Sene Valley - Thu 18th May 2023

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Was Carl going to get a hat-trick of wins? That was the question we faced as we approached this year's visit to Sene Valley, which was looking beautiful & really benefiting from the removal of a lot of trees around the course.  Carl was there early sorting out everyone's cards & ensuring that he only had a one shot cut for winning last month... After a good breakfast, Andy Miller, playing his 100th game with the Broadstairs Golf Society, made the draw for our groups & we were soon off.

Playing in beautiful sunshine with a cool breeze, we could tell this was going to be a good day.  Rhod & Gary began by searching through the driving range for their wayward drives... Gary blamed his shot on him still being shell-shocked by Chelsea's poor season, whilst Rhod was wondering why he'd agreed to help Dave 'The Bouncy-Castle Man' Sears put up a bouncy castle on the way through Eastry this morning, carrying those sand-bags seemed to have made him too tired to swing his clubs properly.  Carl wasn't put off by these antics & played a steady game to be the clubhouse leader with 34pts... little did this 1st group know that they'd have to wait 45mins until the 2nd group finished (surely a BGS record? & please duly note that no-one can ever suggest that any of the 1st 4-ball are 'slow' players: Carl Bolton, Sam Baker, Gary Fairhall & Rhodri Walters).

Group 2 included newcomer Ady, a guest of our very own Stonelees Chef & all-round good-guy Anthony, alongside our reigning player-of-the-year Bob, & Simon Butteriss who couldn't believe that he'd lost 3 holes on a Fairhall... However, none of these displaced Carl as club-house leader... It was the same result with Group 3 as well, neither Andy, Pete, Ken or Arthur getting close enough to the leading score of 34  - Andy was heard to be muttering to himself... 'it's my 100th game & it's my worst one' - Andy's surprisingly low score wasn't even in the bottom three however... 

Our 4th group included the returning Rob Murphy after his fall at West Malling, it was great to see him back proudly sporting a blue hoody which apparently was the mud-stained white top that he'd dyed having not being able to get rid of the West Malling mud. Today Rob was enjoying sharing a buggy with his chauffeur Jim who was enjoying a return to form with an ice-cool 32 pts. Jon was also enjoying a return to form with 33pts but it was Dave 'The Bouncy-Castle Man' who ended Carl's hat-trick attempt by beating his personal BGS record score by coming in with 37pts. It really must've been something to do with the extra energy he had by getting Rhod to carry his sand-bags this morning.

Our final group was a right eclectic mix including our lowest & highest handicappers... strangely enough it was our lowest Handicapper (a.k.a. our best golfer) Lee 'Big Ball' Bulford who came in with our lowest score today, putting a smile on Simon's face as he won or lost (depending on your perspective) on count-back... On the other hand, this last group also had today's stand-out performer. Nigel managed 24pts on the front nine & was up to 28pts after the 10th hole but then put up a real fight to finally creep home with 38pts to get his 2nd BGS victory following his win at St Augustine's last October.  Terry & Chris must have been quite bemused with the range of scoring in their group.

Soon after the 5th group got back & group 1 had finished their 15th plate of chips, we had our prize ceremony... nearest the pins were won by Jon, Nigel, Terry & Carl; whilst our 2s sweep was shared by Carl, Sam & Rhod who all incredibly birdied the 11th.

Next month's game is at the renowned Kingshill - a 1st for the BGS. It's on Wednesday 21st June with Breakfast at 9am - it's £50 (which is cost-price, with all prizes donated this month by the BGS).  Booking will be opening soon so make sure you get in early...