There were a number of unusual sights on the course this week as another turnout of 48 seniors flexed their golfing muscles. Well, it had to be a multiple of four, since they were involved in a Chapman Foursomes. Twenty-four pairs had signed up and everyone was there leaving no room for reserves.
Prior to this event, 'our Jim' had e-mailed everyone, advising them that they should wrap-up warm since the forecast was for a clear, but cold day. What a surprise it was to see some hardy souls in short sleeves and observe others discarding outer garments as they succumbed to the weak November sun. Those in long johns were not in a position to discard, so had to suffer.
Another glorious sight was the view of Tenby from the ninth tee. The tide was out, the sea was calm and the sun's rays illuminated the hotels along the Esplanade, persuading each group in turn to linger awhile and absorb the wonder of the experience.
Conversely there were some not so attractive spectacles. Mike Munro's trolley was displaying a mind of its own, taking off whenever it felt like it. Looking for his ball on the fourth fairway, close to the bank, Mick parked his trolley and turned towards the bank to look for his ball. Before he could get there he realised his trolley was on the move again. He turned to halt its progress, but was unsuccessful and ended up straddling the errant vehicle like a bucking bronco as it tried to squeeze between his legs.
His trolley later interfered with Roy Morgan's chip on the approach to the ninth green. Well it was either the trolley's fault or Roy's misdirection as Mike did a hop, skip and a jump to get out of the way!
It was unusual to see two buggies wending their way from the club to the 10th tee. Rhys and John were coming to the rescue of Roy Morgan and Des Stone whose buggy had run out of juice. That was the second time Rhys had been called upon to provide Des with a reserve machine -the same had happened in Saturday's Stableford competition.
It was an unusual sight to see Mike Fox on the bank behind the second tee. Legs apart, he looked as if he was addressing his ball prior to his drive. This could not have been the case as there was a gorse bush directly in front of him, so one wonders what he was doing! His playing companions seemed to be ignoring him.
Allen Watts decided that he might just as well reshape the bunker on the 10th fairway. He was peeved that Nigel had put him in there and that turned to frustration when he discovered that it had settled down in between some rather deep folds of sand. A hefty heave-ho saw the bunker deepen as he redistributed the sand evenly around the edges.
Nigel atoned for his error on the 11th. He put his second shot on the green, giving Allen the chance of a birdie three, a chance he gratefully accepted. He did remark that if they had used Nigel's drive they would still be playing now! They played well enough to score 43. Equalling that score was the pairing of Bob Howse and Jim Martin and also Paul Nixon and Meurig Jones.
Bob was hoping to cash in on Jim's handicap allowance, as well as distance with the driver, but not scoring on the seventh was a bit of a demoraliser. They both put their drives in a bunker, one on the left and the other on the right. They twitched their way to the green, but failed to meet the required number.
Three pairs on 43 and not one in winner's row. Playing behind them were Newman Vincent partnered by Tony Ranoe swapping stories with Paul Bradley and Bob Creese. Such was the compatibility of this group that both pairs ended up with 41 and both pairs scored a two on the 17th.
Thirteen pairs completed the round with 40 or more. The rest, apart from one pair, were in the 30s, with the lowest score of the day being 29.
John Cook was in celebratory mood - not for winning anything in this competition, but just for becoming an octogenarian. That is a score we would all like to achieve.
There are some names that keep on cropping up each week and they appear in the winner's list again this week. John Hall is a consistent golfer and with the help of Brian Waters just failed to break into the prizes with their 45.
This week's high rollers were: 1. Graham Jenkins and Bob Wiseman 46 pts; 2. Martin Neilan and Peter Hart 46; 3. Richard Davies and Chris Sierwald 35.
Last week's bonus ball winner was Ken Gouldsbrough. Next week everyone is back to being responsible for his own score in an eclectic stableford.
Early Christmas presents!
Christmas came early for two members of Tenby Golf Club last weekend.
