EGU Southern Counties Senior
Foursomes Finals 2011
Gloucestershire Seniors qualified for the finals by beating Dorset, Somerset & Wiltshire in the qualifier at Bath Golf Club on Monday 8th August 2011.
Hertfordshire, Hampshire & Norfolk were the other counties represented in the finals held at North Weald Golf Club on Thursday 20th October.
Due to a very late illness in the family David Rigby was unable to play. This resulted in the County President, Mr. Bill Hill stepping in as a replacement.
Gloucestershire drew Hertfordshire in the morning semi final whilst Hampshire’s opponents were Norfolk.
At the halfway stage Gloucestershire were behind, but as normal our team fought back to run out winners by 3 games to 2.
The final against Hampshire was extremely tense Gloucestershire’s top two pairs lost but the 3rd and 4th pair evened up the score making the last match the decider.
On the 13th hole our last pairing of Richard Boulding & David Potter went one down.
They then won the 14th 15th and 16th to be two up. Hertfordshire came back to win on the 17th. Dormy one up with one to play.
The eighteenth hole is a par 5 with a very sharp dog leg left both players hit their drives into the bunkers Hertfordshire on the right side Gloucestershire on the left each player came out of the bunker with the balls ending up in the right hand semi. Our player hit his third shot into the trees short and left of the green. Hampshire’s third shot was a direct hit on a tree ending up back just short of where it had started.
Both fourth shots ended up on the 18th green. Our team putted first the ball ending up 3 foot short. Hampshire had a 12 -14 foot putt from the top of a two tier green down approximately two feet drop an excellent putt just missed the hole. David Potter held his nerve to calmly hole the putt for a half and a win by one hole.
A superb end to the Seniors 2011 season, Champions of the Channel league and then matching the counties 2004 team by winning the South East Counties Seniors Foursomes.
Well done to all the team and thanks for all the happy memories.
Tony Gough
