Birchwood Trophy ‑ Golf At Goodwood vs Slinfold

The home team welcomed last year’s finalists Slinfold for a four-ball, betterball tournament on The Downs course in their first-round tie.

Kevin Yates, captain of the five-pair Goodwood team, had assembled a strong group of players for what was anticipated to be a tight match.

The first pair out were Ian Montgomery – who had performed well through the winter to drop his handicap from 11 to seven – and Lee Cooksey. Unfortunately they came up against a very strong Slinfold pairing and lost 3 & 2. Up next for Goodwood were Mel Henry and Nick Trigg. The duo managed to secure Goodwood’s first point of the day with a 2 & 1 win. Afterwards Henry remarked; “It was a great match but we just managed to stay ahead.”

With a crowd forming on the 18th green, Donald Macdonald and captain Yates were in the midst of a difficult match and came to the hole with a slender one shot lead. Slinfold missed a tricky putt down the hill which opened the door for Donald Macdonald to complete a stunning up and down to win the match two up. What the crowd around the 18th didn’t realise was Ken Fisher-Pascal and Roger Herbert’s match would already be decided by the time they got there.

Theirs was a closely fought match, with Goodwood getting three holes in front only to see their lead completely disappear. By the 17th, Goodwood had restored a slender one hole lead. Up stepped Herbert, who hit a sensational iron from the tee of this tricky par three; it looked destined to be close to the flag, but the ball landed, rolled and fell in the hole at perfect speed. This remarkable hole-in-one meant that Fisher-Pascal and Herbert sealed their match 2 & 1, meaning that Golf At Goodwood had won the round overall.

The final pair out were Andy Smith and Chris Palmer, who ended all square against their opposition. Smith said; “The match was really close. I was giving out a lot of shots but Chris and I worked well together.” The final score was Golf At Goodwood 3.5, Slinfold 1.5.

Next up for Goodwood in the competition is an away round at Rustington on May 6.