With no event on the European Tour following the previous week's Open Championship at Troon, lots of the top players headed for the PGA Tour and the Canadian Open. The winner in Canada, after an exciting final day with some seriously low scores, was Nike Golf's Jhonattan Vegas.
Yesterday was my inaugural 'full day of coaching'; thanks to the seven members who attended. We covered all aspects of the game in a clinic format, followed by 18 holes of course management and statistical recording. The 'half time' butties and chips went down well too!
I hope to see the success reflected in their scores in coming weeks. I will host more of these days for both gents and ladies if there is the demand.
As the weather has only just started to improve with some consistency, I will be running the Oakley Free trial promotion until the end of August. The demo pair were out on the course four times last week and all four were pleasantly surprised as to their effectiveness. Learn more here.
It was Route 66 for myself and Lee Pennington at Formby last week in the Lombard Trophy. We had a steady start which saw me card four birdies in the first eight holes with a drop shot at seven. Some clutch hitting from Lee in the middle of the back nine on his shot holes got us to six-under-par with three to play. Unfortunately, we didn't manage another birdie and finished in third overall. No grand final in Portugal but it was a great day on a top class course.
On Tuesday evening the scratch team played their penultimate match, a home game vs Bromborough. Captain Dave Cederholm knew only a win would be good enough, and they obliged with a 3-0 victory. Charlie Berry and Elliot Smith won 6&4 with Elliot making an ace on 14 to finish the match. Adam Moore and Ethan Smith won 2&1; George Roberts and I won 3&2. This puts the lads back top of the league, equal on nine points with Wallasey but with a one point "game difference" of +6 to their +5. Only two games remain with a big input from Caldy, who host Wallasey next week and travel to Heswall the following week. Should Caldy win both, they slip in on the rails to win and retain the league; if Wallasey win, we must equal or better their result vs Caldy to win the league. (Each match is 2 points for a win, 1 for a half, with each game counting as goal difference).
League table as it stands:
Heswall - played 7 - 9 points (+6)
Wallasey - played 7 - 9 points (+5)
Prenton - played 8 - 8 points (-3)
Caldy - played 6 - 6 points (0)
Bromborough - played 8 - 5 points (-8)
The Trotter has been consistently won by the lower handicappers in recent weeks, but Les Wollen came up trumps last week to give it more of a senior flavouring. His nett 68 was a winning score after a countback against Jon Little who wasn't disappointed with his 68 off scratch. Third, again with a 68, was David Hughes.
It was the Summer Meeting on Saturday and for once it felt like it. Glorious conditions all day for this blue-tee medal. With a standard scratch of 74, Neil Stephenson's 69 was very impressive and enough to give him the win in Division One by one shot from Elliot Hawe. Third, playing with Neil, was Steve Skupski with 71. The Summer Meeting trophy will be presented to Mike Green after a red-hot round of 67! A four-shot victory from Callum Dalton in second, third with 75 was Phil Taylor. Lowest gross on the day was Elliot Smith with a 73.
In the alternate Yellow-Tee Stableford there was another runaway winner. 44 points for Julian Wallace, I'm pretty sure that's the best score of the season off the yellows. Paul Jenkins put his recent 18-hole playing lesson into practice for a 40 point haul in second, third with 39 was John Hynes.
The ladies played another Medal on Tuesday. Sophie Jamieson is making the most of her break from St. Andrews University and it showed as she scooped the Division One prize with a very fine 71. Sue Banks got the better of Trudi Harris on countback after they both returned 2-under-par, 72s. Marylin Jones was the runaway winner of Division Two with a 74, she was six clear of Ruth Walker and Jo Ratcliffe who came second and third. Sandra Cohen topped Division Three with 78, there was another countback needed on 80 as Eileen Kilgannon pipped Jackie Walker. Division Four was very close as Sue Lovell edged out Anne Chadwick and Sylvia Comer after scores of 76, 77 and 77 respectively.
