The Bernie Wood Trophy 18th July 2020

The Bernie Wood Trophy 

The Bernie Wood Trophy - named after our long-serving former Captain , President and Committee member still competing in his sixth decade of membership at the club .
 

Conditions were difficult with a relentless light drizzle with variable light winds testing members today. 

Bernie Wood Trophy contenders

Dave Drury (19/23/42) was ironically a late entrant into today’s competition and the beneficiary of a necessary late change to ensure that Mr Captain had his foursome after a withdrawal . Fate put him with the talented trio of serial contenders Astbury, Grout and Alderson. Perhaps initially intimidated by his late inclusion , Drury started slowly , gaining just a point on the tricky opening hole ... things improved gradually but relentlessly with 2pts on 2 , a 3 pt par on 3 followed by a superb 4pt birdie3 on 4 to hoist himself into early contention . He played steady holes 5-7 picking up regulation 2 pointers on each before a welcome 3pt par on the deceptively long 8th was tempered with his only blob on the supposedly easy 9th caused by his only wayward drive of the day . Although he recorded a decent 19 pt haul at the turn time would reveal that he stood a massive 8 points behind the leader as he started on his back 9 .
Drury could only take regulation 2 points from the benign opening holes as our formidable quartet of Amen Corner tests awaited him . Dave played 12 for his third consecutive 2 pointer then responded magnificently with a wonderful 4pt birdie 2 on 13 with a superb putt then after 2 pointing 14 gained a vital 3 point par on 15 taking his Amen Corner haul to 11 points with him gaining several points  on the field . With a three-way tie as he stood on the 16th tee Drury maintained form on the short holes , nearly repeating his heroics on 13 , lipping out but still scoring 3 crucial points with a par then maintaining form with another 3 pointer on 17 that gave him the lead for the first time ... a regulation bogey 5 gave him 2 points to achieve a ‘best in show’ back 9 of 23 points and an overall total of 42 points to give him an incredible countback victory and the second Board Competition victory of his Alty career . His 82 strokes on the day equalled his best gross score set 3 years earlier  , a fantastic effort in the uncomfortably wet but stuffy conditions which made scoring extremely difficult . It was a victory achieved by a masterclass in course management , very consistent off the tee , rarely putting himself in trouble and allied to a crucially top notch short game .Drury took the time later to pass on to your scribe his thanks to his playing partners for their encouragement and appreciation of his good play as he played his round . The handicapper was suitably impressed and he was cut 1.5 to a new mark of 15.5 .

Andrew Moss (27/15/42)

Your scribe was honoured to play with Andrew Moss today for the first time so can properly describe his extraordinary efforts in a simply scintillating 27 point front 9 which this observer believes has had no equal in recent memory . Moss cozily sits in that department  of members brave enough to have a fullish swing , achieve long distances but only occasionally show the consistency needed to further develop . Andrew started today with a handicap of 26 , and had performed well enough to play at buffer zone level in three of his last four events . 

Today Moss manipulated the advantages of his high handicap to the nth degree on an extraordinary front 9 that saw him get to 7 points after 3 with a 3pt bogey 5 on 2 the highlight for a good start but holes 4 to 7 brought him a mind-boggling 16 points with the highlight a gross birdie but net CONDOR 3 on the fourth hole ( a  good drive to 120 yards , 9 iron and 8 foot putt ) then supplemented by a bogey 5 3 pointer on 5 then back to back 4 pointers courtesy of a second gross birdie 3 on 6 then great scrambling rewarded him with  a par 4 on the 7th. 

Inevitably his high standards dipped slightly on 8 with a sloppy 6 for just a point but he finished off his front 9 by getting on in regulation and nearly holing a long putt but tapping in for a 3-pointer to give him an extraordinary 27 point haul and a 3 point lead as he got to the turn . 

Moss dragged his tee shot on 10 and wasn’t able to regroup for his first blob but he regrouped well on 11 , this time recovering a poor approach pitch to scramble a 3 pt par to stand on the 12th tee to take on our Amen Corner as the drizzle continued . Sadly a poor run of only 4 points from AC had brought him back to the field and he now found himself joint leader with 2 others with just 3 holes to go . Moss regrouped superbly to hit his tee shot on 16 to within 10 feet and get a 3 point par then recover from a slightly hooked drive to rescue 2 points on 17 . He maintained form with a superb 3 pointer par 4 that got him to a magnificent 42 points but a total unbelievably matched by the winner thus finishing a heartbreaking  second place on countback . The handicapper responded by cutting him a full 2.0 to a new mark of 23.5.

