Occasional heavy showers failed to dampen the spirits of Brean Golf Club members as they joined together to celebrate the 2023 Captains Day on Sunday (July 9th).
Club Captain Gordy Wheelaghan, alongside Ladies captain Bev Cranley and Seniors Captain Ian Rogers, led the day, which consisted of an 18-hole medal for the Captain’s Cups with a nine-hole cross country scramble in the afternoon.
In the Men’s Captain’s Cup, Carl Ashley was the winner after producing a superb nett 63 despite encountering some of the heaviest rain of the morning to secure the silverware and top prize in Division Two. This was one better than Barry Fellows who also made light of the damp conditions to post a nett 64 on his way to topping the Division One scorecharts.
Four players posted nett 65’s including Division Three winner Jimmy Quigley, lowest gross winner Leighton Jenkins, Matt Haskins and Dan Hollyhead who was making his competitive debut but just lost out to Quigley on countback. Steve Eley, Mats Mattsson and Pete Dunn finished third in the First, Second and Third Divisions respectively.
In the Ladies event it was Lyn Bird who retained the Lady Captains Cup. Her nett score of 71 was enough to keep the silverware that she won in 2022 as she held a two stroke advantage over runner up Joan Maxwell.
After brunch was served for the players in the Country Club it was back out onto the course for them but not quite as they knew it. As always, PGA Pro Andrew March had devised an alternative route for them to play over 9 holes in a Scramble format but with only two clubs and a putter permitted for each player.
The winning trio of Clive Goode, Dave Glasby and Phil Barry made a superb birdie three on the final hole to take the win with a nett score of 27.9 over the 9 holes. Second spot had to be decided by a countback and winning that position over the last 6 holes was Club Captain Gordy Wheelaghan alongside Chris Fairchild and Richard Fairchild. It was Wheelaghan’s Seniors counterpart Ian Rogers who lost out in the countback and ended up third with his partners Barry Fellows and Steve Hill.
At the Presentation, Captain Wheelaghan thanked all the members and the staff of the Country Club and Leisure Park for their support in making the day a memorable one. He shared that the Captains Charity fund has also been topped up by around £600 on the day thanks to a successful raffle run by Sally, Sheila and Val along with various donations from the members.
Roger Broom produced the stand out round of Sunday’s July Monthly Stableford. He was the only player to surpass the 40 point barrier and he sailed past that mark by some distance as he recorded an excellent 44 point scorecard. This gave him the honours in Division Three ending the day 7 points ahead of Jimmy Quigley, who continued his steady form of late. Steve Barker was third on 36.
Kevin Griffiths was ‘top dog’ in Division Two with 39 points as he held a two point advantage over runner up Steve Mason. Mason in turn was one ahead of Dave Mann who placed third. It was a weekend double win in Division One for Barry Fellows. After leading the way in the top flight on Captains Day he again posted a winning score of 38 points 24hrs later. The only countback of the day was required for the runners up spot as Dave Porter edged out Tom Lonsdale for the second place prize.
With Brean Golf Club celebrating their Golden Jubilee in 2023, the Seniors section of the club chose to mark the occasion with a special event the commemorate the landmark. The first Tuesday in July was the date set by the Seniors Committee and a pairs betterball format selected to include both Seniors of the club and their guests. Entry levels were high but the good old British weather decided to throw some wet weather at the players during the morning on the course. Over 30 pairs set out to decide the winners and despite the indifferent weather scoring remained very good.
The event was split into two categories with prizes for all members pairings and those including one member and a guest. Best score of the day not surprisingly came from the all Brean partnerships with Tony Spencer and Tim Amy teaming up to take the win. This time last week both were without partners due to their original team mates dropping out so they were paired together and it worked perfectly.
Spencer did the bulk of the damage in the winning 49 point return but was ably assisted when required by Seniors Captain Elect Amy. They won by one from Tony Oliver and Mats Mattson with Barry Roe and Tony McCann winning a countback for third on 47.
In the Member Guest category former Member Alan Marshall teamed up with Ian Adams. Marshall who now plays his golf at Tall Pines showed he hadn’t forgotten the best way around the Brean course as the duo accumulated 48 stableford points which gave them a 4 point cushion over the runners up John Cranley and Ian Hoskin (Maxstoke Park).
