What a scorcher!! 38 DegC.

The Buckinghamshire stood in for our traditional visit to Sandy Lodge as the latter was undertaking maintenance and couldn’t guarantee the whole course would be open. Their loss as we had the most magnificent days golf and barbecued into the evening on the terrace of this great golf course.

Despite the extreme heat there were some great scores! But first for a great round rewarded with far too few points Michael Salmon picks up the wooden spoon.

Next Up winner of the Nearest the Pin our Vice-CaptainIain Stevenson.

Winner of the Guest Prize and Nearest the Pin in 2

Steven Hurworth.

Team Winners

Bandits Joel Evans and Steve Davies (and Joel gets 2 shots back after this as he was defending Autumn Cup Winner)!!!

Winner of the prestigious Autumn Cup making his debut as a member was Michael Trott with 40 points (Cut 2) from Mark Beer 36 points (Cut 1)

Thanks to our Captain Neil Blundy for presenting the prizes so magnificently and congratulations to all our winners and hope to see all our members at the new course (to us) of Abridge GC on 26th September.

Look it up, it’s a great course and deserves a full turnout.

Ashridge was playing at its absolute best for our visit this year even if the weather wasn’t quite as warm as predicted.

The scores reflected the benign conditions and the receptive greens. Please visit the members area of the website to see the Scores after 3 events

23 Members and 14 Guests had a great buffet lunch, enjoyed the beautifully presented golf course and devoured an excellent 3-course dinner.

Prizes were presented by Captain Neil Blundy  and the recipients were well distributed amongst the assembled masses!!!

How the mighty have fallen. From winner of the Autumn Cup last year to – Well not quite such a great score – Joel Evans picked up the wooden spoon – He doesn’t seem too disappointed!!

Steven Barker won the Nearest the Pin on 16 – I hear that the golf ball didn’t get more than 3 ft off the ground – Great shot Steven!!!!!  Winners of the Yellow Ball Competition on 39 Points, thanks partly to a magical birdie on the 9th for 4 points by guest Gerald Katseff and some general dovetailing, were the aforementioned with David Jenkins and Neil Meixner They looks as though they’re enjoying themselves!!!!

The Team Prize was the most hotly contested prize with three teams tying on 45 points. Winning out on countback, from Andrew Wiseman/Simon Marettwere and Ian Stevenson/John Biscoe, were Richard Hutchinson and his guest Stefan Spicer

Steven Barker’s Guest Tony Burchett picked up the guest prize with a magnificent 39 points

The coveted Finlinson Cup was won on countback, from new member George Skinner (cut 1), by Chris Anderson (cut 2). Congratulations to George who must be commended for his honesty as he had been cut over the weekend by his club to 11 and most importantly to Chris who labouring under a 2 shot penalty for coming second twice within the last year has finally picked up a trophy!!!! Well done to Chris. 

Thanks to all our members and guests who as usual made the Ashridge event special.

The next event is at Sandy Lodge on 25th July 2019. Let’s have a great turnout for this one. Members will receive the attendance application form via email and in the members section of the website.

 

 

What a day on a magnificent course. Great weather, company and food.

16 Members and 12 Guests attended and enjoyed this great course in the best of weather.

Darrell Lewis won nearest the Pin, whilst guests Steve Mole and Paul Dickson (41 points) narrowly lost to Member Chris Anderson and his guest Chris Tweedie (43 points Better-Ball Score). Congrats to the Chris’s, a great score on this challenging course.Guest Winner by some way was Paul Dickson (36 points) from Steve Mole (31 points)Winner of the coveted   Captains Cup was John Biscoe (33 points – cut 2) who despite some banter from our Captain about legitimacy of handicaps etc accepted the Cup with good grace. Runner up (AGAIN) Chris Anderson (32 points). Cut one for the second time in a year. Better luck next time!!!!

Next up ASHRIDGE on 26th June 2019.

Something exceptional happened at Moor Park this year a hole-in-one by Jason Wood. Only the third in Epic History. Congrats to Jason who joins Steven Barker and Martyn Rowlands in  that “Hall of Fame”.

It happened on the 12th which as we all know is the notoriously difficult (Uphill, 197 yds off the yellows and SI 4) par 3. 

