Mottram Hall – Captains Day

And so we gathered at Mottam Hall for the final event of the 2023-24 Season. However, there were two things missing, the sunshine and our Captain Les, who must have a friend at the met office, saw the forecast and decided to book a holiday abroad instead of attending his own swansong as Captain!

With a surprisingly low turnout amongst the members, it was lucky that Dan Witterick brought his posse of chums to make up the numbers.

The day commenced with a 9 hole Scramble in some light drizzle, which was probably the most consistent thing in our team during the morning, and after starting with a birdie on the first, that was as good as it got. I have to give John Aylward credit as a man who thrives under pressure. As we walked off the 7th green we still hadn’t used one of John’s drives (his previous 7 had been rubbish!), so to stand on the 8th & 9th tee’s and hit his two best drives of the morning was really good to see.

Congratulations to Dan Foode, Steve Doran, Steve Davies and Dan Witterick for their comfortable win in the Scramble event.

Lunch of sandwiches & chips was served in the clubhouse, which was resembling a Chinese Laundry with the amount of wet clothing hanging around in there. John Nelson thought it would be a good idea to get his clubs out of the rain and put them in the boot of his car, only to realise his car keys were in the bag and he managed to lock golf bag and car keys in the car. Not one of Nello’s better days I suspect?

So to the afternoon’s main event and I was in the final group out with Colin, Martyn & Nick. As we got underway still in the relentless rain with wet grips, wet gloves, wet clothes and starting to feel the wind chill, we all expected it to be a testing round. Colin and I could only stare in admiration as Nick and Martyn smashed some lengthy tee shots not only down the fairway, but also into the trees, the rough and possibly off the course altogether whilst Colin and I just plodded down the fairways about 70-100yds behind them. I did think Martyn was in with a shout of winning until the chipping demons decided to get a hold of him and take away his chance of glory. Coming in with a score of 33 I didn’t think I would be in the running, let alone top the leaderboard. Well done to all who attended in very challenging conditions and I hope your vehicles smelled better than mine on the return journey!

A good day spoilt only by the weather and Les probably being the first FFGS captain to miss his own event!