Busy times for golf club men

MINEHEAD and West Somerset Golf Club men competed in six different competitions during March and April.
The first Sunday in March saw 60 players competing in two divisions in the Ray Boddy qualifier, where the eight best scorers in each division went forward to compete for the Ray Boddy Cup in a knock-out competition.
The qualifiers from the two divisions were: Division 1 - A Webber gross score 82, playing off a handicap of 12, nett score 70, W J Perkins 82-10-72, W Knight 79-7-72, P Fullbrook 80-7-73, N Bangs 87-14-73, J Malarkey 86-12-74, P Baker 88-13-75, T Hardick 87-12-75. Division 2 - B Chaffey 93-22-71, I Gover 95-23-72, G Stone 96-21-75, D Hewitson 97-21-76, C Corbett 94-17-77, C Peters 96-19-77, D Coles 92-15-77, J Bird 97-18-79.
Sixty-three players then competed for the Martell Cup, which was played as a par competition where the players attempted to better the par on each hole in order to record a plus score, and each worse than par hole recorded a minus score. The player recording the highest plus score wins.
The winner of the Martell Cup was club champion John Fisher with a good +5 score, followed by: 2nd. D Hewitson +3, on count-back from 3rd: P Davies +3, on count-back from 4th: A Dover +3, 5th: W Brown +2, on count-back from 6th: B Waites +2, 7th: W Knight +1, on count-back from 8th:C Sidley-Adams+1.
At the beginning of April, thirty-six pairs competed in the first pair competition of the season, a club fourball better ball stableford competition.
In first place were K Babb & R Green with 24 points followed by 2nd: W J Perkins & T McGann 22, 3rd: B Hogg & D Bickerstaff 21, 4th: P Collins & S Clarke 20, 5th: M Gilbertson & P Baker19.
The Brown Cup having been postponed on Sunday, March 16, due to bad weather conditions, the first major cup to be competed for this season was the Spring Cup.
It was a fiercely contested competition with the winner and runner-up having to be decided on a countback with the cup going to the player achieving the better nett score on the back nine.
The winner was D Shambrook with a gross score of 81 off a handicap of 13 and a nett score of 68 (32.5 on back 9), from 2nd:K Murrell 72-4-68 (35 on back 9), 3rd: P Jenkins 89-20-69 (31 on back 9), from 4th: M Vickery 74-5-69 (31.5 on back 9).
The next best scores in each division were: Div 1: 1st: J Fisher 76-5-71, 2nd: K Babb 75-3-72. Div 2 -1st: M Gilbertson 84-12-72, 2nd: D Norman 85-12-73. Div 3 - 1st: D Hewitson 90-20-70, 2nd:B Hogg 89-18-71.
The second major cup to be competed for this season was the Grant Cup, again it was a very close thing with three players achieving a nett 68 score and the winner having to be decided on the countback.
The eventual winner with a gross score of 88 off a handicap of 20 and a nett score of 68 (30 on back 9) was G Hughes, from 2nd: J Fisher 73-5-68 (30.5 on back 9), 3rd: A Dahl 83-15-68 (33.5 on back 9), 4th: W Knight 75-6-69. Next best scores in each division were: Div 1 - 1st: C Keary 79-8-71, 2nd: P Collins 81-9-72. Div 2 - 1st: P Davies 85-15-70, 2nd: G Cunningham 84-13-71. Div 3 -1st: K Elliott 92-20-72 (31 on back 9), from 2nd: J Gunter 88-16-72 (36 on back 9).
Most recently was the Scorpion Trophy, where 44 pairs contested this popular better ball competition where the stableford points scored on the first nine holes were deducted from the number of strokes taken on the second nine holes, with the lowest scoring pair being declared the winners.
The scorpion ‘sting’ in the tail being that where on the first 17 holes only one of the pair’s scores counted, both had to count on the last.
The 18th hole at Minehead is a challenging hole and many a good round has been spoilt, so the winner of the competition was never certain until the last ball had been holed out.
The Scorpion Trophy for 2008 went to P Baker & M Gilbertson with 31 shots on the second nine, minus 25 stableford points on the first nine, giving a winning score of 6, 2nd: P Salter & J Coomber 31 – 22 = 9, from 3rd: T Hardick & J Fisher, 32 – 23 = 9, from 4th:B Waites & G Whalley 34 – 25 = 9, 5th:P Davies & R Lewis 33 – 23 = 10.
The first singles knock-out competition of the year was decided this month.
At the start of last December, 44 players set out to win the Dawson Thomas Knock-out Cup and the final was between Peter Baker and Paul Rees.
Both players had shown much improvement in their play over the winter months and a keenly contested final was won by Paul Rees.
Peter, who began the year playing off a handicap of 13 is now playing off 11. Paul, relatively new to the game of golf, is now playing off a handicap of 22 having started the year on 28.
May will also be a busy month for the Minehead club with seven competitions to be played and three single knock-outs in progress.