Richings Park Golf Club Sunday 23 August 2020

by Tim Houghton

So 6 months to the day since the Cavaliers last met to chase a little white ball around the grass, we gathered at Richings Park for a delayed F&S/D competition.  With a little planning we had mitigated the dreaded Covid and a great turnout of 32 players. 

I had Nick with me and we headed out with Steve A and Paul C to the first tee.  I have to confess at this point that Richings is a course that I have played on many an occasion over the last 16 years as it was close enough to Heathrow for a sneaky twilight round after work!  Didn’t help on the first as I blocked myself out with a tree and took bogey with no shot.  Took a while to do the first few holes and struggled to get scoring until the 4th where I scrambled a par followed by 2 more on 5 & 6.

Now on No. 7 you aim at the tree, inevitably not hit it where you intended, and leave yourself with a shot in.  Not this time, hit the tree fair and square so back to a point.  Two overhit shots on 8 & 9 and I scored the lowest in our group with 15 points.  Thankfully the ‘Son’ part of the Houghton team was carrying his dad with a 20 point score.

Didn’t get anywhere near the green on the 10th, let alone inside Trevor Rockett’s excellent 7ft 2inch NTP. A couple of pars follow and finally got the birdie that I had been threatening on 13 before a pause on 14th as teams negotiated the long par 3.  A bit of chat showed that team Jamie and Steve Faulkner were going well with an impressive 23 points from Jamie on the front 9.

On the 15th Nick ignored his dad’s wise words and took on the ditch.  Close but no cigar! and learnt a lesson on course management!  Rode my luck on the 17th to get a par and one more good hole would give Nick and I a chance in the F&S/D.  Nick’s par was good enough for a 39 and a tap in birdie for me meant a score of 37.  Surely 76 pts had a chance, and as it happen it was good enough the pip Jamie and Steve’s 71 to the F&S/D trophy.

Many Whatsapp images later and there is a 3 way tie for 37 pts with Warwick, and Phil joining me on this total.  Thankfully my 22pts on the back 9 meant that I squeaked home past Phil with 20 and Warwick with 18.

RESULTS

Winner:            Tim Houghton             37 pts

Runner-up:      Philip Faulkner           37 pts

Third:               Warwick Pearce         37 pts

Nearest the pin          Trevor Rockett         7’ 2”