Match Report: 2018 Spittle Shield

As provided by Bruce about three hours before the deadline for losing a stroke…updated because he didn’t know who won the shark, but apart from that, a nice job

The 2018 season opener will certainly be remembered but unfortunately not just for some quality golf. “A fiasco”, “Shocking” and “Shambles” were just a few of the comments after the event. There was no Green Jacket, no stein and no dog! Even as I write this I find it hard to understand how the winner of the Green Jacket, Mike, could forget to wear it to the season opener. It is a privilege to wear the green and that should never be forgotten. As for the stein and dog this seems to be a pattern and as a society we need to make sure all assets are return to the appropriate event. Surely that’s not too hard to ask?

Then we have the “Lost Scorecard” and I am happy to hold my hands up as this was my fault. I was marking a card for Mike and myself but on the 12^th green I realised that I have drop the card but didn’t have time to go back and look for it as I didn’t want to slow play up. Luckily for me I keep my score on my phone app but it meant Mike couldn’t hand a full card in. It was decided that as I could still hand a score card in my round counted but Mike’s wouldn’t. Sorry Mike. Maybe its time we all start marking cards?

So, to the actual golf. Our sponsor for the tournament was Noz and for the 2^nd year in a row he took us back to the Forest of Arden and managed to pick a great day for it, even if it was freezing. We had 12 entries with two new members, Jon Moreton and Jay Mollison, welcome to the WHV golf society we hope to see you at as many events as possible. As per tradition the 2017 Order of Merit Winner (Me) got us underway with the Spoon. Some might have buckled at the pressure but no not me as I sweetly stuck it over 200 yards right down the centre. To be honest, that was the best of my golf in the front 9, a part from the majestic birdie at the 3^rd, as I turned with 13 points. At which point we heard that Dougal, Donk and Noz were all on 18ish points. Surely the winner would have to come from one of those three as we went to the notorious hard back 9. But that wasn’t to be the case as a subline 21 points of the back nice and another sensational birdie at the par five 17^th took the win from Donk in second place and Dougal in third. The other winners were The Cat, longest Drive (Dog), Boyce, nearest the Pin (Shark) and Gregs, sponsors nearest the pin.

I must admit it was nice to get back to winning ways after a long stretch of not winning and more importantly taking back the top spot for number of wins on tour.

Overall, thanks Noz for another great day, good to see everyone and let’s hope things can only get better from here. Hopefully see you all on the 25^th March for the TD Memorial.