AN AFTERNOON of brilliant sunshine greeted members as they watched Brian Marshall drive in as new club captain of Evesham Golf Club for 2020.
Despite the best efforts of Storm Jorge which threatened to postpone proceedings, the weather turned for the better on Saturday and, in what is a long-standing tradition at Evesham, members located themselves on the first fairway for the drive-in.
The new skipper has three drives and, whoever is standing closest to where the ball comes to rest, picks it up and presents it back to the captain in exchange for a bottle of wine.
The members duly gathered in various parts of the fairway, plus a few in the rough and trees, although nobody was rude enough to stand on the adjacent second and ninth fairways!
With a steady hand and nerves of steel, Marshall sent his first drive more than 230 yards straight down the middle of the first fairway – almost into the hands of vice-captain John Jones.
Some say it was ‘fixed’ as the second and third drives were not quite as accurate, but some of the more speculative members were waiting in the trees lining the fairway to claim their prizes!
The chosen competition format for the day was Betterball Stableford in which golfers play in pairs and record their best score on each hole.
The sun shone, the wind gusted all afternoon and the players were rewarded with some spectacular views of the River Avon in full flow, but this did not detract them from hitting some very good scores.
The formidable pairing of Lewis and Stuart Ridley took first place with 42 points as they beat club secretary Fraser Williamson and Pete Stanley into second place on 38 points.
On countback, third place was taken by Steve Wood and Nick Webb on the same number of points.
There was even a prize for finishing with the least number of points, so congratulations, commiserations and some well-aimed banter followed the announcement of results by the captain.
A great day was had by all and it looks like a fantastic golfing year ahead for Evesham Golf Club under Brian’s stewardship.