Woodhall Spa shows its teeth to Cumbria's best!
The weather played fair with the players in the Champion of Champions putting down the lightest of showers but it also proved windy enough to give the golfers something to think about.
In the Boys event, Carus Green's Will Coxon, aged 15 years, playing amongst county players 3 years older than himself, proved that he had the potential to make progress in this game. He played the course well most of the time but every now and then the course got up and bit him! With rounds of 89 and 86 Will finished 29th but there is no doubt that this was a great experience for the lad and he will learn a lot from this excursion onto one of England's top courses.
In the Seniors event, Seascale's John Rushforth recorded rounds of 84 and 83 to finish 23rd. He really enjoyed the experience offered at Woodhall Spa and he was impressed with the depth of the bunkering on the course where famously golfers can disappear out of sight in some of the bunkers. John had Panda Wallace on his bag and they proved a good team. Cumbria was able to take some solace from the fact the the top senior was John Kirkpatrick from the Ramside course in Durham County as John was formerly a member of Workington Golf Club in the County.
The star of the Cumbria team was undoubtedly Richard Mewse, with caddie Mark Brasted, who set off in Round One like the proverbial house on fire and had established a 3 under par total on the first 9. Unfortunately he had a rough passage on the way in losing 4 shots to par. He was lying 3rd at the start of Round Two. He started with a birdie on Hole 1 but thereafter he slowly lost ground on the leaders finishing tied 7th on 6 over. Considering that Richard was mixing with England Internationals and that this was the first time he had played the Hodgkin course, this was an excellent performance and he looked comfortable in these surroundings.
President Jeff Blair expressed himself proud of our three golfers in the way that they played in a tough arena and he hoped they would all be spurred on to try to qualify again for the trip next year to Frilford Heath, adding that it was a pity that courses further north could not be considered. Cumbria undoubtedly had the best supported players in the tournament, a fact noted by some of the other players who appeared to be totally on their own.
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