On a warm sunny early September day, the CAGU 6 boy U14 team were looking to win the Midland 10 County championship for the first time ever.
The team travelled up on the day before for a practice round on the tight Stanton-on-the-Wolds golf course in Nottinghamshire.
This proved to be invaluable as the knowledge they learnt from the round held them in good stead for the course management required in plotting their way around the course.
The team of 6 players were lead by captain Sam Marshall (Eaton Furse), with Theo Morris and Joe Austin (Both Links Newmarket).
Followed up with Rohan Neat (Ely City), along with the younger duo of Harry Howell and Ellis Kerr (Both Gog Magog).
With tee times starting at 10am through to 1.10pm the day was going to be long and a hot one, First up Sam Marshall parred the first with a nice approach shot in.
The rest of the front nine proved a little challenging and went through in +4, but a great back 9 in 1 under put down the marker of +3 (76) for the CAGU boys.
Theo Morris started in a similar vain, 3 pars to start followed by a couple of bogeys left him +2 through 7 holes, but with back to back birdies on 8 and 9, left him level after 9 holes. Going down 18 he was +2, on this par 5 he was just shy of the green in two shots, but with a great chip he holed for an eagle finish to finish level par for his round (73)
Rohan Neat went out third and he was steady as a rock throughout his round, with all pars on the first 8 holes, Rohan birdied hole 9 to turn in -1 gross, he continued his great form and with a solitary bogey on hole 13, he started hole 18 at level par. He went on to birdie the 18th to give him a gross -1 par!.
Joe Austin started with an unfortunate O/B tee shot on the first which lead to a double bogie start, he did manage three birdies on the front 9 to turn in +3 however the back nine proved a little trickier with a couple of double bogeys.
He did finish in a flourish with a birdie on 18 to finish + 9 (82) for a great come back.
Harry Howell went out at 12.20 and hit the ground running with 2 birdies in his first 6 holes to be + 2 at the turn, the back nine proved once again to be a thorn in the boys sides as 16 and 17 unfortunately did Harry on his round, but he finished on 18 with a par to finish a respectable +12 (85)
Ellis Kerr brought up the rear as the last CAGU player in the last match at 1.10pm after a long wait, he started very solid with a par on the first hole followed by a birdie on hole 5, with one or two bogeys his front nine was very good at +3.
Again the back 9 provided the bite to the golf course with hole 16 taking its toll on a fair few players through out the day.
As he started 18 the crowd had swelled to follow the last few groups in and by the time the last group stood at the tee, it was surrounded by spectators who had lined the fairway to the green where all players/officials and spectators had gathered.
The news was already filtering through that the mighty CAGU had already secured their first win in this event and the joy was etched all over the players faces and David’s along with mine, (eventually) we just had to finish the last match!.
Ellis hit a good tee shot and chipped his third from an awkward lie from near a shrub 50 yards from the green on the edge of the green and a good 2 putt sealed his par and a +12 (85) finish, and then CAGU celebrations began!!!
We had 3 boys in the top four gross places out of 60 top junior golfers with all 6 CAGU players making the top 33 places!
Rohan Neat took the best score of the day award with his magnificent 1 under par gross (fabulous score).