South East Mens County Qualifying
On Saturday 8th July, the BB&O First Team competed in the annual England Golf South East Group Mens County Qualifying at Sheringham Golf Club in Norfolk.
This event consists of 11 counties in the South East of the country competing against each other. The event is played as a 36 medal competition and each county has 6 players – with ALL of their scores are being combined for the whole day (resulting in a combined 12 medal round total). This as you can imagine is a very tough event. However, the reward is high – the winners go on to compete in the English County Finals against the winners of the North, Midlands and South West regions to become the English County Champions.
This year, representing BB&O were: Rory Browne (Feldon Valley), George Gardner (Castle Royle), Olly Huggins (Frilford Heath), David Langley (Castle Royle), Tim Shin (Castle Royle) and Alex Stubbs (Frilford Heath).
The course at Sheringham was looking fantastic, and for a links course there was very little wind, meaning that scoring conditions were ideal.
The morning started well, with most of the team under par early on – but as the morning went on some of the players struggled to find their rhythm. Nevertheless, coming down the last few holes of the morning round the team were still very much in the mix for the top spots, needing to finish their round with a flourish to be close to the lead at lunch time. Unfortunately they finished the round with a bit of a whimper – as a combined team they were 6 over for the last hole of their rounds. There were some very good scores though – Olly Huggins put on a putting masterclass, having only 24 putts to shoot 69 (-1). Alex Stubbs played some very solid golf and finished with a fine 68 (-2). David Langley was his usual steady self to finish with a 70 (Level). The team ended up 4th at lunch time on 432, 12 shots behind the leaders Hampshire, who were at Level par as a team – a score which is outstanding and almost unprecedented in this event.
In the afternoon, the team started well again, with almost all of the team once again under par early on. After struggling with his game in the morning, George Gardner (who was a last minute sub because of injury – coming into the team the day before the event) found his form and with a couple of birdies on 11 & 12 had found himself at 3 under par. But for a bad lie in the bunker at 18 would have finished at that, but had to settle for a 68 (-2). This was still a dent of 5 shots into Hampshire’s lead, as his Hampshire playing partner shot 73 (+3). Olly Huggins had also found his long game to match his putting from the morning and finished with an exemplary and bogey free 67 (-3). Alex Stubbs had struggled on the front 9, but with a bit of a pep talk from the Captain on the 12 tee found 3 birdies in a row and finished with a very solid round of 70 (Level). David Langley continued his solid golf to record a fine round of 69 (-1). This left BB&O in a very health position of +3 for the afternoon round and a total of +15 for the day as a team. Unfortunately for BB&O, the rest of the Hampshire team continued their morning form and they eventually finished +4 for the round and a total of +4 as a team overall, meaning that they were SE Group Champions for the 3rd year in a row. Hertfordshire were also simply outstanding in the afternoon round – they were -4 as a team for that round (which is unprecedented!) aided by a course record equalling 65 (-5) from James Surridge – putting them at +6 for the day and in second place overall. This left BB&O in a very respectable 3rd place, which is a step in the right direction after several poor years in this event and only behind 2 teams who had outstanding total scores for this event. In the individual event, BB&O had very good representation too with 3 players in the top 12: Olly Huggins excellent 2 rounds had left him in 3rd place overall, Alex Stubbs was in 9th, and David Langley in 12th.
For the full Team result click here
For the full individual results click here
