Sad to see it over, another Masters draws to its conclusion
Jordan Speith claims a victory with a display that Big Jack would be proud of. Although it was no surprise that Spieth emerged victorious, the manner of the victory certainly took many by surprise. These five stats show just how impressive the Texan was on his way to claiming his first major win:
Second youngest ever winner at 21 years and 8 months
1st wire-to-wire champion since 1976
Most birdies (28) in Masters history
Tied for best final score (-18) in Masters history
The first ever player to reach -19 at any point in Masters history
Masters Sweepstake
Reaping the benefits of Jordan's fine play was Sidcup member
John Dean. John's selection prevented
Barry Worth from his very own and maybe his only ever chance of a wire to wire golf related victory.
John walks away with a whopping
£450 first prize. His team comprised of Jordan Speith, Ian Poulter, Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson. A final list of prize winners/results can be found hanging on the noticeboard just inside the door of the Pro Shop, alternatively
click here to see where you finished up. Congratulations to all you lucky prize winners and to everyone that participated in making this years' Sweepstake the biggest on record.
Kent Ladies Championship
A big 'shout out' to
Jo Beslee and
Mollie Lawrence for their endeavours in this week's Kent Ladies Championship held here at our own R&CPGC.
Jo, playing in the seniors competition (how can that be so!) shot a fantastic 92 in the medal round on Monday. That secured her place in the 2nd flight knockout stage and she turned out Tuesday morning in great spirits. Sadly it wasn't to be as
Jo came up against an opponent that was just having one of those days.
A great performance though
Jo, we'll be rooting for you again next year.
Molly playing in the Championship event had to play a 36 hole medal on Monday. A total of 161 was good enough for 10th place and a comfortable entry into the knockout stage. Tuesday morning saw her take on
Kim Morris and a 3&2 win secured her passage to the last 8. That meant another round Tuesday afternoon and this time it was
Lacey Clark put to the sword, again by a 3&2 margin.
Wednesday morning it was semi final time and
Mollie was matched up against in form
Sharna Dutrieux from Wrotham Heath. Despite some great golf from
Mollie,
Sharna was just too hot and it was all over on the 14th green. No disgrace there as
Sharna went out in the afternoon and eased past
Tita McCart 4&2.
A big well done to all the girls, especially
Sharna, great golf.
Monthly Medal, EGU Gold Medal & Custom Fitting Success
Maybe it was because it was Masters week or maybe it was the fact this
Monthly Medal was also
The EGU Gold Medal Qualifier but there were a staggering
136 entrants into the competition, which is 36 more than February's Monthly Medal.
After braving the treacherous conditions
Keith Hills returned the best score of the day with a 67, pipping
George Lings who fired in a 68 off 7 handicap. After
Keith finished his interview with Sky Sports we managed to get a few words from the man himself.
Keith dedicated his stellar performance to the
PIng Anser irons I so expertly custom fitted for him. Another win for the custom fitting trade!
Of course no win can be completed without a burning hot putter,
Keith picked 2 of his favourites; the first being a long curly one across the green on the 4th and the other being a knee knocking 8 footer on the 18th after chipping out from the Blossom trees right of the fairway,
RCPGC's very own Phil Mickelson!
Keith will now go into a collective group from all winners in
Kent where a lucky few will go on to play the final which will be held at
Frilford Heath GC in Oxfordshire on
14th August. Hopefully there wasn't too many golfers around Kent that rode into their golf club on a donkey with a sombrero, best of luck
Keith!
Shuffle Up And Deal
Last week
RCPGC held a major tournament of it's own in the form of it's very first Poker evening. A field of 23 sat down to battle it out for the first prize of
£100 and the honour of being crowned
Poker 'Wizard' 2015.
A frenzied 3 hours Texas Hold'em tournament ensued, amongst the laughter and friendly banter a lot of skilful poker was being played. Even the mild mannered
Martin 'Iceman' Simpson was ruffling a few chip stacks with his relentless calling of bets and hitting of big hands. As chips counts grew some had to inevitably shrink, amongst the fallen were
John 'All In' Aughterlony, Nick 'Aces' Facey (albeit some, on occasion, were calling him something very different) to name but a few.
After 2 hours of sweat and tears we were left with only 8 players on
'The Final Table'. Due to the fast paced nature of the event, blinds/antes at this stage were rising faster than members subscriptions, leaving everyone vulnerable to a knockout blow. It was going take a player of exceptional quality , experience and talent to claim the spoils and become champ...... Mmm who would it be?
Thanks to everyone that supported and to John for organising a well run event, I'll publish the date for the next Poker Evening shortly, so in the meantime keep your cards close to chest, regards 'The Wizard'.
Rob's Putting Clinic
Last Saturday was the 2nd of my 3 short game clinics and this week was putting. It was a bit touch and go whether it would go ahead due to the typhoon that had stopped by at RCPGC, but when the rain eased off there was 1 eager sole looking to improve his fortunes with the flat stick, Ricky Cartwright. When we were finally able to venture out, Ricky only needed me to make a couple of tweaks to what was already a solid putting stroke.
Once Ricky had got used to what we changed he was rolling the ball much nicer and felt he didn't need to force putts to the hole. With a mixture of the new found technique and a shiny new TaylorMade Daddy Long Legs putter, Ricky may need to wear oven mitts when the putter starts to get hot.
Dates For The Diary
TaylorMade return to RCPGC for a Demo Day on Friday, 1 May, 2 - 7pm.
PGA Southern Region Pro Am, Thursday, 2 July.
FootJoy Shoe Fitting Day, Friday, 12 June 9 - 3:00pm
Last year all of the above events were over subscribed, so don't hesitate or you're likely to miss out on a golden opportunity to improve performance, either through new equipment, hints and tips from a PGA Professional or greater stability and comfort whilst playing.
Click here to book in for one of the events mentioned above.
