Women overwhelm UGC’s Saturday golfers

By P Utter

HOW absolutely wonderful it was for Umkomaas Golf Club (UGC) to see both PGA ‘boys’ in action last weekend, Tim Clark playing in the Traveller’s Championship in Connecticut after a very long break away from golf due to injury.

Tim missed the ‘cut’ by a mere two shots on even par but it is good to see him back in action at last.

Hopefully this augurs well for the rest of the year. Garth Mulroy, who didn’t have a great weekend on the American Tour the week before at the US Open, had an excellent weekend at the BMW International played in Munich, Germany, finishing on -6 at T40. It would seem that the European Tour suits Garth a lot better and everyone looks forward to seeing him play in the Alstom Open de France, the French Open, next weekend and also in one of the ‘big’ tournaments, the Scottish Open on 9 July. The next PGA tournament is the Greenbrier’s Classic on 2 July and on 9 July, the John Deere Classic. The ‘boys’ are wished every success in their respective tournaments from all at UGC.

Wednesday’s competition was won once again by Wally Kent on 40 points, followed by Sierd Lamminga on 39 points and Andy Davidge on 38 points. As always the weather played along with a fabulous afternoon and it’s no wonder the scores have been so good of late. Well done, guys.

On Saturday the number of players was reduced quite a bit due to the fundraiser the club hosted for the Allerton League players on Sunday. Nonetheless, all who played in the fourball betterball competition had a great day welcoming Annabelle Hesom and evergreen Bob Duncan to the competition.

It also looked as though the women had taken over the Saturday competition by the scores and winners. Well done to Linda Toward and Lesa Vergottini who won the competition with 44 points and taking 2nd place was Michelle van der Merwe and her partner, the ‘thorn among the roses’ Devlyn Fraser on 42 points. Congrats to the girls – wallow while you can, this probably won’t happen again in a month of Sundays and to Devlyn, congrats too. The jackpot will be carried over to next week and Devlyn Fraser took home the hidden birdie kitty, getting his birdie on the 12th hole. The only prize Eric Morsner could manage was the attendance draw. Well done Eric for staying on for prizegiving.

As mentioned, the Allerton League players held their fundraising day on Sunday and by all accounts, it was very successful. Thanks to Nelson Moonsamy and his team for going out of their way to get players and prizes for this tournament.

Coming up next Friday, 3 July is the Khanya Hospice sponsor day hosted by UGC. All golfers are urged to support this competition for a very worthy cause. The tee times are between 10.30am and 11.30am. It’s a 4BBB stableford with the green fees at R170 per player. All proceeds go to Hospice for their palliative care treatment.

On Saturday, 4 July is the Toyota monthly medal as well as the ‘darts and dominoes’ evening. This has never been done at the club before and it should be great fun. After your golf during the afternoon, this will surely be a fun way of relaxing with little wooden blocks and little spears with feathers attached. So if the little white ball didn’t frustrate you enough during the afternoon, the evening will certainly be a challenge.

The UGC women are playing their second SCR league match on Sunday, 5 July at Umkomaas. Hopefully it will go better this round with home course advantage in their favour. The menfolk also play league on Sunday, composite league down at Selborne. Good luck to you all, play well and enjoy yourselves.

It was good to see Neil Thompson on the home stretch at last after his second operation last Wednesday. All he needs now is a bit of ‘fattening’ up and he’ll be well on his way to being ‘normal’ again. To all members not feeling well at the moment, UGC wishes everyone a speedy recovery from whatever ails you.

UGC’s website has been recently ‘tarted up’ and looks tremendous. Find it at www.umkomaasgolf.co.za