There was the usual full field for this year’s Hamish S Fleming Fourball championship, the most popular one in the CAGU calendar. Entries opened at 8:00pm on the 9th January and it was a full entry by 8:10 pm.
Hamish, a popular figure on the Cambridgeshire golf scene, was a former County secretary and County seniors captain, was the Links Captain in 2017 when he sadly died in office in the October of his captain’s year.
It was a glorious sunny but chilly morning at the Saffron Walden Golf Club as the competitors turned to compete in this prestigious event.
As expected, Course Manager Ian Cambridge had got the course in excellent condition, but the question was, could the competitors cope with the extra quick Walden greens!
First round leaders were Martin Booth of Gog Magog and playing partner Tom Gooch from the Ely City golf club with an amazing 44 Stableford points. They were closely followed by home club members Olly Tuck and Damian Alltree on 43 points. Four other pairs were on 42 points and in all 15 pairs were on 40 points or more, which was a good indication as to how well the course was playing.
In the afternoon the leaders, with 126 years of life accumulated, progressed nervously but dovetailed well, and were getting plenty of encouragement from their playing partners.
A 25 foot putt for a birdie by Martin on their 16th hole, followed by 2 closing pars left them on a very creditable 41 points for a total of 85 points.
This proved to a winning score as Chris Ellis and Philip Goode just came up short on 83 points beating Tuck and Alltree on a card play off for the runners up spot.
The highlight of the morning round was a hole in one at the 18th hole by Josh Stimson of St Ives who hit a pin splitting 6 iron which landed 6 feet from the flagstick and rolled into the hole. He received a dozen Titleist pro v’s for his fine effort.
Many thanks must go to the club captains who both stepped in at the last minute to act as starters and to the kitchen and bar staff for the wonderful service throughout the day.
Next year’s four ball will take place on a date to be confirmed at the Links, Newmarket Golf Club.
Prize winners
1st M Booth/T Gooch 85 points
2nd C Ellis/P Goode 83 points
3rd O Tuck/D Alltree 83 points
4th J Gill/G Gill 82 points
5th P Hodgkin/O Wright 82 points
6th G Howard/M Johnson 80 points
Best PM M Pearce/A Quinn 43 points