There's been some scintillating golf at Brocton lately, especially with the amateur course record being lowered by one shot with Mike Dewsbury shooting a 5 under par 64 in the Midweek Medal. He had three bogeys on his card, one of them coming on the 7th where he called a penalty shot on himself for touching the sand in a bunker on a practice swing. Whilst we would expect and hope everyone to own up to touching the sand by accident, I still find it impressive and a testament to Mike's character that he did so and took it on the chin, it always seems a harsh penalty for an action which may have just dislodged a few grains of sand and probably won't affect the shot - but that's why we all play by the same rules, there can be no 'grey area'. His reward (if any were needed) is that as long as 64 remains the lowest score, history will record that it involved an equal display of great golf and great sportsmanlike conduct.
Mike's been busy this summer, his recent tournaments include the West of England Amateur Championship, the South East of England Links Championship, the Welsh Open, Finham Bowl, Brabazon Trophy, Lagonda Trophy, Tillman Trophy, The Berkshire Trophy, The Faldo Series and last week the English Amateur Championship and his handicap is now Plus 1.3. These courses are set up very tough and his best scores are understandably at Brocton where he's been 8 under par for his last 7 rounds, in fact by the looks of it, if he played solely at Brocton he'd be off Plus 3 now! Well done all round Mike.
Back when our course record had stood for an eternity at 3 under par 66 (which was until about 5 years ago), it was often commented that our lack of par 5 holes meant that you couldn't achieve a very low handicap at Brocton. In fact if you look at the winning scores on the board for the Club Championship, they have dropped on average nearly 10 shots over the last two decades. I guess that's a testament to the plethora of low handicap golfers that the club now attracts and also to the consistent condition of the course and the investment by the course committee in things like hydraulic fairway mowers and blade sharpening tools - good advert for the club from all corners.
Another good avert for the club is the annual Midland PGA Pro-Am which takes place on Friday August 19th. There are currently 38 teams competing, if you'd like to play please let me know as we can always fit another couple of teams in. There's £3000 of team prizes, hole prizes on the course, halfway house refreshments and a meal after play PLUS you'll get to play alongside one of the best pro's in the Midlands.
Click here if you'd like to enter, would like more details or just to lend your hand as a ball spotter or reserve player.
Congratulation to Karl Horvath who scored his first hole in one during the Dartmouth Bowl on the 3rd hole. The amount of golf you play Karl, this should be the first of many!!
The condition was certainly appreciated by the visiting golfers from South Staffs Golf Club as we competed for the oldest trophy in the whole of golf played between clubs - The Dartmouth Bowl. It all began in 1894 as an individual Strokeplay tournament between players from both clubs and the history of the trophy is littered with amazing twist and turns including making it all the way into the trenches in the First World War, taken by a three time winner of the event. The modern incarnation has been played for 33 years and team Brocton played fantastic in-depth to win it back to the tune of 12.5 - 9.5. Making the series 17-16 in our favour.
A special congratulations to the Captain, Steve Bloxham who broke his big toe 2 weeks ago and played the best I've ever seen him play, he had 8 birdie putts on Saturday as we managed to fend off Peter Baker and South Staffs Captain Richard Chapman 4&3.
The USPGA Championship took some finishing as for a time it looked like there could be a Monday or even a Tuesday finish due to the horrendous weather and what an exciting finish there's been to every Major championship this year. The winners of our sweep were:
1st Jimmy Walker - Eddie Saunders £50
2nd Jason Day - Karl Horvath £35
3rd Branden Grace - Graham Hagan £25
Worst scores each day
Round 1 Dustin Johnson - Simon Wells £10
Round 2 Graham McDowell - Eamonn Gormley £10
Round 3 Danny Willett - Chris Leonard £10
Round 4 Lee Westwood - Simon Wells £10
We have a clothing Trade In promotion on at the moment - Bring an old shirt in and receive £10 off a new one, available on men's and ladies clothing in stock.
Ariya Jutanugarn survived a late scare to secure a memorable victory at the Ricoh Women's British Open at Woburn. The 20-year-old from Bangkok lost this year's first Major - the ANA Inspiration - when she bogeyed the last three holes to hand the title to Lydia Ko but this time she made no such mistake despite running up a double bogey on the 13th which momentarily saw her three shot lead over South Korea's Mirim Lee cut to just one. Junatugarn's win secures her a place in the record books as the first Thai player of either sex to win one of golf's nine Major Championships.
Well done to Ethan Evans for winning Holly Hunt's Junior Captain's Day last week with a nett 67. Ethan's been working on his game with me and has been steadily reducing his handicap and is a very consistent golfer. It was good to see that girls made up half the competitors.
One of the girls, Ellie Treadwell has been knocking some good scores in of late and has dropped her handicap from 34 to 27 in the last 2 weeks.
Tuesday Social results last week:
1st Daz Poole 22 points £13
2nd Ben Porter 21 £12
3rd Ellie Treadwell 20 £11
4th Neil Johnson 19 £10
5th Steve Witton 19 £9
6th Alan Thomas 18 £8
7th Luke Howe 18 £7
8th David Robertson 18 £6
