Thanks and congrats to our winner, Evan Bale

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Josh Hadden

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Derek Dreaves

After a fairly hefty drive to get to Shrigley Hall for the most of us, the day started off as you would expect – The Hadden’s turning up 5 minutes before teeing off and missing their bacon butty. Dave trying to claim a spud truck was holding him up on the road and Josh self-diagnosing gout in his foot but really, he just had a sore foot.

As we started to get the announcements of the Texas Scramble teams, I could feel the excitement and relief in myself when I knew I was teamed with Si, Frank & Wadders – what a team, what an opportunity. It was only fitting that we would come dead last with +2 score, no birdies & bogeying 2 par 3’s. Well played, lads.

After filling our boots with butties and chips we headed to the first tee to see the final tee shot our captain for the season, Steven Davies scream his drive out of bounds to get us started. My 18 hole group consisted of myself, Foodey Jnr, Frank & Derek. A great group. Frank & Derek enjoyed leisurely drive around in a buggy – zig zagging across the course whilst Foodey & I tried not to have a heart attack pushing and carrying our bags up and down the hills. As we were coming to the final holes, I was thinking to myself I am on a decent score and might win the day as I was playing the best golf I’ve ever done. We tee’d up on the 18th. Par 3 over water – lovely. Foodey telling me to swing it steady as I’ve been doing all day and I’ll hit a good score. So, I decided to shank it nearly out of bounds to rapturous laughter. Another fitting end to my 2nd round of the day. Foodey then proceeded to duff 2 tee shots in the water, followed by Derek and then Frank nearly following me nearly out of bounds.

A final score of 43 points, to win Captain’s Day and to have a great group all afternoon made the day.

It’s a great feeling knowing I’ll forever be known as Ste’s champion of 2022 and to have another major in bag. Thanks for bringing the trophy along Si..

Thanks to Ste for being the captain of the year. Everyone agreed you were boss so well done!

I’m looking forward to the next season with Josh as our captain and the next events we’ve got coming up.

See you all at Ellesmere – The Colin Davies course.

Zach.

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Zach Jones

Day 1 (Captain – USA – Steve Davies)

Captain Covid arrived to rally the troops on day 1, full of enthusiasm sporting a specially purchased USA top from Amazon, the boys seemed up for it even though half of my dream team turned up in European blue. 

I should have realised I was ill when I was encouraging Dave Hadden to hit his drive into the trees left on the first only to then realise he was on my team. 

The Foodie brothers vs the Davies seniors was on the red button, some splendid play and fist bumps from the foodies on the front 9 and it was 1 point to Europe at the turn. Col disappeared at half time, came back and played majestic, beating everyone on gross and winning the first 4 holes on his own. 1-1 the share of points. 

A big shout out to the rest of the squad for day 1, my picks worked a treat 7-3, a special mention to the Clarkey/Nelson combo, a 2-0 white wash laden with birdies and pars. 

I did the picks for day 2 from bed so I will pass over to josh to finish the write up.. USA!! Josh you owe me £50 I haven’t forgot. 

Day 2 (Vice Captain – Europe – Josh Hadden)

Going into day two my team were bruised and behind but we weren’t beaten. I woke up feeling surprisingly fresh after a fair amount of ale consumption and speaking to my teammates over breakfast the confidence was returning to us. We still had something to fight for and a few early points could change the outlook of the whole match. I set my line up and as the singles games were revealed my mindset quickly flipped and I couldn’t see us losing. We were also generously gifted the first point of the day due to captain Ste Davies being unable to play (hope you’re feeling better captain). It was 7-4 and game on. I swiftly started thinking of monikers for our comeback akin to the Miracle at Medinah. The Comeback in Crewe? The FFGS Fightback?

Sadly, that last shred of optimism didn’t last very long…

If anything, our loss was even more thorough on day two. Team USA not only underlined the first day’s score line but added a few exclamation marks for good measure. We lost the days matches 6.5-3.5 and that includes a point from the match that didn’t even start! Thank god for Phil Draper, Simon Davies and Frank McGlynn getting us something on the board. Well played chaps.

