Sparta golf society

President's Day: Woking GC, 1 June 2010

For our second meeting of the year, President’s Day, we ventured to Woking Golf Club. The Club was founded in 1893 on an area of open heathland and has since matured into a testing inland links.

The holes are laid out on a low plateau and a hillside leading down to an area of lower land. Excellent use has been made of the gently undulating topography. The course is characterised by long carries over heather to narrow, tree lined, fast running fairways and beautifully sculptured greens full of character and deceptive slopes.

The day started overcast and this soon turned to drizzle and then persistent rain which made the going tough. However this did not deter Len Kirton and Will Donaldson who both scored an excellent 37 points in the morning singles for the President's Tankard. Will took the prize on count back over the last 6 holes with 14 points to Len's 12.

The morning was also the second leg of the Lovell Salver with the first leg having been played at the Autumn Meeting at Mannings Heath. There Kevin Ryan, Geoff Dawe and James Manning had scored 40, 39 and 38 points respectively, making the competition and three horse race. Geoff was the first to stumble, recording only 23 points here at Woking, whilst James put up a respectable 31 points. But Kevin hung on

recording 30 points on the day to take the title with a total of 70 points.

This was special day for Kevin in more ways than one. It was his and his wife's 25th Wedding anniversary!

In the afternoon, at first it seemed the rain had abated for the day, but later in the round it returned which put paid to some members rounds. Luckily for Will Donaldson and Mark Hitchen who were first out as a two-ball, they missed the worst of the weather and recorded an outstanding 47 points to take the afternoon better-ball competition for the Pepler Cup by a clear 5 points.

President Owen Hydes gave two special prizes on the day - the first was for the best total score recorded on par-3's and par-5's and this went to Peter Millard. He also gave a consolation prize to Phil Ryan who recorded the most blobs on her card.

The longest drive prize was taken by Darren Cooper whilst the President himself took the nearest the pin prize.

Despite the weather, everyone agreed that Woking was an excellent course although comments were made about the stroke indexes where members found the two apparently hardest holes much easier than others on the course. Indeed the general consensus was that the 9th - a sharp dogleg with an uphill approach to the green - was probably the most difficult hole on the course.

Between them, the 6th (SI 1) and 12th (SI 2) gave up 3 net eagles on the day. In total, members excelled themselves with a total of 10 net eagles in the morning singles. Further stats can be found on the 'Statistics' page under Results where scores on par-3 and net birdies and well as eagles are recorded.