NEWS ARCHIVES





News for 2009

11th December 2009
A small turn-out for the end of year fun event but all enjoyed themselves none the less.

This month our on-course roving reporter provided the following lowlights:
  • James Beard on the 12th drove his ball between two of the bags belonging to the group infront.
  • Bryan "Club-thrower" Carter showing his accuracy with the club - you know he never misses, and usually manages to throw it further than the ball.
  • As Tim Phillips was playing the 2nd, Paul Donlevy was playing the 4th, and they ended up tucked up against next-door tree's. It was quite interesting to see the two of them performing synchronised tree-hugging!


    • Over to the winners. A little oddly, all 3 skill prizes, the team prize and the top individual prize were all bagged by the last group out. The skill prizes went as follows: the Longest Drive being won by Frazer Webb, the Nearest the Pin in 2 shots by Tim Phillips. The Nearest the Pin was won by Ken Beere. Well done to those players!

    It was not tight at the top of the main event this time, but many players did play well and 5 equalled or bettered handicap. The top 2 though bagged over 40 points each, but there was only one winner today with a massive 46 points, congratulations to Michael Prevost.

    You can see the full set of results on the results page.



    9th November 2008
    The 2009 AGM was held on the 9th November 2009. The minutes can be found here.

    8th October 2009
    Our smallest turn-out of the season was greeted by a magnificnent 1st-time course.

    This month our on-course roving reporter provided the following lowlights:
  • Peter Carfrae and Keith Sykes preparing for their trips to Oz as they took 6 and 5 shots out of bunkers respectively.
  • Tony Browne's woodland friends coming to his aide on the 16th when his tee shot headed straight into the trees, only to bounce straight out onto the middle of the fairway.
  • Ron Keeley tee'ing off on the 1st with a brown ball! Needless to say he had trouble finding a brown ball in the vegetation!
  • Mark Harris paid his money before the event! :-)


    • Over to the winners. As usual we have a bunch of hole prizes - the Longest Drive being won by Josko Bouman for the 2nd month running and the Nearest the Pin in 2 shots by Mark Harris. The Nearest the Pin was won by Jim Samuel. Well done to those players!

    It was tight at the top of the main event, with the top 4 players all scoring 35 points. So the results after countback were 4th Frazer Webb, 3rd Chris Turvill, 2nd Ian Turvill, but the winner was Tony Browne. Great performances from all on a great course.

    You can see the full set of results on the results page.

    Order of merit is updated, but don't forget the rules this year means the merit does not include guests - only paid up society members are included. Handicap adjustments are also posted.



    14th September 2009
    Another strong turn-out for the often difficult stroke-play event. And yes it did turn out to be very difficult for a few of us!

    This month our on-course roving reporter provided the following lowlights:
  • Ian Turvill on the 6th and 13th having to take 3 tries at his t-shots to get off down each of those holes.
  • Ron Keeley and Tim Phillips having a bit of fun on the 3rd tee as Tim Phillips farted extremely loudly just as Ron made his downswing!
  • Peter Carfrae taking 6 shots to complete one of the holes - 5 puts and 1 chip. The putt from the edge of the green was the only time the ball left the ground!


    • Over to the winners. As usual we have a bunch of hole prizes - the Longest Drive being won by Josko Bouman and the Nearest the Pin in 2 shots by Jim Samuel. The Nearest the Pin was won by Keith Sykes. Well done to those players!

    Before we get onto the main event, we have to announce the winners of the Tim Phillips sponsored booby prizes. This month Tim arranged a bit of matchplay versus the course. The winner of the Best individual Matchplay was Bryan Carter, the worst individual was Ron Keeley and Brian Gratton joint. As for Team matchplay, the best team was Chris Turvill, Peter Crafrae and Keith Sykes; the worst Tim Phillips, Michael Prevost, and Ron Keeley.

    On to the results of the main competition. It was tight at the top with just 2 shots covering the top 4 players. 3rd and 4th places tell an interesting story as both players had an equal par round, but from very different starting points. 4th place was Peter Carfrae off a maximum 28 handicap, and 3rd place Chris Hebdon off a scratch handicap. 2nd with a 1 under round was Bryan Carter, but winning by 1 shot was Jim Samuel with a 2 under nett 70. Great performances from all on a tricky course.

