The warm air greeted the arrival of the field of players in the inaugural Golf Competition being held in the rolling Essex Countryside.
The players preparation varied from heading to the putting green, the driving range or just attempting to subdue any nerves by downing pints or lager. Before long and following the customary team photo the players were Teeing off in teams of 4 in a ice breaker Texas Scramble event eventually won by the team with the lowest individual handicaps despite this reaping them the lowest team handicap. However with the strong team work and superb golf displayed few could resent their victory, especially with Dave Herron's cynical attempt to sabotage their efforts by making mad dashes along the fairways looking for his mobile phone which was safely in his golf bag all the time.
Day 2 saw the start of TGC proper, and the advent of a new side game where each team were given one ball to use on a alternate basis with double team stableford points being awarded. The team who managed to bring the ball home with the most points would win. Unfortunately for Rob Ross's team his opening drive with the team ball hooked into the thick rough and their game was over before it had began!! The round belonged to Mark Smith with a stunning 38 points, closely followed by Harry Marsden on 36 points. Then came Sam Rich and Stuart Marsden both on 33 points. Strangely enough they were all in the same group!
A group of bleary eyed golfers headed to the 1st tee for the final round after a night of partying to celebrate a glorious night for England in the Euros. Unfortunately Phil Marsden had to retire after 9 holes due to a bad back resulting in his travel partner Stu Watson also retiring, but not before Stu had one last swing of a club on the 10th to see his ball fly towards the pin and pick up the nearest the pin award as a result. The day however belonged to Harry Marsden who displayed a consistency beyond his years and basically blew the field away, it was a lovely moment as he walked onto the 18th green with the result never in doubt to a rapturous applause from all his playing colleagues. Not long later he was proudly wearing the Gold jacket and holding the Claret Jug aloft.
A fantastic start to the competition which moves onto an exciting new venue of Stoke-by-Nayland in 2022.
The question is, who will Harry be handing the prized jacket to?
