A three ball team accumulator was held at East Devon on the final Saturday of May, writes Paul Willoughby.

OK, pay attention; here’s how it works. It’s a Stableford where you gain points (and points mean prizes!) and for the first six holes, the best score of the three man team is recorded. Easy peasy; if you heave your ball into a bush, it doesn’t matter as your pals will save you.

For the next six holes, the best two scores are counted – whoa!; that’s putting the pressure on a bit so better keep your head down and putt straight.

There you are at the 13th tee, remembering how you hoiked your ball far left into the bushes last time you played when you realise that all three of you now have to score for the last six holes. Pressure on, but don’t get me wrong; this is good pressure, not bad pressure and most of us play a bit better when there’s something at stake.

Especially if you’re playing well – you want to keep doing so and in this sort of competition, you don’t want to let your playing partners down.

The weather was as good as it gets, blue skies, full sun, a little breeze and fairways dry and hard. Actually that’s not always a blessing; hard fairways may let your ball run and run (leaving you thinking Rory McIlroy would be hard pressed to reach you!) but they can give you the most unkind bounces.

Your shot can be heading for the green –‘Oh what a beauty, you think’ – when it hits an even harder patch of fairway and shoots twenty degrees left of its original path. For some players it took the full 18 holes before they got the hang of the dry conditions – for some it took longer!

The team who clearly mastered the dry weather were Jim Colvin, Bruce Chapman and George Thompson who scored 80 points.

Bruce also had a two so between them they were clearly having a good day. Well done to them. Second but only by a gnat’s whisker was the team of Phil Essex, Tony Waters and Steve Robinson with 79 points.

Third, but only on countback was the team of Trevor Reeve, Stewart Jackson and Glenn Tucker, also with 79 points.

There was a twos pot of £102 to be shared between seven players. Mark Heywood scored his on the 339 yard par four 18th hole – a good drive followed by a perfect (lucky, Mark?) second. Well done.