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West Wilts Golf Club Seniors and Wagglers Enjoy End of Season Flourish
On Wednesday 24th August West Wilts GC Wagglers travelled to Bath Sham Castle GC for a needle match in glorious early afternoon sunshine.
Bath GC is one of the most impressive courses in the local vicinity and commands some extremely impressive views over the city of Bath. The visiting Wagglers were eager to avenge their 2 to 3 narrow home defeat against Bath on 6th April. There are several challenging holes, including the 1st where an over enthusiastic drive can easily result in visiting woods just to the right of a plateau green. Nevertheless, our team was undaunted and closed out a 3 to 2 victory with a special mention due to Colin Fourmy paired with Simeon Brand who romped home 6 in 5. This winning streak was repeated on Friday 2nd September by The Seniors in a home match versus South Wilts GC from Salisbury. Again, the focus was very much on redressing the balance of an earlier season defeat when The Seniors lost 2 to 4 on 23rd June away against Salisbury. The author, paired with Peter Walton, Captain of The Seniors, managed to win narrowly by 1 hole along with 3 other matches. Definitely worthy of a mention are Jack Winter and Terry Turner who won their match 7 in 6, a fantastic performance and for those like myself who remember the pre-decimal currency era, “a dog licence!”
On a domestic note, The 2016 Brian Burns Stableford Competition for Seniors concluded on Monday 5th September. Played over 6 rounds with the best 4 to count, the final result saw Alan Warden in pole position with a score of 144, John Walpole was second with 137 and John Barnes third with 136, well done to all the winners. I’m afraid no one seems able to cast light on the identity of Brian Burns but the history of the stableford scoring system is worthy of further explanation. In 1898, while a member of Glamorganshire Golf Club, Dr Frank Barney Gordon Stableford created a scoring system to assist golfers of moderate ability and limited concentration, which probably describes most of us! Born in 1870, he was a keen golfer with a handicap of one. However, the points system he devised was unpopular an so he abandoned it. In the First World War he served as a surgeon in South Africa with The Royal Army Medical Corps and on cessation of hostilities he found that his handicap had risen to eight. He re-introduced his pre war points system and the first competition using the stableford method took place at Wallasey GC on 16th May 1932; it was an instant success. In 1969, ten years after his death, Wallasey GC donated The Frank Stableford Open Amateur Memorial Trophy. Henry Longhurst said of Stableford, “I doubt whether any single man did more to increase the pleasure of the humble club golfer”, writes author Martin Hicks-Lobbecke.
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