Old Stortfordian Golf Team qualifies for Grafton Morrish Finals

The East Midlands region qualifiers for the finals of the prestigious Grafton Morrish Trophy took place at the Gog Magog Golf Club on Sunday 19th May 2024 in glorious sunshine and relatively calm conditions. Six of the Old Stortfordian Golf Society’s best golfers attended to play in the event which was a scratch foursomes stableford with the scores of all three pairs counting towards the team total. Historically the qualifying score is approaching 90 points, i.e. an average of somewhere between 27 and 30 points per pair.

The team was:

James Bakelmun (WH, RPH, 00-10) and Hugo Lennie (RPH, 13-18)

Charlie Evans (WH, HH, 15-22) and Christian Wall (WH, CH, 12-23)

Michael Precious (HH, 13-17) and Mathew Precious (NH, HH, 12-20)

The Old Course at Gog Magog was in beautiful condition, being prepared for the prestigious Lagonda Trophy taking place at the end of May, but the wet winter and recent warm spring meant that the rough was thick and lush which presented a severe challenge to any wayward drives. If you were lucky enough to find your ball in the rough it was an achievement to get it back into play.

As an example the top pair lost 5 balls during the course of their round but played stunningly well when the ball was kept in play, the best example of this being a birdie on the very long and very tough 16th hole which was reduced to a drive and a wedge to 10 feet. As a result they returned 24 points to the scorer.

The second pair also had their travails in the rough with a wayward ball defying all attempts to find it on the par 5 7th hole. A huge second go with driver smoked down the middle of the fairway by Christian and an amazing 3 wood to 12 feet from Charlie gave them a chance at par which sadly just lipped out, but they still managed a points score on that hole contributing to a total for the round of 29 points.

The final pair of Matthew and Michael Precious completed the picture with 26 points, a very creditable score on a course that neither had played before.

With a team total of 79 points it seemed likely that we were going to be at least a couple shy of qualification. However, once our score was posted we were in 8th place, the last of the qualifying spots, with six teams remaining out on the course.  There was then a nervous wait for the remaining scores to be posted at the end of which none of those had bested our 79 and we had qualified for the Grafton Morrish Finals for the very first time.

The team can now look forward to the Finals which will take place on 27-29 September at Hunstanton and Royal West Norfolk (Brancaster) Golf Clubs.

The Old Stortfordian Golf Society is open to golfers of all abilities who have an association with the Stortfordian Foundation.  It promotes a variety of events throughout the year including matches against Past and Present BSC Staff, the current BSC pupils, and Spring and Autumn meetings at a variety of golf courses. If you would like more information on membership please email osgolfsociety@gmail.com.

James Greenall (GH, AH, 65-74)

Secretary
Old Stortfordian Golf Society