Jason hit a 3-Wood and of course Jason knew it was a good shot but he couldn’t see the hole from the tee!!!! What a surprise to find it in the hole. 5 Stableford points was a bonus!!

Jason also managed to keep his game going after such excitement and added the Spring Cup to his trophy cabinet with 36 points (Cut 2) from Digby Hebbard 35 points (Cut 1). He looks pleased with himself doesn’t he!!

Members Digby Hebbard and Iain Stevenson won the Nearest the Pin in Two and Nearest the Pin respectively and Guest Lee Compton and Neil Meixner picked up the Team Prize .

Congratulations to all the winners.

The year ended at West Herts where we held our traditional “Family and Friends” event. The greens were magnificent and the layout challenging. The fairways were suffering from the after-effects of the long hot summer which made play all the more difficult. 31 players (11 members and 20 Family & Friends) attended and enjoyed the day which concluded with a late lunch/early dinner of Steak and Kidney Pie followed by Bread and Butter Pudding. A few more calories to add to the Christmas fare!!!

“Family and Friends”  Jeff Cowup and Yvonne Davies won the Nearest the Pin and Nearest the Pin in 2 respectively, whilst the “Waltz” team prize was  secured by Chris Anderson with guests Dave and William Stranders and John Stanley with a magnificent 92 points some 8 points ahead of their nearest rivals.

William Stranders (42) won the guest prize from Phil Rex on 38.

The Recessional Bowl was won by Neil Meixner (38) – Cut 2, from Joel Evans (36) – Cut 1.

Well done to all.

Wishing you all a prosperous New Year!!

Neil Meixner – Secretary

We were blessed with a great day. Sun and “lightish” winds for November.

This was our final qualifying event for the coveted “Player of the Year”. An extremely close fought thing this year!! More later

17 members and 11 guests set out with high expectations on this great course. The greens were understandably slower than in the peak season and there was little run on the fairways, so many found it a challenge.

However skill will out and our guest prize went to Chris Elwin who scored 39 points playing off 6 so 3 over the course! Well played indeed. If I tell you that the winning team score was 40 and Nick Archer and Chris Elwin didn’t win ……………..then you can draw your own conclusions!!!!!!

Anyway, Nearest the Pin and Nearest the Pin in 2 competitions were won by Jason Wood and Neil Meixner respectively. Well done to them.

The team prize was the closest I can ever recall with no less than 9 of the 14 teams returning 38 or better!!

However Jason Wood and Andrew Richardson won on 40 points from both the Neil Blundy/Michael Hodson and Luke/John Molyneux combinations on countback. Great scoring guys.

The Presidents Cup for EPIC Members was hotly contested as ever with Gavin Tuck (cut2) prevailing on 34 points from Jason Wood (cut 1) who pipped Rob Seeley on countback both on 33 points.

So the final arithmetic has been done after the 5 qualifying events for the player of the year which rewards the most constant player over the summer. The best 3 scores from the possible 5 are added to provide a total stableford tally.

In reverse order Jason Wood and Steve Davies 100 points, Chris Anderson 101 points with Iain Stevenson taking the title on 102 points. Many congratulation to Iain .

The next event is the friends and family golf day this year at West Herts on Friday 28th December 2018 starting at 10.30.  Member can find an attendance form in the members section but an  invitation email will be sent in the usual way to members shortly.

A great day out was had by 13 members and their 5 guests.

Scoring was quite good on this testing course with the guest prize being won on count-back by Philip Rex from Phil Bowyer both on 33 points.

The team prize went to Joel Evans and Ian Abley who were well ahead on 44 of two other teams on 41 points.

The Nearest the Pin went to Jason Wood and the Nearest the Pin in 2 to Joel Evans.

Joel also won the Autumn Cup with 34 points (cut 2) from Neil Meixner (cut 1) on count-back.

Congratulations to Joel who  pretty much cleaned up!!!

The next event is East Herts on 8th November. Please try and make it even if its without a guest!!

Despite the good weather there was a poor attendance this year so the committee has decided to bring this event forward one month in the hope that more members will be encouraged to attend!! See you at Sandy Lodge next year!!