Wells Golf Club’s annual Red Tee Challenge took place recently. It is a three man team competition, with two scores to count on each hole for Senior Men and is played off the red tee boxes instead of the usual white or yellow, making the course shorter.

A large field took part in warm conditions under a lovely blue sky. The wind blew quite hard, making it tricky at times. With the dry conditions there was much run on the fairways, but it was difficult to stop the ball on the hard greens.

Playing off the red tees, pars and stroke indexes guaranteed some high scoring, in fact, a number of teams scored in the mid 80s stableford points.

In third place, on countback, was the team of Mike Metcalfe, Tony Duffin and Peter Bartholomew scoring 88 points. Also on 88 points, but with a better back nine, were Steve Rowse, John Baker and Alan Hayes.

The winners, with an obscene 94 points, were Club Captain, Dean Hamilton, ‘Somerset’s finest’ Terry Pearce and Peter Michel.

The fun event was a good distraction from Covid issues and a chance for many to get back into competitive golf for the first time in 2021.

Wells’ Ladies’ Section held their first Medal round on Tuesday, 20th May, along with the Queen Mother’s Shield. The entry fee for the Queen Mother’s Shield is donated every year to the Marie Curie charity.

All our Medals are run over two days, one during the week and one at the weekend, to allow everyone to participate. The weather was ideal and the course was in excellent condition.

Results from the Tuesday round are: Silver Division, 1st Glynis Slater, nett 70, 2nd Tina Davies, nett 77; Bronze Division 1st Katrina Foote, nett 73, 2nd Janice White, nett 77; and for the first year we now have a Copper Division: 1st Maureen Bailey, nett 72, 2nd Linsey Sloman, nett 73.

This year’s first Seniors’ match took place at Wells against Kingsdown. There were twelve players on each side, in four balls. The format, match play 4BBB. Using the new World Handicap system proved a real test as there appears to be 57 varieties, depending on how it is interpreted.

The first three matches went to the opposition and Wells’ Seniors’ Captain feared that they were being put to the sword.

Never fear, the cavalry arrived in the shape of Glen Crocker, Steve Bocquet, Peter Leverick, Mike Gee and Allan Thompson who all came in as winners.

They saved the day, ending with an honourable 3:3 draw.

Janice White