THIS EVENT Was
this event was won by
ste holmes & keiran murphy
At the lovely Didsbury Golf Club we were greeted by sun and superb golfing weather. The club was immaculate with it being the day after the Captains Trophy and two players stepped up to the plate to score a fabulous betterball score.
Keiran shot three 3-pointers, two 4-pointers and 1 massive 5 pointer [a nett hole in one on a par 4] and when he was having a poor hole, Ste came home with four 3 pointers and one 4-pointer. The pair 'dove-tailed' beautifully and played some absolutely superb golf over the afternoon. Ste's 160 yard approach to the 10th from the rough to put it within 50 inches was right up there, and Keiran's shot on the par 3 18th left him within 8 feet to give him a birdie and the nearest the pin prize. All in all a superb day and a great score for the winning pair - with a massive 50 points - Ste Holmes and Keiran Murphy. |
betterballs...
Having visited Didsbury Golf Club in 2013, it was a firm favourite amongst the committee and members of Bunkers Golf Society and was therefore a club that we were keen to get back on the calendar for 2014.
Friendly, welcoming and always in superb condition – it is a course that cannot fail but impress itself upon you. At Bunkers, we love finding little gems like this. Clubs that maybe don’t steal the limelight of its illustrious neighbours, but play just as beautifully nonetheless.
As always, the staff were extremely helpful and attentive and the bacon butties and hot drinks went down a treat before we made our way out to warm up. Its nice to see that for a ‘small club’, the facilities available pre round are ideal. A 150-ish yard practice area leading to two greens and a well manicured putting green that resembles the pace of the greens accurately. There were also two net areas to warm up the longer clubs before you make your way to the par 3 first.
The course twists and turns and uses the natural layout of the land extremely well to position the holes. The par 5 third hole is a beauty, with a slow left to right turn off the tee and the River Mersey running all the way down the left it leads up to an elevated green that is protected by a bunker and surrounded by trees that are just waiting to gobble up your golf ball. A tricky 150 yard par 3 follows before you travel over the M60 motorway to play 5 holes that all overlap and intertwine with each other and this unique layout provides a stern test of ability to keep the ball in play and away from the dangers of the holes around it.
Its then back over the motorway to the 10th hole where you are invited to use a club with loft greater than 17 degrees to avoid potentially hooking your tee shot onto the fast lane of the M60!. The 11th is a tricky 186 yard par three to an elevated and well protected multi tier green – where it rewards you to go long rather than come up short. The holes then come thick and fast with the 14th to 16th being tricky holes [2 of them are within the top 4 toughest on the course] and the 16th is a dog leg left with OB all the way down the inside of that dogleg. It’s a true ‘risk/reward’ hole – do you try and take the corner off and drill it over the out of bounds, or do you play safe and go down the middle of the fairway?
The round is then finished with another par 3 – can’t think of many courses that start and finish with one – but it’s a lovely way to end the round with all the players who have finished able to sit and watch the lads come home with a pint in hand .
The course was in great condition, the fairways were in particularly good order and were lush and green and provided confidence when striking irons. The greens looked like they would play slow, but actually rolled smooth, true and with good pace. The bunkers for the most part were well kept and with just the right amount of sand in them – with just the odd one being a bit hard and compacted.
The course throughout is lush and green and appealing on the eye and it genuinely is a track that is a joy to play. Definitely a course to revisit time and again.
The group were sent off by Keith Long and guest [and Father of Kev and Keiran] Colin Murphy. Keith sent his ball majestically toward the green, as did Colin until a darn tree decided it was going to spend 100’s of years growing in his way and his ball duly catapulted back out of it and halved his distance from tee to green. The pressure pot of a Bunkers 1st tee had struck again.
At various points in the round Keith could be seen smiling gleefully and the odd muttering of “I’m back” was spoken at various points. To be fair, he was, and some wonderful play from 150 yards in gave him a superb individual card of 37 points as he helped the pairing finish their Betterball round with 42 points.
