Waddington triumph in End of Season Finale

                Words by Phil Crossland (RAFGA Finance Director)

Not seeming like 12 months since the last time we took over Sleaford Golf Club, we arrived over the period 24 – 25 Sep 09 to complete another RAF Golfing season. The regional qualifiers had thrown up some new names who had not contested the finals for some time. The 6 qualifying teams were; RAFs Brize Norton (last years winners), Cottesmore, Cranwell, Lossiemouth, Waddington and Wyton/Brampton.

Day 1 arrived and the drama started with Lossiemouth only having 4 players. So with all scores in all rounds to count Lossiemouth were up against it. So were the organisers as this left an odd pair and required a marker. In step the outgoing CASWO, WO Lyndsay Morgan, who had arrived intending to caddie for one of the players. Prior warning had meant that he brought his clubs so 3 rounds of golf later he had done the organisers a big favour. Lyndsay has been a stalwart of RAF Golf for a number of years through his involvement in the Membership Scheme and playing at Unit and Command level so this was a fitting end. My personal best wishes go to Lyndsay for what ever the future brings.

With the weather set fair but a little cold Round 1 saw the Greensomes. Scoring was good reflecting the conditions and Brize Norton shot out of the starting blocks in defence of their title, with Tony Isherwood and Glen Roberts shooting a 1 over par score of 35. They were ably backed up by Adam Thornhill and Gerry Shields who scored 34. However, the best round of the morning went to Ian Robinson and Jose Zarate from Wyton/Brampton who were level par (36 points). So Brize led with 100 points lead by 6 from Wyton/Brampton and 7 from Cottesmore.

The highlight of the morning round was to be Paul Gibson’s hole in one on the 5th.

The afternoon 4 Ball Better Ball got going just after midday. With Brize and Wyton both scoring 113 points, across their 3 pairs, the lead would be 6 points overnight. The pick of the afternoon scores saw 3 pairs; Billy MacLeod and John Peyser, Richard Lushington and Jose Zarate (both Wyton/Brampton) and Tony Isherwood and Glen Roberts (Brize Norton) all shoot 4 under par rounds of 40 points. However, Adam Thornhill and Gerry Shields took the Round 2 spoils with an impressive 41 points (5 under par). What was more impressive was their play on the 10th where Adam was fist in the hole with a birdie but would not trouble the scorer as Gerry went one better and slotted his put for an eagle.

The foursomes scores on the morning of Day 2 reflected the cold and wind which saw players struggle. Wyton/Brampton cut into Brize Norton’s lead by 3 with the best Round 3 score being posted by Ian Robinson and Richard Lushington (Wyton/Brampton).

Various leads have come and gone in this competition over the past few years and, with the top 5 teams all within 27 points of each other, it was still anyone’s trophy to win. More realistically the top 4 would contest it as Waddington in 4th were only 19 back on 278. Brize led with 297 from Wyton/Brampton on 294, Cranwell on 282.

With the scores so close it meant that with all 6 to count the most consistent team would be crowned the Inter Station Champions for 2009.

Brize Norton’s players failed to deliver as all their scores were in the twenties, with Tony Isherwood and Glen Roberts both returning high scores of 29 points, they would relinquish their crown at the end of the afternoon. Cranwell in 3rd didn’t fair much better with their high score of 30 points being returned by Paul Gibson who had just about recovered from his previous days hole-in-one. The door was now open for Wyton/Brampton to regain the trophy; however, with their top 4 players all around the 30 point mark their last 2 players could only muster 30 between them and therefore it would not be their year either.

So the long shot bet from lunchtime had come through on the outside rails to win this year's competition. Helped by 33 points from Oggy Compton and a level par round of 36 by the RAF Captain, Dean Lewis, RAF Waddington piped Brize Norton by 4 points.  FULL RESULTS

As always no RAF golf event can go ahead without a golf club willing and able to look after us and again Sleaford provided us with excellent hospitality. Nor can an event function without funding and again thanks go to BAE Systems and the RAF Sports Lottery for their continuing support of this event and this year’s additional sponsor Sodexo Defence Systems.

BAE Sponsor (and former RAFGA Chairman) AVM (retd) Stu Butler, presents the all-conquering Waddington team with the 2009 Inter Stations Champions trophy.