Captain's Prize One of the biggest competitions for the R&CPGC patrons took place last weekend and they came out in full force to win the coveted trophy as well as supporting their Captains, John Bullock & Sarah Brice.
On Saturday we had a whopping 148 players signed up to either get their two day campaign underway or just simply to win the day's play. The scoring conditions were almost perfect; the rain stayed away and the temperature allowed for shorts and shirt, the only real hurdle was the wind had turned around making all the easier holes play a lot tougher.
The scores were looking rather bunched together as just 3 points separated those on a level handicap 36 points all the way up to second place. However, the early leader & eventual winner, Paul Jarman, knocked in a sensational 43 points playing off 10 which also included a double bogey for 1 point and triple bogey for 0 points!
Paul set the front 9 on fire with a huge 24 points which equated to 1 under par gross, which then allowed him to coast to a comfortable 19 points on the back 9 which included a 4 pointer, two 3 pointers & a zero pointer, so still a bit of a rollercoaster ride but what a great round of golf!
On Sunday we had a little less players, but still a massive 118 players which for a Sunday competition is a very sizeable field. Once again, scoring conditions were reasonable and the wind stayed the same from Day 1 but there was no heroic 43 pointers this time around! Just 3 points was enough to cover the top 10 players, so I'm sure there were some missed chances that any of them feel could have denied them victory. The player with the least amount of rued missed chances was Sam Shearer who knocked in 39 points, equivalent to gross 68 (-3). Sam managed to only require 21 putts for the whole round and also managed a couple of chip ins as well!
Sam didn't quite have the rollercoaster ride Paul did on Day 1, but nines of 19 & 20 points was enough for him to seal the victory on the day. However, neither of the day winners featured in the running for the overall prize. Paul couldn't play on Sunday and Sam wasn't at the races on Saturday.
Two very solid rounds of 36 points was enough for seasoned golfer Bob Dench to be crowned the Captain's Prize winner for 2019! Bob basically had two identical rounds where he had 20 points and 16 points on front and back 9 respectively for both days. If that is not consistency, then I don't know what is!
Over the course of the weekend we had a vast majority of the R&CPGC patrons comment on how good the course is at the moment and also how tough it is with the rough being so punishing. So a massive thank you must go out to Danny and his team for making the course so presentable in one of the biggest weekends of the R&CPGC calendar.
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