Surrey National win by 6 home vs Reigate

Stonking day for hosting Reigate Hill today… temperature around 30, very light breeze and a lot of suncream and fluids needed.

Tumbled away by Reigate the other week, today was our first home game, 3 previous this year being away, and we wanted to lift ourselves in the league.  Woody and their captain Dave sorted the teams and after a nice breakfast we headed out.

Woody and Dan were first out and Dan had a stormer.  7 birdies in his round, coming in 2under.  Cheerleader Steve did turn up but was first to commend Dan on his round.  They came in by 6 – a cracking result.

Winkle and I had a tough day.  Reigate Mark is very steady off of 4, and his partner Dan was hitting the ball a country mile off of 13.  Andy Gorman was on the receiving end of Dan’s golf last year, and Winkle and I were up against it.   We were doing ok, 2down at the turn, Winkle was on handicap and I was 2over gross.

We only gave away 2 holes really, 9th and 10th, but if Mark wasn’t holing for a birdie, Dan was smashing it 280yards off the tee and hitting wedges into greens.  8down on the 16th tee, we did rally to halve the last two, I stepped up on the 17th and Winkle knocked a 12footer in on the 18th.  We didn’t play badly – Winkle effectively returning 36pts and I was just 2 over handicap, but that half on the 18th almost felt like a win with the quality team golf Mark and Dan played… but we were beaten by the better team by 8. 

Jay and Andy ground out a hard fought 2 hole win and we were all square overall.  Jay had a good day off the tee smashing the ball a country mile.

Scotty and Jaggsy had a great round coming in winning by 4 holes and the always steady teamCarter nicked a solid 2hole win from the canny Reigate pairing of Sam and Ronnie.

Special note on Mr Jaggs holing his 2nd for an eagle on 8th… reducing Scottie to going full on ‘macam’ in his celebration.  Meaning it was full-on Northern… a translation required!  Well done Monsieur LeJaggs!  Dans la maison.

So a good result overall against a very solid and determined Reigate team with all matches played in the usual good spirits.

I’d like to say “if only…” in mine and Winkle’s match, but hands up, we were up against it today and perhaps if a few bounces went out way, not theirs we could’ve grabbed a couple more holes and made the result a smidge rosier.  Such is golf.

And that is what makes this such a good format league – both on a match by match basis, and for an overall team result.  It’s not a bad shout for the Swindle Ryder Cup to consider this format (though the clue for that comp is in the name!)

Another top result(?)

In other news (and perhaps the real winner on the day), Mattie Strong shared his good luck in the Wimbledon Village fair raffle, taking home a fantastic blue kiddies watering can. Only to follow it up with a desktop clock. Result Mr Strong.