As is customary, the Men’s Championships were held over the weekend of the first May Bank Holiday. This date, relatively early in the growing season focuses everyone’s mind to shake Wrag Barn from its winter state and ensure that the new growth definition is sufficiently marked and the greens and bunkers are well presented. This year was even more of a challenge as our head green keeper Neil Carter has been laid low for a spell and it was important that he was reassured that the course was benefiting from all his planning during the winter.
The day before the Men’s Champs was a wall of rain and the greenkeepers heroically stuck to their tasks of strimming, mowing and ironing the greens so that the course was ready when the day arrived and play started in bright sunshine. A total of 87 golfers set off on the Saturday morning and the best 48 made the cut to play a further 18 holes on the Sunday.
Wrag Barn Men’s Champion 2024 is Ollie Webb who plays off (+1) and recorded a solid 72, 72 to win by two shots from second place Guy Drayton. It has been a pleasure to witness Ollie progress through the Junior Section; he was last year’s Junior Captain and Junior Champion – as an aside, his speech at Junior presentation night was brilliant!
The results are as follows:
Saturday Best Nett
Div 1 Div 2 Div 3
Ben Paines (70) Robert Hughes (67)CB Ben Read (64)
Guy Drayton (71)CB Tom Newbery (67) Ian McKenna (74)CB
Kelvin Millward (71) Shaun Judd (69) Aaron Allnut (74)
Saturday/Sunday Overall Winners
Best Gross Best Nett
Oliver Webb (144) Ben Read (129)
Guy Drayton (146) Paul G Watts (140) CB
Matt Simpkins (150) CB Shaun Judd (140)
Sunday winners (not included in main prizes)
Best gross Best nett
Mark Whitby (75) Shaun Matthews (68)
Many congratulations to the prizes winners and thank you to the team who run the competition behind the scenes – it takes a huge amount of work. Not forgetting the greenkeepers and clubhouse staff who prepare the course, keep everyone feed and watered and some free counselling as required!
Verity
May 2024