Warwickshire Golf
Warwickshire Midland Vets Teams take part in the MVLGA Team Championship!
Over 60 of our Warwickshire Senior ladies are members of the Midland Veteran (soon to change to Seniors) Ladies Golf Association.
Every year a team of 8 ladies volunteer (it is entirely self-funding) to play in the MVLGA Team Championship which is held over 3 days in October at a different course each year throughout the Midland region. We proudly play in our Warwickshire colours and this year it was held at Hawkestone Park Golf Club in Shropshire. Seventeen teams of 4 entered with counties from as far afield as Lincolnshire and Norfolk taking part and with some counties like us, able to enter 2 teams.
Day 1 was a Greensomes competition with pairings of Lisa Barton & Claire Howells, Hilary Dixon & Judith Pegler, Carol O'Hare & Pat Hale and Marie Swindells & Barbara Woolley taking part this year with Hilary and Barbara playing for the first time. The course looked beautiful with some stunning backdrops of the 18th century Follies and castle ruins but was playing extremely long with some damp fairways and slow greens which took some getting used to! We had no overall winners from Warwickshire but in our ‘Warwickshire Challenge’, Carol and Pat beat Judith and Hilary by one point!
Day 2 was individual Medal play, which is relished by the many low handicap players taking part, with so few opportunities nowadays. In each team of 4 the best 3 scores count towards the team's overall result. The day was again good, not quite so warm but no rain! The pressure on Day 2 does increase with everyone not wanting to let their team down. There were some good individual scores overall with many very low handicap players taking part and Lisa had the best gross from Warwickshire. In our Warwickshire Challenge it is only nett scores that count and again they were very close. Lisa, Carol and Barbara all recorded a net 76 but Pat sneaked ahead with a 75 nett.
The Dinner at Hawkstone Park was excellent that night and although we all failed miserably at the bingo, we loved the Motown Motion music (sung by 2 guys who were definitely in our age bracket) and it didn't take us long to get on the dance floor! Unfortunately a decision had to be made that evening about whether we would play the following day with a very grim weather forecast showing rain from about 5am. With full support of us all, as we knew the course would soon become unplayable, it was decided to cancel day 3 but we all returned the following morning for the prize giving.
There were no individual prizes for any of us but I am delighted to report that Team 2 of Carol, Marie, Barbara and Pat won the 2nd best nett team prize, just being pipped by Worcestershire!
It was a very happy couple of days with great camaraderie between us all and I must thank everyone for giving up their time at no small cost to themselves and really throwing themselves into the event with enthusiasm!
Please contact me (Pat Hale) if you would like to join the association next year. Posters will be in your club information packs at the Warwickshire AGM on 18 November at Shirley GC.
Front Row: Lisa Barton, Carol O'Hare, Barbara Woolley, Hilary Dixon
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