The passage of time is quite frightening really when you consider we are at the last Thursday in August again. That can only mean one thing; the boys version of Yorkshire Inter District 6 Man Team Championships.
Playing host to the other seven Unions this year, it was the turn of the York Union with the event at the Pike Hills Golf Club on the outskirts of York in North Yorkshire. The event is a team based format played over 36 holes stroke play with the overall winners being the Union with the best 10 scores from 12 on the day, 5 from the morning rounds and 5 from the afternoon rounds. It is always a long day!!
Helping the team with course preparation this year which is traditionally done the day before, the boys had the wise words of advice offered by Union coach Ollie Adamson from Ganton.Ollie knows Pike Hills very well as he was a member there for many years during his amateur days and is therefore well qualified to know how best to play the course. With the course set to firm, fast mode, the Modus Operandi was most certainly keep the ball in play and that will make life easier to find the target with second shots.
As always, the home club put in awful lot of effort to make the course and all its facilities looking and play at its best. The course was beautifully presented and the East Riding would like to thank all those involved in preparing the course and clubhouse facilities for this year’s competition.
Spirits were good in the camp as all players were showing signs of good current form coming into this event. The team was most certainly bolstered by the confidence of finishing 2nd in Inter district league, decided the previous Friday. Also the team harboured hopes of going one place better than last year in what is the last Junior event for four of the boys.
The organisers had a two tee start in operation with the 10th tee providing other starting point. The East Riding had four players starting off the 1st tee and two players starting at the 10th. The second nine is the more tricky nine to score on, so emphasis was placed on trying to make a score on the front nine and not give too many back to the course on the back nine.
On a lovely bright Thursday morning, proceedings got underway off the first tee with Ewan MacKenzie from Ganton, in the opening match. A good tee shot duely dispatched straight the fairway. First off the 10th tee was Warren Burns from Hessle GC, who made a steady start. He was followed shortly after by George Coope from Ganton.
The only par 3 hole on the back 9 is the interesting 15th. Not a particularly long hole at 156 yards, but with a challenging sloping green surrounded by out of bounds. A good shot needed to be struck to get close to a very tight left side hole location. George hit one of the best shots of the morning round to about five feet, but unfortunately missed out on making his birdie. Shortly after Warren reached the turn for home 4 over par. All things considered wasn’t a bad effort. He then demonstrated how best to start the first nine by rolling of 4 birdies in a row to get back to level par with five to play. A dropped shot came at the awkward 5th, but a 1 over par finishing score of 73 was a good effort.
On the other side of the course, event debutant Seth Topham from Hornsea was making steady progress also. He underlined his great potential with a well crafted 74 shots. Ewan was finding scoring a little more tricky finishing with 79 which was soon followed in by Callum Burns also from Hessle, with an 81. So withfour scores in, optimism for a good finish to the mornings adventures was high.
George finished with a creditable 76 and with an unfortunate finish from Harry Mukerjea from Ganton in the last match who finished with 80, things could have been very good the East Riding. So after the morning rounds with an aggregate score of 382 strokes for the 5 counting rounds, the East Riding were joint 3rd and well positioned 3 strokes off Harrogate Union who were leading with Sheffield Union 2 shots further back who in turn were 1 shot ahead of 3rd placed Teesside Union and the East Riding. A very creditable effort by the boys.
To give readers an idea of the scoring, over a third of field took more than 80 strokes to play the morning round and with only two scores at par or better, gives an idea of how tricky the course was playing.
So what would the afternoon bring?
With four of the team playing the harder nine holes first, hopes of a good outcome were high. The same rules of engagement applied as the morning, find fairways and middle of the greens is the smart play. First to feel the wrath of the course was Ewan MacKenzie who got a firm bounce in the wrong direction on the short 15th which resulted in his ball ending up out of bounds. Ewan made a good par with his second ball but still resulted in 2 dropped shots.
When Seth Topham reached the same hole, he took the more direct approach a very nearly holed his tee shot. It quite literally rolled over the edge and finished about 7ft past. Unfortunately the birdie putt lipped out. A shame as the tee shot definitely deserved better, but as Team Manager I’m going to say that aren’t I !!!!
With George Coope driving the first green and making birdie, things looked hopeful. However as the day wore on and the boys started to tire and run out of energy, things started to go in the wrong direction. It proved to be a round too far for George and Callum Burns who finished with 93 and 85 respectively. The rest of the team manfully soldiered on with Ewan MacKenzie producing the best afternoon round of 78, Seth Topham 79 and Warren Burns and Harry Mukerjea both taking 80 blows. It wasn’t quite the afternoon we had hoped for!
East Riding finished 5th overall. One consolation was the team was presented with the league runners up trophy (pictured) for the second year running, so something of a bitter sweet sort of day!
Congratulations to the Team Winners the Sheffield Union and to the individual winners Theo from Leeds Union and George and Dylan from the Sheffield Union.
Thank you to Pike Hills GC and the York Union for your hospitality and a very enjoyable day. To the Inter District Secretary, Alan Baraclough thank you for everything you do. It is greatly appreciated by us all.
It has been a long season and one which has seen the team move forward again, which is tremendous. New pairings tried, new players brought in and a stronger league position than last year. Very well done and thank you to everyone who has contributed to the team this year, all 19 of you.
Thank you all for your support. To the wonderfully supportive parents who always help so much, thank you. I am sure you will all support whoever takes over from me with the same level of commitment as you have shown me.
I am very proud of you all and good luck to the team going forward. So for the very last time, thank you all and good night!
Sunil Mukerjea
Junior Team Manager