Group 2 was Peter Woolley and Kev Givnan, paired with Rob Botterill and Paul Davies Jnr – This review will follow shortly by Kev Givnan.
Group 3 saw Ste Holmes with Keiran Murphy and Andy Roper with John Standley. The word in the clubhouse had been that this fourball may be fighting it out for last place; seen as though they were all 19+ handicappers. How wrong everyone was!
The group started like a house on fire with all four players scoring solidly for the opening 3 or 4 holes with Keiran shooting par on the 2nd where he got 2 shots to give him a net eagle and 4 glorious points. This was to set a theme for the afternoons play. Steady driving off the tee from Keiran, Andy and John coupled with the famous Ste “The Housewife” Holmes’ magical 3-iron meant that all four players were ‘in-play’ the majority of the time. This rarity ensured that all of them had a good chance of using their handicap to score heavily at times and was the foundation for the days play.
Andy Roper had an unusually consistent day from tee to green with drives finding targets and sensible approach play the order of the day rather than attempting shots that his ability rarely allows him to deliver. It brought suitable rewards as he scored six 3-pointers, and only one 1-pointer and 2 blobs with the rest being net pars. His approach play, and particularly wedges around the green were on fire and he was able to leave himself a number of 1-putts to score strongly. However, he was inconsistent on the greens where he didn’t master the pace at all, leaving them short and long all day. 3 lip out putts also hindered the card and on another day he could easily have finished with over 40 points. However, Andy was delighted to post his best score of the season after a few frustrating weeks and he finished with a score that would have won the event had it have been individual scores, with a card of 37 points [beating Keith “I’m Back” Long on a count back]
John played as consistently as we have seen all season and despite the odd ‘power slice’ with the big stick, he was steady and straight for most of the afternoon. The shot of his round coming on the par 5 9th hole where a superb drive left him with about 220 yards to the green. He absolutely ripped a hybrid straight at the pin and from his position it looked to be within feet of the flag. However, on walking to the green, the slopes of it had fooled the group and the ball had actually pitched 6 feet from the flag and ran through the green and was unfortunate to be sat in the long wispy grass at the back. It was a great shot that was cruelly punished, but credit to John he didn’t let it get inside his head. Special mention needs to go to his ‘magic wand’ and the club known as “The Chipper” for which he is absolutely deadly around the green. The putter looking club with an angled face was used to chip bunkers, jump off the fringe of the green and generally approach the flag from anywhere within 15-20 yards of the green. I honestly don’t think he left the ball further than 4 foot from the hole when he used this thing. Be aware!
The player who utilised their handicap most was probably Keiran who was driving superbly up until about the 10th hole and was particularly aggressive on the holes where his handicap afforded 2 shots. The stroke index 1 hole being the prime target of his prowess where he drove the ball to prime position to leave himself a wedge in to the green. He stiffed it within 6 foot to leave himself a chance of birdie that he duly gobbled up. This brought about a sight as rare as a high scoring Kevin Givnan scorecard in 2014 as Keiran notched up the holy grail 5-pointer.
The back 9 didn’t start as promisingly for Keiran as he produced 2 blobs and two 1-pointers on holes 10 to 14, but this is where Ste Holmes grabbed the baton and stepped up to the plate notching 10 points in those same 4 holes to keep the pairs scorecard racing forwards. The highlight of this was a majestic approach shot on the 10th from about 160 yards from the rough that he left within 20 inches of the hole to give himself a tap in birdie and a 4-pointer.
The pair played wonderfully throughout the afternoon and dovetailed strongly with Ste’s conservatism and sensible iron play allowing Keiran to ‘open his shoulders’ and attack the holes. The final betterball score of 50 points was phenomenal and the pair were deserving of such an emphatic win.
Group 4 was Chris Berry and Allan Gannon paired with Jay Wright and Allan “The Metronome” Gunn. Review to follow by Bez.