I had a personal battle with Les Hurst that went all the way to the last hole. Les played the hole perfectly almost making a gross birdie to close out the game. Well played Les. Shame you turned down the offer of playing our match play semi-final hey? We both had the joy of watching Dave Hadden and Dan Foode play out an FFGS classic in which they barely scored double figures between them for the back nine. We still managed to lose it which was a nice way to sum up our team’s weekend, cheers Dan.

As if my day couldn’t get any worse I then realised I had to announce Simon Davies as the winner of the stableford. Thanks for finally contributing to the team Si it certainly took you long enough. Hopefully we play this event again next year as I for one really enjoyed the format. I look forward to taking on whoever becomes my vice-captain. Probably not as much as they look forward to taking on me after that performance!

A final score of 13.5-6.5 and I think I have landed on that name now. The Walloping at Wychwood

Winners’ View

Never played the Ryder Cup format before but when I was partnered with Evan I thought not much could go wrong. Playing a 23 handicapper and a 15 handicapper I assumed over the course of 18 holes they would make a few mediocre shots, how wrong I was. On the front 9 I think Steve Clarke and John (Computer Game) Nelson were about 3 over gross and firmly stuffed me and Evan into the ground. I went to the restaurant to get some water and compose myself for the back 9, only to be stuffed again. Covered in sweat and with zero points to my name, I was a proud man informing Josh of our successes and ensuring we had no chance as a team. The next day after 1 hour sleep and heading back out into the oven, I was excited to play someone who would give me a chance, only to be matched against computer game Nelson again, thinking this could be very embarrassing. Watching Paul Foode 4 put from 20ft early doors in an attempt to “pile the pressure on Andy” made me relax as I wouldn’t be the only one embarrassing myself. A steady round focussing on the match play probably made me play differently and helped me win overall. Feels strange to be clapped for my win even though I lost 1 point overall for Europe, but I will take it. Josh announcing the scores like a shy school girl made me excited for his years captaincy. Thanks to Steve for organising!

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Simon Davies

Well, after a week of record breaking temperatures across the UK, 21 members plus one guest turned up at the re-arranged event at Northenden Golf Club with their sunglasses and factor 50 at the ready………..how wrong were we. The course was looking lush and green considering the lack of rainfall over the last four weeks and we all arrived at the first tee at 11.30, everyone that was except Mike Kirkland who, no matter what time the first tee is always seems to be late? This event also saw the return of the prodigal Lee Hardy making his return after a two year sabbatical.

Being in the last fourball out with Messer’s Bower, Davies Snr and Wilson Jnr it gave us the opportunity to watch the varied styles displayed by our members on the first tee – good grief! With a lovely inviting 50yd wide fairway straight ahead, it was surprising how few members found the cut stuff with most either aiming out toward the 9th green which was 45degrees to the left, or into the River Mersey on the right? Two of the days favourites Lee Hardy and Foode Jnr (who the day before had been giving large about how he was going to win and by a country mile) provided two of the most entertaining first tee shots. Lee managed to slice his 50yds into the trees on the right while Daniel, who took out his hybrid so as not to ‘run out of fairway’, managed to top the ball an impressive 15yds which dribbled off the front of the ladies tee. 

At last we got underway with grey skies starting to gather above and decided our order of play would be oldest to youngest, a method we adopted on most tees, unless Mike Bower was still in the undergrowth looking for balls. By the time we reached the 6th tee, it was like being in a version of The Full Monty with hats on, hats off, coats on, coats off, sweaters on, sweaters off and watching various umbrellas blowing around the course followed by Colin retrieving them for us as he was the sprightliest in the group!  

