Florida – the very name of the southern USA state conjures up images of sunshine, warm temperatures and balmy sea breezes unless you happen to be there in the hurricane season, when the outlook is completely different. Unfortunately, for the Farrington Park ladies, they weren’t in sunny Florida for their Thursday competition and the weather was more like a hurricane.

The fun competition format was a Florida Scramble, played in teams of three, all three players tee off, then selected which tee shot they wanted to use. Whoever’s tee shot was chosen did not play the next shot, only the other two players hit their second shots from that spot. Then the better of the second shots was selected, and the player who hit it, then sat out for the third shot; and so on until the ball was holed. Therefore, one member of a team skips each stroke played, except in each hole’s drive. Scoring was on a medal basis with each team’s handicap being deducted at the end of the round to give the net score.

The early starters had the best of the cool, overcast cloudy conditions before the gale hit the Duchy course. The wind was so strong that umbrellas were useless to ward off the driving rain and trolleys were blown over. Eight teams had decided to play but the remaining teams had sensibly cancelled their tee times and stayed at home. Two of the later starting teams gave up halfway around the course when the worst of the rain poured down and one team decided not to play the twelfth hole as they weren’t sure they would even reach the fairway with a drive from the top of the hill because the wind was so fierce.

At the end, the teams’ scores were remarkably close. Third place went to Lally Gibson, Carol King and Min Woodward with nett 73.

Six pars in their round helped Jackie James, Jane Richardson and Sue Skyrme to nett 72 and second place.

A round of nett 71 including three birdies at the 7th, 14th and 15th holes and five pars gave victory to Mandy Hobbs, Gail Proctor and Jackie Walker by one shot.

Jane Ball