Gloucestershire Golf Union
ENGLISH MEN'S COUNTY FINALS
HERE WE GO!!!!
WEDNESDAY WARM UP
..... and so we begin our amazing few days, here at the English Men's County Finals at St Enodoc GC, Cornwall where the first arrivals are preparing for the task ahead!
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Thanks to Scott Readman Concepts for providing our GGU headcovers. | Captain chills out before the games begin! | Teapots on tour! | Juggler Tockers |
THURSDAY - PRACTISE DAY
A beautiful start to the practise day,very chilly out of the sun but really warm in it, with a chilly breeze at times. Perfect weather for golf!
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| Just a 'birdie' looking for some 'chips' | Secretary says his prayers in the morning | The pacing starts! | Always good to keep in with the Refs - welcome Adrian | Tockers Eagles the 4th after this T shot on the practise day or all days!! | Tockers to Captain 'You did put me on the team sheet didn't you?' |
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| Kit inspection! Sec not happy with this one!! | Nice to catch up with Scott Davidson, former Glos player and Captain and Chris Mitchell, Glos player and Walker Cup player. | What's in the bag? | Jake: 'did you see those photos I sent to Debs?' | Ready to go! | Are you sure it's left to right? |
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DAY ONE - FRIDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER - GLOUCESTERSHIRE 4 - LEICESTERSHIRE & RUTLAND 5
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ENGLAND GOLF DAY ONE ROUND UP - HERE
Quotes of the day
Ash Millington - This putter is red hot this afternoon and he stormed his win home – 5 & 4
Neil Tocknell - …that cheese cake brownie with plant cream was to die for ( a special gluten free version by our chef’s wife – extraordinary pudding maker!)
Shots of the day
Sam Sullivan - Hole 7 – pitch shot to 6 ft - Hole 8 – tee shot into 4 ft - Hole 11 – 239 par 3 – 5 iron to 30ft and sank the putt
Ash Millington - Hole 10 - Boxed a 35 ft putt
Special mentions
Big shout out to Tom Motley for joining the team over the last 3 days. Sorry to see you go back Tom and thanks for all your input!
Big shout out to the fantastic team at St Enodoc who are working tirelessly to ensure the county teams and officials are having THE best experience at their club. Thanks Team St Enodoc! You are all amazing!
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| A BIG shout out to all the St Enodoc Volunteers for looking after us all. | A final briefing between Sec and Chief Ref before we get underway | Some final prep! | Leading the way today our youngest pairing - Ash and Louis - play well lads! | Come on Caddy keep up! | |
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| Ash leads the Singles play for the afternoon | The 'Green Army' supporters gather | BELOW - Former Gloucestershire players, Chris Mitchell and Scott Davidson supporting us – great to see you both, guys! | |||
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DAY TWO - SATURDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER - GLOUCESTERSHIRE 6 - LANCASHIRE 3
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ENGLAND GOLF DAY TWO ROUND UP - HERE
Shots of the day
Ash Millington - Hole 4 - Pin high, left off the tee – ball ran up the wall (out of bounds the other side), stopped briefly at the top, ran back down the wall and duly rolled into the hole, for two
Mitch Waite - Hole 5 - Chipped in from 10 yards in the swell
Nick Day - Hole 6 - 20 feet putt for a birdie, to halve the hole, following his opponent who holed a putt from 25 feet
Mitch Waite - Hole 15 - 6 iron in, out of the left and hit it to one foot
Highlight of the day
The sight of all the players, supporters and officials heading up the 18th fairway, back to the clubhouse, after the morning foursomes win – such great team spirit! (seen in the pictures below)
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| Gloucestershire return to the Clubhouse for lunch after a successful morning! |
DAY THREE - SUNDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER - GLOUCESTERSHIRE 2.5 - KENT 6.5
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ENGLAND GOLF DAY TWO ROUND UP - HERE
Shots of the day
Jake Phillips/Nick Day - Hole 9 - Nick had a 50 feet putt, uphill across the green, which came up 20 feet short. Jake then holed a left to right boomerang, for the half, and gave a fist pump in delight
Mitch Waite - Hole 10 - Hooked into the penalty area. Took a drop and hit a blind shot over the trees which hit the flag and landed 10 feet from the pin
Louis Ross - Hole 13 - topped it off the tee into a fence on the left hand side. Ash Millington spanked a 4 iron 240 yards, uphill, onto the left hand side of the green
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Thanks to Dial Marketing Leisure (James Webber and team)for the supply of kit and to our youngest supporter Mia.
