Club Championship 2017

IGC Club Championship 2017
ALASTAIR BUNKERED AS RICHARD GEORGE TAKES THE TITLE

Congratulations to Richard George,  winner of this year’s Club Championship.

Richard George
Saturday dawned grey, dark and wet as we assembled at Limburg for Round 1 of the 2017 IGC Club Championship.
Captain Barry announced the opening pair of Mark and Andy to the assembled crowd of 1, and we were off to enjoy 4 to 5 hours of unabated downpour.

The Limburg heather proved as magnetic as ever, whilst the trees provided a certain allure to others.

Some respectable scores were recorded , however, and having dried out the soggy pieces of cardboard passing as score cards, the following Day 1 results were revealed.

Leader : Richard George with Gross 76

2nd      Alastair Fyfe 79

Seniors Leader : Frederic Marsan  82

2nd Nigel Butler  85

Lady .. Suzanne 91

In contention
  • Darren Hanna 86
  • Andrew Zaman 87
  • Tommy Smith 88
Nearest the pin prizes were claimed by Nigel Butler and Nick Compton
Longest Drive was by Frederic Marsan.
Saturday night saw boiler rooms and airing cupboards working overtime to get the gear ready for play on Sunday.
Mark’s Ter Dolen soaked liver was also working overtime to get his body ready for play on Sunday !
Sunday morning dawned grey and chilly at Pierpont, but no rain. Scoring would be better today …. wouldn’t it ? Surely ?
Pierpont greenkeepers had managed to squeeze every last cm of length from the course with tee positions in parts of the course thought to belong to the airfield.
However, spirits were high and battle commenced with Captain Barry again making an early appearance on the tee, this time in respect of his Saturday performance with driver , 3 wood and iron. Apparently his putting was good though !
A strong front 9 from Alastair closed the gap on Richard with scores level at the turn.
Richard edged ahead as Alastair bogied the par 3 13th but a rare triple bogie from Richard on the 14th saw a 2 shot swing – advantage Alastair.
Bring on the stroke index 18 par 3 15th. 101m – a piece of cake.
An errant sand iron from Alastair found the sand. Richard found the dance floor and made his par. 3 more sand irons later and Alastair was still in the bunker – game over and the end of a brave challenge.
Gross 86 to win told the story of a course stretched out to the limit with par scores at a premium.
The Seniors competition had a cruel and dramatic finale on the 18th.

Nigel Butler - club champion Seniors-2013Senior Champion
Frederic stood on the 18th tee as Champion elect, only to self implode and effectively hand the title to Nigel Butler.

 Suzanne - Champion 2017

Suzanne held off the challenge of the ladies to card a 93 to be crowned
Lady Champion.
Longest drive was by Nigel Butler.

Nearest the pin prizes went to Jeroen Hoevers and Rodolphe Matossian.

SC_2Cat1_JHoeversJeroen Hoevers 

RodolpheRodolphe Matossian
Andrew Sisk
Best Net score over 2 days came from Andy Sisk – repeating his feat of last year.
Congrats to Andy and his ball spotting wife Bev.
Eliminating the major prize winners from consideration, the following net score prizes were awarded.
Day 1
1st cat 1:  Alastair Fyfe 69
2nd:           Frederic Marsan 76
1st cat 2:  Peter Mountain 79

Alistair Fyfe TNAlistair Fyfe

Frederic Marsan 2Frederic Marsan

Peter_Mountain_2011
Peter Mountain
Day 2
1st cat 1:  John Musunga 72 (also best gross on the day)
2nd:          Adrian O’Sullivan 73
1st cat 2:  Barry Stamps 74

2017 CC John Musunga Day2
John Musunga

Barry StampsBarry Stamps

All told, an eventful and memorable Club Championship,
Thanks to everyone who supported the event. Special thanks to David Bowen and Fred Evans for joining us at the presentation.
Last but not least … congratulatons to Richard George – IGC Club Champion 2017.

Mark,
Secretary, International Golf Club of Belgium