Dr Golf’s Famous-Five take victory in Surrey 5’s B match qualifier

Posted on behalf of Graham Lovely Loveless

It was a windy, wet and very grey day at Surrey National that would kick off the Surrey 5 B team’s campaign under the captaincy of Joe “Dr Golf” Krarup.

The first match was a qualifier against Walton Heath’s Artisans and Captain Krarup’s picks were Tony Betteridge, Jim Doran, myself (team Captain for the day while Dr Golf sunnied himself at the Oxfordshire), Barry Bone and Barry Ashlin.

As pre-match coffees were served to the teams I and the Walton Heath team Captain, Jason Woodger, agreed handicaps.

We managed to slip out after the club competition and before the Swashbucklers (thank you guys!). Leading the team out was Tony followed by Jim, myself, Barry B and last and definitely not least Barry A.   To make the whole thing a bit more sociable the Captain’s agreed to play just the opening match as a 2 ball and the others played as 4 balls.

Tony made a solid start from the 1^st and from what I could tell didn’t look back in his match.

Despite not enjoying the weather conditions Jim played very solid golf with plenty of birdie opportunities while his opponent struggled to get his game going.

I unfortunately didn’t start as well losing my first two holes before stabilising the boat with a par on the 3^rd to halve the hole before pressing on and finishing the front nine 3 up. Jim was in an even better position at 5 up.

I sensed things were going well with Tony as he seemed to disappearing even further into the distance. Jim shook hands on the 12^th and ‘match 2’ went in for an early bath. My opponent Pete battled hard on the back 9 winning the 10th, 13th and 15th (while I won the 11^th and 12^th) but the match was finally closed out 2 and 1 on the 17^th as I sunk a long(ish) par putt.

Returning to the club house a clearly happy Mr Betteridge meant that we had won the first three matches and the day was ours. From the 18^th patio I called the other matches in (we were all getting hungry!) to hear the good news that we had made another two wins.

The Club laid on an impressive selection of sandwiches and chips all washed down with some beers.

Clearly the Walton Heath team were disappointed to have lost all five matches (and I probably failed to hide my delight at winning all five – apologies Walton Heath!) but they were magnanimous in defeat and wished us well in the next round. A cracking bunch of guys and a good day’s golfing.

Here’s to the next round at home against Kingswood.

Graham