2020 Winner:
Alan Thirkettle with 102 St.P. followed by Brian Taylor and Garry Gould with 100 St.P.
The annual Chairman challenge took place Sunday October 25th. The competition was a Fox-hunt (4 ball-better-ball) where the Chairman & Captain (Kjeld & Vincent) from their round set the Par of the course and everybody in teams of two tries to beat that score.
We were 28 participants translated into 7 flights. The weather was at times a bit wet and the course also very wet following a lot of rain the last weeks. Nevertheless, the spirit was high and despite the current COVID-19 restrictions we still managed to have an enjoyable event. Unfortunately, the restrictions required that the challenge was played as a normal tee-time competition and where the participants were not allowed to remain at ESTEC for a social gathering after the event. Health is and remains the top priority and it is still a privilege that we even under the current restrictions can enjoy a good round of golf.
The Foxes did their very best and managed to lower the par of the course by 5, but even under those restrictions two teams still managed to make 36 stableford.
Anna C & Gijs – with 36 points and a better back 9 became the winner of today’s event – congratulation -, closely followed by Ineke and Anna Grethe also with 36 points as second, and Gerry and Paul with 34 points on the third place.
It is worth noticing that Gijs Tan became 3rd in 2018, was winner in 2019 and now again in 2020.
It seems that a winning strategy is to team up with Gijs …… well done Gijs.
Kjeld & Vincent
The fourth seasonal was played at the traditional location of Liemeer, only 30 minutes from Noordwijk. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 restrictions dinner was not possible and the 19th hole was cancelled. Liemeer kindly agreed to apply the much lower Introductory green fee of just € 42,50 to compensate, very nice club.
EGC members are being excellent at self isolating and there was only one cancellation and a good turnout of 21 players distributed over 7 flights.
The weather was very good for October with about 16 degrees and a force 3 wind and even sunshine.
Poor Peter had a tough start as a lady had nicked his buggy so he missed his warm up while another was arranged.
The marshal made a special stop to check that David was OK in just a polo shirt. I am sure there were many interesting events but I can only report those from my flight. We had a mixture of golf with the low being hole 14, the shortest hole where we all had terrible tee shots and scratched. Hole 18 was the highlight, Vincent had 185m for his second shot and was rather upset that his ball found the end of the water, but fortunately it was either a Jesus ball and jumped out or a fish headed it over. All three of us managed a par.
The seasonals are a special EGC tradition and played on outside courses. We did very well to play all four this year. Many years ago the scores were generally very low. These days we have much better scores, the top half scored 29 or above, which might reflect the low course rating at ESTEC.
Reno kindly ensured that the scores were entered into proware. Thanks to everyone who came to play and sorry that we could not provide prizes. A big congratulations to Alan on his lower handicap and still scoring 35 points, just pipping Gary to first place with a better back nine.
Stay safe and healthy and remember that golf helps to make you fitter and stronger. Golf can also be frustrating with a bad shot so enjoy the good ones with a big smile.
