Hello everyone,
It's been a frantic week of excitement, thrills and spills in the Mitchell household - more on this later...
Ladies played in the Bowmaker at the end of September, the winners being Alyson Matthews, Barbara Wrigley and Di Sayner. In second place were Claire Fairman, Di Ouzman and Gerry Badger. Well done Ladies.
The October Medal was again well supported and the winner of division one was Martin Birdsall, with Greg Gough in second and Stephen Last in third. Division two winner was Oliver Pomphrey with Martin MacBlain in second and Andy Bamford in third place. Brilliant golf guys.
The summer knockout finals have been taking place over the last couple of weekends and the winners are as follows:
In the summer four ball finals, Ian Roberts and Steve Cocks were beaten by Rich Parry and Jack Davies.
The New Zealand Trophy was won by
Dez Gullford and
Nigel Cheeseright who beat opponents
Peter Simpson and
Dan Keen over 36 holes.
The summer Singles final took place last Sunday, with
Luke Spalding and
Andy Hawkins going head to head over the 36 holes. The winner in an extremely tight match was
Andy Hawkins, winning by just one shot.
Many congratulations to all our winners - looking forward to the winter series now.
Photos courtesy of
Bob Bennett Photography.
So now we move on to Academy News
This week I will be handing over to Paul for his report on this week's fun and games at the Ryder Cup.
It has been an incredible week at Hazeltine. The course was in immaculate condition, the crowds ready for the spectacle. In readiness for the week away, Chris and I were interviewed by ITV West which many of you may have seen. For those who missed it,
click here to watch the full interview.
The whole team, coaches, caddies and families caught a charter Virgin Airways plane directly to Minnesota and from there it was business as usual. Every day Chris played a fourball practice round, and on the Tuesday he played with Rory, Andy Sullivan and Thomas Pieters. Chris was very driven from the start and as you can imagine, we were very upset to hear he would not be playing on the Friday. As he is a consummate professional, he simply practised in readiness for the next day followed by a trek around the final holes to watch and support his fellow team members.
Saturday came and Chris played his first Ryder Cup match with Justin Rose in the morning foursomes. Chris was very steady throughout the round and was two up with three to play. To my surprise, Justin decided to go for the green on the par five with the water surrounding the flag and pull his 250 yard three wood into the drink. Opponents Zach Johnson laid up to short of the hazard and Jimmy Walker hit a fantastic pitch to set up a birdie for team USA. Although Chris pitched the ball close to the hole with Justin holing the putt for a par, Zach managed to make the birdie putt to win the hole. It now required a nervy iron shot to the par three seventeenth green, but Justin hit a beautiful shot, over the water hazard to apply pressure to Walker and Johnson. A two putt was good enough to win their match.
What a draw in the final round against the huge hitting American Dustin Johnson, and the first tee had an amazing atmosphere, especially as there was a group of European supporters called
'The Guardians'.
One of the members of the singing group is a nephew of one of our members, David Riddiford.
Click here to check out the Chris Wood song.
I have never seen the golf ball being hit as high and as far as that before. Chris birdied the first three holes and took a one up lead before failing to get up and down from the greenside bunker at the forth. At all square standing on the drive able fifth hole, Chris hit a beautiful driver straight down the flag to apply pressure to Dustin's tee shot. Dustin then blocked his tee shot to the right hand side of the green and failed to get up and down for a birdie. Chris calmly two putted from 30 feet for a birdie to once again take a one up lead.
Both players struggled down the long par five sixth, but Dustin gained a hole back by holing an outrageous 70 foot putt for another birdie to get the match back to all square.
A brave hole saving bogey putt after finding Hazeltine Lake at the seventh kept the match at all square, but Johnson then birdied the eighth and tenth to take a two up lead.
Dustin's power game is incredible and he managed to find the putting surface in two shots at the par five eleventh hole, and ominously Chris looked as if he was going to go three down. Chris then played the shot of the day from over the back of the green. A twenty five yard high pitch out of the rough and up over a hill. I've seen Chris play these beautifully in my sleep and he produced a brilliant shot which found the bottom of the cup. You can imagine we went slightly wild at the side of the green and Dustin left himself a six footer to halve the hole which he cooly made to stay two up.
Chris' putts continued to skim by the hole to Dustin's delight whilst his putts found the hole. Even though Chris knew on the seventeenth green that Europe had lost the Ryder Cup, he almost snuck a half in his match at the last.
An excellent individual performance by Chris in his first Ryder Cup. What a week.
Click here to view 2 video's I took of the crowds at Hazeltine, and Chris teeing off on his practice day.
Back to the Academy
Here at the Academy, we are starting to wind down the activities for the winter. I am still working on the GolfMark, which we will need to continue our work with the Golf Foundation, and I will let you all know how we get on. I am so grateful to have such an awesome County Development Officer,
Debbie Casling. She is a great mentor and a brilliant support to me - thanks Debs.
This week, as the temperature has dropped, the boys have moved into their winter uniform - don't they look lovely?
I wish you all a great week,
Caren, Paul, Andy and
Nick
