Despite the best efforts of the weather gods, with unprecedented rainfall in December, it finally took the Government Lockdown Rules to bring Competitive golf and friendly fourballs to a halt at Mendip Golf Club.

Under the new Tier 4 regulations, play is limited to two balls and with severe pressure on tee times with the lack of daylight hours, to Members only. However, prior to this latest lockdown, all sections had been enjoying competitive play during December.

The Pro Shop Stableford event saw a win for Pro Shop Assistant, Sam Scriven, with 40 points on countback from Mark Blowers with Wayne Spencer third with 38. The following weekend a further Pro Shop event took place and despite a very wet weekend, attracted 51 entrants on the Saturday with a few less on the Sunday.

Tom Howe won the Saturday event with a very fine 40 points with James Abbott second with 39 beating Henry Lewer on countback with Martin Wilkins fourth with 38. It was particularly satisfying for Stuart Disney to see one of his young protégés in the frame – Henry Lewer is nine-years-old and as keen as mustard, very well done.

Sunday’s event went to Ian Hall, with 37 points, Nick Cox was second, with 35 and Tom Snelling was third with 34 after countback from Tom Lowe.

The Ladies held a nine-hole American Foursomes event with 42 Ladies taking part. The Winners were Susy Rudkin and Pauline Williams with 24 points well clear of Margaret Allen and Andrea Williams who were second with 20 points after countback from Penny Oliver and Elaine Richardson. Allison Rumming and Caroline Simper were fourth with 19 points.

The Mixed Stableford event took place on a rare sunny Sunday with 36 players taking part. A good time was had by all with plenty of seasonal good cheer in evidence. An interesting format led to some high scoring with Mark Necker and Julie Doyle winning with 53 points, but only after countback from Ben Cox partnering his twelve-year-old daughter, Connie. Peter and Allison Rumming were third with 47 points. The Pro Shop nearest the pin events were won by Scott Butland with David Braithwaite, second and John Ellis third.

And finally, Mendip Golf Club are delighted to announce that due, in the main, to the enthusiasm and hard-working efforts of Director of Golf, Stuart Disney, the club has become a Registered Signatory to the R&A Women in Golf Charter.

To achieve this, the club had to submit a detailed plan of action that aligns itself to the Charter’s aims to promote women’s golf to the outside community.

Stuart intends to use the fact that Mendip has signed up to this Charter to encourage more ladies and girls to consider golf as a pastime using his very popular ‘get into golf’ training sessions, an ideal introduction to many aspiring golfers. Once the Ladies and Girls are Members of Mendip, Stuart wishes to encourage them to expand their interests by not only playing in even more competitions, but also to take an interest in the wider aspects of running the Club through Committee involvement.

This builds very nicely on Stuart’s efforts to promote ‘family golf’. It is a real pleasure to see such family activity out on the Course and it bodes well for the future.

Tony Williams