Captain’s Day, WGC, 12th September 2021.
As everyone said, this was the biggest day of the year, and having it closer to the end of the summer season turned out well.
Let’s start with the winner, Max Rose, his second Captain’s win – here we are on the 18th green, just after Max had sealed his 36 hole win.
I spent a few hours on the course watching the players competing, there was mutual respect both towards me and between the fellow competitors.
Some interesting pairings – but that’s what a golf club is all about.
More friendly groupings:
and more:
The golf was followed by the joint Drive-In, dusk was approaching.
Drive-In — there was a large crowd on the tee. Arrival on a buggy and on the tee went by in a flash. Walked onto the tee with Lady Captain, greeted a few people and suddenly Linda whacked her drive high and onto the fairway, finishing near the fairway bunker on the right. My turn came and I had a smile on my face — I was so pleased to be standing in that spot, surrounded by positivity and encouragement. Slowly took the driver back, tried a minuscule pause at the top and the ball flew (with uncharacteristic slight fade) down the middle, turned a little towards the spinney on the right then ran into the dip on the fairway, leaving what would have been a 70 yard second shot.
Have a watch of a short slo-mo of my drive 😄 [courtesy Gary Silver, edited].
A little later, to my surprise, I was presented with the ball to go back into my pocket!
There was a sweep for the distance between the two balls and the winner was former captain Adrian Barr who immediately donated the winnings back to the Captains’ Charity, the Drive in sweep raised about £200, which will go to Prevent Breast Cancer.
The dinner buffet was enjoyed by competitors, members, guests and my close family.
I was very proud of the trophy I chose and felt it was appropriate for the Club, and for the worthy winner. It was an Art Deco piece, octagonal, and was hallmarked 1932, the year Whitefield Golf Club was founded. I thought this added an extra historical touch.
Here is Max’s card from his afternoon round, playing with the pressure of having scored 65 nett in the morning:
Fortunately, he signed it!
Some other important mentions — to Simon Jeffries for all the organisation in the build up, and then at the presentation, to Daniel Samuels and a team of volunteers who ran the competition in the morning and made the cut at lunchtime.
Max led at lunchtime with his nett 65, closely followed by Ian Taylor, Julien Robinson and Paul Hattersley on 66.
As you can see, Julien won the best gross over the day, Ed Simon won the best afternoon nett score.
And here is the winner, Max, during and after the presentation:
Most of the images are mine, you can guess which ones are not, thanks to David Baynard and other contributors.
So overall, a memorable day for myself, my family and for the winner!