High summer, and it would appear, a time of notable IGC firsts.

Adrian Cunningham recorded his first ever victory in an IGC Monthly Medal ( … what took you so long Adrian!). He then cemented a “double-first” with another win two weeks later. There were also impressive firstIGC wins for Ryan Romito at La Tournette ( … on the American course, of course) and for Stuart Hunter at Pierpont. It is reported that Stuart was in (euro) ”control” all the way round … except for a blob at one of the easiest holes! … the par-5 17th (S.I. 16).

Quite a frisson of excitement has greeted the announcement that the 2020 IGC Stay&Play will venture into new territory. With Ryder Cup memories and memorabilia all around, we will make our first ever visit to the country of Cymru … better know to most of us as …. Wales! The very impressive resort of Celtic Manor will provide the backdrop for IGC’s 30th Spring Stay&Play, and it promises to be a fitting venue for such a milestone in the Club’s history. (More details below).

Although we suffered our first inter-club defeat of the season ( … at the hands of Falnuée), no blame should be attached to our vice-Captain Alastair Fyfe, who gallantly led the team. Falnuée ran out 16.5 to 7.5 winners, but their 16-person team was selected from over 40 Falnuée players who eagerly signed-up to “have a go” at “unbeaten” IGC. Alastair and Gavin Watt won their match (as did others), but too many of us weren’t so fortunate. No matter … IGC still leads 13 – 5 in this 24-year-old fixture.

WORTHY WINNERS: of recent IGC competitions:

A correction from Issue 6 of newFairway News: 

• Sat July 13 (Emperor): Mark Adam’s Farewell: in first place was the team of Nick Compton, Adrian Cunningham & Alvaro Lopez Garcia (112 pts), winning on countback from runners-up Paul Meersman, Adrian O’Sullivan & Daniel Troncone. In Issue 6 we incorrectly reported the countback result the wrong way round. Apologies to Nick, Adrian and Alvaro.

Our golf correspondent would also like to report the following:

• Sat July 27 (Emperor): match vs EU and MUGS: First: IGC 446 pts; runners-up EU GC 376 pts; third MUGS 364 pts … an emphatic IGC win in this annual triangular “clubs sans terrain” fixture. In each of the 11 flights, on each hole, the IGC, EU and MUGS players “split” six points, based on their respective net scores. Barry McAlpine returned the biggest individual haul with 52 points, leaving his two opponents in the flight to split the remaining 56 points between them.
• Sun July 28 (Royal Limburg): monthly medal: First: Adrian Cunningham (net 75); runner-up John Hughes (net 78) on countback from Nigel Butler … we toasted Adrian’s first ever IGC MM win, but few celebrations for the unusually sad condition that Royal Limburg is currently in.
• Sat Aug 3 (Winge): summer cup: First: Peter Mountain (38 pts); runner-up Suzanne Butler (37 pts) on countback from Brighton Watambwa … after a two-year absence from Winge, we returned to inspect the new facilities, with late entrant Peter scooping first place honours.
• Sun Aug 4 (La Tourette-American): summer cup: First: Ryan Romito (40 pts); runner-up Marie-Astrid Dubois (37 pts); third was Brighton Watambwa (36 pts) … a first IGC win for Ryan, who must be benefitting from his informative “car-pool” discussions with Brighton … “see ball, hit ball” perhaps!
• Sat Aug 10 (The National): summer cup: First: Adrian Cunningham (32 pts); runner-up Per Aidemark (31 pts); third was Nigel Butler (30 pts) … a tough westerly wind didn’t deter Adrian from racking-up his second IGC win in the space of as many weeks.
• Sun Aug 11 (Pierpont): summer cup: First: Stuart Hunter (39 pts); runner-up Bill Purdue (35 pts) on countback from Daniel Darius … a first IGC win for Stuart Hunter with a well-balanced 42/42 to produce a very respectable gross of 84 off Pierpont’s back-tees.
• Thur Aug 15 (Falnuée): inter-cub match: Falnuée 16.5 beat IGC 7.5(see intro piece above).
• Fri Aug 16 (Royal Keerbergen): Royal Trophy: winner Carlo Presenti (net +1 vs par); runner-up Per Aidemark (net +3); third was Ian Bullied (net +5). Summer Cup: best stableford points tally was Carlo (36 pts), then Per (34 pts), narrowly beating Monique Govaerts on countback on the last six holes … according to all reports, a much appreciated IGC return to Royal Keerbergen.
• Sun Aug 18 (Royal Ardenne): Royal Trophy: winner Ryan Romito (net +1 vs par); runner-up Paul Meersman (net +5). Summer Cup: best stableford points tally was Ryan (35 pts), then Paul (32 pts) … and not forgetting Dominic McMonagle’s 39-point handicap establishing round. [A special thanks to Paul Meersman, who stood in as “volunteer” ringmaster, and calmly coped with several “interesting” issues on the day. Many thanks again to Paul].