Group 5 was made up of pairs of Scott Seddon and Paul Davies and Kev Murphy and Phil Williams.
The late arrival of Paul Davies was appreciated ensuring the event could run as it had been planned and the midweek golf proved beneficial as he confidently made par on the 1st and bogey on the 2nd for a 5 point start out the blocks. Meanwhile poor Scott was head down repeating his mantra "I'm hungover, I'm hungover...".
This only changed on the 5th to "I'm going to be sick, I'm going to be sick..." as Kev cracked open a lukewarm bottle of Miller. Meanwhile the two "big hitters" Kev and Phil got off to a solid start with 9 points on the opening 4 holes. Neither however, were particularly great off the tee but a good up and down from Phil out of sand on 3 securing 2 points and a little later a lovely par on the 7th by Kev netted another 3.
Paul's steady start fell apart on 7 and three blobs on the trot caused problems but fortunately Scott aided and abetted with painkillers started to wake up. His drive on the 5th was wonderful but long and was never seen again and this was succeeded on pretty much every driving hole with a long straight fairway splitter. Paul played sensibly, knowing his chipping from around the green was not up to scratch and opted to go around bunkers rather than risk landing in them but at least 5 puttsdrifted past the hole where half an inch left or right would have netted extra points.
Scott's resurgence was joyful and on the back 9 only a blob on 11 and O.B on 16 ruined the card. The pair netted a reasonable 37 points and hopefully went home jetlag and hangover free. Phil's good opening form continued and a great birdie at 9 finished off his opening 9 perfectly. A good drive left 210 to the pin and a crisp strike from a great fluffy lie saw his 5 iron draw just onto the back fringe. Decent chip to within an inch and a tap in birdie. This was followed on the 11th par 3 with a perhaps too well hit 7 iron that pitched, bounced ran up the bowl and back down onto the dance floor to within 8 foot which he then knocked in for 4 points. He may as well have walked back to the clubhouse after that because his further contribution to the day was a massive nil points (3 on his own card). A collapse of epic proportions.
Kev did his best to keep the pair afloat with a good par on par 5 12th (which probably could have been a birdie if he hadn't listened to that idiot Phil "Play it safe Kev, play it safe..." but ultimately the collapse of his partner gave him too much to do and they netted just 15 on the back 9 after an opening 20. Math's genius amongst us will recognise that this fell short of a meaningful total and put them right down there with the worst of them.
Friendly, welcoming and always in superb condition – it is a course that cannot fail but impress itself upon you. At Bunkers, we love finding little gems like this. Clubs that maybe don’t steal the limelight of its illustrious neighbours, but play just as beautifully nonetheless.
As always, the staff were extremely helpful and attentive and the bacon butties and hot drinks went down a treat before we made our way out to warm up. Its nice to see that for a ‘small club’, the facilities available pre round are ideal. A 150-ish yard practice area leading to two greens and a well manicured putting green that resembles the pace of the greens accurately. There were also two net areas to warm up the longer clubs before you make your way to the par 3 first.
The course twists and turns and uses the natural layout of the land extremely well to position the holes. The par 5 third hole is a beauty, with a slow left to right turn off the tee and the River Mersey running all the way down the left it leads up to an elevated green that is protected by a bunker and surrounded by trees that are just waiting to gobble up your golf ball. A tricky 150 yard par 3 follows before you travel over the M60 motorway to play 5 holes that all overlap and intertwine with each other and this unique layout provides a stern test of ability to keep the ball in play and away from the dangers of the holes around it.
Its then back over the motorway to the 10th hole where you are invited to use a club with loft greater than 17 degrees to avoid potentially hooking your tee shot onto the fast lane of the M60!. The 11th is a tricky 186 yard par three to an elevated and well protected multi tier green – where it rewards you to go long rather than come up short. The holes then come thick and fast with the 14th to 16th being tricky holes [2 of them are within the top 4 toughest on the course] and the 16th is a dog leg left with OB all the way down the inside of that dogleg. It’s a true ‘risk/reward’ hole – do you try and take the corner off and drill it over the out of bounds, or do you play safe and go down the middle of the fairway?
