Bowood Away Days

 Bowood Away Days... Sunday 30th March

Sunday dawned early (the clocks had changed!) and bright! Beautiful sunshine accompanied us on the drive up to Bowood where we all met in the bar area for coffee and maybe a snack before we had a little putt on the interesting putting green, teeing off at 11.10!

Putting green with a challenging slope!

It was so lovely to meet up with folk we hadn't seen for a while especially to have Val with us. 

The bear overseeing the first! 

The course was opened in 1992, built on what was the oldest Deer Park in the West Country! 

Several of us had either only played the course once or never played it so the first round was a learning or reminding process! It's a long course, big fairways, lots of space, many bunkers and lots of water!

All three balls on the green on the par 3 2nd!

What a fabulous course it is - and in super condition. We all struggled a bit with the pace of the greens either too long or too short but we had some great scores in...notably from Sue S who carded 42 points!

From the third fairway looking back at the second green.

The course is long, with many trees, ponds and primroses! Sometimes we were closer to these than we would have liked!

Sometimes we were even in them!!!

There are many holes with doglegs and it was not impossible to be  heading in the wrong direction ...we knew better the following day!

15th looking back towards the tee

The water on the 15th collected one of my balls...we kept a record of such lost balls of course and all had a go at guessing how many would vanish from our lives...  the winner was Lyn who had the closest guess of 27...we in fact only lost 22 balls this year!

The wind was chilly but it was lovely to sit outside in the sun for a while as everyone came in.

Later we all met in Hils' room for pre-dinner drinks

Lovely to have Tonia with us this year!

Then we headed down for our evening meal... we ate in the bar area as they had been so busy with Mother's Day!

All I'm going to say is that Sue - our star player of the day - got very cold and we needed to wrap her in a shawl to stay warm... what happens on tour...stays on tour!

Monday

We woke to an even better day - blue sky, sunshine and hardly any wind!

The first tee shot of Monday!

It really was glorious again...this is a fabulous course!

2nd green

5th fairway!

Sometimes we were lucky...like this shot which fortunately did not go in the water!

Sometimes the marker posts got in the way...or this happened!

Silly billy!

There were some fabulous shadows...

...and the trees are largely still bare though there were swelling buds.

Heading up the 18th

Once we were all finished we had a snack and some drinks outside...this time it was much warmer without the wind...and we all caught the sun!

Who is hiding behind the umbrella?

There she is!!

Once again we met up for drinks at Hils and then down for presentation of the prizes from both days!

From Sunday...nearest the pin on the 2nd and longest drive on the 7th were won by yours truly!

 Hilary had arranged for Hidden Pairs on the first day... in third place were Val and Lindsay

3rd Place

In second place were Fran and Sue...

2nd Place

And in first place because of Sue's amazing 42 points...were Sue and Ruth!

On to the prizes from the Monday... longest drive on the 7th was Fi...

...and nearest the pin in two on the 6th was Hils!

For the individual trophy we had to use countback to decide 3rd and 4th...with Fran in fourth place with 34 points...

In third also with 34 points was Fi!

In second place with a fabulous 38 points was Lindsay!

2nd place

Our winner was Lyn with a superb 41 points! Well played Lyn...fantastic!

What an absolutely fabulous weekend we had!

Huge thanks to Hils for all the planning; to mother nature for the weather; to Di for coming and joining us on the Monday afternoon to process the cards and to everyone for making the weekend so much fun...

Thursday 27th Front 9

 Triple Countback!

There were 8 ladies who were able to play on Thursday morning - playing the new Front 9 and we needed countback three times to split them all up!

Two ladies on 15 points; two on 14 and two more on 13! There must be something in the water!!!

In third place beating Sue D on countback, both with 14 points was Lindsay.

In second place was Lyn who was beaten to first place by Frieda, both with 15! Well done all! It was a very grey day...and damp at times...but the forecast is good for our away days!

No show!

Flag

Saturday 22nd March was supposed to be our Flag competition.

A flag is when we add the par of the course (now 70) to our course handicap and we play until we have used up all our shots. The person who goes furthest is the winner. 

