04:15AM, Liverpool John Lennon Airport Departure Lounge. A quick look to my right and it was a snapshot of years past; the same place, the same spot – the hardcore of FGGS supping Guiness for breakfast. After my customary quick hello and even quicker ciggy, I made my way to my kindred, the lightweights in Starbucks.

As usual I was looking forward to a few days of brilliant company, the usual great golf, getting away from our recent horrendous weather and getting some sun on my back. Fast forward 10 hours and I stood on the 10th tee at Salgados Golf Club completely piss wet through thinking maybe this year may be different!!

It didn’t matter though, this was just pretend golf, the real event would start the next morning at 9.30am when we were getting picked up to head to Penina, or so we thought. 10am, still no vehicles. After much discussion, ‘shall we get taxis’?, ‘should Richard start ferrying us in his hire car’?, ‘shall we just stay by the pool for the day’? (apart from Clarkey who, as usual, just dealt with it), our transport finally arrived at about 10.15. With a 30-minute drive ahead and a 10:56 tee time for Captain Les, Josh and myself, things were looking a bit tight. Josh and I jumped in a buggy, shot to the first tee and made it with about 3 minutes to spare. 10 minutes later, Les waltzed up, completely unfazed, impervious to the Portuguese course Starters angry stare and proceeded to hit the Captains Drive straight down the middle. Brilliant.

A great but very tough course. Not helped by my oversized ego, if there was water to be carried, I was going to carry it, no matter how far. The water won the battle 8 – 1. Simon (who has a much smaller ego and can also hit it a lot further than me) came in with a fantastic score of 33 to win the day, closely followed by sibling Steve with a 31, another great score and also very pleasing as my tenner was on Steve.

The evening group trip to the local Tim Tim Chinese restaurant probably gave me my highlight of the trip, The Les & John romantic banquet, they are a perfect couple, in many many ways 😂😂

Thursday took us (on time) to our first sortie to the Amendoeira resort, the Faldo course. Another fantastic course but thank god we had buggies, it went on forever. I had a fantastic day with Barry, Col and Frank. Col was a great help, he kept picking up my clubs from the side of the green and putting them in his bag, he didn’t know he was but it helped me greatly knowing I didn’t have to worry about losing a club. I got to witness my first 5 pointer with the Society, Frankie birdying the 9th with a great Drive, perfect approach to about 10ft and a wonderful putt. It was great to see. Some of the greens were like mini par 3’s front to back and extremely undulating and quite possibly a reason for the lowish scoring on the day, I managed to win it with 32 points.

The group ‘split’ into smaller groups for evening meal on Thursday, though the smaller groups nearly all ended up in the same restaurant, the Casa Do Chefe, a small Portuguese place that ‘served food with love’. It wasn’t until near the end of the night when someone noticed that it was a ‘cash only’ establishment, fortunately Col and I are still getting to grips with modern technology, so us oldies were carrying cash to sort us out. Food was amazing though.

So I was back where I was last year in El Rompido, leading going into the final day. The last two groups were fairly tightly bunched. The penultimate group of Josh, Andy, Steve and John were all capable of making a charge, and my playing partners, Si, Foodie and Campbo most definitely were. The course, the O’Connor, was outstanding again, a lot less hilly than the Faldo but with much more water. Unlike last year, I managed to find a bit of a groove early on, and was able to score 20 on the front 9. Foodie was driving the ball like a 5 handicapper, straight and long, but sadly, and I’m sure he’ll agree, was putting like a 40 handicapper. Si hit some amazing shots, including an eagle 3 on the first par 5, a monster drive and an awesome approach to about 20ft, duly sunk. Campbo was great company 🙈

In the end, I was able to hang on and secure my first society championship. The week was everything I expected it to be, brilliant company with top top blokes, great golf and wonderful weather (eventually). I’m already looking forward to defending in Tenerife next year 👍

Finally, a big shout out to Clarkey, thanks as always pal. Like I always say, we just turn up 😊

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Lee Hardy

For full schedule see; Society Championship – Albufiera

Long Drive – Lee Hardy, Simon Davies, David Dreaves

NP – Barry Dreaves, Evan Bale, Steve Clarke

NP2 – Keith Dreaves, Lee Hardy, Keith Dreaves

2’s – John Aylward

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all at the next event

….