The round is then finished with another par 3 – can’t think of many courses that start and finish with one – but it’s a lovely way to end the round with all the players who have finished able to sit and watch the lads come home with a pint in hand .
The course was in great condition, the fairways were in particularly good order and were lush and green and provided confidence when striking irons. The greens looked like they would play slow, but actually rolled smooth, true and with good pace. The bunkers for the most part were well kept and with just the right amount of sand in them – with just the odd one being a bit hard and compacted.
The course throughout is lush and green and appealing on the eye and it genuinely is a track that is a joy to play. Definitely a course to revisit time and again.
The group were sent off by Keith Long and guest [and Father of Kev and Keiran] Colin Murphy. Keith sent his ball majestically toward the green, as did Colin until a darn tree decided it was going to spend 100’s of years growing in his way and his ball duly catapulted back out of it and halved his distance from tee to green. The pressure pot of a Bunkers 1st tee had struck again.
At various points in the round Keith could be seen smiling gleefully and the odd muttering of “I’m back” was spoken at various points. To be fair, he was, and some wonderful play from 150 yards in gave him a superb individual card of 37 points as he helped the pairing finish their Betterball round with 42 points.
Group 2 was Peter Woolley and Kev Givnan, paired with Rob Botterill and Paul Davies Jnr – This review will follow shortly by Kev Givnan.
Group 3 saw Ste Holmes with Keiran Murphy and Andy Roper with John Standley. The word in the clubhouse had been that this fourball may be fighting it out for last place; seen as though they were all 19+ handicappers. How wrong everyone was!
The group started like a house on fire with all four players scoring solidly for the opening 3 or 4 holes with Keiran shooting par on the 2nd where he got 2 shots to give him a net eagle and 4 glorious points. This was to set a theme for the afternoons play. Steady driving off the tee from Keiran, Andy and John coupled with the famous Ste “The Housewife” Holmes’ magical 3-iron meant that all four players were ‘in-play’ the majority of the time. This rarity ensured that all of them had a good chance of using their handicap to score heavily at times and was the foundation for the days play.
Andy Roper had an unusually consistent day from tee to green with drives finding targets and sensible approach play the order of the day rather than attempting shots that his ability rarely allows him to deliver. It brought suitable rewards as he scored six 3-pointers, and only one 1-pointer and 2 blobs with the rest being net pars. His approach play, and particularly wedges around the green were on fire and he was able to leave himself a number of 1-putts to score strongly. However, he was inconsistent on the greens where he didn’t master the pace at all, leaving them short and long all day. 3 lip out putts also hindered the card and on another day he could easily have finished with over 40 points. However, Andy was delighted to post his best score of the season after a few frustrating weeks and he finished with a score that would have won the event had it have been individual scores, with a card of 37 points [beating Keith “I’m Back” Long on a count back]
John played as consistently as we have seen all season and despite the odd ‘power slice’ with the big stick, he was steady and straight for most of the afternoon. The shot of his round coming on the par 5 9th hole where a superb drive left him with about 220 yards to the green. He absolutely ripped a hybrid straight at the pin and from his position it looked to be within feet of the flag. However, on walking to the green, the slopes of it had fooled the group and the ball had actually pitched 6 feet from the flag and ran through the green and was unfortunate to be sat in the long wispy grass at the back. It was a great shot that was cruelly punished, but credit to John he didn’t let it get inside his head. Special mention needs to go to his ‘magic wand’ and the club known as “The Chipper” for which he is absolutely deadly around the green. The putter looking club with an angled face was used to chip bunkers, jump off the fringe of the green and generally approach the flag from anywhere within 15-20 yards of the green. I honestly don’t think he left the ball further than 4 foot from the hole when he used this thing. Be aware!
