2018 Ray Gellatly Memorial Trophy 10th. June
Ray Gellatly Memorial Trophy 10th. June 2018
Tim Dibble left the golfing wilderness and returned to form with a magnificent 82/18/64 to take the Gellatly Memorial Trophy by a 4 shot margin ! Hestarted with a superb birdie at the tricky first and followed that up with pars at 6 of the other 8 holes to post an incredible gross 36 which put him 8 under his handicap ... a feature of his front 9 scoring was his putting with him using the flat stick only 11 times , regularly stroking the putts to the hole before they just reached their destination Garcia-style !
The back 9 saw him continue to harvest pars at regular intervals but triple bogeys at 15 and 18 saw his score kept at just the net 64 ! The handicapper appears to have dealt with him leniently ( given his stellar display ) and cut him 2.1 to 15.6 ! Tim has recently undertaken a series of lessons in a bid to improve his game and they have already reaped their rewards.
As most members are aware , Tim has been in the doldrums golf-wise for some time and the quality of his game today suggests that it won’t be long before he contends again !
Evergreen Alty treasure Bernie Wood had a horrendous start to his Gellatly campaign immediately dropping to 4 over for his handicap after his disastrous quad bogey 8 but he responded magnificently to gain 7 shots on the remaining 17 holes to post 77/9/68 ( including a superb gross 37 back 9 ) ... the handicapper docked him 1.0 but his efforts alerted the exceptional scoring reduction of a further 0.5 thus leaving him on a new mark of 7.7 !
Captain Kay ( who also fulfils that position for the William Wroe Vets Society ) continues to seemingly thrive on his dual responsibilities in regard to his golf . He was a model of consistency with 9 pars , 8 bogeys with only the tricky 14th seeing him succumb to a triple bogey setback ... his efforts were rewarded by the handicapper with a cut of 0.9 to 12.7 for a solid third place finish .
Alan Longden is one of our senior members and a regular player ( and winner ) on the WW Vets circuit ! Today he performed consistently to his handicap on the front 9 and reached the turn 1 over ... he improved on the back 9 with successive net birdies on the last 3 holes taking him to a very creditable fourth place 97/27/70 , his efforts rousing the handicapper to cut him by 0.4 to 26.3 ! David Christian has been one of the stars of this summer season and ( as forecasted by this observer ) has not yet totally been thwarted by the handicapper ... 6 pars today and another consistent display only dented by 2 triple bogeys which limited his ability to mount a stronger challenge ... that said , his 92/22/70 was enough for a fifth place finish and another 0.4 cut to 22.0 from the handicapper!
Honourable mentions for this week have to be made to your very own observer ( Paul Hackett if you were unaware of the reports author ) ! I suffered the horrendous start of a triple then quad bogey on my first 2 holes leaving me 5 over for my handicap and ( at that time ) already 8 shots behind my playing partner ( and eventual winner ) Tim Dibble ! As many golfers do in this situation I changed my goal for the day and deemed it apt to try to recover those 5 shots in the next 16 to try to get back to level par for my handicap !By a mixture of ‘skill’ and good fortune only a missed 7 footer for par on 18 robbed me of achieving my goal but I was extremely satisfied with my lowest score of the season 91/19/72 to give me sixth place ! It’s an interesting fact that I have now played in the same foursome as 4 of the major winners this season ... Tim Dibble, Mr. Captain , Steve Wilkinson and David Christian which was very helpful in describing their victories ... but will I ever get to describe a victory of my own ? Time will tell Alty members 😉 but like you all I’m striving to attain that goal !
Sam Manson has had a quiet couple of weeks but our most improved golfer of last year had 2 birdies and found himself on the 14th tee in a challenging position of 3 under his handicap ... tragically he would drop 5 shots to his handicap in the next 3 holes and eventually finish on 88/15/73 !
Finally , our Gellatly defending champion Mark Royle wasn’t able to put up a staunch defence given a tragic quint bogey 9 at the first hole ... he wenton to have an eventful round mixing 2 birdies with doubles and a triple bogey and finished 29th with 91/12/79 .
