How lucky are we who live in the Tenby area to have two golf courses of quality within a mile of each other which are completely different and yet have excellent facilities of their own. One being a parkland course with trees in abundance and the other a championship links course which has recently been voted the second best course in Wales, as judged by the Rolex order of merit.

Last weekend saw these two clubs come together to play in the Dyfed League, with Trefloyne playing host to Tenby, the oldest affiliated golf club in Wales. Although they are near neighbours, there is still a healthy rivalry amongst the players and a determination to win, which is tempered by a friendly admiration for each other.

Driving up the long winding road to the magnificent old clubhouse building will excite any keen golfer as you pass the 15th green and the undulating fairway which drops down onto it, both of which had been preened to perfection.

As the teams gathered around the professional's shop, with the home team in their light blue shirts and the Tenby team in their red, you could not help thinking you were attending a Manchester football derby, with the intensity just as high.

The weather was perfect, no wind, beautiful sunshine and the course manicured to a level that would be acceptable to any of the top golf clubs in the Principality. Congratulations must go to the greens staff who had obviously put a lot of effort into the preparation of this parkland course.

The time had come for the competition to start and to anyone who is familiar with the Trefloyne opening hole, the decision has to be made, do you try and go over the drainage trench that runs across the fairway 200 yards from the tee, or do you play short and try to avoid the out of bounds to the left and the trees to the right. Not a simple decision for your first shot of the round and one which saw both options being taken with mixed success.

After completing the ninth hole, you pass the front of the clubhouse where a board was out showing the state of play after nine holes. The home team were in control at this stage, being up in four of the matches, with two being halved and one down to the visitors.

The end result saw little change, with the first four matches being lost by the visitors. Martin Morris and Dai Cope lost 4 and 3, Paul Jenkins and Peter Rossi lost by one hole, Steve Sutcliffe and Idwal David went down by 5 and 4 and Neil Thomas and Viv John lost 4 and 3.

This put the home team in an unassailable position and the rest would be a damage limitation job for the Tenby players as all of the matches record points in the league positions.

The next two matches recorded victories for the Tenby team, with Chris Hughes and Ian Thomas winning 2 and 1 and Tony Key, captain for the day, and Jeff Banfield winning 2 up, but unfortunately the final pairing of Rob Wilcox and John Gillespie lost their battle by 3 and 2.

This gave the home team victory by five matches to two.

Thanks go to the catering staff who provided an excellent after-match meal, which was taken alfresco on the sun-bathed patio overlooking the course, a really beautiful setting for anyone visiting this picturesque part of the Tenby countryside.

The next match for the Tenby team will be in early July and the opponents for this fixture will be Aberystwyth away when a strong team will be required if any points are to be taken from this formidable side.

We are now halfway through the Dyfed League fixture list and Tenby have amassed 31 points, which is below the level expected at this stage of the season. The method of selection for the team to date has been in a format which has given 26 members out of the 37 who have made themselves available an opportunity to represent the club, but consideration must now be given to selecting the strongest team if the end goal is to be achieved.

Thanks must be given to all who have appreciated this situation and have understood the motto, 'there is no I in team'.

Sun shines on Sunday Scramblers

At 7 am on Sunday, you would have been forgiven for thinking that 60 golfers had lost their marbles when they all teed off simultaneously in the Philip Booth Charity Breakfast Scramble.

The weather had been atrocious for days, with torrential rain and high winds battering the Burrows, but as if by divine intervention on Fathers' Day, the rain ceased, the winds dropped and the sun shone on the righteous. It was as if someone was aware that the proceeds were going to the restoration fund at St. Issell's Church, Saundersfoot, and was determined to help make it a successful event.

On the blast of a hooter all competitors set off in an attempt to win the 18-hole Texas Scramble for the magnificent Philip Booth Trophy, awarded each year to the best nett team score of the day.

At the end of the competition, the marker, Mr. Chris Beecher vice-captain of Tenby Golf Club, had a tough decision to make separating the top three teams who all carded a score of 65 strokes and had to be prioritised by means of a countback over the final nine holes.

The winners were announced by the MC of the day, Mr. Tony Key, on behalf of the sponsor.

In third place were the youngest team of the day, consisting of D. Webb, M. Webb, W. Lewis and M. Adams, who played the last nine holes in 31 shots.

Second place went to R. Morton, M. Morris, S. Keating and D. Thomas, who came home in 30 shots.

