fritzfolliesgolfsociety

We teed off our 49th year as a Society at Thorney Lakes Golf Club. A special thanks to Andy Izod, who kindly donated his courtesy green fee to upgrade our traditional mini breakfast into a Full English feast — much appreciated by all! Roy, never one to miss an opportunity for refinement, took things à la carte with poached eggs on toast.

Despite some recent spring work on the greens, the course was in fine condition. Fairways and bunkers were neat and tidy, making for a very enjoyable round.

The day wasn’t without its early drama: Colin and Roy had trouble locating the first tee after a couple of members mistakenly went off from the mat 50 yards down the fairway. Once the error was pointed out, the buggy made a swift retreat to the mandatory yellow tee.

Meanwhile, Geoff, piloting the second buggy with Les riding shotgun, found himself pondering the age-old question of “Where’s reverse?” After some collective head-scratching from nearby golfers, the mystery was solved: an electric switch on the dashboard. Crisis averted.

At Hole 2, designated Nearest the Pin, Les’s tee shot met a watery end, to his dismay. Geoff Delany, taking no chances, clubbed up (though not quite to driver level) and found the putting surface cleanly — the only ball to land on the green, earning him a well-deserved bottle of Port. Well played!

On the course, Trevor impressed with a fine 4 points on the Stroke Index 5th, while Gabe provided some comedy gold: after Paul removed the pin and stepped aside holding it, Gabe — ever accurate — took aim at Paul, not the hole. A surefire “Bloomer of the Year 2026” contender!

At the 18th, Geoff took on the role of on-course coach, wisely advising Les to lay up short of the pond rather than attempt a heroic finish from 160 yards. Solid advice — duly noted for future seasons.

Andy’s breakfast strategy to slow down everyone’s swing speed didn’t quite pan out. Final standings saw Trevor finishing 3rd on countback from Jim Daley with 29 points, Paul Flanders taking 2nd with 33 points, and our winner — with an outstanding 38 points — was Graham Tooke, setting an early pace at the top of the 2026 leaderboard.

Next stop: Blankney in April — onward we go!

Full Fritz Follies Texas Scramble results:
4th Place 67.80 Andy, Dave, Alan & Roy
3rd Place 63.50 Richard, Geoff & Gabe
2nd Place 62.87 Yim, Dave Harrison & Colin Humphries
1st Place 58.20 Les, Jim & Jon

Same ball Jim Daley award
Les – lucky draw winner from Yim, Colin and Geoff

Nearest Pin
5th – Jim
15th – Alan Carpenter – donated prize back for next season
No winners on 2nd & 12th greens.

Rookie of the Year – Alan Carpenter

Fritz Follies Champion Golfer Trophy
3rd Place Andy Izod
2nd Place Trevor Chapman
1st Place Dave Harrison

Bloomer of the Year – Jon Kelly

The Shirtie 2025 was won by Jon Kelly with his photo from Thailand. Well deserved despite the fact that it was the only entry! We all must do better next year.

See you all in March for the first outing (fixtures coming shortly) but we already have a date for your diary – Friday 6th November 2026 – Fritz Follies Golf Society Annual Supper and Prize Giving 2026.

Happy New Year!!

Our Chairman and Secretary Les Wells hands the Fritz Follies Champion Golfer trophy to Dave Harrison. A splendid total of 117 saw Dave two points clear of Trevor with Andy a further five points behind.

Fritz Follies Rookie of the Year 2025 – Alan Carpenter

Texas Scramble and other results will follow in due course.

The final round of the 2025 Fritz Follies Championship was played today at the Woolfox. With Dave Harrison leading on 117 but not available to play, it was up to Trevor Chapman and Andy Izod to take advantage and overcome the deficit. Les had organised the dry weather (till the 14th hole) and a Spitfire flypast so there were no excuses. I had the pleasure of playing with Trevor and Andy and was able to see up close how these titans of the Follies world coped with the occasion. There were also others playing with a different objective – to avoid the wooden spoon.
I think 11 out of the 15 made it over the water on the 1st – sounds more like the Grand National than golf. At half-time, Alan W was showing 23 points – if he kept this up, could he be a contender? Trevor recorded 4 x 3 pointers and a 4 pointer across 5 holes. Was he really going to make up the 2 point deficit on Dave H? Andy played very consistent golf, “shelling 2s” as he put it. Elsewhere Richard Parker was collecting points like winter was approaching.
Of course, the final scores are a secret otherwise Les would be on his own at the Supper so you’ll need to appear at the Black Horse On Fri 7th to learn the outcome.

