Fitzwilliam Golf Society

Inter Collegiate Golf Tournament

Gog Magog Old Course - Thursday 18th April 2019

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This was the fourth time this Golf Day has been held – and this year 14 Cambridge Colleges took part – albeit two Colleges did not have enough players to count fully in respect of the competition. There were two new Colleges competing this year – Downing and St Catherine’s. As before, the Fitz team was selected on the basis of form shown in the previous Fitz Open and our team therefore included Mike Hamment, Richard Newport, Alan Wood, John Uwins, Graham May and Pete Bennett.

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It was a lovely sunny Spring day at Gog Magog. The fairways and the general course were in very good condition –  potentially good for scoring. The greens also generally ran truly – but were maybe a bit variable in speed.

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The format of the scoring on the day is that the top 5 Stableford scores for each College are added together – discarding the 6th player’s score – to give a total. Our combined score was 166 (average 33.2 points) – and we were described by John Sefton (the main organiser from Christ’s) as the ‘perennial runners-up’ – in fact Fitz came equal second with Corpus Christi. But the winners this year were the debutants – Downing – with a combined score of 170 points. John Sefton’s score sheet shows all of the individual scores.

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However, the top individual player this year was ‘one of our own’, John Uwins – with a magnificent 42 points. Very well played, John!

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And probably the main reason that we didn’t win overall was because two of our selected team (from last September) had stupidly played well since the Fitz Open – and had their Club handicaps cut by a combined total of 7 shots! But at least now, we don’t have to organise next year’s Dinner!

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The evening Dinner was held this year at St John’s – in their magnificent Dining Room – overlooked by the Lady Margaret portrait – amongst many other worthies. In my opinion, the Dinner is an important part of the Day – and it was an excellent meal, very much enjoyed by all. Fitz team members were, as usual, the last men standing in the St John’s bar afterwards.

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The Inter Collegiate Golf Day will again be held next year – probably on the 16th April. Downing – as winners this year – will be hosting the Dinner. There is also a challenge match later in 2019 - for Downing against the top Oxford College – this time it will be against Christ Church. St John’s were victorious last year – in their challenge match against the Oxford College winners – so Downing will be defending the trophy for Cambridge.

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Mike Hamment, Captain