Christmas Cup 2023 - 16 December

 

The Christmas cup this year took place on Saturday 16 December 2023. As usual the victor from the previous year had the honour of organising the competition and for the second year in a row Paul had the privilege. He had blagged the date straight after the previous year's competition and was super organised gathering the monies, collecting the orders for food and preparing the prize envelopes. 

The weather was much kinder than previous years with receptive greens and fairways (if somewhat muddy) warm conditions and no wind or rain forecast. 

The result was some reasonable scores with 92.7 gross average and 30.86 stableford average. 

There were 5 birdies: Paul Gardner (14 and 17) Tony Froud (3) Pete Laurence (14) and James Miller (9) Well done gents

Paul started the day really strong and was 1 over after 4 holes. He then got a little worried that he might win the event again making it 3 in a row but most importantly having to organise next year's competition. He eased off from 5 onwards and was content with a steady 18 front 9. Yours truly was snapping at his heals on the turn despite a lost ball on the second and 3 one pointers I was beating his front 9 on countback. I pulled ahead a few shots from 10-13 scoring 10 points on 4 holes and was thinking I could have an awkward situation on my hands of having to organise next year's competition without being able to take part. I need not have feared, Paul found the bottom of the 14th green and putted a 25ft put up the hill which rattled into the hole, bringing him within a point of me. I kept calm and kept Paul at bay until the 17th where he decided to shoot a nearest the pin contended for the provisional NTP hole. He putted out for a 4 pointer which put him a point in front which took us down the 18th with all to play for. We both hit solid drives leaving about 100 yards into the pin. Paul put his on the top part of the green but I overshot the green leaving a tricky chip/put. I needed a birdie in the end to steal the win but only overshot the chip and left myself a 2 put. Paul sealed the victory with a par, winning with 40 points to my 38 points. 

There were other good rounds in play. Steve Brewerton, Coenraad, Roger Gibbs and Tony Froud all shot 20 points on the front 9 but couldn't quite match the points being scored by Paul and I on the back 9. Steve Brewerton was 2 over after 6 holes but wobbled after a terrible tee shot on 7 and couldn't quite get back to the form of the first 6 holes. Coenraad could've taken victory were it not for a blob on the 16th hole. Roger Gibbs, we know from last year, prefers to focus on 9 holes and Tony is just unlucky. 

So the honours go to: Paul Gardner (1st) Brian Geddes (2nd) Roger Gibbs (Front 9) Roger Small (Back 9) 

The Nearest the pin on 3 went to Lucky TonE 

The Longest Drive on 5 went to James Miller, Paul Gardner had his name on the board first but was confident it wouldn't stand.

Nearest the Pin in 2 on 18 went to James Miller. I think PG was also first on this board.

Paul got Nearest the pin on 17 but there was no prize. He took the board away so James didn't have a chance to bump Paul off this board.

Well done to all the winners and a special thankyou to Paul Gardner for organising the 2022, 2023 and 2024 Christmas Cup, perhaps we should rename the cup to the PG Cup? We could also get a new Trophy and let Paul keep the current one. I've included a couple of suggestions below. 





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