After beautiful sunny weather at the beginning of the week, by Thursday it had all gone downhill and the conditions had returned to this winter’s continuing offering of damp, chilly temperatures and leaden skies.
There was one bright spot, the slightly drier weather had enabled the Duchy course to dry out, and all eighteen holes were playable. Playing in teams of three, the Ladies held a Bowmaker competition, two best scores to count on each hole, but each lady had to play with a pink ball alternatively.
The pink ball counted for double points, and if it didn’t score on any hole, only one other score counted. An extra five points was on offer for the return of the pink ball at the end of the round. It is amazing the pressure a player feels, knowing that they can’t lose the pink ball, especially when it is your turn to play with it on a hole peppered with water hazards!
At the end of the day, every team returned their pink ball, bar two teams. There was one two spot birdie made by Sandra Hares on the shortened par 3 5th hole. Sandra putted her ball down a bank of rough grass; the ball hit the green at speed, clattered into the flagstick and disappeared into the hole. High fives all round with her playing partners. Many of the teams scored highly, but the winners were exceptional.
Jayne Brown, Viv Dickson and Brenda Michael scored 99 points for fourth place. Mandy Hobbs, Jackie Walker and Corrina Bates must have thought they might be the winners with 107 points, but it was only good enough for third place.
Incredibly, two teams scored 110 points each and countback had to be used to separate them. Liz Thomas, Pauline Brixey and Corrine Durbin were the winners, just edging Clare Salter, Margaret Seery and Jacqui Gregory into second place.
Jane Ball