Llewellyn Thomas Salver as a knock-out, as was originally meant, and in its place introduce a new competition, the Morgan Tucker Greensomes Trophy. Since none of the mixed competitions were greensomes, it was decided to make this the new competition as it is a format that Heather and Mervyn enjoy.
On Sunday, August 16, the first of these competitions was held and 20 couples went out to do battle for the beautiful new trophy, led by Heather and Mervyn, with ladies' president, Barbara Williams, and Jim Moffat.
The weather stayed fine, if somewhat windy, but some excellent scores were returned.
By popular request, there was a fine Sunday roast on offer by Steve and Hilary as everyone came in, which went down well after the hard work of doing battle on the course!
In third place, with 41 points, were Neil Lovatt and his granddaughter Sophie, who at 13 was the youngest competitor of the day. Second, with 42 points, was Nesta Hart with her partner Andrew Morton, both of whom had been drafted in to fill an empty spot.
But the winners, with an excellent 43 points, were William Beynon and Anne Wilks. They were both very thrilled to be the first names on the trophy, and Bill thanked Anne for getting him out of some very bad rough!
The bag draw was won by Nigel Ayers and Linda Evans and Jim Moffat and Barbara Williams.
The ladies' captain reminded everyone that there would be a Friendly Foursomes today (Friday) at 4 pm.
The final Friendly Foursomes is on September 11 and Steve and Hilary are putting on a buffet that evening for an informal social to welcome all new members to the club. Tickets for that will be on sale next month and are for all club members.
Derek's dangerous, disappearing driver
Pontardawe Seniors' Open golf tournament and 29 of Tenby seniors were excited at replaying this hilly parkland course. None more so than Derek Bath, who had travelled up by car with Ken Gouldsbrough. Due to unfortunate circumstances, the main group, travelling by bus, were unavoidably delayed, so Derek and Ken, along with Bob Howse, had to start ahead of their tee-off time.
Derek was on the first tee, preparing himself with a practice swing - a couple of short swings and then a full meaningful one. Unfortunately, the damp, drizzly conditions were against him and Derek felt the driver slip from his grasp on the follow through. Rising high over his shoulder, it sailed over the oak tree behind him and disappeared into the steep ravine next to the tee.
A look over the edge was enough to deter Derek from even attempting a rescue and enquiries in the Pro shop indicated that no-one had ever ventured down into the depths of this almost vertical slope. He was advised that climbing ropes and crampons were his only hope of retrieval. As he had not included such gear in his bag, he had to set off and play the course driverless. The difficulty of the course and concern over his lost driver was the reason for his score of 23.
Other seniors had to make their own excuses for not performing. One such member was Malcolm Arlott who bemoaned the fact that he could not get going and failed to master the greens, ending up one point above the booby. Clifton John, on the other hand, only had himself to blame. So pleased was he that he had arrived early he left his spare car key in his car, which he had left at the garage for servicing. Realising his folly, he crossed the road to retrieve it, only to discover that the car had been driven to Narberth for its MOT. A return trip to Narberth saw the breathless Clifton achieve his usual arrival one minute before take off.
He need not have worried. The bus had arrived at Kilgetty on time, but failed to depart due to mechanical failure. A second bus was called for, leaving the organisers more than a little concerned at making the tee times. Forty-five minutes later Herr Flick, alias Jim Martin, breathed a sigh of relief as he shepherded everyone onto the coach and the party set off.
Now the character Herr Flick is not one associated with smiling. However, the damp and cloudy conditions could not remove the huge grin on Jim's face as he tee-ed off on the first. He didn't really mind where his ball landed or what his score was; he was just delighted to be playing the round along with all the other seniors. He agreed to share his walking stick with playing partner Des Stone, who shared his buggy and limped along with him. Neither scored particularly wel,l but just enjoyed the occasion, as did the rest of the group.
