Warwickshire entered this event for the first time this year. The competition is for a team of 6 per county over 18 holes of medal play, with the best 5 counting towards the trophy. The event is in its third year, but we had previously been unable to fit it into our schedule. It helped that this year it was played at Great Barr Golf Club, these days a tough but excellent test for the boys. To this can be added extremely taxing conditions of very low temperatures and a stiff wind (not good spectator weather either!) We were handicapped at the outset by the withdrawal of our Captain and star player, called up for an England area event.
Our first 3 scores in looked modest at the time, but indicated the severity of conditions as other score made them look better and better as the day wore on. When player 4 , Omid Mobed, was forced to retire with back injury, things did not look good, especially as our anchor man, Dan Withington had begun by driving out-of-bounds from the first tee. Reports started to come in, however, that number 5, Luke Greene, was level par after 12, and though he made a few putting errors, managed to complete his round in 77 (+5). Even more commendable, Dan, despite dropping a shot through an unlucky bounce on 17 and missing a very holeable birdie putt on 18 also recorded a 77. To give final proof of the difficult conditions, these two lads tied for 9th individual score from the 60 competitors. More importantly and despite the disadvantage of all 5 of our scores having to count, they raised our team position to a tie for 3rd place.
We should be very proud of our boys for finishing so well in our first appearance and despite the additional handicap we were under.
Team: Rhys Wallace (Handsworth), Josh Kearns (Copt Heath), Lewis Watson (Handsworth), Omid Mobed (Moor Hall), Luke Greene (Newbold Comyn and Leamington & County) and Dan Withington (Shirley)
To view full scoring information CLICK HERE
By John Jewsbury
Under 16 Boys Team Manager