- I wasn’t looking forward to the drive down to
Littlehampton, as the M27 is normally very bad in the
mornings we had left in plenty of time and sailed
through all the traffic black spots getting to the club
in just over an hour. We were in fact too early for any
of the staff at the club but there were a number of
members in the car park pulling there bags out of their
cars. We pulled up next to one gentleman and immediately
hit the kerbstone with the bumper of the car there was
an awful cracking noise and I feared the worse great
start I was thinking. After careful inspection it would
seem I got away with it, anyway this started a
conversation with the member who said I was extremely
fortunate as there is always pieces of car strewn all
over the kerbs. We asked him when the professional
arrived and he said normally sometime around 8am but if
you like I will let you so you can get a coffee. This
was our first contact with a member and this was the
same for the rest of the day in fact everyone we came in
contact with were very friendly to us. We were met in
the bar by the club secretary who had switch the coffee
machine on so it would charge us as coffee and bacon
rolls were not due to be served until 8.15am and they
were worth the wait too. Another nice touch was the
welcome card each of us received, which thanks us for
our visit and contained useful information about the
club and the entry code for the doors. These were
collected from the club pro and I admit I almost fell
over when I saw him as you know I am a Ping fan and so
was he and was dressed in the latest clobber from Ping,
we spent several minutes reviewing the clubs we used and
the stock in the shop “real nice bloke”.
It was Neil Weavers Captains day and his last
event before handing over to Alan Garvey, Neil had
requested a bit of fun for the morning so we played a
team betterball stableford game with a difference.
Scoring with one best score for the first six holes, two
best scores for the next six and all three scores
counting on the last six hols. I am pleased to say that
my team consisting of Phil Woolven and Gavin Hall with
of course a little help from me took first place with 83
points for the eighteen holes. I even mange to keep my
driver straight in the morning and so confident I was I
even had a go at the longest drive, which I won by 12
feet to my surprise, Stuart Hensman won the nearest the
pin for the morning. I was just about ready for my lunch
of Lasagne and chips by the time I had finished my round
I must admit I couldn’t believe the size of the
portions there so much crammed on my plate I didn’t
know were to start.great food.
- The main event for the day was the Captains cup in the
afternoon a full handicap Satbleford the wind had picked
up so I was expecting so close scores. We had the usual
nearest the pin and longest drive prizes which went to
Alan Garvey and Andy Tye respectively. Stewart Rennie
won the Captains cup for the first time with a score of
39 points. Colin Giles was in second place on 36 points
who beat Jeff Oakes also on 36 points. Phil Woolven a
guest of Colin Giles came officially second on 39 points
and the booby prize went to Gary Kemp
- The course looked in lovely condition looking from the
tee first tee across the course and luckily enough for
us it was a still overcast day so conditions were just
right for a good game of golf. The par 70 course
measures 5866 yards from the yellow tees and from the
card, which has three par fives I was expecting a
typical hard playing links course. The first thing you
will notice on this course is how flat it is so if you
were expecting to see great big mounds and sand dunes
you will be disappointed. Along with the typical links
style spongy fairways all the greens looked very narrow
form the tees making club selection very hard. The
greens on the day we played had been sprayed with a
green dye making them stand out from the fairways but at
the heat of summer I would expect they would blend in
with the fairways. I found putting on the quite hard to
read and I wasn’t the only member who thought that,
most of them greens were made up of a mixture of
grasses. Another feature of the course is the river that
runs through from one end to the other but only comes
into play on three of the holes. Coming off the
eighteenth after the morning round I was thinking that
was a pleasant round of golf I guess because I didn’t
get into too much trouble in fact I would say that the
course was fairly open and even the rough didn’t cause
any major problems. The round in the afternoon would be
a different matter the wind was up and I had reversed my
opinion about my morning round after the 18.
- Kevin Burnett-Whalley
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