Hendon’s Luke Goddard shot a course-record-equalling 65 to pave his way to an aggregate of 139 and a two-stroke victory in the King George V Coronation Amateur Challenge Cup, played at Porters Park on Saturday, August 4.

Behind him, with a one-over-par 141, came Ben Harman, of Letchworth, followed by our own Michael Moore whose overall 142 scooped the Wehner Driver for the best score from a Porters Park member.

The 53 competitors from 22 different clubs were blessed with excellent weather and a course which attracted much praise, not least for the superb condition of the greens. The course, much altered and a severer test since the tournament was played here last year, stood up well to the challenge offered by a quality field of Category 1 golfers and maintained its reputation as among Hertfordshire’s best.

Spectators were rewarded with some excellent golf. For members there was the added attraction of seeing top golfers play our course in a manner most of us can only dream of.

Michael Moore was unable to maintain quite such a high standard the following day at Moor Park, where two further rounds were played for the Hertfordshire Stag and added to Porters Park scores to determine the winner of the Hertfordshire Bowl. Even so rounds of 80 and 75 put Michael third overall with an aggregate of 297, which pipped fellow Porters Park player Alan Glynn only on the last nine.

The 72-hole title went to Moor Park’s John Ambridge on 293 after a one-hole play-off with Hendon’s Scott Fallon. 

Stanislas Gautier, from France, became the first overseas player to win the English Boys’ Under-14 Championship when he collected the Reid Trophy at Porters Park.

A final round of 68, the only sub-70 return on the final day, for a three-round total of 212, saw the 14-year-old from Paris gain a three-stroke victory over Rhys Pugh, from Wales, who closed with 71. Pugh, 13, a member of the Welsh team in the recent Boys’ Home Internationals, led for the first two rounds. He was particularly pleased with his opening 71 on a day so windy and rainy that only 29 of the 110-strong field beat 80.

Indeed so wet was it that it was only thanks to the manful efforts of our greens staff, who were kept hard at work baling out bunkers and squeegeeing greens, that the course remained playable*. Playing together on the second day, Pugh and Gautier, who is also the French under-14 champion, were neck-and-neck over the front nine of the final round, but Gautier then pulled away with an
eagle followed by further birdies to take the title.

The best English player was Patrick Horsting, from Kent, who finished in fourth place on 224 after a closing 71 which also earned him the under-13 prize.

A strong foreign challenge was expected and realised with four continental players in the top eight.

*The English Golf Union, the governing body of male amateur golf in England under whose auspices the Reid Trophy is run, have since expressed their gratitude to our greens staff with a financial reward.

Friday, 7 September – Men’s 36-hole Invitation. Course closed all day
Monday, 17 September – Dementia Charity Golf Day. Course closed a.m. only
Friday, 28 September – M & S Golf Day. Course closed all day

Course open: The Mid-Am, originally scheduled for Monday, 24 September, has been cancelled because course work will have started. That day’s course closure, flagged in the diary, will no longer apply.

There have been several hold-ups on the course of late because guests signed in by members havenot been able to play to an acceptable standard. This leads to awkward situations for all concerned.

Members are reminded that they are responsible for their guests at all times and that handicap certificates may be required to be shown before play commences.

Porters Park junior Ben Lawrence will be heading for Spain in November to face his biggest golf challenge yet – the European finals of the Andalucian Open. Ben, who is 15 and now plays off 4, qualified at South Winchester GC last month where he shot a second-place scratch medal round of 78 against an SSS of 72 (adjusted to 75 on the day because of the difficult conditions).

The club is pleased to welcome, from the beginning of September, Kristina Dalton. Kristina’s role will be as a bookkeeper and she will help Cathy Newman with the accounts. Cathy has asked to reduce her hours and will be working three days a week. Kristina will make up the other two days as a job share.

The new noticeboard in the front foyer, which the office uses to draw attention to future events, is working well. For example, the forthcoming Men’s Invitation Day highlighted there is sold out and extra starting times have had to be added.

The Captain is pleased to welcome as full playing members Richard Delane and Michael Hanson. Use it or lose it: Members are reminded that they have until September 30 to spend their £100 bar/catering levy if they have not already done so. Otherwise it will be forfeited at the start of the new club year.

Juniors, students and absent members are asked urgently to respond to letters from the office requesting them to confirm, or otherwise, their reduced-subscription status for the club year 2007-08. The new presentation by email in the same style as the hard copy version would appear to have been well received. The Adobe Acrobat format has cut the time involved for the office as only one file for each edition is now necessary. Congratulations to Barry Plews on this initiative.

For the second successive year the annual Picnic in the Park was hit by atrocious weather. But the damp, dismal conditions could not spoil a very enjoyable musical evening, writes Martin Jeens.

Eating al fresco was out of the question, but all who came were able to tuck into their food and drink in reasonable comfort in the dining room.

The entertainment - in two parts with a half-hour interval - was provided by Quintessence. They gave us songs from Bach to the Beatles and were excellent.

A proportion of the cost of the ticket monies was donated to the Captain’s charity Aspire, as were the proceeds from the champagne raffle.