I am able to tell you that Alan C won Nearest The Pin on the 8th for his first bottle in his first season. Roy kindly donated a bottle for Nearest The Pin in 2 on the 10th which Andy I won.

Our seventh golf society day of 2025 took place on Friday, 26th September, at the scenic but challenging Rutland Water Golf Club. Despite it being late September, we were incredibly lucky with the weather. It was cloudy but thankfully dry, providing reasonable conditions for some good golf !!! and allowing all teams to finish before dark.

Attendance & Amusing Incidents
It was a great turnout of 14 players, especially considering it was the Ryder Cup week! We were sorry to note the absence of our current leader, Dave Harrison, who is away in Europe with his racing team.
It was good to welcome back Yim Kong and Steve Walker after lengthy absences this year. Unfortunately, Sean Melia was unable to play with a rather unique injury — a toe injury resulting from a dropped ice cube! We all wish Sean a very speedy recovery as he is heading off on a long holiday in the Far East soon.
Yim Kong almost missed his tee-time, turning up late after trying to catch the start of the Ryder Cup, and had to settle for a cold bacon roll!
Geoff Delany provided some pre-round entertainment. He confessed to considering donating his golf clubs to the dump en route to the course, despairing over his recent form. Thankfully, he decided to give them a stay of execution! Geoff also recounted his recent (brief) experience with a golf simulator: a £10 attempt at playing Bethpage Black that involved more complicated button-pressing than actual swinging. After 8 frustrating shots, he called it a day!
A special mention must go to Colin Humphries, who demonstrated moments of brilliance by scoring an impressive 5 points on the 6th hole with a superb birdie 3. Colin’s day was one of two halves, amassing 21 points going out but only 10 on the back nine.

Results of the Day

A huge congratulations go to Geoff Delany, who put his self-doubt aside to secure a fantastic 1st place with 39 points! Geoff was delighted, noting he was “on the fairway and green all day,” a feat he claimed had “never happened before.”

1st – Geoff Delany on 39 points
2nd – Martin Zebedee on 35 points
3rd – Graham Tooke on 33 points (won on count back from Alan Carpenter and Jon Kelly)

The Nearest the Pin prize on the 4th hole was fiercely contested, with the shots of Richard Cheng, Yim Kong, and Steve Walker all having to be carefully measured. Ultimately, Steve Walker was victorious, taking home a nice bottle of port.

With only two more outings to go, the overall Leaderboard is incredibly tightly packed at the top. The race for the 2025 Champion is wide open!
The top 3 after Rutland Water are:

• Dave Harrison (117 points)
• Trevor Chapman (115 points)
• Andy Izod (109 points)

Next Outing
Our final society day of the year is scheduled for Friday, 24th October 2025, at Woolfox Golf Club.
See you all there!

Report by Richard Cheng.

Not long to get your entry in – here’s the latest from Jon in Thailand:

The Follies have been going to Ramsey for about 30 years but that didn’t stop Jon’s new car’s satnav from taking him down a dead-end to a very nice children’s playground in the centre of Ramsey. Switching to Les’ memory, we soon found the Golf Club and its overcrowded car park. Jon and Les remembered that there was some parking beyond the clubhouse towards the 18th green so we squeezed the car down a very narrow path into the newly formed beer garden! A quick 13 point turn on gravel and we were back in the full car park and were happy to park on the road. Colin H had a similar experience but may have turned his car round in 9 or 11 points.

A smaller than usual group of 11 Follies gathered at Ramsey Golf & Bowls Club in bright sunshine though some rain was threatened. The course was in great shape, the greens in excellent condition and the bunkers all had consistent sand which is a first this year.

We stayed dry until the 14th/15th holes when the heavens opened for about 10 minutes. After much doning of very expensive looking wet weather gear, the clouds passed and the sun re-appeared and we finished in the dry.

I fear Les will have to re-think Nearest the Pin. Not for the first time, the prize had to be rolled over as no-one hit the green on the chosen Hole 2. Maybe for the first time, the prize had to be rolled over again as no-one hit the green on the chosen Hole 7. Finally the 25th attempt between us managed to hit the green on the chosen Hole 13 and Graham Tooke took the prize.

