Men's Open
Saturday 21st June
East Devon hosted their annual Men’s Open on Saturday with a full field of 148 golfers taking on the challenge of a beautifully prepared course with fast greens. The weather stayed dry in the main with a gentle breeze to ensure the course wasn’t too easy.
It was a betterball event with golfers coming from various parts of the country with some clubs like Weymouth, well represented by several of their members. The winners from Kendleshire near Bristol were in the penultimate playing group with an excellent 47 points. They were followed by one of the Weymouth pairs with 45, who were leading from very early on and had looked like they were going to hang on for victory. 42 points on countback got third place for a pair from Rushmore near Salisbury and after that, countback had to be used to decide the top 10 prizes with them all scoring 41 or 42 points.
Trevor ran a twos sweep and there were 16 on the day sharing the money, including two on the first hole!
The kitchen and bar were kept busy for well over 12 hours from the early registrations wanting coffee and bacon rolls at 7.30 in the morning through to the last group coming in for their meals at 7.15 as the sun started setting over the 16 th tee. Special thanks must go to Dani and her team for their marathon shift and the quality of the food and service. All the comments from the players were positive.
Equally the course got rave reviews with many players who had not been before, vowing to come back with those regular visitors asking when they could get their names down for next year. Paul Newcombe and his team must be congratulated for the excellent condition of the course, although those less acquainted with East Devon found the heather something of a challenge and kept telling themselves to avoid it at all cost – and were still doing so on the 18 th hole!
Finally, many thanks to the regular band of willing volunteers (plus a couple of first timers) who helped out on the day with ball spotting, starting and registration, with a special mention to the 2 of them who were on the course all day ensuring that there were spotters in the right places to keep the play moving.
It all started with the 5 ladies who got everyone registered and in the right place at the right time as well as managing to persuade/coerce/pressgang many of them to buy raffle tickets, where a total of £413 was raised for the Captains’ Charity – Hospiscare.
It would be great if a few more could put their names down for the remaining events of the year starting with the Ladies South West Counties Championships next week.
Overall the day was a great success and we look forward to starting to plan next year’s event.
Neil Sear
Men’s Captain
It was a betterball event with golfers coming from various parts of the country with some clubs like Weymouth, well represented by several of their members. The winners from Kendleshire near Bristol were in the penultimate playing group with an excellent 47 points. They were followed by one of the Weymouth pairs with 45, who were leading from very early on and had looked like they were going to hang on for victory. 42 points on countback got third place for a pair from Rushmore near Salisbury and after that, countback had to be used to decide the top 10 prizes with them all scoring 41 or 42 points.
Trevor ran a twos sweep and there were 16 on the day sharing the money, including two on the first hole!
The kitchen and bar were kept busy for well over 12 hours from the early registrations wanting coffee and bacon rolls at 7.30 in the morning through to the last group coming in for their meals at 7.15 as the sun started setting over the 16 th tee. Special thanks must go to Dani and her team for their marathon shift and the quality of the food and service. All the comments from the players were positive.
Equally the course got rave reviews with many players who had not been before, vowing to come back with those regular visitors asking when they could get their names down for next year. Paul Newcombe and his team must be congratulated for the excellent condition of the course, although those less acquainted with East Devon found the heather something of a challenge and kept telling themselves to avoid it at all cost – and were still doing so on the 18 th hole!
Finally, many thanks to the regular band of willing volunteers (plus a couple of first timers) who helped out on the day with ball spotting, starting and registration, with a special mention to the 2 of them who were on the course all day ensuring that there were spotters in the right places to keep the play moving.
It all started with the 5 ladies who got everyone registered and in the right place at the right time as well as managing to persuade/coerce/pressgang many of them to buy raffle tickets, where a total of £413 was raised for the Captains’ Charity – Hospiscare.
It would be great if a few more could put their names down for the remaining events of the year starting with the Ladies South West Counties Championships next week.
Overall the day was a great success and we look forward to starting to plan next year’s event.
Neil Sear
Men’s Captain