Badgemore Park Golf Club Sunday 3 March 2024

by Richard Faulkner

With the amount of rain in the lead up to the outing and the course closed on the Friday I don’t think many of us expected to get the green light from Badgemore on the Sunday morning. However, luckily we beat the weather and in the end the course turned out to be in really good condition for the time of year!

At over 6,000 yards it’s one of the longest courses the society plays, which was made longer when you throw in the conditions and lack of roll. However, the course seemed to get the thumbs up from most people - and certainly from me - with lots of interesting (albeit challenging) holes, particularly on the back nine. 

For our group the front nine was a mixed bag. With struggles on the green and a couple of wayward tee shots we managed a best score of 13 at the turn. However, on the back nine things started to come together a bit more, with three puts turning into two putts and a lot more consistency tee to green. 

Turning up on the 16th we were met with a 5 wood snapped in half in a bin. We assumed that someone was having a tough day off the tee and frustrations got the better of them. However, learnt afterwards that it happened during a swing. If anyone has a left handed wood going spare then I’m sure Trevor Rockett would be grateful if you could bring it to Test Valley!

The upturn in form continued on the last three holes with three pars and 34 points was enough to beat another Faulkner in second place on 32 points. A 1-2 that doesn’t happen very often and form that will almost certainly end when the doubles reaches the knockout stage!

Thanks to the three Steve’s for a really enjoyable round and congratulations to Alan, Grahame, Terry and the old man for winning the team competition! And thanks as always to Colin, Ray, Grahame, Tim and the skipper for making the outing possible. Hopefully see all of you at Test Valley after the Easter weekend!

RESULTS

Winner              Richard Faulkner         34 pts

Runner up        Philip Faulkner             32 pts

Third                Nick Aitken                    31 pts

Nearest the pin        Philip Faulkner              Not measured

Jokers                       Alan Papps, Graham Pearce, Terry Harmsworth (Snr) and Philip Faulkner         64 pts