Castletown Golf Club
MORE CLUBHOUSE CREDIT FOR CHALLENOR AND POTTS
Wild westerly wind, barely below brutal, greeted golfers at Castletown Golf Links on Saturday. Adding to the challenge, it was a four clubs plus putter pairs competition off 85 percent of handicap. Even from the yellow tees innovative shot shaping was at a premium. This favoured the finer players; and so it proved to be.
By a margin of two points, Andrew Challenor and ‘range guru’ Jonathan Potts proceeded to post a tremendous six biridie, three bogey, three under par better-ball score of 38 points.
This win means that Simcocks Stableford winner Challenor -shown above- has, so far this season, collected three team prizes including a Shambles Multiplier and the Yellow Ball AM-AM.
Five teams tied on 36 points and countback went down to the final hole before Greenkeepers’ Benefit winner Tim Shallcross plus David Bowen were declared the runners-up. Bowen’s decisive nett birdie on the 18th was his third over the last five holes.
John Newson and Ross Byrne bagged the final podium place. Byrne’s birdie on the 13th was worth a quarter of the 2’s pot and Newson’s birdie on the 17th hauled his team back to level par on their back-nine. Unfortunately, they only nett parred the last.
Out of the prizes but worthy of a mention, Terry Ditchfield and Neil Cartwright carded a better back-six than Steven Boyd and Gez Bradley who, in turn, outscored Alan Rowe and John Ledwidge over the back-nine. They finished in that order, all on 36 points.
Challenor, Byrne, Chris Howland and Mark Todd were the only other players able to swing with ease in the breeze to tap in a two for a profitable portion of the pot.
Earlier in the week with white horses whipped up by the wind, Mark Handley hoofed it round to salvage 33 points and win the mixed midweek Stableford by two points. His only outage was on the 14th.
Louis Bernard had three refusals but cantered in for 31 points and second place. Aaron Hawley, with two shots to play with, used them both on the 6th. Six bogeys later, Hawley signed for 30 points in third place.
Tami James was the first lady home with 27 points, one ahead of lady captain Belinda Pilling. Whilst enjoying an excellent lobster and queenies lunch with his wife, your humble hack overheard the post-game deliberations of Jo Duncan, Mary Halton, Sophie Cope and vice-captain Claire Walker. Their combined conclusion, it had been brutal, and nine holes would have been enough.
Round one of the Winter League begins this coming Saturday. With Christmas fast approaching, Oli and Rasheed in the pro-shop have put together some attractive deals. Take a look, you might bag a bargain and use up some of your clubhouse credit. Alternatively, just indulge yourself by booking a table in the Salt & Swing Clubhouse Café.
MALCOLM LAMBERTCreated by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.
