County Men’s Team enjoy impressive victory over neighbours Middlesex
COUNTY MEN’S TEAM PICTURED AT THE MELBOURNE CLUB VS MIDDLESEX, FROM L TO R, GREG HURLEY, TONY WILKINS, LAURIE OWEN, CONNOR O’BRIEN, JOSS GOSLING, SAM CANEY, LUKE COLGATE & JAMIE PLEWS
Report from Men’s 1st Team Manager Phil Dormer;
On Sunday the 28th May the Men’s County 1st team got their league season under way with a home match on the Palmerston course at The Melbourne Club, Brocket Hall on a hot and windy day against Middlesex, who had just come off a great result beating last years league champions Essex, so moral amongst the oppostion was high.
Leading the way in match 1 of the morning foursomes saw a welcome return to the 1st team for Laurie Owen & Tony Wilkins against Jack Neill & Niall Keogh. 3 birdies in the 1st 3 holes saw Middlesex race into an early lead. After 7 holes the Hertfordshire pair started to claw their way back and by the 12th hole Laurie and Tony were 2up, But birdies on 13 and 14 squared the match. With the match all square on the 17th Tony uncharacteristically flew the green by 10 yards deep into the thick long rough Laurie managed to hack it out to 40 feet where Tony rolled a 40 footer in for a half. Local knowledge on 18 played into the home teams hands with a par 5 securing a 1 up victory for Herts.
Match 2 saw Greg Hurley & Sam Caney in a tight match for the first 7 holes with early birdies for both pairs saw the Herts team 1 down after 7 holes, Again the powerful hitting and some quality pitching of Greg matched with some lovely iron shots and putting from Sam saw the pairing turn the match in their favour to cruise to a 4&2 victory.
Match 3 saw team captain Joss Gosling and Luke Colgate go out against Justin Phelps and Max McGrail. The home team were cruising being 3 up after 9 holes but the Middlesex team thought hard winning 5 holes on the bounce to lead the match 2 up with 4 holes to go. A nice drive on 15 by Luke left Joss with 120 yards into a tight pin a knocked down wedge to 2 feet was enough to win the hole and pull the match back to 1 down with 2 to go. With a comfortable birdie on the 18th for Hertfordshire the match was halved.
Match 4 saw Connor O’Brien & Jamie Plews take on Kane Stone & Rymer Smith, another close match that went back and forth. Connor put on a chipping highlight reels on 6 and 7 to keep the match all square going in to the back 9. A mix of straight driving from Jamie and solid golf for the pairing see the team ease to a 2&1 victory and give Hertfordshire a 3.5 vs 0.5 lead going into the afternoon singles.
Match 1 of the afternoon singles saw Greg Hurley lead the way in the afternoon singles playing against Jack Neill. Greg took and early lead being 2 up standing on the 8th tee with the wind swirling Greg flew the green and handed Jack a way back into the match the match was tight the whole way with Middlesex claiming a 2&1 victory.
Match 2 saw Sam Caney go up against a very steady Max McGrail, Like in the morning foursomes Sam continued to hit solid shot after solid shot and never giving Max a chance to get back into the game a nice 2&1 victory for Hertfordshire.
Match 3 saw Laurie Owen go up against the familiar face of Justin Phelps. Laurie never gave Justin a chance with quality iron and driving play. Laurie cruised to a 5&4 victory
Match 4 saw Connor go up against a very consistent Niall Keogh with the match going back and forth and Connor being 1 down after 8 holes it looked liked it might be a long afternoon for the Connor. But like the morning foursomes long drives and excellent putting saw Connor fight back and win the match 2&1.
Match’s 5, 6 and 7 saw Tony Wilkins Luke Colgate and Captain Joss cruise to very convincing victorys, with Tony and Luke winning 4&3 and Joss winning his match 5&4 with some high quality golf from all 3 players.
The final match saw Jamie Plews up against Kane Stone. A very tight match that saw Kane lead 1 up with 2 to play. With both players missing the green on the par 3 17th it called for soft hands from Jamie to chip his 2nd close and win the hole with a 3. Both players hit good drives down the 18th splitting the fairway. Jamie played the rest the hole perfect, laying up to leave the easiest chip possible to a nasty pin position, so a chip and 2 putts was enough to seal another win for Hertfordshire.
On a day that saw the course play windy, firm and bouncy with some rather challenging pin positions, it was an excellent performance all round to record an overall victory of 10.5 vs 1.5 and a job well done from the team!
Click here to view the full match result
