East Devon stableford success for Jim Colvin

The monthly stableford took place at East Devon on Saturday, writes Paul Willoughby.

This is the amateur golfer’s favoured scoring format where you get another bash if you’ve made a proper Charlie of a previous shot. (Apologies to all those amateur golfers called Charlie!)

Did you see the Solheim Cup over the weekend? This is the ladies’ version of the men’s Walker Cup – the best amateurs from Europe versus their counterparts from the USA. This is a team game where the format is match play; you play against your opponents and either win, lose or draw the match. The ladies’ golf was, as always, excellent to watch and in a way better than the bloke’s testosterone belting of the ball miles into the distance. Good lady golfers are so controlled – dream on chaps!

One of the many good things about golf is the manner in which it’s played. It “is a game governed not only by rules but a spirit of sportsmanship. It is a sport where players call penalties on themselves and where putts have been conceded when the biggest prizes are on the line. Think back to Jack Nicklaus’s concession to Tony Jacklin in 1969 with the Ryder Cup at stake. It was an eminently missable putt, but Nicklaus picked up Jacklin’s marker to ensure the overall match ended in a tie.” Thank you to Iain Carter, the BBC’s golf correspondent.

Sadly one of the European team (not English!) forgot the ‘sportmanship’ aspect at one hole, didn’t concede a putt when she should have done and the atmosphere went from warm to Antarctic in milliseconds. That is unusual and generally golf is played with camaraderie and friendship, albeit with gritted teeth when a match is lost. That’s what makes it such fun. After that incident some divine intervention then invaded the match and the Americans turned their fortunes round and beat the Europeans – I think the word, ‘stuffed’ might be appropriate!

Of the 100 contestants, the player who was clearly having the greatest fun was Jim Colvin from Division 1 who scored 41 points from a handicap of four, now three. Well done, Jim – excellent play. The other leading scores were as follows:-

Division 1: 2 Mark Heywood, 39 points (7 now 6); 3, Paul Newcombe, our head greenkeeper, 38 (1); 4, Stephen Morton, 37 (8); 5, Glenn Page, 37 (4).

Division 2: 1, Alistair Mackenzie Ross, 40 (12 now 11); 2, Neil Roughton, 40 (10 now 9); 3, Charlie Kerslake, 39 (12 now 11); 4, Rob Lippett, 38 (12).

Division 3: 1, Roger Chappell, 37 (15 now 14); 2, Glen Lockey, 36 (20); 3, Kevin Tyrrell, 36 (20); 4, Geoff Millardship, also 36 (20).