A pleasing turnout of 22 MGS members attended the societies first outing to Highwoods on a lovely late summer’s day.   The course was overall good although it received mixed reviews from attendees with a number of member’s raving about it and others disappointed with the patchy fairways and differing speed greens – Micky Mann and Kevin Leftley for example found the downhill putts much faster than the uphill ones and of course they blamed the speed of the greens and their putters for this – it certainly could not have been user error.  The average stableford score for the day was 29.5 the second lowest of the year reflecting a day of at times unnecessary hard work to put a decent score together! A number of us would like to return say in the Spring to see the course at its best and with the benefit of a bit of course “know how” gained from this venture to hopefully play it a little better.

It was also again good to have a socially distanced pint after the round and an informal prize giving with Captain James avoiding kissing the winners and those who paid their subs, well anyone within a 100ft really – one small benefit of the Covid restrictions in place !!  The results were as follows:

Anniversary Trophy

18 holes stableford competition off full society handicaps-

Place	Player	Score
Winner	Nigel Burnett	39
Second	Kelvin Paterson	37
Third	Brian Day	36

No Nearest the Pin/ Rope or Longest Drive competitions held due to Covid 19 restrictions and need to handle markers – hopefully, we can find a safe way to reintroduce these for future events

Team Stableford

Separated on back six count back only with identical totals and back 9 count back scores. The best two scores from the teams of three counted (adjusted for the team of four): –

Place	Team	Score
Winner	Chris Buck, Dereck Coppard & Nigel Burnett	82 (B9CB 40 B6CB 28)
Second	Ken Wapling, Kelvin Paterson, Brian Day & John Collingwood	82 (B9CB 40 B6CB 25)
Third	Micky Mann, Andrew Burnett & Frank Goulding	72

Anorak moment of the report is the day saw 5 birdies including 2 twos.  This takes the seasons total to 29.

Player	Hole	Score
Tony Coggill	10th	2 on the 148yd par 3 (SI 17)
Kelvin Paterson	10th	2 on the 148yd par 3 (SI 17)
Alan Bigley	11th	4 on the 477yd par 5 (SI 5)
Micky Mann	11th	4 on the 477yd par 5 (SI 5)
Chris Buck	18th	3 on the 291yd par 4 (SI 15)

The player of the year trophy is awarded at the end of the year to the player who has put together the best four stableford scores across the season (when totalled up).  The current standings with hopefully two months (December does not count) to go as follows: –

Player	App	Best four s/f pts
LEFTLEY, Kevin	7	143
MANN. Michael	7	143
GALLIFANT, James	6	138
PATERSON, Kelvin	6	138
BUCK, Chris	4	135
BURNETT, Andrew	6	135
HOOLAHAN, Sandy	5	135
HUGHES, Mark	5	134
WILLIAMS, Andy	5	128
WATKISS, Jerry	4	124
BIGLEY, Alan	5	123
HOWROYD, David	4	123
BENNETT, Tom	4	121
COLLINGWOOD, John	6	120
SMITH, Steve	5	119
MEADOWS, Graham	4	114
MONTAGU, Rob	4	109
COGGILL, Tony	4	104

It clearly pays to be able to perm the best 4 from 7 rounds at the moment!

The next monthly meeting is for the GBH Trophy a pairs competition at Mannings Heath Golf Course on the 16^th October – a bit of a treat for the society and a favorite of the Handicap Sec!! Full details as always nearer the time.