Campbell strikes gold for Chichester golfing vets

He hit the ball 179 yards and a fine bottle of champagne was the result for Harry Harper, who guessed the distance correctly . The event raised £133 for the new captain’s charity, Chestnut Tree.

The ensuing Stableford for the 54 contestants was a very close affair with the top five playing exceedingly well while others toiled against damp ground conditions.

The new captain compiled his best score for some time with 42 points to pip Martyn Hopkin on countback with David Galloway just one point behind.

All agreed the new skipper had got one thing right from the off - the weather, which it is hoped will be kind in the year ahead.

Drive-in result: Winner Campbell Goldsmid 42pts; Cat 2/3 2nd place Martin Hopkin 42, 3rd Tony Marsden 39; Cat 4 winner David Galloway 41, 2 Nigel Wood 39, 3 Peter James 35.

Meanwhile, Chichester ladies gathered for their annual meeting, which doubled as a presentation to all the prizewinners from more than 70 competitions throughout the year.

A total of 32 ladies received individual prizes, including many trophies. They were celebrating an exceptional year with the Mail on Sunday team reaching the last 32 in the country and the Daily Mail Foursomes pair reaching round seven.

Kathy Donohoe and Sang Porter won through to the national Ping finals and came a very creditable fifth.

Outgoing lady captain Terry Payne said ladies with handicaps ranging from five to 36 were prizewinners, a true representation of all golfing abilities. To show their appreciation to Terry, members presented her with a new electric golf trolley.

Chichester GC’s annual Halloween night golf event saw nine holes of Chichester’s Tower course turned into the Terror course. With nothing but glowsticks marking the way and glow-in-the-dark balls, 38 players ventured on to the course at 6.30pm.

After a meal of curry and rice, they teed off in a firework start - as opposed to a shotgun start - for a Texas scramble.

Winners were a team made up of head pro Tony Westwood and three junior members - Chris Jones, Ben Farrell and Joe Farrell - with a score of 36 (nett score 20.2), who won on countback from the Shaky Shankers team.

GOODWOOD

One of Goodwood’s most promising junior golfers, Harry Callow, has won the 2013 Junior Trailblazers Order of Merit in his first competitive season at the age of just seven.

Harry is a member of Golf At Goodwood’s junior excellence programme and won a staggering five tournaments this season on his way to winning his five-to-seven age category.

The Midhurst youngster, given his first set of clubs aged five, will go on to compete in the Trailblazers national tour championship at Hever Castle.

The Trailblazers Tour started three years ago and aims to provide youngsters with a similar experience to that of the professionals on the PGA European Tour and Ladies’ European Tour.

Harry’s rapid progress is attributed partly to his natural flair for the game but also to Goodwood’s successful junior excellence programme, which coaches the juniors through all aspects of the game including technique, strength and conditioning, nutrition and psychology.

Goodwood’s achievements in junior golf have been recognized by the English Golf Union, who have selected the venue as one of only ten England regional performance centres throughout the country.

Earlier this season, Harry benefited from a few golf tips from world No5 Justin Rose. The 2013 US Open champion is a global ambassador for Goodwood and met Harry while giving a group clinic to some of the 60 junior members at Goodwood.

COWDRAY PARK

The annual battle for the Jimmy Thompson Spoon, between Cowdray Park seniors’ 70-and-unders and 71-and-overs, took place in good golfing conditions.

The format is better-ball Stableford, with the ‘youngsters’ teeing off on the white tees and the older generation teeing off on the more forward yellow tees - with an even bigger start being given to those of 80 and over who teed off at the red tees.

Victory, by a considerable margin, went to the over-70s, although the unders were handicapped with four players dropping out at the last minute.

The star performers for the overs, and overall winners with 45 points, were Peter Burton and 79-year-old Ray Dowse. More worryingly for the 70s and unders is the fact that next year Dowse will be 80 and able to tee off on the red tees.

The second-best score for the over-70s, with 41 points on countback, was by David Tilley and Ken Newberry, who defeated captain Allen Sibley and vice-captain Brian Brockhurst in the opening match.

Top scorers for the under-70s were John Newman and John Lee, who amassed 40 points in overcoming Phil Pett and Barry Overington, while second best score in this section came from Derek Smith and Clive Brine, with 40 points, beating the strong pairing of Keith Chapman and Wally Mitchell. Other winning pairings: Under-70s: Peter Laws and Adam Gramston 41pts; Dave Lucking and Martin Lester 39; Over-70s: Mike King and Mike Nobes 41; Colin Tebbutt and Peter Clarke 35; Ralph Fanshawe and Terry Jasper 40; Mick Morling and Bruce Spooner 40; Alan Godfree and Rodney Fisher 41; David Manning and Derek Bastiani 37; Neville Gibbons and Richard Cockman 36; Peter Hallt and Brian Toms 40; Jim Green and Ken Young 33; Jim Booth and Mike Burgess 40.

BOGNOR

A very busy week at Bognor saw a wide range of competitions held.

Thirty-five pairs took part in Bognor’s first turkey four-ball better-ball competition of the year.

On a beautiful autumn morning, scoring was excellent, considering it was three-quarters handicap format.

Winners were Andy Brown and Dom Rainey with 45 points, ahead of Chris Lovell and Matt Nelmes with 44 and Richard and Darren Longhurst with 43. There will be a number of turkey format competitions over the next few weekends.

Bognor seniors held their last ‘major’ of the year - a double competition where all individuals enter the Poppy Day competition and members who were in one of the armed services played for that branch in a team event.

It was a great turnout with 68 players taking part. The winning service team were the Royal Navy, with Andy Bence taking the trophy on behalf of the team.

Results: Highest Navy scorer - Frank Hodder 36pts; highest Army scorer - Peter McCormack 35; highest RAF scorer - Ken Catt 32.

In the Poppy Day competition, Mark Ireland won with 39 points ahead of Joe Flanagan, Robin Walker and Eric Payne.

There were also closest-the-pin prizes for Roger Selway, Andy Isitt and Derek Whiting.

Following the Poppy Day and inter-services presentation, seniors’ captain David Turner presented a number of trophies which had been played over the summer and autumn.

The seniors’ captain also presented Jackie Heredge with a retirement gift. She is retiring after many years of working in a wide variety of roles in the club office and she will sorely missed by all.

Bognor GC’s annual fireworks display and Halloween evening was attended by more than 200 people.

Not many Bognor ladies ventured out in rotten weather to play the section’s medal round.

Results: Silver - 1 Sue Doughty 68; 2 Wendy Johnson 74. Bronze A - 1 Angela Allen 79. Bronze B - 1 Eileen Morris 89. Bronze C - 1 Jackie Chamberlain 84.

LITTLEHAMPTON

Littlehampton Golf Club are looking forward to celebrating their 125th anniversary in 2014.

In anticipation of inviting many friends to these celebrations, members of 18 golf clubs joined Littlehampton members for their gentlemen’s club match invitation.

Littlehampton professional Stuart Fallow and his guest Shaun Martin from Mill Ryde GC had every reason to be confident their 46 Stableford points could have been the winning score. However they had to settle for third place behind Craig Andrew and guest Darren Sigant of Avisford Park with 48 points and John Harker and guest Michael Martins of Bognor GC with 47.

The prizes were presented by Carl Stabler, Littlehampton club captain, who thanked his fellow members and their guests for their contributions to his captain’s charity, the Motor Neurone Disease Association.