Posted on behalf of team captain Mark
Surrey 5’s A team had to play a qualifier, before even making the main draw this year. And this was away at Shirley Park.
Quite a nice course if not too long, with some nice greens. The team took advantage of the invaluable practice round (note to the B team) which allowed us to learn where to hit the ball, as many of their holes had dog legs or were hidden from the tee.
For the match the team consisted of Al Savill, Simon C, Ian F, Joseph Lo and myself. All matches were played in good spirit, with Surrey National going through with wins for Alan, Simon and Ian. A loss for Jo against an inform player and a draw for myself after we walked off the 19th hole, knowing we were already through to the next round.
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So too the first round and this time we were home against Richmond Park. Again a nice bunch of blokes who also took advantage of the practise round. In fact one of two of them even played two rounds before the match !
For this match Al Sav was replaced by the Radar, and found himself up against their 5 handicapped player. So shots to Radar ☺
A good match with some excellent golf being played and some interesting golf. Al winning the 15 with a six I believe, which lead to a home victory on the 16th green and both players heading straight to the bar.
I was up next against their captain playing off 8, so 3 shots to me also. It’s fair to say the match started very evenly, with holes being lost then won and nobody really taking control. Then mistakes by me on the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th and I found myself 5 down 🙁
I could blame the jet lag having flown back from Vegas the day before, but on reflection I gifted them holes away with poor decisions or shots.
So time to give myself a little pep talk and light up a cigar and head for the 12th tee and start the fight back. Hole 12th was won with a par (4 down), hole 13 halved and pars on holes 14 and 15 brought it back to 2 down. 16 was also won with a net par, so I headed to the 17th tee, only 1 down.
Hole halved (although I missed a four foot putt for the win) so we played on, eventually halving the last, leading to an away win.
Walking off 12th Dan (in match 3) told me he was 2 down, so it was a relief to see him walk from the 18th green to the first tee and then into the club, having won the first playoff hole. So now we are 2-1 up.
Matches 4 and 5 appeared to have been more straight forward. Simon coming in, having won 3&2 and Ian by a bigger margin I believe. Even though he did take his foot of the gas and then lost two holes. He refocused and won on the day.
So overall Surrey National won 4-1 and go through to play Horton Park (at home) in the next round.
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Big well done to both teams for their victories and a special thanks for Dan for stepping in at the last minute yesterday, as Dave Little was unwell. And Dave for coming to the club just in case we didn’t have a sub.
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