Darren Ramowski (27)
Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

Golfscoretracker North v South - 17th Feb 2007

Eventually after 8 weeks of preparation, discussion and friendly banter on the society message board, the time had come for the long awaited North v South match play competition at Hellidon Lakes.

All 32 competitors arrived early on a very foggy Saturday morning eager and ready for the game ahead. On arrival everyone received a GST goody bag containing rations to help them on the round; Water, Crisps and Marathon and started off with coffee and brandy followed by bacon rolls.  A few sensible golfers abstained from the brandy, given the fog on the course and felt a clear head was required.  Thankfully 20 minutes before tee off the fog cleared and we were left with a clear day of golf ahead.

The respective Captains for the South and North, Colin Astbury and Richard Eadsforth, took the honour of teeing off first with the South taking the team honours.  The South set off well with a good first drive on the reduced first hole, thanks to winter greens, but things did not look good for the North with Richard skying his first drive and landing short of the red tee by 5 yards.   Needless to say the banter commenced and this included Richard?s own team giving him a bit of stick.  Thankfully the North won the first hole and continued to plod through with the results despite some fantastic drives by Simon Overland and the short game play of Colin winning 6 and 5.

Team 2, where most of the banter had come from pre match did not disappointment, keeping a very close match throughout and the South winning 1 up.  Team 3 had some very low handicappers for the South and this was seen as one of the tougher matches for the North but after winning the first hole they kept the North kept their lead throughout and won 3 and 1.  Team 4, was again another close competition with only 1 hole in it throughout until the 17^th when the South went 1 up.  The 18^th was a shot par 3 over water and was also the nearest the pin hole for the day.  Despite this Lorna Nicholls sank a putt on the 18^th to halve the match for the North.

By this time the results were coming and seeing the North starting to move ahead which meant Rich started to feel a slight confidence.  Next in the 5^th group was won by the North 1 up despite the South team amassing 10 stableford points more than the North but I suppose this is match play.  This meant from the 3 remaining games the North required half a point to draw the overall match.  Group 5 came in and again the North had taken the 1^st hole and continued a steady winning streak to win 5 and 4.  And that was it all over for the South; the North now had a 4 ? to 1 ? lead with 2 groups left to come in.

By now the fog had begun to come back in and it must have been tough going for the final 2 groups still out on the last 2 holes. Group 7 came in and their match had also been a closely thought battle with the lead swinging between the teams but with the North holding for victory 3 and 1.  At last we could all see Group 8 on the final tee from the clubhouse, just about given the fog, and their match came down to the very last hole.  Kevin Swain hit a fantastic tee shot and landed within a few feet of the pin, which also saw him take the nearest the pin, and holed out for par and a win 1 up for the North.

After a great day of golf in some tricky conditions the North romped home with a 6 1/2 to 1 1/2 win and ready for the rematch.  Full results can be found here showing where the game was won or lost.

All in all the day was enjoyed by all and the rematch will be eagerly waited for.  More photos can be seen here.

Given the time of the year the course was reasonable, the front 9 played off some winter greens and the conditions were very wet and muddy which made the round long and the terrain tough go.  The back 9 played off normal greens which surprisingly were in relatively good condition and couldn?t really be compared to the front 9.

Finally, big thanks to the club itself and Phil, Rich and Andy for helping me on the day and thanks also to Rich and Col for taking on the mantle of team captains and to the South for offering the challenge in the first place.

Slideshow 1 of all photos

Slideshow 2 of all photos