The 2012 winners of the Philip Booth Trophy, who played the last nine holes in 29 shots, were Simon Rossiter, Chris Hughes, Ian Thomas and Richard Ormond, a magnificent score on a championship course recently voted the second best course in Wales in the Rolex order of merit chart.

All entries were welcomed back into the clubhouse with a black velvet drink and a full English breakfast prepared by the new stewardess, Michelle. The quality of the food could be measured by the number of clean plates that were returned to the kitchen - well done to all concerned.

The trophy was presented to the winners by Mr. Philip Booth, the sponsor of the competition, who announced that the proceeds of the day totalled £1,000, which will be paid into the St. Issell's Church restoration fund.

Congratulations to the winners of one of the most popular events in the club calendar and commiserations to the losers who had to make do with a wonderful morning's golf and a great breakfast start to Fathers' Day.

Ladies' Section

Some years ago a survey found that on average Thursday is the wettest day of the week. Up to the middle of May we would all support this claim - borne out by the number of cancelled competitions. No doubt other sections of the club would dispute the Thursday claim this year! However, at least all the last three competitions in May were played.

The May GUW Medal was combined with the Rhian Pearn qualifying round which has been played for more than 20 years at Neath in memory of their member. Barbara Williams returned to best nett score of 75, but is unable to play at Neath, so the representatives from Tenby will be Denise Edwards and Isabel Kent, who both returned nett 77. We wish them success in this very enjoyable event.

The third 2012 Hill-Lowe Bogey was played on May 24 and the best score returned was +2 by Vicky Burks, while Denise Edwards, Ruth Goldwait and Sarah Waring all returned +1. Any plus score is useful in amassing the winning total for the trophy.

The postponed Coronation Foursomes qualifying round was played on the last Thursday in May. The qualifiers were Anita Davies and Ann Wilks on 37 points, with Gillian Roberts and Jo Walsh Morgan on 35 and Mary Williams and Linda Thomas third on 33. The final will be played at Wenvoe Castle on July 30 and we wish Anita and Ann a very successful round.

The first Thursday in June was more or less fine and the Yorkshire Cup (presented to the ladies during Barbara Williams's captaincy in 1990) was won by Bev Owen with 35 points and Ann Wilks was second on 34.

It was good to see a number of Tenby ladies featuring in the winners' list during Open Week and we congratulate them all - local knowledge is always invaluable.

B.M.S.

Seniors blown away at South Pembs.

While Tenby Golf Club was having a splendid run of sunshine and light winds for the first four days of the 2012 Open Week, the seniors were looking forward to their away match at South Pembs. on Thursday, June 14.

Sadly, the fifth day dawned wet and windy - so bad news for the seniors at South Pembs. and for all of our visiting golfers at Tenby, but good news for the manufacturers of waterproofs, umbrellas and hip flasks!

Putting on a brave face, and listening to phrases such as "It's only a clearing shower" and "A drop of rain won't hurt you", 36 fairly reluctant seniors set off for a two-tee start in a two to three-club wind and horizontal rain. A glimmer of common sense was evident, however; the team captains issued a joint statement to the effect that if the players became soaked, saturated, soggy or soaking and wished to curtail their match, they could agree on an 'honourable half'.

In the event, none of the four-balls took this route, the conditions proved to be merely very unpleasant and not actually intolerable, so that the match ran its full course - but the relief on the faces of the contestants as they finished their games and returned to the sanctuary of the clubhouse had to be seen to be believed!

After a delightful meal and a couple of tinctures, a mellower gathering awaited the outcome of the raffle, and more importantly the result of the match. Now Captain Jim is also the chairman of the Tenby golf club match and handicap sub-committee - and also possibly a descendant of the famous Mr. Babbage, credited with the invention of the computer. He had to leave as soon as his game was over to attend to his duties back at Tenby, so that vice-captain Tony Morgan stepped once more into the breach, dear friends, and joined Simon Davies the South Pembs. skipper, to do the honours. The raffle prizes were more or less evenly divided between the teams and the applause for the jokes was roughly the same for both officials.

Sadly the end result was a spectacular 5.5 games to the home team and an embarrassingly inadequate 3.5 games to Tenby. Beaten on this occasion, but unbowed, the Tenby warriors dispersed - vowing vengeance and lugging bags of soggy golf gear back for the attention of their long suffering wives.

M.F.