Fine year out on the greens for JoG's golf stars of tomorrow

Despite the poor golfing conditions the Juniors put in some powerful performances with a tie between three players, recording nett scores of 62 well under their handicaps.

After the calculations of count back on the back nine holes the winner was Emma Brown, followed by Owen Williams in second and Callum Bareham third.

The Juniors joined their parents and many of the club’s committee members in the Burgoyne Suite for their Annual General Meeting.

The presentation of 31 trophies, cups and awards was made by Junior Patron Martin Pettitt aided and abetted by Steve Akrill, Junior Organiser.

The performance of the year came from Lawrence Jefferys who did not have a handicap at the beginning of the year but finished playing off 11. On the way he picked a number of trophies including the Bedfordshire County Boys Under 12 Championship, Best Newcomer and Points Cup winner.

It was also a stellar year for Jack Slater in his last year as a Junior winning the Club Championship and Division 1 Championship, both including adult members plus the Junior Boys Championship. There was also great success for Harry Warmoth, Junior Captain who became the Club Player of the Year.

Harry presented Steve Akrill with a gift in recognition of his role as Junior Organiser for 14 years. Steve will now be concentrating on his responsibilities as secretary of the English Schools’ Golf Association. He will be handing over to Sue Lee.

On Thursday, January 12, 14 teams of three Ladies braced the elements to play a fun competition of 1, 2, 3 Waltz, with one of three scores counting on the 1st hole, two of three scores on the 2nd, and all three scores in the team counting on the 3rd, this continued for the 18 holes.

Due to the inclement weather several teams were unable to finish, but this didn’t stop the braver players fighting for the odd birdie. With a good score of 70 and winning on count back were Penny Staveley-Smith, Jean Cobb and Diane Munns. Coming in second, were Sue Colledge, Marion Cooper and Lorna Jerome and a close third, with 69 points were Tanya Willmott, Sue Hankins and Sue Gilbert.

On January 19 the Ladies played a challenging game on the John O’Gaunt course using the Augusta National score card. This made for some interesting scoring as at least one of the par 5s at John O’Gaunt was only a par 3 on the Augusta score card, but there were still some scores coming in on these tricky holes. Due to the frosty conditions, there were a few temporary greens and tees in play, giving everyone the opportunity of scoring well. Coming in first with a tremendous score was Jane Cooper with 46 points, and second was Pauline Aubigne​ with 40 points. In third place was Lindsay Derry with 39 points.

On January 26, the Ladies again braved the bitterly cold day to play in a team Stableford on the Carthagena course. With teams of three, the format was best two of three scores per hole, and all three scores counting on the par 3s. The winning team coming in with a score of 96 points, and playing 10 under their handicaps, was Jean Cobb, Tanya Willmott and Jane Cooper. In second with 91 points, and playing five under their handicaps was Terry Brown, Jan Murphy and Val Cooper and in third with a score of 90 points were Anita Isaacson, Anne Gurney and Tineke Smith.