The Braime Trophy

The Braime Trophy on Saturday was again played in tough conditions with the CSS going out to 77. You had to feel slightly sorry for David Houlding having scored a gross 68 nett 70 off his +2 handicap to be pipped by playing partner Marcus Shepherd on the back nine. 

Well done to them both, Marcus now looking at scratch handicap at 0.9 and David a whisker off +3. 

Another good score from Richard Brown who with an exceptional score reduction has reached single figures - no mean feat in his 70th year! Richard is obviously being motivated by his good friend Geoff Mortimer who is also down to 8.5 handicap. Richard has moved into 2nd place on the aggregate behind Philip Murtagh, with Marcus's -7 moving him to tied third.

1. Philip Murtagh -10, 2. R N Brown -8, 3. M East -7, 3. M Shepherd -7, 5. N M Webster -6, 6. T P Kirwin -5, 7. G C Etherington -1

 

I was lucky enough to be at Royal Troon for the climax of what must be the best golf played in the final round of The Open ever. 

Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson were outstanding, Stenson could quite easily have shot 60, the commentators kept mentioning the "Duel in the sun" from 1977 between Nicklaus and Watson, which I do remember as Jack was by boyhood hero, Jack came out on social media saying, 

"I thought we played great and had a wonderful match. On that day, Tom got me, 65-66. Our final round was really good, but theirs was even better. What a great match." 

If Jack thinks it was the best ever that will do for me. 

Spare a thought for Mickelson, his -17 total would have won 140 of the last 144 Open's!

Just a thought for October - what odds on Darren Clarke and Davis Love arranging the singles at The Ryder Cup at Hazeltine so that Mickleson plays Stenson again! - That I would like to see. 

A lot was said when the BBC lost out to Sky to screen The Open, as a golf fan the coverage from the Monday before till after the event far outweighed anything that BBC could produce. 

From The Open Zone on the range to cameras in the bunkers and zip lines with cameras on the postage stamp and the range it truly was a different level of coverage. The highlights package that the BBC put on did attract 1.5 million viewers, with over 1.1 million watching on Sky, quite a bit down on the number that watched last year's final round. 

If the money that Sky have paid to the R&A is used wisely hopefully this will help grow the game - time will only tell, all I know is the game hasn't been growing when it was on the BBC exclusively so we'll have to wait and see. 

R&A Trophy - This Saturday

It's R&A trophy on Saturday which is a four ball better ball competition and there are a couple of three balls on the sheet so if you want to take advantage of this great bit of weather call the shop and we will book you down.