    You can see the full set of results on the results page.

    Order of merit is updated, but don't forget the rules this year means the merit does not include guests - only paid up society members are included. Handicap adjustments are also posted.



    12th August 2009
    Continuing the strong turn-outs for this year, 21 players turned up at The Drift for today's event. Another good turnout even though we had a couple of players who unexpectedly didn't turn up.

    Unfortunately, the course did not prove to be in as good condition as we had found it last year. Why this was no one knows.

    This month our on-course roving reporter provided the following lowlights:
  • Josko Bouman feeling at home in the outback finding snakes in the undergrowth instead of his balls.
  • Frazer Webb on the 10th managing to blot his card by blobbing it before getting past the pond just in front of the tee box.
  • 21 year old Birthday Boy Mark Turvill snatching a ride in his dad's (Colin bad-back Turvill) buggy. Poor Peter (bad back) Carfare had to walk! :-)
  • Peter Carfrae deliberatly hitting his ball backwards at a tree, so it would bounce off and go forwards!! Work that one out!
  • Paul "Top Heavy" Donlevy, topping his first t-shot. "Top Heavy" then topped his way round the entire course.
  • Darren Anderson and Tony Peters on the 11th, both topped their t-shots along the path down the side of the par-3.
  • Michael Shepherd may not have played well, but his bag was heavier when he finished than when he started. Apparently he found more balls than he scored points!


    • Over to the winners. As usual we have a bunch of hole prizes - the Longest Drive being won by Chris Hebdon and the Nearest the Pin in 2 shots by Frazer Webb. For the first time ever in society history no one hit the green on the Nearest The Pin! Well done to Chris and Frazer for winning something, but everyone better get some target practice in before next time!

    Before we get onto the main event, we have to announce the winners of the Tim Phillips sponsored booby prizes. This month the lowest number of fairways to be hit was won by Chris Turvill. Chris received a steering wheel to help him around the course next time. The prize for the most number of trees hit went to Paul Donlevy who received a junior hacksaw to help him out next time.

    On to the results of the main competition. Only one person managed a below handicap performance this month, and that was Ken Beere with a winning 38 points. Well done to Ken on his first win at Bunkers. Great performance on a tricky course.

    You can see the full set of results on the results page.

    Order of merit is updated, but don't forget the rules this year means the merit does not include guests - only paid up society members are included. Handicap adjustments are also posted.



    6th July 2009
    Continuing the strong turn-outs for this year, 20 players turned up for the first time at Hoebridge. Many players had not played it, but discussion in the evening showed that all players enjoyed the course and found it to be good.

    The other notable event for this time, was the return to fitness of our captain Michael Prevost. Welcome back!

    The course proved to be a good one for the society, with no less than 14 of the 20 players netting 30 or more points. 5 of those players equalled or bettered their handicap. Are we picking easier courses, or is the standard of playing improving? :-) Your decision!

    What about the on course events?
  • Ron Keeley playing a shot left handed from out of the trees - must have played it well as he got the ball a good 50 yards down the fairway.
  • John Waghorn on the 18th playing his second shot out of the rough. Apparently it jumped up and went backwards!
  • Andy (Tree Hugger) Sturgess on one hole having to play a shot with one arm round one side of the tree and the other round the other side. We're not quite sure what happened to the ball!
  • John Waghorn's t-shot on the 3rd, with a 3 wood. I went about 3 feet forwards!
  • Michael prevost on the Nearest the Pin prize hole putting his first shot out of bounds, and his second to 6 foot.


    • Over to the winners. As usual we have a bunch of hole prizes - the Longest Drive being won by Jim Samuel, Nearest The Pin by Ian Turvill and Nearest the Pin in 2 shots by Del Lawrance. Well done to all those players.

    Before we get onto the main event, we have to announce the winners of the Tim Phillips sponsored booby prizes. This month they were all won by one person - Josko Bouman - and that was because in Tim's absence Josko was delegated to organise them! And he forgot!

    As previously mentioned the main event was a high-scoring event with pretty consistent performance from most. The top 5 equalled or bettered handicap. On a handicap-equalling 36 points was Mark Harris and Mark Turvill in 5th, and 4th respectively. 3rd was Josko Bouman on 37 and 2nd Keith Sykes on 40. But on this day no one could get anywhere near a 43 point haul by Chris Turvill. Bang goes his 12 handicap! Well done to everyone, but especially our winner, Chris.