Chris Beecher and Steve Maytum both made sure of a Yuletide treat by winning their respective categories in the first of the festive season's turkey trots on Saturday.
Steve produced the round of the day to win the turkey in division two, his 38 points being one better than his nearest rivals, while division one winner Chris had to rely on a countback to earn his dinner after tying on 35 points with two others.
Leading scores and prize winners were as follows:
Division One: 1. Chris Beecher 35pts, after countback (turkey voucher); 2. Paul Hoyland 35, after countback (£25); 3. Neil R. Thomas 35, after countback (£20); 4. Richard Morton 34 (£15); 5. Peter Brown 32 (£8).
Division Two: 1. Stephen Maytum 38 pts (turkey voucher); 2. Darren Thomas 37, after countback (£25); 3. Philip Goodridge 37, after countback (£20); 4. Paul Davies 36 (£15); 5. Vivian James 35 (£8).
Twos: Richard Morton, Andrew P. Morton, Neil R. Thomas, Peter Rossi, Richard Davies, Geoffrey Martin (£12.80 each).
Bag draw: Ian Thomas, Dave Hancock, Dai Cope, Steve Maytum, Neil Lovatt, Richard Davies (£11.50 each).
Pro Shop draw: Peter Ellis, Darren Thomas (New Func Factory Micro Fleece each).
Handicap changes: Stephen Maytum 16 to 15; Philip Goodridge 16 to 15; Desmond Stone 14 to 15; Juan Cruz 27 to 28; Michael Wainwright 17 to 18; Ian Thomas 25 to 26; Geoffrey Aston 13 to 14; Brian Diment 19 to 20; Idwal David 12 to 13; Mervyn Tucker 6 to 7.
Friendships renewed at Hamilton Cup
The 21st Hamilton Cup took place at Kirby Muxloe Golf Club, Leicester, in September.
Wednesday's practice round was rather damp, but the weather stayed fine for the actual competition.
The Hamilton Cup reception, held on the Wednesday evening, was the time to renew friendships and meet new friends from the other teams. This year, the six teams taking part represented golf clubs from Kirby Muxloe, Tenby, Pau, Mondariz Rias-Baixas, Real Clube de Golf de Castiello and Royal North Devon.
Thursday's format was a four ball better ball format off threequarter handicap, with the best three out of four scores counting. After day one, Tenby was in third place with 102 points.
The singles stableford competition, with full handicap, was played on Friday. Tenby was again in third place for the day, this time with 165 points from the six qualifying scores.
Kirby Muxloe is a traditional parkland course where golfers need to be at peace with their drivers. The tree-lined fairways gave reward for straight accurate drives, but those which strayed were punished, leading to one or more dropped shots. The greens were receptive to the well hit shot, very fast and true and, although not to everyone's liking, they were a compliment to the host club.
Friday evening was the time for the gala dinner and prize-giving. As the scores for all the players were on display in the clubhouse, there was no suspense in waiting for the announcement of the winning team. For the first time, Kirby Muxloe won the Hamilton Cup trophy. Each member of their team was presented with an engraved crystal whisky glass. Players from all the other teams received a boxed set of pitch repairer and cap clip/ballmarker bearing the Kirby Muxloe crest. The Nuno Carneiro trophy, in memory of one of the founders of the Hamilton Cup, was awarded to Mondariz Rias-Baixas for their sixth place position. Overall, Tenby finished the competition in fourth place.
Representatives of Tenby Golf Club who played in the competition were: Linda Evans (Tenby Hamilton Cup captain), Allan Morton, John and Fair Ball, Ken Gouldsbrough, Heather Morgan, Derek Bath, Anita Davies, Nigel Ayers, Tony Key, Chris and Carol Beecher, Paul and Ros Jenkins and Jim Moffat.
The 22nd Hamilton Cup will be held in Pau, France, during September 2011.
It's a fair cop!
It's a fair cop! Or is it? That's the question being asked after last week's outing of the Chicken Trotters.
