Club Championship

So the flagship event in the R&CPGC patron's calendar was upon us last weekend, The Club Championship. The R&CPGC patrons did battle on Saturday to make the cut for Sunday's final round.

On Saturday we had 95 brave souls battle torrential rain throughout the day with the lowest handicap golfers leading the field who subsequently got the worst of the weather...'serves them right for being so good'  was the general consensus I believe.

Mike Bush & Nick Panting were the first group out and managed 72 (+1) & 71 (E) respectively which were mighty fine scores as they endured typhoon-esque conditions. However the best score of the day came exceptionally early on, from the second group out in fact.

Sam Shearer shot an amazing gross 64 (-7) to throw the gauntlet down to the rest of the Scratch Medal entries giving himself a seven shot advantage going into Sunday's round. The gross scores were tightly bunched behind Sam, however, with 3 shots separating the next 11 players.

Needless to say, Sam was also leading the Winch Gold Medal as well but his lead wasn't so huge in the nett category as junior member Harry Parkhouse fired in nett 67 to sit just 2 shots behind him. Then there was a bunch of 5 on nett 71 in a tie for third.

The top 40 players and ties made it through to Sunday for the final round, we had 42 players in total...

In reverse score order the lucky few to make it through were teeing off from 8:00am with the leaders making their entrance to the course around 10:30am. The players seeking Scratch Cup victory had to rely on 2 things, their absolute Sunday best golf making an appearance and Sam to have the mother of all melt downs.

Unfortunately neither seemed to happen, the boys chasing Sam were plodding along around level par while Sam was going about his business at 1 under par at the turn. Sam was in full control of both the Scratch Cup & Winch Gold Medal, all he had to do was hit fairways and greens and it would be in the bag.

While all of the focus was on the Scratch Cup, Harry Parkhouse was going about his business in the Winch Golf Medal. Nothing much was happening for him until he made 2 quick-fire birdies on 14 & 15 to allow him to finish with a nett 70. It was now a waiting game to see how Sam finished.

Sam had a game plan and he stuck to it; get it round in level par and no heroics. He executed the game plan to perfection and signed off round 2 with 71 (E) securing him the Scratch Medal thanks to his wonderfully crafted first round which took most of the pressure off his second round.

Harry's heroics in the second round was enough for him to claim the Winch Gold Medal on a countback from Sam. Harry also won the inaugural Junior Club Championship this year and now has the men's equivalent to showcase in the trophy cabinet at home.

We had 3 of our junior members qualify for the final round on Sunday; Josh Crabb (5), Harry Parkhouse (6) & Riley Dowle (10) which is great to see the future of R&CPGC making inroads into adult competitions, let alone of one them winning it!

Well done to Sam & Harry!