Effingham 2011

BAGS� 18^th season ended on a successful note with a well attended event at Effingham. Guests too swelled our numbers as 19 did battle with their hosts. The weather was cold but sunny and bright and though it was a touch windy, it was nothing like the day which followed ie today when it would have been ghastly to be out on the course. The Club entertained us well and even supplied crackers and mince pies to get us into the Christmas spirit.
Someone whose Christmas spirits were nicely lifted was Peter Barkham, fresh from a tour of India which presumably involved no golf. If so the break worked well as he scored 38 on a course where conditions were not easy. Close behind were Jason and Charity Chris on 36. This was Peter�s third BAGS win, the others being at Effingham (again) in December �96 and Surbiton in July �97. Well done Peter and you�ll be playing in the Captain�s Bowl in February but off one shot less.
We�ve now got closure on the big three Competitions which run through the season. The Chairman�s has been very exciting this year as the lead has changed several times. With a late run and his 36 points at Effingham replacing his previous third best score of 29, Chris hoisted himself up to Roger�s 115 points total and into 1^st place by virtue of his higher best score of 41 vs Roger�s 39. This was the biggest final day swing since Alan Winteridge won in 2000 with his 44 points at Leatherhead. Chris has won the Chairman�s twice before in 2001 and 2002 and now equals Graham�s three wins in this Competition. Good on yer CR!
Dave Christie won the Treasurer�s by a large margin but Richard might well have beaten him had he played one more event and thus reached the qualifying number of five as he was 2 points ahead of DC. Likewise in the par 3 Ernie was two points ahead of Hedley but did not play what would have been his 4^th (and qualifying) round at Effingham so the award goes to Hedley despite an indifferent (for him) score on Effingham�s par 3s. These might-have-beens in no way detract from good results by our winners and show the value of playing BAGS golf often!
Congratulations to our KO winners, Steve Rout and Les Gordon in the Singles and Seniors, Steve edging out Harry on the last green at the RAC and Les by rather more against Chris. The Pairs match between Messrs Christieson/Johnson and Little/Hawley has now been fixed for the end of January.
John Moody, Guy Simpkin and Alan Bell have resigned from BAGS due to pressure of work (John and Guy) and Alan�s wish to spend more time at his villa in Portugal. We shall miss them and thank them for their contributions to our Society, particularly in John and Alan�s case as Captains. We are delighted that John will still be designing the Charity programme which gets better every year.
The BAGS Committee has decided to offer the opportunity to five regular guests to join us. They are Tim Akers, Stuart Horrex, Gary Langford, Mark Longhurst and David Watling and all will change their status from the next event at West Hill in February. Many of you will already know them well from their frequent attendance at our meetings and we look forward to seeing them often in the New Year.
We�ve been delighted by your favourable comments on the quality of our 2012 programme. It has been possible to get even better deals than usual due to the recession and of course our consistent numbers clearly help. In some cases we�ve had to commit to specific figures to get our discounts so please try to bring along guests to swell our numbers. They will be guaranteed a good value day, a warm welcome and some great golf. Please send in your Booking Forms as soon as possible and thanks to the many who have already done so.
Our next event of course is our Annual Dinner on Friday January 27. Our numbers are around 85 with most tables now taken up but if you�d still like to attend, just e mail me. Again the �45 for a double ticket is now due so please send it if you�ve already committed.

My very best wishes to you all for a Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year.

1st      Peter Barkham      38 pts
2nd     Jason Bettinson     36 pts
3rd      Chris Romain         36 pts

The guest prize was won by Gary Langford with 38 pts and second was Richard Batchelor with 35 pts.

Par 3 Results from Effingham

Terry Taylor just missed out on the main prizes but got 10 points across the par 3 holes and takes top position. Several others also got 10 points, but the stroke index is taken into account so 3pts on stroke index 14 is worth more than 3 pts on stroke index 17. Terry got more points on the harder holes so they count more.

The overall position in the 2011 competition will be issued shortly.