The third member of the group was Stan Hudson, who had a bit of trouble with his trolley. He is able to preset the trolley to stop after 10 or 20 yards and on one hole set it to 20. Walking away, he was astounded to hear it crash and rustle into the woods behind him. A slight misjudgement of distance!
Everyone had arrived with hopes of reaching the sky and due to the low cloud ceiling ended up being able to touch the cloud base as they reached the summit of this high course. The intermittent rain did not deter the spirits - but the run on the greens did. Almost everyone found it difficult to read the borrows or judge the pace of the fast greens. Both Peter Williams and Richard Davies couldn't believe the number of times they three or four putted.
None of the Tenby scores was high enough to warrant a prize in the Open competition, although Bob Howse did receive a box of balls for scoring a two in his round of 28. The winning score in our own competition was the only one over 30. That belonged to Peter Williams with 33. The nearest score to that was 29, achieved by five members - Tony Ranoe winning second with a better back nine, followed by J. D. R. Williams in third with a better back six from Stan Hudson, Ken Gouldsbrough and John Cook.
The best team came in with a total of 82 points and consisted of Peter Williams, Brian Waters and John Hall. In second place with 80 points were Bob Howse, Ken Gouldsbrough and Derek Bath. Also on 80 points was the team led by Richard Davies, supported by Brian Morgan and J.D.R. Williams.
The lowest scores of the day were 16 and 17 and 20 with five on 23, three on 24 and three on 25. Richard was the lone 27, just behind Bob Howse and John Hancock on 28.
There is never a dull moment in the Seniors' group and all who took part thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to the next adventure.
Footnote: Derek was pleased to learn that, like the sleeping Snow White, his driver had been re-awakened and brought back to life. It is waiting for him in the Pro shop at Pontardawe. A fairytale ending!
Spoons success for Fair and Laura
The RNLI is a charity that is important to any person who lives near the sea. Every year the members of the Golf Club in Tenby have a week when they raise money for this charity. For the Ladies' Section, it ran from Friday - Thursday, August 7 - 13.
During the week, the best score for the ladies was produced by Fair Ball with 35 points. Unfortunately, there was not a big entry during the week due to the weather.
On Thursday, it was decided to have a Breakfast Shotgun start as the West Wales Junior Championship was being held at 11 am and ladies wanted to clear the course and get in to be helpful.
It was a beautiful morning as 17 ladies teed-off at 7.30 am. All agreed it had been worth the early start to see the course at its very best.
Sadly, the game took longer than anticipated, so had to be cut short to 14 holes to avoid clashing with the juniors.
Everyone was so keen to get in for their breakfast that no-one complained. We had a sumptuous meal prepared by Steve and Hilary, and were joined by the 'not-so-early' birds, so the clubhouse was buzzing.
Finally everyone was in and the winner was declared as Laura McQueen, with Heather K. Morgan runner-up.
Miserable Medal
Miserable conditions were experienced for the August Monthly Medal last Saturday.
With a strong wind and drizzle blowing across the course, it meant a testing time for the players who took part.
In fact, it was so testing, that more than half of the 72 who took out a card, failed to return them intact, there being a total of 39 no returns.
And not surprisingly, those who did manage to get round unscathed produced some high figures, with the winning scores in both sections being in the mid 70s.
Leading scores and prize winners were as follows:
Division One (handicaps -3 to 12, 24 competitors): Neil Roach 85-8-77 (medal plus £30.50); Jon Bolter 83-5-78, last nine (£18.50); Neil Lovatt 86-8-78 (£12).
Division Two (handicaps 13 to 28, 48 competitors): Stephen Maytum 96-21-75 (medal plus £30.50); Paul Davies 102-26-76 (£18.50); Robert Howse 92-13-79 (£12).
Twos: Terry Davies and Richard Morton (£36 each).
Bag draw: Barrie Frayne, Matthew Jones, Simon Rossiter, Ross James (£17.25 each).
Pro Shop draw: Gary McNeilly.