Thurlestone junior George Inch made his debut for the Devon Men's team at East Devon on Sunday against Exeter University. The match finished 9-9 making for a highly competitive encounter.
George played foursomes in the morning and it finished in a halved match. In the afternoon, he singled against a strong opponent, and he again managed a half-point. All in all a very good start to his senior golf career.
On Wednesday the ladies in the most glorious weather, played the Club Bowmaker and County Qualifier. The winning team with a fantastic score of 90 points were Sheila George, Sheila Fairley and Diane Baker. They will go forward to represent the club at Honiton in early September. Second with 88 points were Sally Huntley, Nikki Smith and Tricia Swindell.
On Monday, March 17, Thurlestone hosted their Ladies Coffee Morning. 40 visiting ladies signed up to play golf and enjoyed their rounds despite the rather cold easterly wind sweeping through the course. The day was not just about golf but also fundraising and community spirit. Pam would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who generously donated items for the second-hand golf clothing stall, cakes and preserves, jigsaw and plant stalls, and raffle prizes. The contributions helped to make the event a success.
A special thank you goes out to all the ladies who dedicated their time to running the various stalls and for organising and managing the raffle. Thanks also to new Ladies Captain Fiona Turner, who took on the role of starter on the first tee, ensuring the day ran smoothly. The event raised an impressive total of £700, which will be shared between the ladies' section and The Devon Air Ambulance Trust, a fantastic achievement for all involved.
On Thursday night the club held their Annual General Meeting (AGM) and there was a good turnout of members. The new President is Pam St Leger, the club captain is John Rogers and the Vice-captain is Ken Riley. The new club Chairman is Roger Kendall and the membership chairman is Jim Stewart. Fiona Turner is the new ladies' captain.
On Saturday morning, 76 members played in a shot gun start Eva Challenge Shield Competition.
The winners were the new captains, Fiona Turner and John Rogers with 45 points. In second place were Mike Day and John Hook with 44 and third were Pam St Leger and Derek Harwood with 41 points.
After the prize was given to the new captain John Rogers, and Fiona Turner, Juniors captain William Hoskin went back to the first tee for the “drive-in “ where members pay for squares where they think the balls will land.
On Sunday, Churston juniors visited Thurlestone Golf Club, to play in the first friendly junior golf competition between the two clubs.
It was a beautiful spring day, and the golf course was in great shape. The visiting players who had played at Thurlestone before really enjoyed seeing the new updates to the course.
Competition was tight between all the matches. Even after an extra playoff hole, the teams could not be separated, and as the light was fading it was decided to be a halved match, with the result of all 1.5 to 1.5. Thurlestone juniors team are looking forward to returning to Churston in September.
It was the alternate blue and red tee challenge for Dartmouth ladies this week and, once again, there was the opportunity for double points for playing from the blue tees. Jan Cousins had relished the challenge the last time this format had been played and she repeated that again to continue her winning form.
1st: Jan Cousins 56 pts
2nd: Chris Mater 53 pts on count back from
3rd: Alison White
The Dartmouth course ladies played the same format, with some tricky challenges from the alternative tees:
1st: Anne Woodward 43 pts
2nd: Marion Bell 40 pts
The men’s midweek competition was four ball team with two scores to count. As usual, there was much discussion during the rounds about what the winning score would be but nobody was in the right ballpark, let alone close. Steve Tozer, John Thompson, Steve Atkins and John Grattan dovetailed their games beautifully to finish with 91 points. Amazingly, John Taylor, Paul Durrant, Robin Steer and Julian Milner were just a point behind with 90. Well played!
The Saturday Mixed Stableford saw some familiar names in the frame again. Unlike his wife, John Cousins couldn’t repeat his win, but his score of 36 points was good enough to be second in Division Two, behind Gary Widdicombe on 39. In Division One, Andy Dix finished with a flourish, scoring a birdie two on the eighteenth to finish with 38 points, ahead of Rob Penfold with 37. The only other two belonged to Nigel Osborne on the fifth.
A new era began on Saturday at Bigbury Golf Club with its first Multi Tee Competition writes Joanne Shorrocks. Multi Tee allows players to select which tee most suits their game. Women can play (including competitions) off tees previously designated for men and vice versa, with appropriate handicap adjustments. The traditional tee colours of red and yellow are now a vibrant orange and blue.
About half the very large field of 84 tried playing from a tee different to their norm. Some will be converts, others may not repeat the experiment!
Nikki Kidd, playing off a handicap of 8 amassed an impressive 38 points playing from the longest back white tees for the first time.
The overall results were in first place Keith Naylor (12) with an excellent 45 points, in second place with a very good 41 points was Eve Naylor (41 – yes, her points matched her handicap), and third also with a good score of 40 was Alan McSweeny (23). They will all have had their handicaps reduced as a result of these scores.
There were six birdie twos on the day and bagging himself one of these on the 15th hole was the overall winner, Keith, so a very good day for him. Recording three of the twos, and all on the 5th hole, were Tony Bickle, Philip Oxenham and Tom Pepperell, with Peter Cooper on the 15th and Tim Chatfield on the 17th making up the total of six.
With the introduction of Multi Tees there was quite a buzz both out on the course, with some debate afterwards in the Clubhouse. And they were welcomed in by sunshine.