    You can see the full set of results on the results page.

    Order of merit is updated, but don't forget the rules this year means the merit does not include guests - only paid up society members are included. Handicap adjustments are also posted.



    12th June 2009
    18 players turned up for the morning of the Captain's Day at Badgemore bright and early, although 20 were expected. 6 of the players were guests, some returning and some new. Welcome to all our guests and we hope you had a great day and we hope to see you all again soon. And thanks to the stalwart members for the continued support and commitment.

    This year saw us back to the normal situation of team competition in the morning with individual competition in the afternoon. For the first time the morning was just 9 holes instead of 18 holes. Also a change was made late on to move the Stroke Play competition from the Captain's Day - this will now be played later in the year at another event.


    The morning event was Texas Scramble, which was enjoyed by all and is always a favourite fun format. The teams were selected at random by segmenting all the players into 4 buckets by virtue of their handicap. The teams were then drawn by taking one name from each bucket. This seemed to work well as the resulting handicaps for all the teams were very equal.

    There were no hole prizes in the morning so we'll pass straight to the team results.

    The winning team was a 4-ball playing off a handicap of 3, and turned in a 2 under par score of 29. So well done to Peter Carfrae, Chris Hebdon, Ken Beere and Josko Bouman for their team win.


    The afternoon event was the 18 hole individual stableford competition and saw us with 19 players. Lots of events on the course today including:
  • Paul Beard's possessed trolley, who showing it had a life of it's own, decided to move off to the 7th tee whilst Paul was still finishing putting on the 6th.
  • Josko Bouman on the 10th stuffing his 2nd shot into the trees. On looking for his ball he found 3 others, and then eventually "found" his ball. Having holed out for a bogey, Josko then found out that it was not his ball after all!
  • Tim Phillips on the 9th when his wheels came of the trolley. No not metaphorically, literally. Both wheels feel off his trolley!
  • Tony Peters winning the "Putting for Pansies" competition - how he managed this and scored 39 points is unknown!
  • Bryan Carter on the 9th trying to mimic Tim Phillips trolley dismantling by kicking his trolley over. Mark Harris went to help him pick it up only to be told in strong terms to "Leave it!, Leave it!"
  • Mark Harris on the 14th, missing a 7 inch putt. Hey I thought Tony Peters won the Putting for Pansies competition!
  • Paul "2 soups" Beardy demolishing to bowls of soup at dinner.
  • Mark Harris on the 8th telling his playing partners to slow down as they were walking too quickly and he couldn't keep up.
  • Del Lawrance, Steve Young and Andrew Sturgess on the 16th. All that was seen by the viewing gallery was one approach shot by Steve Young which found the water next to the green. This was the followed by the whole group taking a short cut to the next tee without any of them getting within 100 yards of the 16th green.
  • Paul Beard again (eventful day Paul!) on the 11th tee this time. He was just about to drive off when a ball came bounding over from the 1st green and trundled right between his legs almost knocking his ball of his tee peg. Oh and no call of fore!
  • Chris Hebdon on the 18th. Great drive from the tee to 50 yards short of the green. Shanked his second in to the bunker (reportedly his 3rd shank of the day), 3rd shot he left in the bunker, chipped on and eventually down for a 6 and a blob.
  • And finally, Chris Turvill on the 17th. Chris had not been having a good day - in fact it was far from good. A local viewer reported - he had a thunderous face all round. He hooked his t-shot in to the long rough, went into the rough not to look for his ball, but instead to hack away at the rough for 5 minutes relieving a bit of stress.


    • Over to the winners. As usual we have a bunch of hole prizes - the Longest Drive being won by Steve Young, Nearest The Pin by Ian Turvill and Nearest the Pin in 2 shots again by Ian Turvill. Well done to those two.

    The competition was a mostly high-scoring event with over half the field scoring 30 points or more but only two players beating handicap. This year has seen a lot of points ties at the top of the tables and this event was no different. Yet again Tony Peters was runner-up loosing the win via countback. Tony scored 39 points, but was beaten on countback by Keith Sykes who had a better back-9. Well done to everyone, commiserations especially to Tony, but many congratulations to first time winner Keith.

