The Clwyd Championships
The windswept links of Prestatyn golf club were the scene last Saturday of the opening two rounds of the 2010 Clwyd Open Championships to be followed on Sunday with the concluding thirty six holes around Wrexham golf club for this prestigious Golf Union of Wales Merit Award standard event.
For those of you familiar with Prestatyn, the prevailing cold wind was firmly down the par five eighteenth hole towards the clubhouse and , as a consequence, in the players faces when playing the “railway holes” from the far corner to the seventeenth tee. This is by far the more difficult direction for low scoring as was evident from the return of the early cards.
The standard of players in this year’s event was higher than ever with the original cut off point for handicaps at 2.8, but late withdrawals meant that reserves from slightly weaker handicaps managed to get a game in a field of seventy two competitors
The Jubilee Trophy is played for on the first day at Prestatyn and this was won by Geraint Jones from Royal St David’s Harlech by dint of an exceptional second round of a four under par 68. His total of 141 was two better than fifteen year old Rhys Pugh of the Vale of Glamorgan who won the overall event as a thirteen year old in 2007.
Just a week shy of his sixteenth birthday, he intends to take two months off to concentrate on his GCSE exams which take place in June. His second place score was equaled by Luke Thomas, also of the Vale of Glamorgan, who ended up third as a result of his back eighteen holes score.
Sunday at Wrexham was still cold but a bright Spring day with less wind, appreciated by the players and officials alike. Geraint Jones rather fell away during the morning, having some difficulty with the fast greens and tighter fairways, but Rhys Pugh experienced no such problems.
Following his 72, 71 at Prestatyn for a one under par score; he added a 67 gross for his morning round to go into the afternoon round with a comfortable lead.
His afternoon play extracted all the superlatives possible when he handed in a 65 gross to win the Egerton Vase, the Wrexham trophy, on 132, four strokes better than Tim Dyke’s two winning scores of a few years ago.
The Vase was presented by Keith Miller, captain of Wrexham Golf Club whilst John Williams, the championship secretary presented the Jubilee Trophy on behalf of Prestatyn.
Rhys won the Clwyd Championships by no less than sixteen strokes from his nearest rival with a seventy two holes total of 275, nine under par for the competition.
Luke Jackson late of Mold golf club but now playing out of Worksop, and last years winner, was second in the Egerton Vase with 67, 71 for 138 followed by Rhodri Fieldhouse on 69, 70 for 139 and third place.
The Clwyd championship second place went to Luke with his total of 291.
At the presentation soon after the close of play, Rhys produced his slip of paper with the aide memoire for his acceptance speech, the same speech which he delivered by winning the Peter McEvoy scratch trophy a fortnight before, and for the Fairhaven Trophy just a week earlier. He now leads the Golf Union Wales Order of Merit by a very healthy margin.
As event coordinator, Jim Johnson is indebted to Championship secretary John V. Williams of Prestatyn golf club, his son David who acted as card scrutineer and reader, to Ifor Jenkins the Principal referee and his assistants Maurice Berg and Ginny James, to Wrexham manager Richard West who acted as tenth tee starter at Wrexham and to the Prestatyn members who did likewise at their golf club and finally, without whom the event would have become a long drawn out affair, our statistician and computer operator Bruce Carlyle of Ruthin who produced the winning order and complete results just four minutes after the handing in of the final score card at Wrexham.
We also appreciated the presence of Ted Lloyd, President of Golf Union of Wales, who attended both clubs on both days, and was present for the concluding ceremony.
Meanwhile at the Vale of Llangollen, the Veterans’ Mixed Open took place last week in an event which attracted one hundred and eighty four players from over sixteen clubs. Winners from Penmaenmawr were Mr. and Mrs. Stanley with 44 points followed by Mr. and Mrs. Steven Koscinski of the home club with 43. On 41 points came Mrs. Holroyd of Davyhulme and Tony James of Warrington with fourth place going to Mr. and Mrs. Forshaw of Padeswood and Buckley on 40. There were nine birdie twos in the course of the day.
Wrexham Ladies played their medal and Golf Foundation Pin last Tuesday which resulted in a silver division win for Shirley Williams on 88 – 18 – 70 followed by Beverly Lloyd Jones on 89 – 18 – 71 and Janet Pritchard with 92 – 20 – 72.
Gayle Elson took the Bronze division and the Golf Foundation Pin with her score of 90 – 24 – 66 followed by Anne Bale on 105 – 36 – 69 and then Ladies’ Captain Ann Davies with 96 – 25 – 71.
The men played their May Wednesday medal through four handicap divisions with Charles Blackburn taking the honours in the first division with 68 – 6 – 62 from second placed Richard Prandle on 73 – 7 – 66 and then Mark Williams with 76 – 7 – 69.
The second division went the way of Brian Neale with 75 – 11- 64 followed by Chris Wade on 75 – 10 – 65 and then Jeremy Williams on 78 – 12 – 66.
Handel Williams played well to win the third division with 79 – 14- 65 from second place Gerwyn Francis on 79 – 13 – 66 and third placed Phil Nicholls on 84 – 17 – 67.
A score of 87 – 21 – 66 secured the fourth division top spot for Frank Maddocks who was followed by Richard Derosa on 86 – 20 – 66 and then Richard Rawlings on 91 – 25 – 66.