A fantastic weekend away at Hawkstone Park.

Saturday was a practice day around the Championship course. A tough course made harder by the large number of bunkers.

Sunday was the start of the main event. This time the Championship course was made harder by the introduction of thunderstorm warnings! Always fun to wave lightning conductors around in a storm!

I was in the last group to go out and made it to hole 4 (on top of a hill), when the rumbling thunder turned into a very close lightning strike. That was enough for us, we were back to the club house to wait out the storm.

When the storm moved on, normal service resumed and we got back out on the course. There was a further thunderstom that arrived later in the day, but thankfully only rumbled… and poured down.

Alan E had to own up to double booking the weekend with a holiday and so couldn’t play on the Monday. His punishment was the pink skirt. Which he took very graciously,

On the Sunday, Simon C won the Teng Tools with 35 points and Tim S won the Seniors Trophy with 35 points. Congratulations to both of you.

On the Sunday night, there was the serious business of the putting competition. This is now becoming a firm favourite and was organised by JC as Stef had won it last year. I managed to win the whisky this time and the competition raised a sizeable amount for charity.

On the Monday we played the Hawkstone Course. It’s a difficult course, but it is also very pretty. For a number of holes it runs right alongside the Hawkstone Follies.

The outstanding player on the day was Linda C. She played well on Sunday, but was well clear on Monday with 39 points. So, in addition to winning the Chairman’s Shield, she also won the 10th Anniversary Trophy for her combined score over 2 days. I feel a large playing cut to her handicap coming as a reward 🙂

A great weekend and our thanks as always to Lee and Martin for doing all the heavy lifting.