Follies Trophy:
1st – Les Wells with a 35 points
2nd – Richard Cheng 34 points
3rd – David West with 32 points

All in all, another very enjoyable Follies outing. Despite Trevor declaring that he’s never playing Ramsey again – the same comment we have heard for the last 3 years – I’m sure we’ll all be back again next year with a new idea of how to play the par 3 2nd and win that bottle!

The next round sees us at Rutland Water Golf Club on Friday 26th September.

A warm welcome from Thorney Lakes 19th hole Tea rooms, hosted by Andy Izod, welcomed us for our next round. The weather behaved for us, and the course was in good condition.
One or two moments were brought to the author’s attention, Andy Izod in a pique of displeasure hit his second shot out of the greenside bunker on the 4th into the trees only for the ball to fall onto the edge of the green. Another senior moment saw Graham Tooke putt out on the first, walk to the next tee, and wonder why the group in front were putting out on the green behind him when he realised he had walked to the third tee and not the second.

Caption Contest competition is open for the attached photo. Winner will be announced at the next venue.

The two nearest the pins were highly competed for with many names on the markers, Graham Tooke and Jon Kelly being the winners.
A closely fought Stableford round saw Dave Harrison on 41 points, Richard Cheng, nearly DQ for not entering his score, on 40 points and mine host Andy Izod on 39 points.
Next round sees us at Ramsey Golf & Bowls Club on Friday 29th August 2025.

Report by DH.

Hottest day of the year and well done to everyone for completing the event.

Andy Izod – President’s Cup Champion net 69. Steady golf apart from 5th where the golfing gods found his first ball in the trees otherwise he had already played 7 and probably lost ball with his provisional. That ball also lived a charmed life on several other holes. Dave Harrison was a net 71 with an 11 on the 17th. A 2 part presentation of first the handle of the cup and then the cup – a repair required.

Nearest the Pin on 7th – Andy Izod, it really was his day bouncing over the bunker, cushion the shot on the sandy top only to roll within 10 feet of the hole

Stableford- Dave Harrison with 38 points moving him to the top of the league table. Martin Zebedee on 36 was second but only completed 17 holes due to exhaustion and of note his card also contained a 12 & 10

Bunker Flunker – Well done Alan Wensak with 8 shots and he even questioned whether it was more! Also wearing an interesting bucket hat that was described as good, unusual and odd.

It was Roy Fletcher’s son’s 71st Birthday – remarkably older than some of our members.

Welcome back Gabe Stokes from his annual visit to Rhodes, he certainly brought the sunshine ☀

Report by Les.

Attention now turns to the next society fixture at Thorney Lakes on Friday 25th July. 

Eleven Follies turned up at Old Nene, near Ramsey – an unique course in that it’s only a nine hole course that you play twice – once as normal and then playing the same nine again but from a different tee position. It does pose a new challenge and made for a nice change.

We were still missing the main man as Les’ neck is taking longer to fix than he had hoped. Matin thoughtfully produced a can of the very aptly named Neck Oil, which has been delivered to Les and, I don’t doubt, consumed.

Hopefully Les will be back swinging soon!

After very nice bacon baps and coffee/tea, we began right on 1pm. As is the Follies custom, we enjoyed wonderful weather and the course was in tip top condition. Local boy Dave Harrison cleaned up on the front 9 with two 5-pointers. Apparently the first time he’s managed that on his home course. Everyone seems to have had a good day with high scores throughout. After an excellent Steak and Guinness pie, mash and peas, the scores were announced:

Nearest The Pin on 3 & 12 (same hole played twice) – Trevor Chapman
Nearest The Pin In 2 on 8 & 17 (same hole played twice) – Paul Flanders

Follies Trophy:
1st – Trevor with a fantastic 45 points – but as you can only win one prize it passes to the next:
2nd – Paul Flanders with 38 points (on countback) – but as you can only win one prize it passes to the next:
3rd – Dave Harrison with 38 points – who collects the 1st prize of 3 Fritz Follies engraved balls
4th – David West with 37 points (on countback) – who collects the 2nd prize of 2 balls
5th – Jon Kelly with 37 points who collects the 3rd prize of 1 ball.

Inevitably with such high scores, Les’ handicap knife has been out and the results can be found under the ABOUT tab – Trevor, in particular, may wish to look away😉

Another successful outing for the Fritz Follies, with thanks to Old Nene Golf Club for their hospitality and well-kept course. Attention now turns to the next society fixture at Elton Furze on Monday 30th June when the President’s Cup will be competed alongside the Follies Trophy – with expectations running high and handicaps under scrutiny.

Report by JK.