BB&O defeat Herts in Men’s SEG League Match
THE MELBOURNE CLUB AT BROCKET HALL, HOME VENUE FOR THE MEN’S 1ST TEAM IN 2023
Report from Men’s 1st Team Manager Phil Dormer;
The Hertfordshire Mens 1st team hosted a strong BB&O team in the 3rd Match of the season on the 9th of July on the Palmerston course at Brocket Hall GC. Coming of the back of a defeat in the 2nd game away to Essex the team were looking to bounce back and stay in the hunt for the league title.
The morning Foursomes kicked off with the pairing from Letchworth Laurie Owen and Niall Johnston vs Harrison Arnold and and the big hitting Tim Shin. With some excellent golf from the Herts pairing Laurie and Niall couldn’t take advantage of some great iron shots in the greens with the putters being extremely cold. The same could not be said for BB&O who putters were red hot holing putts for wins and halves, eventually wearing Laurie and Niall down to a 3&2 Loss for the home pairing.
Match 2 Saw Team Captain Joss Gosling and our own big hitting Max Hopkins take on Ben Quick and Carl Banner. Once again this match was close with the Hertfordshire pairing being 2 down with 4 to play to fight back with Birdies at 15, 16 and 18 to win the match 1up.
Match 3 was led by the unbeaten pairing this year of Connor O’Brien and Jamie Plews who came up against Harry Thomas & Luke Perkins. Unfortunately this match went against the Hertfordshire pairing from the start with both players struggling on the tee and BB&O playing some relentless golf to never give Jamie and Connor a chance to fight back eventually going down 5&4.
Match 4 saw the pairing of Luke Colgate who was playing county golf before his partner and current Mens County Champion Harry Cox was even born. They went up against the ever present Rory Browne and Alfie Forisky. Once again a very close match trading holes throughout the match, Going into the back 9 a mixture of Luke’s iron play and Harry’s hot putter was enough to win 3&2 to halve the morning foursomes 2-2 and all the play for in the singles.
The singles kicked of with Max Hopkins in another close match with Alfie Forisky. A late charge from Max making birdies on 16, 17 and 18 meant he came out the winner 1up.
In Match 2 Harry Cox met Harrison Arnold in another close match which came down to a putting contest and Harry was narrowly beaten 2&1 by a former England Golf number 5 ranked under 18 player. Thank you to the BB&O Management team for congratulating Harry in making the team at 15 years old and saying how impressed they were with him.
In Match 3 it was Niall Johnston who was up against Tim Shin. The pair could not be separated with Niall continuing to play the consistent golf and form that he has shown all season long. This match really did come down to a putting display from Tim shin who holed 4 x 25 footers in a row on the back 9 to keep the match all square on going to the 17th Tee.
This is were the match changed with Niall hitting a stunning wedge shot into 4 feet and Tim hitting his wedge to 15 feet, a stray dog saw the opportunity to run and kicked the balls all over the green. In the spirit of the match both players agreed to replay the hole. This time the shots were different with Tim from BB&O nearly holing out stopping his ball 2 feet from the flag and Niall getting a kick forward from the fringe rolling Niall’s ball to 30plus feet. Niall’s putt slid by and the hole was lost. The 18th hole saw more hard luck for Niall hitting a lovely tee shot down the right hand side which somehow led to a lost ball. A tough loss for Niall who didn’t really deserve such poor luck on this occasion.
Match 4 saw Laurie Owen from Hertfordshire go up against BB&O Carl Banner. Laurie was in full control of the match from the off and went on to win 3&2.
Matches 5 & 6 were played by Luke Colgate and Joss Gosling , who went up against Luke Perkins and Harry Thomas. Luke took early control of the match and went 3 up through the front 9. A back 9 charge from BB&O saw Luke eventually lose 1 down. The same happened to Joss who couldn’t hold of Luke Perkins losing 2&1 in another close match.
Match 7 and it was Connor’s turn who won 17 and 18 to win a vital half point against Ben Quick.
Match 8 Saw Jamie Plews go up against his old friend Rory Browne. In another tight game it was Rory’s putter that was the difference holing good birdie putts on 16 and 17 to win the match 2&1.
This match could of gone either way and had a few putts dropped for Team Hertfordshire the result could have been very different. Well played Team we move on the Bedfordshire match in August.
Click here for the full match results
