Blacknest Golf Club Friday 21 July 2023

by Steve Faulkner

A return to Blacknest for this years Summers trophy and Alan, Phil, Richard and myself were first to tee-off as we were also playing our pairs match. The match was very close with only 1 or 2 shots in it until the 15th when I managed to par the hole to go dormie 3. This was followed by a chip in from Alan on the 16th to take the match 4 & 2. Alan and myself both finished on 33 points but Phil led the group with 35 points.

After lunch (ham, egg and chips) I was out in the 2nd group with Mike, Tim and Steve N. I had a perfect start and birdied the first but straight to the highlight of my day (and probably golfing year). Hole 8. I hit a nice drive but it leaked off to the right and went into the light rough. When I got to the ball I had a tree in the way so decided to hit a low 5 iron under the branches. The ball ran and ran and went up onto the green. I couldn’t see the bottom of the pin and thought it would run to the back of the green. Luckily Tim, Mike and Steve were the opposite side of the fairway and could see the ball drop into the hole, an eagle 2 (first ever eagle!) and 5 points.

I finished the front 9 on 25 points. Now onto the back 9. Unfortunately for me the 10th was the longest drive. I was the first to put my name on the longest drive card in the morning but had no chance of reaching Mike’s drive so shouldn’t have attempted to hit the ball as hard as possible. The ball went about 30 yards! This was followed by a lot of bad shots and I managed to scrape 11 points on the back 9 to finish on 36 points.

It was nice to find out that 69 points was enough to win the eclectic and also take the Summer trophy and keep the Faulkner name on the trophy (Phil won it last year and I won it the previous year). Phil, Richard and myself will have to try hard to maintain this next year!

Thanks to all my playing partners for 2 very enjoyable rounds of golf.

Well done to Kevin on winning the NTP and Thomas winning the longest drive and well done to Colin on 2nd place with 68 points, which included a 2nd round 38 points.

Also well done to Steve A for taking the Penfold Par 3 trophy.

RESULTS

Winner                               Steve Faulkner                       69 pts

Runner up                          Colin Staunton-Lambert      68 pts

Third                                   Ian Begg                                  63 pts

Morning stableford        Phil Parsons

Afternoon stableford     Colin Staunton-Lambert

Nearest the pin                Kevin England           3’ 9”

Longest Drive                    Thomas Nower

Eclectic                                Steve Faulkner          47 pts

Penfold par 3                     Steve Adams             26 pts