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Andy Davies

For full schedule see; Fleetwood Golf Club

Long Drive – Mike Bower

NP – Andy Davies

NP2 -Mike Bower

2’s – John Alyward

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all at the next event

Momentous, glorious, unforgettable. All terms I would use to describe the experience of watching Simon Davies fat his three wood twenty yards off the tee on the first hole at Bolton Old Links. I truly thought my day, nay, my year had peaked at this point, but this was just the beginning of a glorious afternoon for me (glorious being the complete antithesis of the weather we endured).

I was out in the last group with Andy Davies, Dan Foode and Zach Jones so we decided to sit in the shelter of the clubhouse for as long as we could. Whilst in there I noticed some of the Dr Alister MacKenzie memorabilia. He was the famous golden age golf course architect who designed Augusta, a course we will all be watching on tv this week enjoying the masters. I’m sure they will have less players slipping around in the mud but can they honestly say they will have more fun than the FFGS contingent. Probably. The crop of players is strikingly similar though, a group of over the hill veterans and some out of their depth amateurs.

I was playing Andy in our match play and it seemed ominous on the first hole when he drove the green not once but twice with one being a ‘provisional’ (the first one was twenty feet away for eagle). I should mention that both of these balls landed whilst the previous group were still on the green. It seemed Andy was unsatisfied with taking just me down and wanted to take Frank McGlynn and Mike Bower out as well.

Andy was highly unlucky to lose a ball on the second and winning that hole eased me into the match. It was nip and tuck all the way thereafter until I managed to win a few holes in a row on the back nine to claim victory. Roll on the semi final where I will play Martyn Wilson or my Dad, I think I will be outdriven on every hole and also hear a few shouts of ‘FORE RIIIIIGGHHT!’ either way.

It was towards the end of the round I realised I might have a chance of winning the day as well as my match and a seriously lucky birdie on the temporary green seventeenth got me right into contention. Sadly, I thought my chances had gone when I three putted the last green to end one point shy of shooting my handicap. Little did I know this would eventually make victory even sweeter as it meant I edged out my Dad on countback. 

Better luck next time Dad. A glorious afternoon indeed.

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Josh Hadden

For full schedule see; Bolton Old Links Golf Club

Long Drive – Dan Foode

NP – Simon Davies

NP2 -Andy Davies

2’s – Josh Hadden

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all at the next event

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Mike Bower

For full schedule see; Pryors Hayes Golf Club

Long Drive – Martyn Wilson

NP – John Aylward

NP2 -Paul Foode

2’s – 

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all at the next event

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Andy Hanson

For full schedule see; Formby Golf Club

Long Drive – Dave Hadden

NP – Evan Bale

NP2 -Steve Stuart

2’s – Evan Bale, Barry Dreaves, Andy Hanson, Dan Witterick

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all at the next event

This was the first trip to Lancaster Golf Club for most of the society, and i must admit that I was personally impressed by the Grade 1 listed Ashton Hall which greeted us on arrival. Arriving half an hour early to witness Steve orchestrate the AGM, we all somehow headed out to warm up £50 better off. It was also fitting that Colin managed to overturn last years rule change in relation to moving balls in the fairway, only to be told that the course was employing winter rules and preferred lies.

We quickly got into our round, and with me and Lee playing steady, Col started counting the number of trees he’d hit in preference to the number of points scored. This became a running theme that resulted in 17 trees being hit throughout the round, increasing to 19 trees by the time he’d told the story for a third time, bit of embellishment there Col, tbh I think it was closer to 30! In all fairness that’s what happens when your approach to almost every shot is “I can just go over/ through those trees”, putting the 90% air theory to the test.

After 8 holes I realised that I was playing quite consistent golf, that led Lee to throw the classic “you’re driving really well” statement out there. Low and behold I topped my next drive 20 yards into the rough and followed it with a pull out of bounds; mind games from Lee reaping dividends. I managed to get back on the wagon after that and was only really concentrating on keeping my nose in front of Lee, not really considering the idea that we were in with a shout of winning.

On our return to the clubhouse, we were delighted to find a spread had been put on, only to be disappointed that it was in fact for a wedding party. I did however find Col wandering around looking confused about half an hour after we’d come in, pondering the idea of launching himself into the bouncy castle. As we greeted people into the clubhouse they were commenting on how hard they found the conditions, which were soggy underfoot, particularly in the rough; it was only then that I started thinking I might have a chance.

Les’s moment had finally come, after 17 years of waiting he had the pleasure of announcing the scores as Captain. It turns out Josh Hadden played twice with two different scores, Dave Hadden failed to submit a card (coincidence?), and Steve Waddelove managed to match his handicap by scoring 22 points (or was it 17?). At the business end of the tournament I had managed to nick the win from Zach Jones, which, following a fallow year last year, was very welcome.