Earlier, last month’s golfer/non-golfer BBQ, in which the golfer tees off and plays all fairway and bunker shots and the non-golfing partner does all the putting, once again proved a popular event, not least with families and a pleasing number of new members. The golf was followed by excellent eats from Tim’s barbecue, jazz from a very good band and a putting competition open to all. The Hardys’ grandson, Benjamin, the youngest competitor and a budding future golfer, was among the winners. It was nice to see so many youngsters and non-golfers enjoying a really fun occasion. 

At the last meeting of the golf committee decisions were made which affect ladies’ competitions. As from September 11, ladies’ tee times will be at 8-minute intervals instead of the 6 minutes allowed at present. This will require an extra hour of tee times and competitions will start half an hour earlier at 9am and finish at 1pm.

The nine-hole competition for ladies unable to play 18 holes will also begin on this date and their times will be reserved towards the end of the time sheet.

Prizes for the eclectic competition, which will finish soon, will be in the form of vouchers which can be spent in the pro’s shop or in the bar. Many thanks go to David Talbot who has done an excellent job running an eclectic which has attracted as many as 70 members on a Thursday afternoon.

The KGV ran very smoothly and a big thank you to all who gave their time to assist. We could have done with more help but those who did volunteer did a splendid job, as always.

In all my years in greenkeeping I have never seen so many worms in August. Worm suppressant will be sprayed to try to deal with this and will continue monthly while the problem persists.

Graden deep scarifying of the greens will take place late September/early October, followed by over-seeding with bent grasses. Some disruption is inevitable while this operation is in progress.

Tees and aprons will be treated similarly after the greens are completed.

Scarifying of the fairways will take place in October. This will be followed by over-seeding which will be extended into the semi-rough to promote better lies just off the fairways.

Over the last three weeks we have been testing vibro rollers on the greens to impart a smoother finish to the surface and a faster pace. Judging from the comments ollowing the KGV and the Reid Trophy, they have been a success.

Course etiquette seems to be lacking somewhat as I find that pitch marks are not being repaired and people seem to forget to rake their club marks as well as their footprints in the bunkers.

We will be re-instating the white lines around the greens to stop people pulling their trolleys around the aprons.

At last I have managed to find a pest control expert who says he can eradicate the moles. His first visit will be in October.

Martin Smith - Course Manager

This year’s ninth Centenary Cup Scratch Open attracted a high quality field of 30 ladies with handicaps of 5 or better, one playing off + 3, one off + 2 and two off +1. They, and a further 11 players in Category 2, were blessed with perfect golfing weather.

The cream rose to the top, with Liz Bennett (+3), of Brockenhurst Manor, taking the cup with rounds of 69 and 68, beating by her Hampshire team colleague Kerry Smith (+2), from Waterlooville on 75, 69 by seven shots. Emma Lyons, from West Surrey, GC, scored 75, 72 to take third place.

Liz Bennett, in her speech, praised the wonderful condition of our course – as good as any she had played this year.

Both Liz and Kerry, together with Melissa Reid, the leading amateur at the recent British Women’s Open at St Andrews, have been selected for England’s NationsCup team for the British Strokeplay Championship at Conwy, North Wales.

Fine weather and a record 76 entries (almost double last year’s) helped make the club’s Open Mixed Greensomes a much acclaimed success.

We had a nice situation at the prize presentation where Gill Cooper and partner beat her husband Lionel and partner to second place on a card play-off.

The winners were Sandra Moses (Knebworth) and Paul Vater (E Herts) with 41pts followed by Gill Cooper (PP) and Norman Parish (W Herts) 39, and Val Parish (W Herts) and Lionel Cooper (PP) 39.

Proby Cautley who won the August midweek stableford with 35pts from Peter Robinson (last nine) and Robert Davis with 34pts

Geoff P Kirby who won the Markham Cup with 74-6 = 69 from Vashist Amin with 80-10 = 70

Simon Kowalski & Lucy Glyn who won the Nathan Cup, beating Benjamin & Sue Lawrence by 3 holes

Sue Hawkey who won the Business Ladies’ Cup with 82-6 = 76 from Sally McAlister with 89-9 = 79

Anita Healy who won the extra stableford (silver) with 38pts from Janet Hardy with 37pts. The bronze division was won by Eirwen Cox with 39pts from Sue Leen with 36pts. Eirwen Cox won the Hopkinson Salver, with Anita Healy runner-up.

Christina Lye who won the silver division of the LGU medal with 83-10 = 73 from Anita Prosser with 84-11 = 73. The bronze division was won by Sandra Mackenzie with 101-33 = 68 from Jean Marett with 96-23 = 73. The Rushton Cup was won by Sandra Mackenzie

Fionnuala Smith who won the Tattersall Cup/LGU medal (silver) with 77-7 = 70 from Margaret Nelson with 88-13 = 75. The bronze division was won by Sue Leen with 100-25 = 75 from Myra Wilson with 96-21 = 75. Fionnuala Smith won the Tattersall Cup

Rory Suttie who won the July junior medal with 79-20 = 55 from Neal Pabari with 80-16 = 64