    Now over to the skill prizes for today, kindly donated by Tim Phillips. First up was the prize for the worst "fairway hitting" performance which was won by Josko Bouman who managed to hit just 3 fairways.
    Next up was the "Glass half empty" prize which this time around was a split decision and had to be shared. The "Mr Grumpy" empty half of the "glass half empty" prize went to Chris Turvill for his lawn mowing exhibition on the 17th.
    The full half of the "glass half empty" prize went to Tim Phillips who's day was well summed up with the wheels coming of his trolley.

    You can see the full set of results on the results page.

    Order of merit is updated, but don't forget the rules this year means the merit does not include guests - only paid up society members are included. Handicap adjustments are also posted.



    26th May 2009
    A pretty good number turned out to play at Windlesham again this year. With 5 out of the 18 players being guests. The turnout of guests this year has been impressive, making up for a unusual shortfall in regular members.  Many thanks to all of the members who have been able to make the events this year.

    Of those 5 guests, we are pleased to welcome 2 returning guests - Del Lawrence and Andrew Sturgess, and 3 first time guests in the guise of terry Curtis, Mike Sadler and James Morris.  Welcome to all the first timers, and welcome back to the rest of you.

    Again this month our Captain was missing from the event recovering from his operation, I believe it's tentative whether we'll see him back at the next event - The Captain's Cup.  Good luck from all of us, Mike, with the recovery.

    The course, like last year was in good condition and of high standard, with the greens running true and straight, and the fairways in good condition. Like the last event at Guildford, we again saw a high standard of play with half the players scoring over 30 points.

    What about the on course events?
  • John Waghon started his round with a great chip in from off the green on the 1st.
  • Chris Turvill's approach shot hit the pin on the 10th - great for him as he then holed out for a birdie.
  • Josko Bouman and Frazer Webb both drove through the group in front ..... twice ...... on the same hole!  Apologies and expletives were heard for a long while after!
  • Josko, again, this time on the 13th as he used the bridge to carry his ball safely over the stream.
  • Ron Keeley doing exactly the same as Josko and deciding to not fly the ball over an obstacle but instead using the bridge to roll over on the 5th.
  • Frazer, again, this time on the 1st as he narrowly missed the marker post with his first drive!
  • Peter Carfrae winning the Nearest the Pin by using a 5 iron.
  • Peter, again, on an unidentified hole with a nice lie and producing a complete air shot.
  • One of our first time guests James Morris, who apparently was trying to talk his playing partners into allowing him 3 shots on Stroke Index 1 hole. Better luck next time James.

    Over to the winners. As usual we have a bunch of hole prizes - the Longest Drive being won by Josko Bouman (again!), Nearest The Pin (as previously mentioned) by Peter Carfrae and Nearest the Pin in 2 shots by Bryan Carter. Well done to all those players.

    Although half the field scored over 30 points, only the top two made it above 36 points.  With 37 points and in 2nd place was Bryan Carter.  But coming out on top for the second month running with 38 points was Jim Samuel. Well done to Bryan and Jim for what ended up being a closely fought competition, with Jim snatching it with a birdie on the 18th.

    After the main prizes, we come to some special prizes sponsored by Tim Phillips.  First of was the Bunkers prize, for the most number of shots played out of the bunkers - this went to Ian Turvill for a total of 7 bunker shots.  Congratulations Ian.  Next up was a Putting prize - and this was for the most number of shots played with the putter in the round (blobs counting as 3 putts) - and this went to James Morris with a total of 54 putts.  Lastly was a special prize introduced on the day for the "Glass Half Empty" award, and this went to Frazer Webb for moaning all day about the greens and pretty much everything else!  Congratulations Frazer!! 

    Many thanks go to Tim for introducing these prizes and providing the awesome trophies :-) 

    You can see the full set of results on the results page.

    Order of merit is updated, but don't forget the rules this year means the merit does not include guests - only paid up society members are included. Handicap adjustments are also posted.



    24th April 2009
    Another good turn out for a first-time society visit to Guildford. We were meant to be 21, but best wishes go to Steve Dyett who had to call off due to an injury suffered at work that very morning. Good health Steve. So, down to 20.