As we reached the turn things changed. The weather decided to turn from warm, blustery and showery to torrential. Martyn decided he quite liked the wet t-shirt look and was trying to impress the two 80yr old lady members behind us with his manly physique. Mike B went for the serial killer look turning up on the 10th tee with two black gloves on. Colin also changed, not only into his fourth coat of the round (who knew you could fit so many coats into one golf bag?) but also with a new strategy. After deciding that alternating good shots with complete duffers wasn’t working for him on the front nine, he decided to bring his A game, and went all DeChambeauesque on us hitting it longer and straighter than he had all day, finding the fairway on the majority of the back nine. To be fair Colin did find fairways on the front nine, just not the ones we happened to be playing!

As we made our way down 17 we commented about the lack of ‘FOUR RIGHT’ shouts from Hadden Snr during the day, suggesting he may be in for a big score, which was promptly followed 20seconds later by a big shout of FOUR RIGHT from said Dave Hadden as his 18th tee shot sailed onto the practice ground / M60?

Despite the typical British summer weather, a most enjoyable day, and a lot of scores over 30 points which demonstrates the high calibre of golf on display in FFGS. 

Cogratulations to Josh Hadden who won his matchplay (eventually) 7&5 over Barry Dreaves and will now face Super Les in a semi-final shoot out.

A shout out to Mark Murray (Mark McGarry to his friends) who did finish with 40points but alas, as a guest, was unable to take the coveted trophy.

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Paul Foode

“A day for the purists” is possibly the most accurate title after winning an event with 29 points! I even subconsciously tried to mark my card wrong to avoid winning just before Captains Day (at my own course!!!!).

Hurlston Hall was in fantastic condition – one of the better venues I think we’ve played – with gusty weather, long rough in places and well paced greens making scoring tricky. Flanked by 2 guests and Mike Bower, we pro actively avoided making pars after making a decent start. Mike even making the mistake of chipping in on the 4th hole for 4pts thinking it was the start of a scoring run….. it wasn’t. I spent the afternoon plodding around even hitting the occasional good shot but obviously not holing a put!

It’s a been a while since I found myself in the winners enclosure (mainly due to not playing all that often thanks to the arrival of our 2nd child) but playing good courses, in good conditions with good people (and fellow sh!t golfers!) never seems a chore! I brought two guests from my club who thoroughly enjoyed the day and liked the balance of competitiveness and fun, especially as they were reminded by 5 members on the 1st tee that they couldn’t win anything on the day – a true FFGS welcome.

Good day had by all with nearly everyone finishing on 28 pts (me too so I thought) so special thank you to Andy D for taking shots off me thanks to his advanced mathematical skills just in time for the tough challenge of Northenden Golf Club!

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Dan Witterick

Today was a very proud day of winning my first FFGS event at Stand Golf Course.

The day started with navigating my way to the club with the Foodes and avoiding the mistake of turning into Whitefield Golf Club, unlike Josh Hadden. We were greeted with good company and top draw bacon butties that Col and myself laughed over by saying ‘the day can only go down hill from here’. How wrong we were and also quite literally.

Stand golf club was a tester for your golf and your fitness with its hilly terrain. Some of the views were brilliant, like the 8th tee, which I could appreciate after catching my breath. Dave Hadden had done his research and booked a buggy ahead of arrival which turned out to be the highlight of my day. Standing with everyone at the practice area to see Dave ‘Brian Potter’ Hadden crusing over in his pimped mobility scooter.

My favourite hole of the day was the first. A short dog legged par 4 with a hidden green for more reasons than just me parring it. Whilst people deliberated the iron lay up or the tiger line driver, Dave Hadden and his group teed off in front of us. As they set off, Dave was adapting to the buggy’s controls and ended up taking the bend on almost two wheels. This caused Frank to panic and in the attempt of moving his trolley from Dave’s path, fell backwards getting out the way (no injury’s thankfully!)

I had the pleasure of being grouped with John Alyward, Mark Campbell and Evan Bale. My round had its highs and lows with 3 birdies and as many blobs. Congratulations to John on his nearest to pin and Mark on his nearest to pin in two and avoiding the spoon.

Onwards now to Hurlston with my new lowest handicap and leaving my bandit sombrero in North Manchester.