September 28th, 2023
Monday September 18th saw an exciting 36-hole duel in the Men’s Handicap Trophy Final between Roger Emmett and David Smith. Begun back in April this individual knockout matchplay competition is a perennial favourite with the final being the 127th match of the series, won two up by Roger.
Roger made a poor start with two double bogies going two down but came back strongly to be only two over par gross for the rest of the first round finishing two up at lunch. David made a fast start again in the afternoon turning the score around to two up by the ninth and looking good. The turning point of the match was Roger getting up and down from the short sided bunker at 11 for the second time in the day. He then went on to win five of the last eight holes to finish two up including knocking a 100 foot putt to around six inches from the hole on the 18th for a par.
Tuesday 18th was the date for the Ladies Annual Medal played by six ladies from Division 1 and the winner of the Medal and Annual Medal was Gail Witcomb (13) with a nett 81 well ahead of Ros Samuels (11) on nett 87 and Vicky Eyre (10) nett 91.
The Freda Rhodes Trophy for veteran ladies was played on Thursday 20th. Contested over 13 holes of the Green course in Stableford format by those aged 65 or over, the winner was Margaret Kershaw with 21 points closely followed by Betsy Haldon on 21 and Gill Roberts on 18.
As previously reported the annual Tiger Trophy was won by Will Eardley beating Carl Bushby 4&3. Talking after the match. Will felt that the turning point of the day was his chip in from the back of the 26th hole for birdie, followed by another birdie at the next to take him three up.
Men’s Captain Martin Boyle took a large contingent of members to Hessle Golf Club for his second Exchange day on Friday 21st. The winning team on the day were Kevin Lynch, Lindsay Mckenzie, Ian McNeill, and Ken Winkle.
On Saturday 22nd 58 pairs teed off in the Cooper Brown Greensomes. Despite white tees set well back and holding fairways following overnight rain, players performed well. There were no less than five pairs on nett 69 needing a card count to decide third place which went to Phil O’Connor and Simon Darbyshire, the latter showing a welcome return to form. A countback was also needed to separate the top two, both with nett 67’s. Second place went to Oliver and Simon Mantle but the Trophy was awarded to Mark Henderson and Nick Tipling with their better back nine.
On Sunday 23rd an Open Stableford was the competition of the day which turned into a father and son one two. Peter Bowerman took the honours with 33 points followed in by son Hector on 30, just one point ahead of Richard Finney on 29 in third place.
Golfers across Europe were delighted to see the ladies retain the Solheim Cup following the superb birdie two at the 17th by Carlota Ciganda. Pannal members were among the first in the UK to be aware of her potential when she won the Girls Under 14’s prize at the North of England Under 14’s championship here in 2003.
