THE DEVON TEAM
The final event of the 2018 Devon Golf Captain’s calendar took place at Saunton GC on Wed. /Thurs. 10/11th October.
This event normally comprises of 12 counties but for some reason there were only 11 counties in it this year.
We put a strong team together, which included several Saunton Captains, in the hope of regaining the trophy that we last won in the inaugural year, 2016.
It was an early start for all the Devon boys on the Wednesday as our pairings were the first off on both courses along with the guys from Wiltshire.
The weather very un-Saunton like with glorious sunshine and temperatures of 20C+, however we did have the usual gusty high winds we expect on the North Devon coast. It was amazing that the wind seemed to be against you on whichever hole or course you were playing.
Obviously, going out first meant that we finished first and as this day was less formal with everyone eating as they came in we were able to get away reasonably early, which was good as most of the Devon guys had decided not to stay over. Much discussion took place during the meal regarding how we all played (results will be discussed later), the putts we missed and the trouble we found. Even with the sun shining everyone thought it had been a difficult day.
Day two came with weather that was much more like we expect at Saunton in October with rain all morning but slightly less windy than the day before. As it happened we were the last groups to go off and whilst we had the rain for the first few holes it did clear and for the last twelve holes or so we had lovely weather which made our golf much more enjoyable and to some extent this was reflected in our scores.
Considering the issues that most golf courses have had this year with the long, hot and very dry summer both courses played well with the fairways a little greener than many we’ve seen recently. The greens were excellent but maybe a little slower than usual for Saunton, still quick compared to most though.
Being the last groups to come in we had to swiftly shower and change as we didn’t have much time before sitting down for dinner. We had an excellent roast beef dinner but what was most impressive was that the 132 of us were all served our main course, dessert and coffee within an hour. A big well done to the catering staff at Saunton for achieving this.
Now, onto the results:-
On the Wednesday we achieved a total of 167 points (5 out of the 6 pairings counting).
With the pairing of our Captain, Ben Lynch, and Grahame Davidson coming second on the East course with 36 points and David Barker and Ian Black coming third also with 36 points.
On Thursday these same pairings came second and third again, this time on the West course, with scores of 40 and 39 points respectively.
We had the highest total for this day of 177 points, giving us a total for the two days of 344.
Unfortunately this wasn’t quite enough to win overall with Suffolk beating us by a single point, they had 345 made up of 170 and 175.
Devon pairings – Grahame Davidson & Ben Lynch – David Barker & Ian Black – Graham Heaman & Jeff Laing – David Jack & David Lord – Peter Dunstan & Phil Webb – Bob Webber & Brian Rice.
Brian Rice
Vice Captain
Result Sheet Day 1 -2018Result Sheet Day 2 – 2018