The player who utilised their handicap most was probably Keiran who was driving superbly up until about the 10th hole and was particularly aggressive on the holes where his handicap afforded 2 shots. The stroke index 1 hole being the prime target of his prowess where he drove the ball to prime position to leave himself a wedge in to the green. He stiffed it within 6 foot to leave himself a chance of birdie that he duly gobbled up. This brought about a sight as rare as a high scoring Kevin Givnan scorecard in 2014 as Keiran notched up the holy grail 5-pointer.
The back 9 didn’t start as promisingly for Keiran as he produced 2 blobs and two 1-pointers on holes 10 to 14, but this is where Ste Holmes grabbed the baton and stepped up to the plate notching 10 points in those same 4 holes to keep the pairs scorecard racing forwards. The highlight of this was a majestic approach shot on the 10th from about 160 yards from the rough that he left within 20 inches of the hole to give himself a tap in birdie and a 4-pointer.
The pair played wonderfully throughout the afternoon and dovetailed strongly with Ste’s conservatism and sensible iron play allowing Keiran to ‘open his shoulders’ and attack the holes. The final betterball score of 50 points was phenomenal and the pair were deserving of such an emphatic win.
Group 4 was Chris Berry and Allan Gannon paired with Jay Wright and Allan “The Metronome” Gunn. Review to follow by Bez.
Group 5 was made up of pairs of Scott Seddon and Paul Davies and Kev Murphy and Phil Williams.
The late arrival of Paul Davies was appreciated ensuring the event could run as it had been planned and the midweek golf proved beneficial as he confidently made par on the 1st and bogey on the 2nd for a 5 point start out the blocks. Meanwhile poor Scott was head down repeating his mantra "I'm hungover, I'm hungover...".
This only changed on the 5th to "I'm going to be sick, I'm going to be sick..." as Kev cracked open a lukewarm bottle of Miller. Meanwhile the two "big hitters" Kev and Phil got off to a solid start with 9 points on the opening 4 holes. Neither however, were particularly great off the tee but a good up and down from Phil out of sand on 3 securing 2 points and a little later a lovely par on the 7th by Kev netted another 3.
Paul's steady start fell apart on 7 and three blobs on the trot caused problems but fortunately Scott aided and abetted with painkillers started to wake up. His drive on the 5th was wonderful but long and was never seen again and this was succeeded on pretty much every driving hole with a long straight fairway splitter. Paul played sensibly, knowing his chipping from around the green was not up to scratch and opted to go around bunkers rather than risk landing in them but at least 5 puttsdrifted past the hole where half an inch left or right would have netted extra points.
Scott's resurgence was joyful and on the back 9 only a blob on 11 and O.B on 16 ruined the card. The pair netted a reasonable 37 points and hopefully went home jetlag and hangover free. Phil's good opening form continued and a great birdie at 9 finished off his opening 9 perfectly. A good drive left 210 to the pin and a crisp strike from a great fluffy lie saw his 5 iron draw just onto the back fringe. Decent chip to within an inch and a tap in birdie. This was followed on the 11th par 3 with a perhaps too well hit 7 iron that pitched, bounced ran up the bowl and back down onto the dance floor to within 8 foot which he then knocked in for 4 points. He may as well have walked back to the clubhouse after that because his further contribution to the day was a massive nil points (3 on his own card). A collapse of epic proportions.
Kev did his best to keep the pair afloat with a good par on par 5 12th (which probably could have been a birdie if he hadn't listened to that idiot Phil "Play it safe Kev, play it safe..." but ultimately the collapse of his partner gave him too much to do and they netted just 15 on the back 9 after an opening 20. Math's genius amongst us will recognise that this fell short of a meaningful total and put them right down there with the worst of them.
