Aldwickbury Park Early Birds Autumn Cup 2022
Day 1
Rain threatened to put the dampeners on the annual outing to Wokefield Park and the delayed London Marathon this year with a weather front skimming the south of the country on Sunday morning. Luckily the rain passed slightly further south than expected and despite downpours as I headed down to the venue, the rain stopped around 09:30 and the course was in great shape by the time we teed off at 11:08.
The draw had been done the night before by James Miller but Pete Creighton had to drop out at the last minute resulting in a last minute shuffling of the pack.
Day 1 groupings
Group 1 - Brian Geddes, Roger Gibbs, Paul Gardner, Martin Lythgoe
Group 2 - Stephen Brewerton, Duncan Miller, Roger Small, Andrew Simpkin
Group 3 - Paul Stammers, Tony Froud, James Miller, Steve Reynolds
It was clear early on in the round that Martin meant business. His stride between shots had purpose and he was not in the mood for any japes or frivolity. After a steady start with a couple of bogeys and a par, he stumbled with a couple of 1 pointers on 4 and 5 before pressing his foot to the floor and completing the rest of the round without dropping a point. a couple of birdies on 9 and 17 plus 6 pars made this a round to remember going out in 20 and back in 24, an incredible 44 points.
Martin led the overall standings by 11 points after the 3rd round from a chasing pack of Tony Froud, Andy Simpkin and James Miller all with 33 points, Tony stealing second place on countback.
The longest drive (11) went to Steve Reynolds and Nearest the pin (12) went to Andy Simpkin.
The course played well although most would agree that the greens were a little challenging and the bunkers could be severely punishing. "It was very easy to not score" according to some of the group.
The dinner arrangements were somewhat confused on the day by the hotel and most strange that they insisted we pre-book our meals then proceed to serve the main course as a buffet. This resulted in most filling their plates with a selection of the main courses rather than the one they booked, very strange! At least the starters and desserts were served as per the order.
We retired to the bar for a few drinks and finished around 11pm following last orders.
Day 2
As has become tradition, the day 2 groups went out in reverse order of Merit. Coenraad flew in from Dublin especially to join us the second day, full of Guinness and Irish Stew!
Day 2 groupings
Group 1: Brian Geddes, Coenraad Fourie, Paul Stammers, Paul Gardner
Group 2: Roger Small, Roger Gibbs, Duncan Miller
Group 3: Steve Reynolds, Steve Brewerton, James Miller
Group 4: Tony Froud, Martin Lythgoe, Andy Simpkin
We missed a trick here, had Duncan and James been in the same group we would have had all groups with at least two names identical.
The weather for day 2 was even better than day 1. A crisp autumn feel to the morning air and a beautiful red sky with light clouds greeted us as we enjoyed our earlier than usual breakfast and 1st tee of 09:24
Martin was in the zone again and other players followed him around the practice ground trying to pick up some useful tips.
The light winds and receptive fairways and greens made for a very inviting course for the longer hitters in the group. Coenraad in particular attacked from the off, taking on every tiger line on the course. After a couple of challenging holes he barely dropped a point and finished with 37 points, beating last year's champion Steve Reynolds on countback. In fact the conditions seemed to suit most of us with an average stableford score 4 points higher than Sunday's golf.
The longest drive went to Andy Simpkin who hit a short drive (<200 yds) on 10 but was the only person managing to stay on the fairway and won by default. Nearest the pin went to Paul Gardner on 17 who put the ball a few feet from the pin and sunk the birdie put.
Overall standings
Our winner was obviously Martin. The 11 point lead he had on Day 1 was more than enough as he maintained his lead on the final round to win the "Cup" with his overnight lead intact.
Steve Reynolds (who else!) came second overall with 69 points proving yet again that he is the best loser!
A few mentions
Paul Stammers deserves a mention for keeping going despite terrible problems with his putting which resulted in him doing a crazy dance of frustration each time he missed yet another put.
Roger Gibbs also deserves a special mention for being super supportive of Martin Lythgoe on Sunday despite having spent the day with him in the zone. Also worth a mention is Roger's ability to hit the hole without going in. At least 5 lip outs and 1 bounce out by my count. After the bounce out he took out the flag but still lipped out. On day 2 he managed as many lip outs on one hole so to say Roger get's a bit lippy on tour has a whole new meaning.
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