RAFA Trophy 2021

Top 10 final standings  as follows …

Nathan Butterworth (406) held  a slender 2 stroke lead over Club Champion Danny Miller with just a handful of medals to play for this prestigious competition . Nate had taken full advantage of the midweek medals recently , brilliantly posting three first place finishes scoring 67,66,67 since 25th. August and he roared up the table with his other three counting scores played since his 3rd July Tommy Barlow victory (66) with his top 6 performances in the July (70) and August (70) Monthly Medal Qualifiers contributing to take him top . Danny Miller (408) has also played in 20 qualifying competitions, has recently taken closer order courtesy of his first medal comp victory of the season in the Divot Party , his 65 getting him to within touching distance of the leader . Miller has only won the RAFA on one occasion ( back in 2006 ) and was desperate to add this trophy to the J Ford .
Third-placed Chris O’Connell played in only 13 qualifying competitions thus far this season yet was still only 8 strokes away from the summit but with his best/worst qualifying scores spread narrowly from 66 to 71 it would take a phenomenal effort to get closer . Similarly Dave Drurys’ qualifying scores all fell between 68 to 72 thus he would find it harder to improve on his excellent set of scores .

The top 5 was completed by Jason Denton , who would’ve been a certainty to be much closer but for other commitments that restricted his qualifying competitions to just 9 whilst Andy Mills completes the top 6 , an individual whose form has dropped off since his strong start to the season , his 20 qualifying competitions includEd his super 6 of 421 which put him 15 strokes back . 7th placed Ian Cheetham’s’ super 6 varied  from 62 to 75 which could be changed dramatically IF he maintains his excellent current form whist 8th placed serial RAFA contender Keith Ralston ,( who was just two strokes from glory last year ) had competed in 19 qualifying competitions this season , was only 3 strokes away from his efforts in 2020 but would seem to be too many strokes back to properly challenge .

With just 4 qualifying medal competitions to be played , we wondered as to whether it was in any way conceivable that anyone can stop Nathan Butterworth from taking this much sought after prize ? 

Danny Miller took up that challenge and overcame Nathan Butterworth by 3 strokes with just one crucial play just 12 days later in the Senior Trophy where he recorded a magnificent net  68 , just missing out on that piece of silverware but good enough to reduce his ’Super 6’ by 5 strokes , get to the mark of 403 which clinchEd the second RAFA of his career ,an incredible 15 years after his first . Danny recorded all his scores under the maximum pressure generated by Board Competitions but came through to register his 35th victory and stretch his club record haul .

Nathan Butterworth approached the final quartet of events 2 strokes clear but well aware of the threat posed by second placed Danny Miller . His first event on 26th September was a NR borne of his terrible start , posting back to back triple bogeys which contributed to getting him to a poor +5 at the turn whilst his next outing was similarly disappointing .in his third attempt to improve his score he was one of only 3 members in the weekday medal and started well , firing a gross 37 front 9 , 1 under his handicap thus on course for 70 but needing 67 or better to get back into pole position . Could Nate maintain momentum to improve his total ? Sadly not as he parred 10 and 11 to remain well placed , sadly he was to drop a stroke on 12 then compound that reverse with a double bogey on 13 to derail his attempt and he finished his round with a frustrating net 73 .His final attempt was I’ll fated given the difficult conditions which saw him only able to record a net 79 but an overall second place remained a truly fantastic effort .

Keith Ralston has had a very solid season and he finished strongly, cutting his score by no less than 15 strokes in his last 9 events to snatch third place . Andy Mills improved his position by 7 strokes in playing 6 more comps to take fourth place on countback from fifth placed Chris O’Connell ,who played in just 3 more comps due to illness and wasn’t able to improve on his score . Jason Denton played in just one more comp and although it did reduce his score by 2 strokes it left him in sixth position whilst Dave Drury played in 3 more comps without improving his score to drop to seventh place .Great campaigns from all and also much  respect to Messrs. Sainthouse , Hackett and Cheetham who had the kudos of finishing in the top 10 this season .