Penn takes Quaiche after Captains Day Festivities

A busy week at Freshwater culminated in the Arthur Ford Quaiche played for on Sunday 26^th July, the stableford event was a close run thing with Rick Penn (12) running out the winner with 38 points. Second place went to Kevin Garrett (5) on 37 points; Richard Frost (6) took third 36 and Steve Orchard (10) finished fourth with 35 points.

On the Saturday Club Captain Barry Hunter entertained ninety members to golf and a meal for his Captains Day, the golf side of things being an 18 hole better ball stableford with numerous prizes for the various combinations of players with an interesting sting in the tail. On the 4^th and 18^th greens the Captain had two holes cut one of which being tricky enough to warrant double points, the fourth for example was dead flat on three sides but had a 4ft drop if you went beyond the pin and more than a few players ended up putting off the green by being a tad too ambitions.

Combine that with players partaking of a drink or two with the Captain and his wife on the 14^th meant that a good time was had by all and the prizes for nearest the pin on that hole were well earned, with Gail Brown taking the ladies prize and Barry’s son Big Al taking the men’s. Nearest the pin in two shots on the 9^th was won by Sammi Keen for the Ladies and Simon Smith for the men, who rumour has it, drove through the green and had to wedge back!

In the Ladies event Jan Smith & Janet Hurd came second with 38 points losing out to Anne Smith & Liz Morris by three points. Sue Keen and Ryan Harmer managed to sneak 2^nd place in the Mixed category on count back over the last 3 holes from Bob and Jan Godden, with first out Tina Raymond and George Thomson winning with 37 points.

The scoring was some what higher in the men’s with father and son pairing of Robbie and George Faulkner taking first place with a massive 49 points ahead of Nick Punter and Dave Wright on 47 points.

The Veterans medal played on Friday 24^th had a small entry due to poor weather but still had Chris West (13) shoot a creditable 69 considering the conditions with second place going to Seniors Captain Brian Whelan (28) on 72.

To get the school summer holidays off to a swinging start a Junior Stableford was held with Steven Cooke (12) and Kasey Tuckey (8) both coming home with 35 points but pride of place went to Connor White with 39 points reducing his handicap to 26.7. This week also saw the first fixtures in the round robin section of the Junior Matchplay Championship with in form Connor White losing out to Lucy Burke, while Steve Cooke beat Lucy’s brother James and Breandan Ashby lost to George Faulkner.

Ladies Championship

Club Championship.

Champion:- Joanne Wright gross 81+90=171.

2nd Gross. Sammi Keen gross 83+90= 173.

3rd Suzanne Keen gross 89+97= 186.

Handicap Champion.

Maureen Couse. nett 73+72=145.

2nd nett. Shirley Clarke nett 84+75= 159

3rd nett Ann Smith nett 78+83= 161.

Sat only nett Lucy Burke nett 69.

Sunday only. Sue Oldershaw nett 76.

Club Championship for the Ladies of Freshwater Bay turned out to be a rather windswept affair. Starting early on Saturday due to the Men's Championship being carried forward to the following week, scores were not bad at all for some. On the Sunday, with the exception of a couple of good results, the wind made it nearly impossible to putt, with pins in rather onerous positions. This didn't seem to bother Maureen Couse as she came in with a great score in the conditions of nett 72 and that was with a 7 on the par three 17th, a six putt causing this because of the pin position and howling wind by this time. Her handicap has been duly cut!!

The battle of the mighty was mainly between Joanne Wright and Sammi Keen with Joanne eventually coming out the winner by 2 shots. Sammi is improving all the time and has her sights on next year now. Congratulations to Joanne for the second year running. She is a worthy winner.

Championship Photos

Club Championship Final Round

The final round of Freshwater Bay’s Championship was played in somewhat testing conditions with the early players missing out on the rain and only having to contend strong winds which raised the CSS from 68 to 71. All credit goes to two Juniors who not only managed to hang onto their leads from the first round but to extend them significantly.

In the scratch Brandon Thompson had carded a first round 72 to lead by a shot from Derek Wright and a further shot from Nat Riddett. Both Nat and Derek shot high seventies to finish in 3^rd and 4^th places respectively on 152 while Brandon returned an excellent 70, considering the conditions, to win by a 10 shot margin and a 36 hole score of 142. Second place unexpectedly went to 13 handicapper Ryan Harmer returning scores of 79 and 73 for a 152 total and holding off the opposition on last round count back.

