Golf: Sevenoaks church lifts national Christian golf trophy
Sevenoaks Vineyard just beat 2008 winners Walsall Christian Centre to the National Christian Golf Cup late last month.
The setting for this year's final was the picturesque and challenging course at Donnington Grove Golf & Country Club.
Weather was good and set fair for an intriguing tussle between the four finalists from regional competitions held in Surrey, West Midlands, Kent and Essex and won by Molesey Community Church, Walsall Christian Centre, Orpington Baptist Church and Sevenoaks Vineyard respectively.
Walsall Christian Centre's Keith Watts and Phil Yates got off to a strong start and demonstrated a keen desire to retain the title they won so well at Hellidon Lakes 12 months ago. Gelling well as a team they produced three points on no less than four occasions in the opening nine holes in the Betterball Stableford format.
Amassing an impressive total of 21 points on the front nine holes meant they had a lead at halfway but maybe not such a large lead as they might have wished for, or their play suggested.
Hot on their heels were Caroline Michel and Mary Stuart representing Molesey Community Church, who themselves were playing excellent golf securing five 3-pointers in an outward total of 20 points.
Just one point further back at the halfway stage was Ron Crosby and Cliff Britcher (pictured above) representing Sevenoaks Vineyard. From a shaky start, Ron and Cliff soon got into a rich vein of form and despite recording a blank at the first hole, began to accumulate points quickly.
The disappointment of the day was dealt to Orpington Baptist Church’s representative Bob House, whose partner was unfortunately unable to make the final. Whilst Bob manfully played on, his single scoring was never going to be a match for the pairs from the other church teams and so Bob’s efforts did not challenge the leaders.
Nevertheless to his great credit, Bob never stopped smiling all the way around, thoroughly enjoying the experience of the day.
As the competition moved to the back-nine, it was Molesey Community Church who stepped up to the mark. Caroline parred the long par-5 tenth for four points, followed by Mary scoring two 3-pointers at the next two holes.
Sevenoaks Vineyard and Walsall Community Church both started the second half of the round strongly but could not prevent Molesey Community Church from heading the leaderboard after 12 holes. This however was Molesey Community Church’s main charge, as the final third of the round did not live up to what had gone before for Caroline and Mary. Their haul of just 7 points in the final six holes meant they were caught and overtaken by both Walsall Christian Centre and Sevenoaks Vineyard in the latter stages.
Sevenoaks Vineyard continued to play amazing golf, scoring three-pointers at will. Ron’s last four holes of birdie, par, par, par playing off a handicap of 14 was form that deserved the title and so it was to be.
Not that Walsall Christian Centre ever gave up hope. A par 4 for four points at the 16th for Phil brought them back to within one point of Sevenoaks Vineyard but in the end the Kent side were just too good on the day and won by three points.
Final scores:
Sevenoaks Vineyard 45 points
Walsall Christian Centre 42 points
Molesey Community Church 37 points
Orpington Baptist Church 19 points
Co-organiser Martin Eady (member of Leigh Road Baptist Church, Essex) commented: "We had an excellent day at a fantastic venue and the golf lived up to the occasion too. There was some very impressive golf played by all the players, however more importantly the camaraderie amongst all the teams and organisers during the day and at the evening dinner and presentation was special.
"This event went off exactly how we had planned and the organisers know that many prayers have been answered during the preparations and the event itself. It is our hope that we can involve even more churches across the country next year".
Thanks go to Richardson Cycles of Leigh-on-Sea, Essex for their sponsorship of the National Christian Golf Cup in 2009. Sponsors for 2010 are currently needed – enquiries via www.christiangolfsociety.org.uk. Also any church that would like to organise a regional qualifier in their area is encouraged to get in touch.
