Men's Senior Champion Club 2023 - The Melbourne Club

MEN'S SENIOR CHAMPION CLUB WINNERS 2023 - THE MELBOURNE CLUB, FROM L TO R, PAST PRESIDENT HUGH WIKNER, PAUL BARNHAM, STOCKS CLUB CAPTAIN CHRIS FOSTER, MARTIN CRISP & DOUG MONTGOMERY

Our always popular Men's Senior Champion Club event was played yesterday (Mon 22 May), kindly hosted by Stocks Golf Club, our most westerly outpoint in the County.

21 teams of 3 senior male golfers, aged 55 or over, would play 18 holes strokeplay medal format off scratch, with all scores combined to create an overall team cumulative team score, with the lowest team score on the day winning the event. 

A brisk northerly wind met the golfers on arrival and the day was for the most part rather cloudy and dreary, although the sun did eventually break through by the early afternoon. The course is laid across the edge of the Chiltern hills and as such is fairly exposed to the elements. Many of the competitors were seen frantically checking their cars for wooly hats and snoods of which they had wished they obviously had no further use for this season!

Many of the holes on the Stocks course are flanked by large areas of ecological roughland, of which the club are restricted on cutting regimes during the playing season due to the native wildlife and birds, particuarly skylark nests. As such with the recent growing conditions these areas would need to be avoided at all costs if good scoring was to be achieved. 

Berkhamsted had won this event for the last 2 years, with wins at Aldenham in 2021 and Mid Herts in 2022. They were denied the three-peet by the narrowest of margins, a cumulative back 9 countback after both Berkhamsted and The Melbourne Club had tied on a team score of 226 (+7). The cumulative back 9 achieved by the Melbourne Club team of Paul Barnham, Martin Crisp & Doug Montgomery of a highly impressive 105 (-6) would take the title by 5 shots from the Berkhamsted total of 110 (-1). The Berkhamsted team on the day were Jason Court, Kevin Ratcliffe and Gordon Stewart. The Sandy Lodge team of Michael Charles, Kevin Davis and Gavin Kramer finished in 3rd position on a cumulative 234 (+15). The best score of the day was returned by Nick Davis of Old Fold Manor with an excellent gross score of 70 (-1). 

Martin Crisp, an ex long standing member of Stocks, made a highly emotional acceptance speech and praised his playing partners who despite his poor score the year prior due to their efforts finished in 3rd that day, so was very pleased to submit a good score this year. 

Our thanks to Stocks GC for hosting the day, all competitors and officials were extremely well looked after on the day and we look forward to returning again for a future event soon. 

Click here to view the full individual and team scores from the day

Click here to view the Championship archive

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