We usually record where we stopped on our card...eg left hand bunker on the 17th and then mark it on a map when we come in.

But...we had heavy rain on Friday and it continued on Saturday! Several of us met up for coffee at the Club instead and had a good natter and reminisce about old away weekends...maybe we'll play Flag another day.

Thursday 20th March

 The New Back Nine

Thursday 20th saw 13 of us playing the new back nine, twelve in the competition.

It was lovely to have Carolyn playing with us for the first time... conditions were extremely tough because of the wind... but the sun shone on us!

Flag lying down because of the wind!

Most of us really struggled... especially when your ball ended up in this sort of position...

Our winner today was Chris D with a n amazing 18 points! Fran and Frieda both had 16 points and were in second and third.. Frieda beating Fran on countback. 

It was great that everyone entered their own scores on the device in the corridor downstairs and there was lots of lovely chat afterwards. Well done all!

And finally...for those of us who struggled today this brought a smile... growing between the old third and 11th fairways...planted by Frieda's John! 

Simply lovely!

2025!

 2025

Well, it is  the middle of March and at last I have opened my laptop to do some catch up!

I'll not go into details but health challenges put paid to golf and anything else since my last post! Happy to report that things have looked up since the middle of January!

Basically our numbers have been very small, affected by illness etc but at last we seem to have better weather and more folk able to play.

So what is there to report since I last posted... 

Firstly, Hilary has unofficially taken up the reins as our Captain - officially it will be after the agm but she has been hard at work since January. Thank you Hils!

Secondly, the course changes that Andy planned have been put into place. 

We now play the first and second as usual, but then move to 12 through to 18 and this is now the front nine. 

The back nine therefore starts on what we know as the 3rd and runs through to the 11th. 

Playing the strenuous holes first certainly seems a good idea and though it will take us a while to get used to the numbering I think it will be of benefit in the long run.   

Masses of work was needed behind the scenes from Di and others to get the new course accepted and actioned by England golf and Saturday 15th saw the first official competition on the new layout. Thank you Di!

Saturday and Sunday we had glorious sunshine but a bitterly cold wind! Saturday was the final day to raise money for the British Heart Foundation and the ladies section donated their £65 to the Charity.

The separate Stableford competition was won by Lyn with 30 points; I was second with 27 and in third place was Sue S with 26. Well done all eleven who played - it was not easy!

On Sunday it was the Trevelyan Trophy, a mixed Stableford with nine ladies being able to play. It was another beautiful day but with that cold wind.

There were 12 teams of three and we spread out over the course using the new layout which caused a few interesting moments! 

The winning team were Jayne, Stephen H and Alan C with a Nett 60; in second were Sue D, Bill A and Allan S  with a Nett 61, and in third were John P, Norman M and Brian P with a next 62.

Jayne, Alan and Steve with the Trevelyan Trophy

Well done everyone. 

The Trevelyan Trophy was presented to the winners by the Payne family and awards for the British heart Foundation competitions.

Hils second in BHF competition

BHF winner!!

There was also the Presentation of the Trophies for 2024.

Lyn and Hils presented the trophies - Robyn was the photographer and here are some of the photos which are on Facebook.

Wheeler Bowl winners Fran and Liz

Treverven Trophy winners, Fran, Lindsay, Andy and German

Cape Shield winners Fran and Hils

Bosullow Bowl won by Lyn and Alan P

Dee and Ray's Trophy, Lindsay, Ruth and Chris D

Admiration Cup

Botrea Bowl winner Liz

Mixed Pairs knockout winners

Lady Captain's Charity Cup, winners Fran, Ros and German

Carallack Plate, Girdler Shield and Sydney Grose Winner, Ruth!

WRVS Trophy

Club Champ Hils!

- - - - - - -

There is one other competition I should mention and that is the Polglase 1. This was held on the first of March and 13 ladies competed in this Medal round.

The winner was Fi with a lovely score of Nett 71; in second was Lindsay with a Nett 73, and in third place was Frieda with a Nett 76.

Well done all!

The colours were amazing and some even spotted dolphins!

Here's hoping the weather will  keep brightening up from here on in and that our numbers will increase again.