The venue was also the host for the match play final between Barry Dreaves and Paul Foode, who went out in the first group accompanied by Steve C and the new Captain, Les Hurst. We were reliably informed that the match was a closely fought battle, with both players trying to hand the initiative to the other, with Barry Dreaves eventually coming out on top (or bottom whichever you choose to look at it). Congrats Barry for your second major of the season!

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Andy Davies

For full schedule see; Lancaster Golf Club

Long Drive – Matt Naylor

NP – Lee Hardy

NP2 -Josh Hadden

2’s – Zach Jones, Mark Campbell, Steve Stuart

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all at the next event

This was my first Society game since the event at Whitefield back on 4th June. Three months is a long time out, and I’d almost forgotten how good these monthly events are. I’ll try not to be so lax this year.

Firstly, thanks Steve (Clarke) for giving myself and new Captain Les a lift to the venue on the day. Arriving in plenty of time, allowed for a relaxed pre Texas scramble chat over the morning bacon butty and coffee. A whole new experience for me and for Les too, I’m sure.

So we had the scramble and my team didn’t win.

Moving swiftly on,

The main event followed a fairly hefty turkey dinner accompanied by a few early beers for some of you.

I was part of a middle order 4 ball comprising Barry, Colin and Lee. I shared a buggy with Barry. More free transport for me, and he did most of the driving, so thanks to you also Barry.

The weather was kind to us for once and the course was in really good condition. It was all set up for some high scoring and I was expecting 40 plus points would be needed to win.

I won’t burden you all with any particular incident or detail.

Let me just say, 4 to 5 hours of Society golf ensued. I’m never disappointed or surprised by anything that I see or hear when we do golf. This was no exception. Lots of low handicap banter (both on and off the course) and a good measure of high handicap golf on show as usual.

I say never surprised, but I really never thought I’d win a monthly event again, so I’m made up to win Captains Day. That said I only held the trophy for Les’s photo shot of myself being awarded the trophy from our outgoing Captain Josh, before Barry took it back, threw it into a plazzy bag, scrurried out to Micky B’s awaiting car and sped off home. It was like witnessing a heist. Oh well, my moment in the spotlight was good while it lasted!

Big thanks to Josh for being a great captain this last year. Good luck to Les our new captain for the year ahead. Thanks also to Steve C, Barry, Micky B, Andy D and their fellow cat herders for all the planning and organising they do throughout the year.

Finally, Can I just give mention to Phil Woods who sadly left us this year. A complete one off of a fella who had a unique outlook of the world around him. I for one will miss him for his razor sharp wit, lethal put downs, scornful facial expressions, but genuine honesty, warmth and good heartedness.

All the best Phil

As for the rest of you. See you next month at Lancaster.

John A.

Thanks and congrats to our winner, John Aylward

For full schedule see; Captains’ Day – Crompton and Royton Golf Club

Long Drive – Simon Davies

NP – Andy Davies

NP2 -Dave Hadden

2’s – Andy Davies

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all next month

After struggling to get the numbers for this years Ryder Cup, the event reminded everyone of what we could be missing if that proves to be the case. 

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Steve Davies

For full schedule see; Hawkstone Park Golf Club

Long Drive – Evan Bale

NP – Mark Murray

NP2 -Lee Hardy

2’s – Andy Davies

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all next month

All hail the intrepid 16 who made it to God’s own country.  

 What a roller coaster of a course; the 15th must be golf’s version of Oblivion at Alton Towers. Hitting the fairway was one thing, keeping it there on some of the slopes was something else. On top of all that, the mild gale that persisted all day made the course ‘challenging’ to say the least. 

 Early warning was provided on the first with many being confused about which green we were aiming for. Safe to say some would have been better of aiming for the wrong one. Hitting a 10mm target from 150yds seems a tall order but Mr Bower managed it when he hit the telephone wire going across the second; this was followed by another ‘Frank’ moment on what I thought was the third. And so it continued, every hole served up a list of surprises with blind shots, cliff edge drops and crippling rough. It didn’t help that on one hole the wind was so strong it blew the flag out and we had to guess where we were heading. 

 At least we stayed dry and we only managed to hit one building the whole day. Thanks to Colin, Andy and Mike for their company on what I think everybody would agree was a memorable day. 

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Evan Bale

For full schedule see; Llanymynech

Long Drive – Josh Hadden

NP – Evan Bale

NP2 -Matt Naylor

2’s – Si Davies

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all on the 12th of August at Hawkstone Park