Chairmans’ Challenge or Challenged Chairman?
Report on the 12th October competition
Teams of three turned up at Hinksey ready to tee off at 8.30 but heavy fog led to start delays. On the bright side this led to a rush on bacon butties and egg baps. There is always a winner, and once the teams were on the course normal service was resumed.
Teams made steady progress and kept reasonable time on a full course with both visitors and members already pre-booked and playing at the same time.
It was impossible to know how other teams were doing, so the best strategy was to focus on making sure that each team member had used their 5-drive allocation before the last one or two holes and the inevitable panic setting in. Looking into the distance it was sometimes difficult to understand the decisions being made but we trusted that their experience would see them home mostly intact psychologically.
Players had to negotiate slower greens due to the heavy dew, but the closeness of the final scores suggested that the respective team handicap differentials were pretty well matched, with 9 shots between the winning team and last place, and that the main difference to the final outcome would be the best strategy: the choices of the drive and approach shots to take.
The winners were the team with the highest handicap differential, Dan Caswell, Josh Griffiths and Ellis Byles, with a score of 60. This was especially pleasing as all three are new members who joined the midweek roll ups and have handed in regular cards to improve their handicaps. Very well played indeed and we hope to see you all play winter league and other comps throughout the winter.
Runners up were the Chairman, Club Captain and chairman’s guest, Paul Milam, with an extremely competitive 62 receiving only 5 shots.
Third place went to Ian Cox (Seniors Captain), Rob Dean, and Ian Kerr with 63. The full results can be found at the end of the article.
In addition, there was a nearest the pin prize on the 10th which was won by Norman Howard, and a long drive on the 6th won by Callum Machon. Congratulations to both.
Thank you to all those teams that stayed for the prizegiving, as the spirit was fantastic and staying around for chats, to applaud the winners, laugh and have a few drinks is what makes this type of club event special and sets Hinksey Heights apart from others as a genuinely friendly club.
This was a great end to the summer playing season and, as Chairman, I really appreciated the continued involvement of regular competition players and that new members have already become heavily and significantly involved in competitions, are clearly competitive and winning, and present a bright future.
The challenge for 2026 is to grow our competitive numbers so do please encourage other members to join in and have a go.
Best of luck for all those signing up for the Winter Singles and Winter Pairs.
Jarlath Brine, Chairman!
Full Results here
Teams made steady progress and kept reasonable time on a full course with both visitors and members already pre-booked and playing at the same time.
It was impossible to know how other teams were doing, so the best strategy was to focus on making sure that each team member had used their 5-drive allocation before the last one or two holes and the inevitable panic setting in. Looking into the distance it was sometimes difficult to understand the decisions being made but we trusted that their experience would see them home mostly intact psychologically.
Players had to negotiate slower greens due to the heavy dew, but the closeness of the final scores suggested that the respective team handicap differentials were pretty well matched, with 9 shots between the winning team and last place, and that the main difference to the final outcome would be the best strategy: the choices of the drive and approach shots to take.
The winners were the team with the highest handicap differential, Dan Caswell, Josh Griffiths and Ellis Byles, with a score of 60. This was especially pleasing as all three are new members who joined the midweek roll ups and have handed in regular cards to improve their handicaps. Very well played indeed and we hope to see you all play winter league and other comps throughout the winter.
Runners up were the Chairman, Club Captain and chairman’s guest, Paul Milam, with an extremely competitive 62 receiving only 5 shots.
Third place went to Ian Cox (Seniors Captain), Rob Dean, and Ian Kerr with 63. The full results can be found at the end of the article.
In addition, there was a nearest the pin prize on the 10th which was won by Norman Howard, and a long drive on the 6th won by Callum Machon. Congratulations to both.
Thank you to all those teams that stayed for the prizegiving, as the spirit was fantastic and staying around for chats, to applaud the winners, laugh and have a few drinks is what makes this type of club event special and sets Hinksey Heights apart from others as a genuinely friendly club.
This was a great end to the summer playing season and, as Chairman, I really appreciated the continued involvement of regular competition players and that new members have already become heavily and significantly involved in competitions, are clearly competitive and winning, and present a bright future.
The challenge for 2026 is to grow our competitive numbers so do please encourage other members to join in and have a go.
Best of luck for all those signing up for the Winter Singles and Winter Pairs.
Jarlath Brine, Chairman!
Full Results here