    In that 20 it was great to see a healthy (no pun intended Steve!) turn-out of 17 members. A new season welcome to a number of returning guests - great to see you all back again, and hope to see you again soon - Matt Turvill, Darren Buckley, and Paul Risk.

    Unfortunately as was the case last month, our Captain was missing from the event, but as he held this trophy from last year Michael Prevost turned up at the end to join in the drinks and food. It was good to see him back even in a non-playing capacity.

    The course proved to be a good one for the society, with no less than 14 of the 20 players netting 30 or more points. So either the course proved easy or the large majority of the society was on form. Take your pick which one you think it might have been :-)

    What about the on course events?
  • Frazer Webb (on his home course!) got off to an auspicious round by 3 putting the 3rd from 2 feet away!
  • Josko Bouman on the 15th fancied a big 2-shot so warned his playing partners to keep an eye on the ball. They did. It didn't move!
  • Josko, again, this time nearly being killed by a pile-driver from Darren Anderson
  • Frazer, again, this time 4 putting (again!) from the back of the smallest green on the course (17th) and blobbing!
  • John Waghorn, with an escapade that eventually won him "The Tim Phillips Sponsored Cock-Up Of The Day Award", addressing and trying to putt his ball marker on the 11th green.


    • Over to the winners. As usual we have a bunch of hole prizes - the Longest Drive being won by Josko Bouman, Nearest The Pin by Tony Peters and Nearest the Pin in 2 shots by Mark Turvill. Well done to all those players.

    As previously mentioned the main event was a high-scoring event with pretty consistent performance from most. The top 5 equalled or bettered handicap. On a handicap-equalling 36 points was Keith Sykes in 5th. 2nd, 3rd and 4th all had 37 points and were sorted by count-back, with Josko Bouman 4th, Frazer Webb 3rd, Simon Park 2nd. But on this day no one could beat Jim Samuel, another player playing his home course, who strolled in with a table-topping 39 points. Well done to everyone, but especially our winner, Jim.

    And one last item before we head off to the next event, and that is to wish our member Colin Turvill well. Colin unfortunately had to pull out of the event after 12 holes after he badly injured his elbow. We all wish Colin the best for a speedy recovery and hope to see him back on the course very soon.

    You can see the full set of results on the results page.

    Order of merit is updated, but don't forget the rules this year means the merit does not include guests - only paid up society members are included. Handicap adjustments are also posted.



    30th March 2009
    The 2009 season opened at Mill Ride on a warm day! The courses lined-up for this year are a good mix, all of which should be of high standard.

    The turn out for the first event was pretty good with a total of 19 players, 7 of which were guests, 5 of which were first timers with the society. So a first-time welcome to Keith Sykes, Ken Beere, Ron Keeley, Andrew Sturgess and James Dedman. Welcome back to Del Lawrence and Chris Hebdon, and lastly welcome back to all the members. The society welcomes you all and hope you all enjoy yourselves.

    After playing the event, Keith Sykes and Ken Beere became members. Keith and Ken found the society via the website, so many thanks to them and we hope you enjoy being a member. We are always looking for new players, whether they be guests or decide to be members, so please keep on the look-out and encourage friends or colleagues to come along and join us.

    Lastly, there was one notable absentee from the event. Our Captain, Michael Prevost, is out with a knee injury. All our best wishes go to Michael for a quick recovery from surgery and we hope to have you back playing before the season gets too much older.

    Enough of the welcomes - how'd the event go! The Longest Drive went to Mark Harris, Nearest The Pin to Del Lawrence and Nearest the Pin in 2 shots to James Dedman. Well done to all those players.

    The main event was a bit of a mixed bag. But compared to the winning margin of 28 points last year, at least the standard was a bit higher. Obviously more people have been practicising over the winter months! Whilst no-one bettered handicap, there was 5 players who scored 30 points or higher, with a very close battle right at the top with Tony Peters and Frazer Webb both scoring 34. Unfortunately for Tony, Frazer had a 20 point back nine, and thus came out on top by virtue of count-back. Commisserations Tony, congratulations Frazer.

    You can see the the full set of results on the results page.

    Order of merit is updated, but don't forget the rules this year means the merit does not include guests - only paid up society members are included. Handicap adjustments are also posted.