‘Pink’ Thorley Day 2017

Another year and another Thorley Day!  Unfortunately Philip Thorley’s old mucker, our own Mr Macve, was sunning himself in Tenerife this week, but in his absence we still headed down 24-strong to represent Surrey National once again.

Weather had been appauling at the start of the week, but we seemed to have gotten a window on Wednesday and Thursday.  The rain did hold off barring the odd random drop, but we did have 20-30mph+ winds welcome us on Wednesday.

Par3 course

Early start for most of us as we rocked up for a quick breakfast and 18 holes round the par3 course.  Fun start to the day, competitive as usual and though the distances arent great, the holes remain tricky and with tiered greens, big bounces… and throw in a gusty 20mph wind… and let the comedy commence.

We all played off 1/3 handicap.  Myself and Jaggsy nicked the overall win coming back with net level par (54).

Lunch and the Main Competition… in pink

After a nice buffet lunch, teams were assigned their holes for the shotgun start.  Phil Thorley welcomed everyone and set up up the day, we then headed out into the wind.  Sean, Johnny C and Grubbster and myself were out on hole 14 and had a good round, even if the golf was slightly less than impressive.  Holes into the driving wind were tricky to judge, just as irons going downwind were impossible to stop.

The scores, despite the wind and most people agreeing with Scottie’s description “broootal, man, broootal”, were actually pretty good!  We were off the whites, in the wind and I think the monies for our Swindle-fiver-on-cards was split between Dan Thompson, Al Savs and Jim who all returned 37pts!  Well played chaps.  

That helped our boys tie first, in the team overall prize with 130points – only to be pipped on countback.  So well done the team of Dan Thompson, Jaggsy, Danny Betts and Al Savs.

Evening Meal & Charity Auction

Pegwell Hotel hosted the evening meal, which was again top notch.   Drinks, sit down meal, fines awarded, followed by a charity auction.

Evening didn’t have too many casualties despite the very long day.  The auction went well and Richard didn’t bid on everything (despite his best efforts).  Some great prizes were available… Johnny C became very popular winning a Foxhills fourball in the raffle, as did Jim bidding on 18holes with young Tour pro Max Orrin.

Hever Castle Day 2

A nice slow morning and we all hit the road and headed towards Hever Castle.  Still windy but only overcast.  Hever was hosting a regional vets competition so the place was packed.  We were out after some slow fourballs and I’m afraid the overall pace wasn’t great for the whole day – lots of waiting on shots.

That said, the course was in great nick.   Grubbster was on form with 37pts taking the clear win.  Jaggsy nicked two nearest the pins, I nabbed the front nine.  Not in the bet, it was great to hear Jerry hit 35pts.   General feeling was that the back 9 just zapped a lot of scores – something to do with two very long days, with too much wind, early starts and late nights.

Thank you to Philip Thorley for inviting us down once again to support some great charities, enjoy the golf and have a great couple of days away.   And thanks to Phil Macve who did his usual top organising shizzle, helped out ably on the day by Club Captain Winkle.  Thanks Mark.

Roll on 2018!