UPCOMING EVENTS for your diary: …. plenty more fixtures in addition to these:

• Fri Aug 23 (Royal Zoute): royal trophy/summer cup: we return to Royal Zoute for this Royal Trophy event … with the penultimate round of Summer Cup points also on offer. Expectations are high for what we hope is a fully “restored” course, following their drought problems of two years ago,.
• Sun Aug 25 (Mont Garni): summer cup final: perhaps a little earlier than in previous years, the Summer Cup comes to its thundering climax at Mont Garni. The top contenders will all be there, making for an exciting finale to our “major” summer-long competition. Surely a new name will be etched onto this prestigious trophy, which has been in the sole possession of Kees van der Jeugd for the past three years.
• And brace yourselves … September is not far away. The month kicks-off with our first visit to Koksijde, and a final chance to qualify for the Monthly Medal Final. Then a weekend to draw breath before the Club Championships (14th/15th), Captain’s Day (22nd), a match vs The National (28th), Belgian Day (29th) … and quarter-finals of the IGC Match Play … all making for one of our busiest months in the 2019 season.

PARISH NOTICES: what the world’s golf press is talking about:

• Stay&Play 2020 (Celtic Manor): starting in 1991, IGC can boast an unbroken run of 30 Spring Stay&Plays. In 2020, for the first time, we will venture into South Wales. The luxury resort of Celtic Manor awaits. You will all have seen Barry’s announcement, so just to reitereate some of the key dates:
  –   Fri Oct 18, 2019: is the closing date for registrations and payment of a deposit.
  –   A second instalment is required by mid-February 2020 and final balances are to be settled by mid-April.
  –   The fun starts on Thur May 28, when we hit the Montgomerie Course at Celtic Manor. On Friday we play a   defining British links course (Royal Porthcawl), then on Saturday the mighty Twenty Ten (Ryder Cup) course, and the testing Roman Road course on Sunday.
  –   Needless to say, up-to-date details of all these courses can be found on an IGC sponsor’s website … where2golf.com.
• Keeping score (correctly)!… as Oscar Wilde wrote in his play The Importance of Being Earnest, “to lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness”. Parallels, perhaps, with submitting an incorrect scorecard at IGC? If either the player or the marker make a mistake … well, it’s obviously unfortunate; but when both get the score wrong … surely carelessness has taken hold! If there’s one thing Albatros doesn’t like, it’s the input of incorrect scores after an event … the fuses blow and the gaskets go into meltdown … so, it’s hugely appreciated if players and markers diligently get the scores (gross and stableford) right on the day.

Bernard Bodart of Falnuée eagerly anticipates receipt of the IGC-Falnuée Trophy from IGC vice-Captain Alastair Fyfe. But there’s still a big ladder for Falnuiée to climb before they overhaul IGC’s 13 – 5 advantage in this historic fixture.