Lee Lomas (21/18/39)

An early starter, Lee played a very solid front 9 of 21 points highlighted by consecutive 3 pointers on holes 2-4 highlighted by a birdie 2 on 3. He was to also get a 3 point par on 7 then playing regulation 2 pointers on 8/9 to get to the turn 6 points off the lead with the 11 handicapper having shot a magnificent gross 37 to be in strong contention . 

Lee started explosively on the run to home with a 3 pt birdie 3 on 10 then regulation parring 11 ... his Amen Corner total was only 6 points but he still found himself just 2 points behind as he stood on the 16th tee . A 7 point haul from those championship holes gave him an excellent 39 points and a credible third place which prompted the handicapper to cut him by 0.4 to a new mark of 11.0.

Nathan Butterworth ( 19/18/37) 

Nate had a rollercoaster start with 3 pointers on 2,4 and 5 tempered with sloppy single pointers on 1 and 3 . He played to the turn with regulation 2-pointers to get to the turn 8 off the lead with 19 points .

His back 9 highlights were 3 pointers on 12 and 18 but 1 pointers on 13 and 14 effectively ended his challenge but still meant a 4th place finish for a very good round of golf in the wet conditions .

Special mentions ... 

Tim Roberts (24/13/37) 

Tim is one of our members who only plays in the summer season ... today was his third outing with his earlier rounds finding him down the field . Today he started encouragingly with 3 pointers on 1 and 4 and regulation 2 pointers on 2 and 3 getting him to the 5th tee in fine shape . Roberts produced back-to-back 4 pointers courtesy of an excellent birdie 3 on 6th consolidated with a par 4 on 7 getting him to 21 points and although he slightly stumbled on holes 8 and 9 his 24 point total left him in clear second place 3 points behind the leader .

Tim held his own for the next quartet of holes with 3 pointers on 11 and 13 keeping him in serious contention and even a blob on 14 and single-pointer on 15 still elevated him to a share of the lead with three holes to go . Sadly his 3 point total for the final three championship holes meant 37 points and a 5th place finish . Nevertheless an encouraging effort from the high-handicapper .

Andy Miehe (16/20/36) 

Andy played with your scribe and Andrew Moss thus was under pressure to stay with the leader as he produced high quality golf .

He had an inconsistent front 9 with highlights of 3 pointers on 4,5 and 7 tempered with blobs on 2 and 6 leaving him 11 off the pace with 16 points .A sloppy single-point 5 on 10 was his only reverse of a decent back 9 highlighted with 3 pointers on 12,13 and 17 and he otherwise posted 2-pointers to post 20 points and an overall 36 total to finish in sixth place . A day where one of our most consistent ball strikers faltered at times but still showed his class to finish so high up the leaderboard .

Defending champion watch ...

Norman Crowther (15/18/33)

Norman started relatively well and got to the 7th tee on a regulation 12 points with his highlight a 3-pointer par on 2 . He sadly 1-pointed 7-9 to get to the turn 12 off the pace with 15 points . Crowther had a better back 9 of 18 points highlighted by a superb 4-point birdie 4 on 13 and 3-point par at the final hole to help him to a 13th place finish .

Wood watch (10/13/23) ,  (23/7/20) ..

Bernie is still reconfigurating his golf after his knee operation thus it is apt to report that he encouragingly managed 2-pointers on 9 of the 18 holes , finishing in a lowly 43rd place with a 4-blob 23 points but still good enough to beat the younger Wood in the comp , with Ian managing only a 5-blob 20 points . 

Highest hole score ...

Johnny Boardman found our easiest hole a trauma taking 10 shots to play the 9th. ... respect to him for finishing the hole .

Overall , a day of high drama where two members produced a front 9 and a back 9 of the highest order on a day where the course again was triumphant in negating the vast majority of our efforts .