Hawkstone Park 2012 Report

Hawkstone Park Report Saturday & Sunday April 21st & 22nd

Saturday Championship Course

Our opening event saw a mixture of weather conditions over the three days. The April showers & storms got a mixing of cold winds and sunny intervals for a hole by hole changing pattern. The two courses played very different, Saturday saw a wet course playing really long for most golfers, this coupled with lots of water on the back nine and a few heavy showers saw no one break par, in fact three quarters of the field did not even break 30. Gez Newsome ended up handling the conditions the best with a one over par 35. The highlight of his round was his birdie 4 on the par 5 14th which rewarded him with a 4 point hall wiping out his only bogey of the round on the tricky third. 5 pars and a birdie 2 on the 17th was enough to take top spot by one point. Equal second and only one point back was the very consistent Anthony H and Andy W. Woody took second place on count back but will be the first to admit he left a good 4 shots out there, which would have been enough to take top spot. He missed relatively easy putts on 7, 8 and 13 grabbing only 1 point per hole with his only blob on the 6th, another second place, another tale of what could have been. Mister consistent Anthony H is always a good bet for a top 3 place, and did not let the betting fraternity down. A blob in the middle of the back nine and too many single point scores left him just short of top spot.

Sunday Hawkstone Course

Sunday was just as wet but the course was in far better condition. It had more shape and character and seemed to suit the society better with 4 golfers breaking par and only one third of the field failing to break 30 points. Sean A handled the conditions best taking advantage of his 27 handicap by notching a winning 42 Stableford points and in the processes taking the scalp of the societies lowest handicapper (Paul N) with 4&3 for an emphatic Blue win. Back in second saw three golfers notch a 2 under par round of 38. Again the bookmakers enemy Anthony H completed a very satisfying weekend by splitting the father and son duo of James & Paul Heathcote, which saw James junior taking the honors from a very satisfied Blue team captain Paul. No blobs in the round from Heathcote senior was not enough to lose on count back from junior, who saw his stronger finish take second spot as they swapped a front and back score of 18 & 20.

The Wyder Cup

Day one saw it end all square on 3½ points each, this after the reds took the first three pairings, but a spirited flourish from the Blues saw them take 3 out of the last 4 and half the other. So it was all set up for a cracker especially after the draw on Saturday night with the been very few matches any could call. So it was no surprise that Sundays singles was the closest to date with six of the 13 matches being decided on the 18th hole, this after it sat all square after Saturday. After 4 groups it was the reds that held a slight advantage by one, but it was group 5 that swung the advantage the way of the blues after the battle of the captains saw Paul H beat Dale by 5&3 and James taking the scalp of Gez N 3& 2. So with the penultimate group being shared the Blues had a slender lead of one going to the last four ball. No need to panic though for the Blues as Anthony did the business back on the 15th winning 4&3 and James wrapped up his win on the 17th 2&1. So a much needed win for the Blues 11½ to 8½ to close the gap down to only two.