Summer Meeting
| Date: | 29th June 2010 |
| Venue: | New Zealand G.C. |
Result: See details
A decent field of 23 OTs (well, and happily, represented by a range of ages) turned out for the Society’s Summer meeting at New Zealand GC on what started as an unexpectedly wet morning, but by the time the first groups assembled on the first tee, the skies had cleared, and good weather ensued for the rest of the day, with little wind.
The course was in fine condition – the greens being faster than in recent years, but with hard-bouncing fairways and the feature at New Zealand of very little semi-rough, you were either in the middle of the fairway or up to your hocks in the heather so low scores were hard to come by. The main event for the Wood Bowl, the scratch medal, was won with a fine 74, by Josh Mason on his debut visit to NZGC and his first OTGS meeting. This was an excellent performance, beating a number of lower handicap entrants. Second was Geoff Clay with a 76, from John Spurling on 77.
The morning singles round was competed also for the Jackson Bowl, a handicap stableford event, which was shared in a three-way tie for the trophy between David Golding-Wood, Josh Mason and Trevor Mills, each scoring 41 points. Trevor Mills won on countback from Josh Mason (over the last 6 holes), and from David Golding-Wood in 3rd place, on countback over the last nine, the latter now customarily being the man to beat in OTGS handicap events.
David Hawkins won the over 12 handicap prize with an impressive 40 points.
In the afternoon foursomes stableford event, Giles Craven, also attending his first OT meeting, and Andrew Sims came third with a creditable 37 points, from David Evans and Stephen Stowell who were just pipped on countback into second place by the winners Oliver Knight and the evergreen Geoff Clay, with 39 points. Runners-up Stowell and Evans (also at his debut meeting) sadly for them blobbing the last, allegedly, only as a result of the luckless Stowell being attacked and distracted during his downswing by a passing fly whilst playing his 150 yard approach to the 18th green, which consequentially left his Wildernessian doctor partner a subsequent 145 yard third shot to the last green.
New Zealand, as always, provided their course and Club to us in beautiful condition, with great hospitality and delicious breakfast, lunch and tea, virtually to ourselves all day, for excellent value, and the day, by all accounts, was thoroughly enjoyed by all.