With daylight saving now here, it is a joy to play golf in the springtime, even if it is an hour less in bed! With many of Farrington Park Golf Club’s Seniors away on their annual pilgrimage to Spain, a much smaller field than usual took to the fairways. A non-qualifying Stableford was the order of the day and there were some excellent scores achieved in all three divisions.
Results – Division One: ?Keith Shepherd ?42 points, Steve Symonds ?39 points, Barry Hall 37 points, ?Mike Ashwin ??36 points, ?Chris Standen? 34 points.
Division Two: ?Peter Barnes ??40 points, ?Steve Ball? 39 points, Phil Bryant? 38 points, Ray Guthrie? 37 points, Terry Thatcher? 36 points.
Division Three: ?Steve Gay?? 43 points, Richard Collier ?41 points, Peter Maule?? 40 points, ?Kevin Gould?? 40 points, Derek McCaig?? 37 points.
Nearest the Pins on fifth, Nigel Punchard, eighth, George Tyrell, fourteenth, Steve Symonds and fifteenth, Phil Bryant.
Ladies
The first qualifier of the year on a Ladies Thursday morning took place on 24th March. The wet weather has taken its toll on the course this winter, resulting in some of the holes being shortened and fun games having to take the place of scheduled qualifiers. With all but one tee in the usual place on Thursday, 26 ladies ventured out on another dull and eventually wet day to play in the Qualifying Stableford. Despite the continuing winter conditions, the scores were very good. The winner, with 39 points on countback, was Patricia Rouse, second also with 39 points, was Sue Forshaw, third with 36 points, was Jane Richardson, fourth, with 35 points on countback, was Carol Jones and fifth, also with 35 points, was Gail Proctor.
Men
Saturday Stableford, 19th March
With almost the whole course open, apart from the short twelfth, players enjoyed the spring like conditions. In Division One, Andy Nicholls came into the clubhouse with an outstanding score of 39 points, followed closely in second by Mike Hillier, on 38 points and Steve Longden, on the money in third with 37 points. In Division Two, some great scoring with very high points tally were achieved. Mark Turner, topping the Division with an outstanding 42 points, followed closely in second by Alistair Huckle on 41 points with Andrew Bray in third on 40 points.
Sunday Stableford, 20th March
With the weekend good weather continuing and the course drying out quickly, Matt Lefeurve continued his recent form, topping Division One with 39 points with Steve Kingman in second with 37 points and Dave Harvey in third on 35 points. There was some great scoring in Division Two, with the top three accumulating good points and Tony Guthrie taking top prize with an outstanding 43 points and John Cox, coming a close second on 42 points and James Davey in third on 40 points.