Six days after winning my first competition at Cumberwell Park, Emma and I were back for something rather bigger – the Golf Shop Pro’s Day.
We weren’t expecting another result.
In fact, with three holes left we were sitting in eighth place.
By the end of the evening, we’d somehow finished second out of a field of more than 80 teams and won a Callaway golf bag each.
It turned into quite a day.
A Westbury team at Cumberwell
Four of us who had previously played at Westbury were there: Emma and me, Luke Stephens, Rich Edwards
The Pro’s Day had proved incredibly popular. Cumberwell originally had 58 teams entered and expanded the event across all four courses to accommodate the demand.
By the time the day arrived, 328 golfers were taking part.
Our team drew the Red/Blue combination, with the men playing from the white tees and ladies from the black tees.
The format was best two Stableford scores from four on each hole, played at 85% handicap allowance.
Our four-person team and playing handicaps was Emma 29, Luke 11, Rich 12 and me 8.
A very good welcome
The organisation impressed us from the moment we arrived.
After registering at the Golf Shop, we received a voucher for a bacon roll and a team goody bag containing a selection of tees, a golf ball for each player and a really nice ball marker.
I ended up with a TaylorMade TP5x, which was great because it’s a ball I have wanted to try and is part of my testing different golf balls to see what works best for my game. – turns out it’s not for me, but that’s another story
There was also a BBQ, a halfway house with drinks and snacks and a huge collection of prizes to play for.
It felt much more like a proper golf day than simply turning up, playing a competition and going home.
Now we just had to play some golf.
Eighth place with three holes left
Golf Genius live scoring was being used throughout the day, but there was a clever twist.
The leaderboard was only visible through the first 15 holes.
After that, you were on your own.
When the leaderboard disappeared, we were eighth and four points behind the leaders.
Four points isn’t a huge amount in a four-person team Stableford, so we knew we still had a chance of moving up the leaderboard.
We also knew we had the tough finish on Red/Blue still to negotiate.
Things didn’t start particularly promisingly on 16.
Luke and Rich both hit poor tee shots and were effectively out of the hole, which meant Emma and I needed to provide the two counting scores.
I made par and Emma made a net par.
We were still going.
Emma’s two at the 17th
The 17th is a long par three over water.
Not necessarily the hole you’d choose when you’re trying to make up points at the end of a competition.
Emma made a 2.
With her handicap allowance, that was worth a lot of Stableford points.
Luke and Rich both made pars as well, while I made bogey, so suddenly we had plenty of points to choose from.
Then came the par-five 18th.
I made bogey, Luke and Rich both made par and Emma made a six, which was a net birdie for her.
We knew we’d finished reasonably well.
What we didn’t know was where it had put us.
Maybe we’ve won some Pro V1s?
Emma and I stayed for the evening event.
There were probably 80–100 people there, with food, a bar and live music, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.
There were plenty of prizes to be announced, including individual competitions and a prize draw. Everyone who had entered the day also received a ticket for a draw to win a Platinum Membership, which was an excellent prize and one I suspect quite a few people in the room wouldn’t have minded winning.
Then Ali started announcing the results.
The team prizes went down to 12th place, and he started at the bottom and worked upwards.
Twelfth had scored 88 points.
At that point I thought we might have done enough to get somewhere around seventh. The prize there was a dozen Pro V1s each, which would have been a very nice result.
Emma was less optimistic.
She thought we’d probably finished outside the top 12 and hadn’t won anything.
The places kept being announced.
And our names weren’t called.
We got past seventh.
Then sixth.
By the time we reached fifth and still hadn’t heard our names, I was starting to get surprised.
Second place: Emma Fox, Steve King, Luke Stephens and Rich Edwards – 92 points.
We’d gone from eighth with three holes remaining to second overall.
The winning team finished on 97 points.
A Callaway bag each
Our prize for finishing second was a Callaway plusHD Carry Bag for each member of the team, with a trade-in value of £185 if we’d prefer to exchange it or take credit in the Golf Shop.
None of us has decided what we’re doing yet.
Emma and I generally use trolleys, so we don’t particularly need carry bags, but we’ll have a proper look at them before deciding.
Luke and Rich haven’t decided yet either.
Either way, it’s a considerably better result than the dozen golf balls I’d been hoping for during the presentation.
A brilliant day at Cumberwell
The result was obviously a lovely bonus, but what really stood out was how well the whole event had been put together.
Getting 328 golfers around four courses, fed, watered, scored and looked after is no small undertaking.
The Golf Shop staff were incredibly busy throughout the day but remained friendly and helpful every time we dealt with them. The catering and bar teams looked after a huge number of people from the first bacon rolls in the morning through to the evening event.
The courses were also in excellent condition, particularly considering the amount of golf being played, so a big thank you has to go to the greenkeeping team as well.
Most of all, everyone we’ve met since joining Cumberwell has been incredibly friendly and welcoming.
Emma and I haven’t been members for very long, and Luke and Rich are new members too, but we’re all very happy with the move.
Winning my first competition was nice.
Finishing second in the Pro’s Day six days later was pretty unexpected.
But the best part is probably that we’re enjoying being at the club.
We’re looking forward to the next few years at Cumberwell.
Although two decent results in our first couple of months is probably enough.
We don’t want them thinking we’re getting ideas above our station.
