Our U-14s had a really useful practice match at Lingdale Golf Club in preparation for the Keith Tripp Trophy to be played on Sunday August 10th. Having finished runners-up last year we are aiming to go one better this time with this talented 8 man team!
The Teams were drawn by the Captain and lined up as pictured below. We played strokeplay with every player's score counting towards the team total. RESULTS (GROSS SCORES) were as follows after carefully re-checking the adding up.
Harry Odell 79, Ollie Golby 84, Riley Hammond 80, Josh Bland 83 = TOTAL 326
Narrowly winning by 2 strokes over ...
Daniel Rees 81, Sam Mayman 84, Max Edwards 83, Krishan Panesar 79 = TOTAL 328
It's interesting to compare these scores to last year's winners Cambridgeshire whose average score was just below 80. We averaged just above 80 in practice and last year. NOTE: Last year involved teams of 6 with 5 counting scores but in August it will be the 7 best scores from 8.
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
The course is firm and bouncy with good greens. Reading the SLOPE is very important both on the fairway and putting green.
Taking Driver off most every tee is NOT always the best choice – there are ditches which need to be avoided and trees where it is easy to lose shots. Hitting the fairway is very important. Hitting it as far as you can is NOT a good tactic. Having to take 3 off the tee is not going to help the TEAM SCORE.
SCORING low is achieved by PLOTTING your way around the course.
Generally everyone played really well and there were some excellent scores. We should now be clearer on how to go about avoiding a double bogey or worse next time and with any luck we can be challenging for the trophy.
Thanks to all the parents who organised travel. I'll be in touch again before the day and will be entering the above team this week. Reserve to travel and play will be Oscar Cope.
