- The sun wasn’t out on the 31st March at
Test Valley however that didn’t stop Andy Clark
wearing his sombrero for the day. Andy massed a score
of 39 points of ¾ handicap to take the Spring Bowl
home with him his second cup win since winning the St
Cross Cup. Gary Stanley took second place with 35
points and third place went to the morning round
winner Mark Hayes with a respectable 33 points. The
morning round of over nines was a three club challenge
Mark scored 21 points a sure sign he plays better than
his allotted handicap even though he spent quite a lot
of time worrying about which two clubs to choose the
day before. Nearest pin prizes morning and afternoon
rounds went to Rob Bailey and longest drive to Gary
Stanley.
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- You will need Sat Nav to find this course many of us
managed to got lost using the AA directions off the
web luckily no one was late for the first tee time and
more importantly the bacon rolls. The facilities at
Test Valley are good they have a driving range, short
game practice area, modern clubhouse and changing
rooms. The friendliness of the staff and the food
served on our day was very good. The only let down was
the stock in the pro shop not much in the way of good
brands available and the ball selection wasn’t great
either for our prizes.
- I must admit I was expecting a bit more from the
write ups I had seen on the course the one good point
was the quality of the greens which ran smooth and
true without too many bobbles for this time of year.
The par 72 course which is over 6000 yards is fairly
open and you can stray off line without getting into
much trouble in fact I found myself on opposite
fairways on more than one occasion with a better line
into the green. A number of the holes have water
features on them the ninth is a quirky par 4 dog leg
which can be hit easily by laying up short and a short
iron over the two small ponds, the fifteenth is a
better hole the pond covers the whole of the front of
the green from your drive.
