Gorleston Golf CLub

The Rescheduled Sir John Drughorn Trophy took centre stage at Gorleston Golf Club at the weekend as the fickle summer weather finally allowed the Club Championship to be played.

Having fallen foul of the weather in early July there was, however, almost a repeat performance when a prolonged thunderstorm hit Gorleston during Saturday evening, leaving bunkers flooded and several small lakes on fairways for the Sunday competition.

Even though conditions underfoot had turned from firm to very soft, the event went ahead as planned with 11 visiting players joining 35 Gorleston members for the 36-hole open. In the scratch event, Great Yarmouth and Caister member Tom Rutherford held the lead after the morning round with a two under par 69, but fell away in the afternoon, while seven-time club champion John Maddock built on a first round of 74 to record a second round 70 for a total of 144 to win an eighth championship and his first since 1996.

Fellow Gorleston members Danny Western and Chris Duffy finished two strokes behind the winner with 146 for their two rounds. While John was celebrating winning the Albert Botton Cup again, Rob van den Boogaard had reason to rejoice as he became Gorleston’s Handicap Champion after winning the Sir John Drughorn Trophy at the first attempt, having only joined the club last year. Rob, a Dutchman, still lives in the Netherlands, but spends as much time as possible in Gorleston when work allows and will no doubt be keen to return to England for the club’s annual trophy dinner celebration in November. The Ladies held their annual Invitation Day last week, with 36 members and guests playing a fourball better ball Stableford competition.

Glorious, sunny conditions encouraged some excellent golf and the winners were Pauline Phillips and guest Dawn Futter from Great Yarmouth and Caister with 45 points, with Anne Amos and guest Anne Archer from Ipswich one point behind, while Victoria Watson and Guest Gina Roberts from Bungay finished in third place with 43 points. There was another bumper field for the Midweek Stableford, as 126 players fought for the two divisional prizes, Alex Reid winning Division One with 40 points, while Daniel Crosby continued a recent fine run of form with success in the Second Division, returning 43 points. After suffering a postponement in late July due to lightning, the Captain’s Day afternoon Greensome competition was finally able to be rescheduled for Saturday. Winners with a very impressive score of 48 points were Howard Kellett and Sue Lyndon, narrowly beating Daniel Blatchford and Joanne Crosswell into second place, one point behind the winners.

The seniors contested the second leg of the Pethebridge Salver against their counterparts from Great Yarmouth and Caister earlier in the week. After trailing by six games to two following the away leg at Caister, hopes of a recovery were slim at best, but the Gorleston team completed an almost miraculous recovery mission during the home leg, eventually prevailing by eight games to nil, to regain the salver by ten games to six.