Not surprisingly 14 year old Ryan also featured in the Afton Down Handicap Trophy winning that by 8 shots with what must be one of the lowest 36 hole totals of 126 aided by an excellent final round net 60. Brandon, two years Ryan’s senior, came second on 134 playing off of 4, with the two of them cleaning up the prizes for the best second round 18 holes as well. Third place went to John Burke (12) finishing on 138, while fourth place went to Gary Cooke (14) on 141 – Gary was one of the hardy band of travelers who flew in in the early hours of the morning from The Open to make their tee off. Prize for the furthest traveled however goes to Steve Sargeant who got back on the Island at 8 am following a 13 hour flight from Singapore to return a very creditable net 72.

The 36 hole AT Smith Trophy for the over 60’s was a close run thing with Tony Black (15) finishing first on 145, two shots ahead of Dennis Smith (19) on 147.

Staying with Senior Golf the Percy Newberry Cup was played for on Friday 17^th with Jim Payne (23) coming away the winner over the 16 hole course with 32 points. Losing out to take 2^nd place was Ray Cooke (19) on count back with Brian Whelan (28) on 31 pushing Bob Godden out of the prizes on the back eight.

Wednesday’s Par competition saw only five entries with Nigel Cooke (10) running out the winner on -4 and Kevin Jones (22) on -7.

Juniors lead after first round of Championship and Afton Down.

Last weekend at Freshwater was the Men’s Championship which got off to an inauspicious start when the first round on the Saturday had to be postponed to the following week due to low cloud coming in mid morning making holes 6 to 13 unplayable. But considering the persistent precipitation there was not too many complaints from the sodden souls who had made it to the turn.

Although dry on the Sunday the wind direction made the course play its hardest with not one of the sixty five players managing a par 4 on the 18^th! Leading in the scratch at the half way point was Brandon Thompson on 72 from Derek Wright on 73, Nat Riddett placed in third on 74, while rank outsider Kevin McArthur lies in joint fourth place with defending champion James Sanders on 78.

In the Afton Down handicap event, which is limited 20 handicap, Ryan Harmer (13) is in pole position going into the second round with a net 66 a shot ahead John Burke (12) on 67. In third is scratch leader Brandon Thompson (4) tied with Kevin McArthur (10) on 68, these four being the only players to break the CSS. That is with the exception of Tom Stockley (26) who returned an excellent nett 64 to take the best round of the day but had to play off 20 handicap for the main competition.

Recent events at Freshwater have included the Men’s Open Scramble which was won by the Club Captain Barry Hunter’s team with a net 54.5; the other members were Fred Smith, Chris West and Tony Jones. Second place went to the Teaching Pro James Veal’s team consisting of John Veal, Nat Riddett and Ryan Harmer a mere 0.2 of a shot behind. Robbie Faulkner, George Faulkner, Russell Macgregor and Tom Stockley finished third on 55.2 whilst not even a hole in one on the fifth from Gary Cooke could get his team of Steve Cooke, Barry Crook and James Brett anything better than fourth place.

The Stableford on Sunday 28^th was won with an immense 46 points from John Meredith in Division 2 playing off of 21 handicap, Chris Griffiths (19) came second with 37 and Frank Gregory third on 36. Division 1 went to James Sanders (7) scoring 40 points from Mike Black a point behind playing off 14 and Nick Riby in third on 38.

The first competition of July was a Stableford with Keith Wright and Gordon Day finishing on 40 points in Division 1, Keith finished first on count back and third place went to Hugh Morrison on 37. Martin Harris took the honours in Division 2 playing off 22 and scoring 42 points. Chris Griffiths (19) managed to hold off Tony Hammonds (26) for second place with both players returning 37 points.

Scoring in the Veterans Stableford was not quite so good with Trevor Philcox (18) in first place with 39 points beating Ray Cooke (19) on count back with the same score. 34 points was good enough for third place for Peter Dawson playing off of 21.

Immense scoring in the par Monty Cup saw 14 handicap Simon Fisher sneak the trophy on count back from Richard Frost (6) and Ryan Harmer (13) all returning +5, Hugh Morrison and John Sexton finished in joint fourth on +3.

In the Sunday Stableford on the 5^th July, only the day after, the scoring was substantially lower with Malc Williams (15) beating John Sexton (17) on count back for first place in Division 1 wit both players returning 39 points. Third place went to James Sanders (7) on 38 which would have been good enough to take Division 2 from Dave Cooke who also returned 38 points finishing ahead of John Riddlesdell (19) on 37 and Russell Macgregor (18) in third on 36 points.

The mid week Stableford saw close scoring in the first Division with Les Mew (14) in first place on 38 points ahead of three players on 37. Hugh Morrison (14) came out second from Dave Wilkins (16) and Malc Williams (15) in second and third respectively, Division 2 winner was Dennis Smith (20) with 42 points, John Herbert (21) finished second with 40 points and Tony Hammonds (26) held off Richard Couse & Cliff Sanders on count back to finish in third on 38.