DELANY WINS HIS THIRD PRESIDENT’S CUP!

Geoff Delany overcame the 28 degree heat to beat 11 other Follies to record a tremendous 4 under par net 66 to claim the Cup after previous wins in 2016 and 2024. Next best were Graham Tooke with a net 69 and Martin Zebedee net 70.

So some good scoring on an Elton Furze course in great condition with plenty of helpful run on the ball…..if you hit the fairway and greens running true but not too quick. It has to be said that more often than not, players in the trees were simply seeking shade!

Geoff, of course, also topped the Stableford ladder with 40 points beating GT with 37 and MZ with 36.

A carry over of liquid prizes led to 3 winners as follows:

Nearest the Pin on the 2nd James Henley (the debutant showing us how to hit a par 3 green!) He also hit the flag with his putt, it refused to drop.

Nearest the Pin on the 15th Roy Fletcher – more on this later as he could have missed out on his bottle of Port!

Nearest the Pin in two on the 16th Andy Izod.

So to the various stories of the round:

James made his debut at a Follies fixture having moved up to Oakham from Kent and found the Follies from a website search, so well done Jon Kelly!

It was mentioned that Les makes a tricky job look easy every month as he makes sense of our scorecard recording but never more difficult than when we have to add up gross scores as well. Anyway it is usually easier with Nearest the Pin, either no names at all or one or two crossed out to show the shot nearest once we have all played. So, at presentation time, Les comes to the 15th and holds up a blank sheet declaring yet another carry over for that prize. But no……Geoff then explains that they had to pace out Roy’s ball on the green to see that it was just nearer than Yim’s. So Geoff asks Roy ‘did you write your name down?’ to which of course the answer was No. This is all after Les in the first group had arrived at the 16th tee to find that he hadn’t left the Nearest the Pin marker card at the side of the green and ran back to make sure it could be used!! At the end of the day we were all very pleased that Roy went home with his bottle.

Graham was grateful to Les who twice found his ball during the round to avoid 3 off the tee but on the 11th when looking at his Garmin device for distance to the pin was reminded by Martin that he was standing right alongside the 150 yard marker!

In the unexplained category, Yim hit his drive on the 16th straight towards the group in front on the 17th tee. Les saw it sitting alongside the tee box but Yim later reported that it was never found? Back to the tee to start again and he managed a 6 despite the mystery of the disappearing ball.

Moving on to found balls, James found an orange ball in the trees coming down the 18th, asked Martin if it was his, No was the reply…….followed by hold on that’s mine from my drive off the 10th tee! Trevor, meanwhile, lost his ball on the 4th from his third shot, went back to take the penalty and played on for an 8, only to find the ball as he walked to the next hole!

There were rumours of multiple shots to get out of a bunker, a possible pick up from a bunker and alleged club throwing but I’m going for the ‘insufficient evidence’ line on those.

There were however some witnessed rules infringements.

Our esteemed Secretary and possibly most rules aware amongst us called a two shot penalty on himself at the 8th for playing the wrong ball. Such a shame as it was a great approach onto the green with James’s ball! He then played another immaculate approach with his own ball onto the green for a 6 that deserved a par.

James meanwhile was given some Rookie licence when his putt on the 17th finished 2 inches from the hole. He reached down to pick it up as a sure gimme to shouts from his playing partners of NO NO NO, whereupon he dropped the ball back again to tap in, nudged it first with his putter as he did so before finally tapping in correctly to collective sighs of ‘let’s just move on shall we?’

And finally, just to prove that sometimes a good run of play should just be left uncommented upon. Andy praised Yim for his excellent bunker play during the round, upon which his huge drive down the 18th was shanked into a bunker with 3 taken to get out!

That’s golf for you.

Report by Graham Tooke