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| BIG SHOUT OUT to Matt & Charlotte Rodrigues from G.O.A.T. Catering for looking after us this week, as always - GGU Team Chefs! Thank guys for great good and great service and also to Raffy for great company! | |||||
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| Jake Phillips, finishing his last match - the last player on the course, still battling to put his final score on the board. | Courtesy of Leaderboard Photography | Photo courtesy of Leaderboard Photography | Jaws Takeaway Pizza - yummy!! | We will be back for you!! |
Captain’s Tournament Report
The team rocked up at St Enodoc Golf Club on Wednesday for their second unofficial practise round. All the players were eager to get onto the course. The day went well. Early preparations could make all the difference!
In Thursday’s official practise round the teamfelt the course was presented beautifully and ready for the tournament.
Day 1 – match against Leicestershire and Rutland
The morning foursomes were 2 – 1 in our favour – to be honest – it should have been 3 – 0
We took the first 2 afternoon singles and everything was looking great on the scoring front. However, it seemed in the back 4 matches, Leicestershire and Rutland had a bit of a birdiefest and took the singles 4 – 2, winning the overall match 5 – 4. A bitter disappointment for us!
Day 2 – match against Lancashire
The team dusted themselves off, from the previous day’s loss, and really took the game to Lancashire winning the morning foursomes 3 – 0. The afternoon singles were not our best start, only being up in one match through 9 holes. However, the boys dug deep, with halved matches for Ash Millington and Nick Day and great wins from Mitch Waite and Jake Phillips, giving an overall win of 6 – 3.
Day 3 – match against Kent
Despite the less than perfect start to the tournament, Gloucestershire were very much still in it. We needed to beat Kent, and Lancashire needed to beat Leicestershire and Rutland for us to take the cup. The morning foursomes didn’t quite go to plan, losing 2 – 1, with 2 matches going down 17 and 18. The afternoon singles started well and , my God, through 9 holes it was game on! The tournament truly was hotting up as Lancashire were taking it to Leicestershire and Rutland! However, pretty soon, the scoreboards started changing, in Leicestershire and Rutland’s favour, taking the wind out of Lancashire’s sails, eventually running out winners. As those scores went up on the scoreboards, we could just see our team feeling a bit downbeat – they never gave up, but no matter what they did, they couldn’t win.
I have captained the men’s teams since 2018 and I am still so immensely proud of everything they achieve. We carried out a ‘lessons learned’ from this year, putting plans in place, and we push forward to South West Week next year at Isle of Purbeck. The team, as always, are still so very hungry for success and will do all in their power to qualify for the England County Finals next year at The Caversham.
I want to say a huge, huge, thank to St Enodoc Golf Club for their incredibly warm welcome, from ALL the staff; to the greenkeepers for presenting the course in such wonderful condition; to the members for giving up their golf course and to the many fantastic volunteers who truly made a difference to the smooth running of the event, in particular, our two club liaison officers, Neil and Caroline. As always, a massive thank you to England Golf for all their hard work in running the tournament. All of these people create a wonderful environment and great atmosphere for the players to feel special and simply get on with their playing their golf.
Also, thanks to all of the Gloucestershire Golf Union’s army of supporters for travelling such a distance to give us encouragement and support.
In addition, our thanks to Dial Marketing Leisure (James Webber and team)for the supply of kit and Scott Readman Concepts for providing our GGU headcovers.
Lastly our thanks go to G.O.A. T. Catering (Matt and Charlotte Rodrigues – chefs extraordinaire!) ) for looking after us at Rachael’s accommodation in St Minver – a fantastic house for our team to relax and recharge their batteries and to Jaws Takeaway Pizza for looking after us on our final night, enjoying the Ryder Cup!
Gary Ward Captain
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