After a three-week absence from the course due to unfavourable weather conditions, it was an eager flock of 15 Chicks who unfurled their feathers and left the hutch on Friday morning.
Unfortunately, two of the most important members of the brood were somewhat conspicuous by their absence.
Missing from the usual top-table triumvirate were Chief Chicken Moran and his sidekick Arnold. Only Micky was there on the day and he was looking a rather forlorn bird as he pecked over how he would cope with counting all the pennies, checking the cards, handing out the prizes and adjusting the handicaps.
But what had happened to his cohorts? Had they thought weather conditions would mean another week confined to barracks and so decided to stay tucked up in bed.
Well tucked up in bed they may have been, but both apparently had been struck down - some said with bird flu, others rumoured that it was psittacosis.
But whatever it was, the Chickens were facing a desperate crisis - and what does one do in a crisis? Yes, of course, ask a policeman, or in this case, a retired one!
Into the breach stepped a gallant Steve Cole - much to Micky's relief - and looking rather officious in his specs, this wise old bird set about checking through the cards.
And this, we have to reveal, is where the question of 'fairness' arises, for among those cards was his very own. And yes, you've probably guessed it, after much head scratching and recounting, sitting pretty on top perch at the end of the morning was none other than Mr. Cole himself!
Fair? We will leave you to decide, but one who must have been spitting feathers was runner-up Jim Moffatt, whose own 30 points was beaten into second place after a countback over the last six holes. Yes, it was that close.
Incidentally, we almost forgot to mention that a certain Mr. Cole also managed to bag himself a birdie two, as did a couple of others, Meurig Jones and Idwal David.
The booby, meanwhile, was not paid out as, much to the relief of your correspondent, there was a tie at the bottom on 14 points - surely there can't be someone else who's that bad, can there!
Par for the day was recorded at 27 and it only remained for Micky to announce that there would be "massive cuts next week."
Results: 1. Steve Cole 30 pts, after countback (£2); 2. Jim Moffatt 30 (£1). Twos - Steve Cole, Meurig Jones, Idwal David (25p each). Booby - tie, so not paid.
FOOTNOTE: All jokes aside, the Chicken Trotters are grateful to you Steve for stepping in to help at the last minute and all agreed later that, yes, it was a fair cop! Cheers.
Rabbits Winter League
Only one pair still has a one hundred per cent record in the Rabbits Winter League after Sunday's matches and so now lead the table on their own.
Results were as follows: R. Davies and M. Munro bt P. Turton and K. Smith 1 up; J. Hunt and B. Flower halved with T. Davies and R. Prout; T. Morris and M. Gillett halved with P. Davies and T. Hopkins; C. Smith and R. Bradbury halved with S. Watkins and S. Cole; M. Edwards and J. Cruz bt P. Carpenter and M. Harts 3 and 1.
Subs - Bill Davies for Rees Davies; Meurig Jones for Richard Prout; Ian Thomas for Tony Hopkins.
Ladies' Section
More than 30 full members of the section attended the ladies' annual general meeting on November 16.
2010 has been a good year for the section with increased membership and, as a result of enthusiastic support from the members for events run by the committee, it has been a good year on the course.
The two Open meetings were very successful and the LGU were full of praise for the help they received in running the British Ladies' Open Amateur Championship in August.
We were delighted the Scratch team has won the Three Counties League Championship and that so many of our junior girls have been most successful, both in local competitions and further afield.
Next year, the two Open meetings will be run as usual and we will welcome the Welsh Ladies' Open Amateur Championship at the end of April.
The committee elected for 2010/11 are: president - Barbara Shaw; captain - Anita Davies; honorary secretary - Liz Storey; honorary treasurer - Linda Thomas; honorary handicap secretary - Barbara Williams; committee - Eiona Aston, Marian Clarke, Pat Fox, Irene Gilman, Joan Pugh and Ann Wilks.
B.M.S.