Last weekend, a party from Tenby GC undertook its biennial visit to Enmore Park GC near Bridgwater. Enmore is a picturesque parkland layout on the foothills of the Quantocks. The club was founded in 1906 and the course was relocated in 1932, initially as nine holes, but then extended to 18 in 1969.

The fixture between members of the two clubs dates back 14 years. It was initiated by Tenby’s John Stenson and Enmore’s Steve Varcoe, who is currently the club’s manager. Steve and John played professional football together in their younger days.

On Saturday, players from both clubs took part in a team Stableford competition which was won by Tenby’s Paul Heywood and Richard Ormond together with Enmore’s Bob Read with 74 points.

The match on Sunday was fourball betterball matchplay. Tenby’s evergreen John Gillespie and Nicky Allen beat Mike Rossiter and the injured Martin Clapp by three and two.

Richard Ormond and Viv John were three down with five to play, but fought back to halve their game with big hitter Graham Puttersgill and Mike Sullivan thanks mainly to Viv’s birdies on the last two holes.

Gary McNeilly and Darren Thomas also rallied well. They were three behind with six holes left, but managed to win by one up. Darren birdied both the 16th and 18th, the latter winning him a dozen balls for being closest to the pin in three shots.

However, Tenby lost all the other games and consequently Enmore were easy winners of the friendly unofficial match by 9.5 games to 2.5

This annual match has generated great friendship between the two groups of players. Tenby GC captain Mike Anthony thanked all at Enmore for their wonderful hospitality. His Enmore counterpart, Neil Whisler, is looking forward to visiting Tenby next Autumn, but in the meantime, he has promised to improve his jokes!