The James&Roland West Shield 29th June 2019

The Roland and James West Shield 29th. June 2019

The mere fact that the Roland and James West Shield ever came to fruition is of particular satisfaction to your observer given that it was he who brought forward the idea to have an ‘elite’ competition ( for those with 15 handicap or less );played the same day as the Diggle Trophy , a popular part of our Board Competition schedule restricted to those members with a handicap of 16 and over because it was unfair for part of our membership to have less Board Competitions than others .

After initially gaining the support of the great man James West himself in permitting him to lend his ( and his fathers name ) to the creation of a new Board Competition , your scribe then gratefully gained the support of fellow Handicap Committee members Jason Denton and Bernie Wood to put it to the Committee . 2018 Captain Robert W. Kay was particularly supportive and was generous enough to put up his own funds which allowed him to procure the Shield that commemorates two of the biggest legends associated with our club . 

The late Roland West was a popular golf professional with our club for many years , winning the prestigious Balfour Cup in 1966 and the Club Championship in 1967 and 1969 whilst his son James has the distinction of winning 33 Board Competitions which is more than anyone in the history of the club with his tally including the Club Championship on ten occasions , the Tom Povey Trophy nine times and the RAFA trophy three times . James remains very much part of the fabric of the club and the family were delighted to accept the invitation on the day that saw James perform the ceremonial tee-off .

As to the competition itself 32 of our elite members took to the course to have the honour of winning the inaugural competition .

Roland and James West Shield contender scoring

The front 9 seemed to be more difficult than usual for our competitors today but initially held no fears for our eventual winner Matt Goodall who birdied the first to immediately gain a shot to handicap . He was to add further net birdies on 2 and 4 with his highlight a net eagle 3 on the tricky 7th but it was a rollercoaster 9 as he inexplicably dropped shots at the easier 3rd,6th and 8th holes and a 7 on the long 5th meant that he was only level for his handicap at the turn and he only actually played one of the holes to handicap !
Danny Miller had a difficult start and found himself 2 over after 4 holes due to dropped shots at 2 and 4 . Regrouping quickly he steadied the ship with 3 pars ( 2 of which were net birdies ) then fell back bogeying the uphill 8th before getting back to parity with a birdie on 9 .
Gary Gilbert immediately stamped his authority on the competition with back to back net birdies on his opening holes then consolidating it with the next  five holes played to handicap saw him topping the leaderboard only for him to drop stow strokes on the 8th hole , his only reverse which eventually saw him to level par at the turn two off the lead .

For the record Brian Southworth had the distinction of leading the comp at the halfway stage courtesy of consecutive net birdies on 2,3 and 4 with his only reverse a double bogey 6 on the 5th. hole to reach the turn at -2 ... although he was to up his net birdie total to six with gains on 11 ( birdie 3 ) ,12 and 15 he was to suffer three huge reverses which catapulted him down to a 20th place finish ... an initial quadruple bogey 8 on the benign 10th and  two 7s on the back 9 par 3s !

Danny Miller was started his back 9 confidently and after playing his opening two holes to handicap , a net birdie 5 on our hardest hole took him to -2 and the leadership whilst Goodall played his opening trio of holes as per handicap . Gilbert matched Miller then had a 2 shot swing on 13 as his net birdie 3  eclipsed DMs net bogey 4 . Crucially Gilbert was not able to maintain momentum as he was to drop a shot on 15 to go back to -1. Miller (as befitted his multi-Board comp winners profile) regrouped magnificently with a net birdie 4 on the long 14th and followed with a birdie 4 on the tricky 15th to move to -3 and joint leadership with Goodall with just three holes to go .

Goodall had upped his game on the usually intimidating back 9 and was clearly ‘in the zone’ playing 13 to handicap then making full use of his long-hitting prowess with a net birdie on 4 and a net eagle 5 on 15 put him level with Miller after gaining 3 shots on two of Alty’s toughest holes . He maintained momentum on the final three holes parring them all but crucially they included net birdie 4’s on the final two holes for a superb 76/10/66 5under finish to win by two strokes

Miller could not compete with such a stunning display and he could only play his final trio of holes to handicap for a 75/7/68 finish and an unwanted second place for the great man who clearly would’ve loved to win a trophy named after the man with whom he shared two Board Comp wins back in the day ( Wilson Trophies 2001 and Summer KO in his own breakthrough year of 1997 ) .

Gilbert had stood on the 16th tee two strokes back and he was to gain a shot on 17 to finish 81/12/69 for an encouraging third place finish in what was only his first Board competition appearance .

Phil Prince finished fourth with 80/10/70 but he came back from a net double bogey 7 on the opening hole and can look back on his reverses on the 4 shots dropped on the  benign 6th , 8th and 16th as reasoning for why he wasn’t in closer contention with his highlights his birdie 3s on both 2nd and 11th holes . 

Special mentions ...

Alty legend Bernie Wood threatened to roll back the years cruising to -2 after his first four holes courtesy of net birdies on 2 and 4 ... although he was to lose both shots gained at the long 5th he regrouped to par the remaining front 9 holes to record a gross 38 to put him just a shot off the lead . Sadly his back 9 saw him drop 6 shots to handicap and he finished 19th with 85/9/76 .

Mark Caffrey (87/15/72) has shown signs of a return to form with a good finish in the Gellatly and today he stood on the 9th tee in a tie for the lead at 2 under ... with the benign 9th hole to complete his front 9 he must’ve expected to consolidate or even improve on his standing . Such is the unpredictability of golf that even a man of his ability can succumb to a poor hole and a quad bogey 8 knocked him back down the leaderboard and back to 2 over ... although he was to regroup and battle back to play the back 9 one under for his handicap his adventures on the ‘easiest’ hole on the course effectively destroyed his chance to strongly compete . 

Nathan Butterworth (89/9/80) started poorly and dropped shots at each of the opening trio of holes before 5 consecutive pars helped him regain all 3 shots to handicap and be on the fringe of contention ... sadly he again dropped shots early on but his lowly finishing position was defined by a disastrous 10 on 14th and an 8 on the final hole showing that ( as also shown by Mark Caffrey )  our beloved golf course can cause havoc with any competitors card irrespective of form on any hole !

Gross best of the day ... Second placed Danny Millers’ 75 just bettered our winner Matt Goodall 76 today !