BUNKERS GOLF SOCIETY MEMBERS £29.50
NON BUNKERS GOLF SOCIETY MEMBERS £34.50
Once you have paid, contact a committee member or CLICK HERE to tell us
Sunday 27th July 2014
Tee times from 13:30pm [arrive no later than 12:30pm]
Prices include 18 holes + Bacon Roll & Hot Drink pre play.
Website: www.didsburygolfclub.co.uk
Sunday 27th July 2014
Tee times from 13:30pm [arrive no later than 12:30pm]
Prices include 18 holes + Bacon Roll & Hot Drink pre play.
Website: www.didsburygolfclub.co.uk
FORMAT OF THE EVENT
Format: Fourball Better Ball [Stableford]
All four players play their own ball throughout; at the end of each hole, the lowest net score of each pair will win the hole. For example, Players A and B form one team. On the first hole, A scores a 5, B scores a 6, so the team score is 5
[Each player will still keep an individual scorecard for the purposes of The Order of Merit]
Handicaps: Players will play off full handicaps and keep an invididual scorecard for The Order of Merit
Teams: Will be drawn on arrival at Didsbury Golf Club [List of Players below]
Tee: Players will tee off from the yellow tees. [6010 yards]
All four players play their own ball throughout; at the end of each hole, the lowest net score of each pair will win the hole. For example, Players A and B form one team. On the first hole, A scores a 5, B scores a 6, so the team score is 5
[Each player will still keep an individual scorecard for the purposes of The Order of Merit]
Handicaps: Players will play off full handicaps and keep an invididual scorecard for The Order of Merit
Teams: Will be drawn on arrival at Didsbury Golf Club [List of Players below]
Tee: Players will tee off from the yellow tees. [6010 yards]
nearest the pins
There will be 2 nearest the pins on the 4th hole and the 18th hole.
The nearest the pin in 2 will be on the par 4 16th hole.
CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW TO ENLARGE
The nearest the pin in 2 will be on the par 4 16th hole.
CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW TO ENLARGE
the course
Former Ryder Cup golfers, Peter Allis and his partner Dave Thomas were the architects who produced the new course, which, with a few modifications, is that played today.
Didsbury was one of the highest ranked courses amongst Bunkers members in our end of season survery, and its with good reason. Considering the 2013 visit was almost washed out in heavy rain, the course still played wonderfully and the lush green surroundings and great layout left everyone very happy with the days outing - and so we have brought it back for 2014.
Didsbury Golf Club is a mature easy walking 18 hole parkland course meandering along the banks of the River Mersey. The clubhouse provides stunning views across the course with lounge, bar and meeting rooms suitable for various functions. Car parking facilities are available in the main car park and the separate overspill car park.
SEE HOLE-BY-HOLE PHOTOGRAPHS AND COURSE PLANNER HERE
Didsbury was one of the highest ranked courses amongst Bunkers members in our end of season survery, and its with good reason. Considering the 2013 visit was almost washed out in heavy rain, the course still played wonderfully and the lush green surroundings and great layout left everyone very happy with the days outing - and so we have brought it back for 2014.
Didsbury Golf Club is a mature easy walking 18 hole parkland course meandering along the banks of the River Mersey. The clubhouse provides stunning views across the course with lounge, bar and meeting rooms suitable for various functions. Car parking facilities are available in the main car park and the separate overspill car park.
SEE HOLE-BY-HOLE PHOTOGRAPHS AND COURSE PLANNER HERE
directions
Didsbury Golf Club is 8 miles South of Manchester City centre. It is 40 minutes from Skelmersdale and Liverpool.
The full address for Sat Navs is:
Didsbury Golf Club, Ford Lane, Northenden, Manchester, M22 4NQ - Tel: 0161 998 9278
The full address for Sat Navs is:
Didsbury Golf Club, Ford Lane, Northenden, Manchester, M22 4NQ - Tel: 0161 998 9278