Our first event of the year was at Lewes Golf Club.  The weather during the week was extremely wet and after an 8.00am call to confirm all was ok we embarked on a new year with fresh handicaps. The weather for the day was cloudy, but no rain and a slight breeze.  We welcomed a new member, Alan Hale to the Society and a new skipper, Andrew Burnett taking charge for the first time. A full briefing for the competitions ahead took place where Andrew reiterated the previous skippers “you must putt out” approach.  The captain had a reasonable first day although he did visit the captains bunker and had to contribute to the captain charity.

A field of 20 competed for the individual stableford winner and a team prize. The average score for the day was 30.25 off the yellow tees.  The course was in very good condition with no temporary greens and despite the tees being a little messy, it played well.

There were only 2 players who played above handicap. Pete Smith scored an impressive 39 points off what was a clearly generous 14 handicap and he also was in the winning team.  Graham Smith came second in the individual competition with 37 points. They were both closely followed by Alan Bigley and Will Lunn on 36 points.  Kelvin Patterson had a nightmare on the short par 3 6^th, firstly pushing his tee shot over the hedge to the right of the green.  Then announcing he needed to flop it onto the green and ending up flopping it 2 feet, so he tried again and flopped it onto the top of the hedge and could only then knock it off the hedge, he walked away chuntering to himself which was a theme of his round.  Alan Bigley knocked in the first birdie of the year on the 2^nd and Rod Lunn nearly got the first eagle later in the round but it rimmed out.

A very tight team competition resulted in 2 teams on 89 points.  After looking reviewing the scores on countback the last 9 and 6 holes were equal, and the scores could only be split on the last 3 holes. 

Individual Stableford

This event was played off full society handicaps with the top three being: –

Position	Player	Score
1st	Pete Smith	39
2nd	Graham Smith	37
3rd	Alan Bigley and Will Lunn	36

Team Competition

The best two scores from the teams of four.

Position	Team	Score
1st	Rod Lunn, Pete Smith, Jerry Watkiss, Simon Luck	89
2nd	Andrew Burnett, Alan Bigley, Alan Hale, Will Lunn	89 On countback

Nearest Pin 4^th Hole (123 Yds)

Andrew Jenner

Nearest Pin in Two 10^th Hole (305 Yds)

Andrew Burnett

Birdies

Player	Hole	Score	Yards & Stroke Index
Alan Bigley	2nd	3 on par 4	351 yds SI 5
Richard Hannam	3rd	3 on par 4	299 Yds SI 13
Andrew Jenner	4th	2 on par 3	123  Yds SI 17
Pete Smith	4th	2 on par 3	123  Yds SI 17
Rod Lunn	16th	4 on par 5	466 Yds SI 18
Alan Bigley	16th	4 on par 5	466 Yds SI 18

The societies next event is scheduled for Thursday 19^th February at Willingdon GC – an individual stableford and team event.