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Captain’s Day, Tandridge Golf Club:  

Wednesday 25 April 2018

We had an excellent turnout (18 Fitz men and 3 guests) for the first main Society golf day of the season. Tandridge – near Oxted in Surrey - had been chosen as it’s a course that we’d not played before and it is rightly rated very highly in most golf course lists – even in Surrey! The course is particularly notable for a huge number of (generally very large) bunkers on virtually every hole – and a brilliant second nine, with substantial changes of elevation and some great views all around. The weather was typical for April – and we had some prolonged bright spells but also a couple of very heavy showers – after which, the course actually started steaming – quite a sight!

We were allowed into the dining room – without jacket and tie! – for some excellent soup and a bacon roll, before the round – and we had some sandwiches and chips after the round – before the prize giving. The excellent Harveys bitter was also a favourite of ours in the lovely old and traditional Clubhouse. Sorry that we missed out on the famous ‘Tandridge Lunch’, but it would have been difficult to fit this sensibly into the schedule with the M25 traffic to negotiate earlier in the day. We decided on an arrival time of 11.30 am – ready for tee offs from 12.30 pm.

We played an individual Stableford competition, as well as a team Stableford competition – in groups of 3 – with 2 better balls counting on each hole. We also had some feature holes for prizes – as usual, especially towards the end of the round. And double Stableford points were awarded on the signature hole of the course – the fantastic 14th – what a view ahead of you on the tee!

For the record the prize winners were:

Individual

1st 36 Bryan Pickup On his Fitz Golf debut - very well played

2nd 34 Mark Hamway A local guest. On countback

3rd 34 Stuart Lester On countback

4th 34 Colin Dunkerley On countback

Also, very good individual Stableford scores were made on a tough, challenging course by John Uwins and Ian Hall (both 33 points), Mike Hamment (31 points) and Pete Bennett (30 points).

Team

1st 82 John Uwins, Brian Hodge and Stuart Lester

2nd 77 Mike Hamment, Bryan Pickup and Mark Hamway. On countback

3rd 77 Colin Dunkerley, Brian Smith and Charlie Brown. On countback

Feature holes

Nearest the Pin on the 4th Matt Hignell

Longest Drive on the 14th David Williams

Nearest the Pin in 2 on the 15th Mark Hamway

Nearest the Pin in 2 on the 17th Danny Gesua

All in all, it was a very good start to our season – and I believe, greatly enjoyed by all.

Mike Hamment, Captain

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