Men’s Senior EG Qualifiers – Tournament Report
Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th August 2024 at Waltham Windmill GC, Lincolnshire
The Seniors’ team representing Warwickshire at the regional EG Senior County Championship at Waltham Windmill Golf Club in Lincolnshire were:
Karl Smith, Warren Bladon, Ian Stranks, Steve Creed, Dave Mason, Shaun Young and Dylan Ward.
We visited Waltham Windmill GC which is close to the town of Grimsby on 28th & 29th July in order to play and practice on the golf course before the competition. The course was in good condition and looked to be a fair test of golf, that would reward good play.
On arrival at the course on Wednesday 7th the first day of competition, the wind was blowing consistently above 20mph and the course had dried out considerably from the previous week, making it a different prospect from what we were expecting.
On day one Steve Creed produced a fine score of 73 which was the best of the Warwickshire team. Warren 75, Ian 77, Karl 79, Shaun 79 and Dave 78
The best round of day one belonged to Steve Samson from L&R who shot a brilliant 68 and lead the individual competition by 3 shots
The leading team/county were Lincolnshire who had a fantastic day and went home to sleep on a 9 shot lead from their nearest rival (L&R).
The weather forecast for day 2 was again very blustery with heavy rain in the late afternoon. The blustery winds were consistent throughout the day and with the hard ground conditions made selecting the correct club and controlling the golf ball difficult, fortunately the heavy rain did not materialise.
Day two followed a similar scoring pattern from the Warwickshire players with Steve and Warren producing fine 73’s. Warwickshire team: Karl 77, Ian 78, Dave 81 and Shaun 83.
Lincolnshire continued to dominate the scoring and stretched their lead to a huge winning margin of 18 shots from the second placed team, Shopshire and Hereford.
Congratulations to Lincolnshire and we wish them “all the best” as the representative from the midland region in the England Golf County Finals in Torquay later in the year.
Warwickshire finished 4th, 26 shots behind Lincs.
Steve Samson from Leicester and Rutland won the individual competition with a score of 142, level par.
All scores are on the MGU website and can be found here : SCORES
My thanks go to team Warwickshire for the help and support in organisation for the event. Pete Clarke and Nev Gardner for all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes, Mark & Deb Reynolds and Stuart Bloxham for the support of the players on the course.
Finally thank you to the team of seven players who represented Warwickshire with pride and gave their all in attempting to win the competition.
Roger Neale
Senior Captain
