Morgan home and dry

At the end of a week when much of the planned programme was disrupted by bad weather it was all the more satisfying that Captain’s Day on Saturday was fine and sunny, albeit with a strong wind blowing on the more exposed parts of the course.

In consequence Club Captain Jerry Donlon was able to stage his day without interruption. The main competition was played as a Stableford event with 148 members of the men’s section taking part.

There were some outstanding scores recorded in both of the two adult divisions as well as some excellent scores in the two junior events, with major honours going to current club champion Adrian Morgan.

Not only did Adrian score an exceptional four under par gross 69 to give himself 42 Stableford points but he chipped in for a birdie on three of the holes on the way round as well as putting exceptionally well throughout an outstanding round of golf.

In second, third and fourth places, after countback, with 39 points were Roger Driver, Ed Lawrence and John Colley.

Division Two was won by Owen Bosence with another outstanding 42 points. Alastair Purcell was close behind with 40 points followed by Rob Coombe a further point behind in third place.

In addition to the prizes for the main competitions there were prizes for nearest the pin on each of the par three holes, a longest drive prize and prizes for any twos scored.

For the Junior players there was a seven hole competition for the youngest age group which was won by Macawley Vincent with 15 points and an 18 hole event which was won by Matt Watson with an outstanding 39 points, narrowly beating David Lyon, who scored 37 points, into second place.

Lewis Gibbons and Cameron Moss tied on 13 points in the seven hole event but the honours went to Lewis on countback.

After the main golfing competition there was a one hole putting competition which, after five additional deciding holes, was eventually won by Ian Mudford over Danny Hopkins. With a hog roast to follow the golf and music from the South Down Steel Band and Karl Webber, the day was an outstanding success. Full results of the individual events are as follows:

Junior 7 hole competition: 1, Macawley Vincent 15pts; 2, Lewis Gibbon 13; 3, Cameron Moss 13 ; 4, Thomas Driver 11.

Junior 18 hole competition: 1, Matt Watson 39; 2, David Lyon 37.

Open Division One: 1, Adrian Morgan 42; 2, Roger Driver 39; 3, Ed Lawrence 39; 4, John Colley 39.

Open Division Two: 1, Owen Bosence 42; 2, Alastair Purcell 40; 3, Rob Coombe 39; 4, Guy Morgan 38. Longest Drive (6th hole) Brett Garner.

Nearest the pins: 3rd hole Geoff Moss; 8th hole Malcolm Wilson; 11th hole Rob Clapp; 13th hole Roger Seed.

l Sunday was another excellent day for golf and the scores recorded in the Stableford competition more than reflected the good weather. Division One was won by Richie Yorke playing an exceptional round to record a one over gross 72 and 41 points.

In second place, on countback, with 41 points and a gross 75, was Kieren Borgeat. Third with a gross 70 but, after his Saturday success, playing off 3, was Adrian Morgan with 40 points.

Division Two was won by Neil Leggett with 39, followed by Alan Jones, 37, who beat Josh Harrison into third place, also with 37 points, on countback.

HONITON - Following on from our very successful RAFA Open Day the club are proud to announce, in line with the Help for Heroes initiative, the waiving of signing on fees to any present service personnel who wish to join Honiton Golf Club.

Golf is a sport for life, played competitively by all shapes and sizes, both male and female, and by any age group you care to mention. It is a sport that allows mum, dad, brother, sister, grandma and grandpa to compete head to head with the best in the world on the same day and the winner, thanks to the handicap system, will be the one who plays their best on the day.

It’s also a game that can be practiced and enjoyed at any time, in any place, from putting on the living room floor to chipping on a deserted beach. So, in order to encourage those servicemen and women to relax but stay healthy in their spare time, the club would like them to think of the club as a place to enjoy a new sporting pastime amongst people who sincerely admire the work they do for us.

l We’d organised ourselves into teams of three to play one of those carefree fun three ball better ball event on Sunday with two scores to count (so everybody gets a share of the blame for low scoring).

A lot of the teams found playing to par quite tricky but the winning team of G Richards, R Beard and M Fowler romped home five points ahead of the field with 74pts. Second, with 69pts, were S Branch, M Blackmore and J Barker ahead of F Thomas, J Fleetwood and S Squire on count back.

l The Tuesday Mixed Competition was an Individual Stableford playing for the Steele Perkins Memorial Trophy. Playing in twos, mixed pairings, the winner, with 37pts, was Penny Blackburn.

Following closely behind was Jan Dickinson, with 36pts, on countback from third placed Cyril Dann.

l The ladies’ monthly Stableford competition incorporated the second round of the Del Cup.

The Silver Division winner was Henrietta Bradshaw with 38pts.

In second place, with 35pts, was Chris Pearce.

Bronze 1: 1, Catherine Doherty, 38; 2, Handicap Secretary Rosemary Greenhorn, 36; 3, Elizabeth Davies, 35.

Bronze 2: 1, Di Wall, 41; 2, Rosemary Whiteley, 32; 3, Betty Weedon, 31. Well done to those ladies who reduced their handicaps.

l The test for the Seniors this week was a Bowmaker competition where teams of three play a Stableford format but a varying number of scores count on different holes. This competition is split into two groups as it has been found that those starting on the 11th tee are able to record higher scores than those starting on the 1st tee.

The results seemed to surprise many teams who glumly presented a card thought to be poor only to find they were in the running for a prize. The message is therefore ‘never give up’. From the first tee the winners were the team of John Fleetwood, Fred Utting and Brian Morrison with 63pts. Second place went to Harold Cook, Tony Proudfoot and Trevor Bradley and third to Adrian Williams, Jack Phillips and Ron Jones both on 61 points.

Prizes for the 11th tee starters went to John Bevan (Mr Pastry), John Hill and Chris Street 67, Vic Wood, Mike Kent and David Beer 66, Bob Bilyard, Brian Elkington and Alan Lane 65. Nine twos shared the 81 balls in the ball prize competition.

Two matches were played this week resulting in a 3-3 home draw with Tiverton but an overall win for Honiton over the two legs. The match away to Torquay was less successful with a 5-1 win for the home team.