In the week running up to the 15th Lawle Guby Open there was much discussion about the weather, with torrential rain and gales forecast. Lucy literally made herself sick with worry and excitement and was unable to attend on the day. In the event, the day was blustery with some spots of rain, but nothing sustained. However, the high and changeable winds were to have a big effect on the scores.

Eight people gathered at the first tee, the defending champion Robert teeing off first as has become traditional. His straight shot found the middle of the green, although it eventually rolled a few feet off the back. Ashley hit a good shot fractionally left and Gary followed suit, although a little further left. Mark had originally agreed to make up the four, but having seen the tee shots suddenly seemed very reluctant to join in. Eventually Lance filled the breach and sent his tee shot a few yards short and right of the green. He followed that by chipping onto the green and straight through the back, putting back towards the flag and off the green again, 15ft past the flag, 10ft past the flag then 6ft past until he eventually managed to sink it for a record equalling 9. All the other players managed to negotiate the hole in some safety, apart from Paul and late arrival Trevor, who turned up with Keith a full 90 minutes after the advertised tee-off and hit a record breaking 10. Although the wind was gusting viciously, most of the competitors didn’t do too badly over the first few holes, but pars were noticeably hard to come by with a total of only 23 pars and one birdie all day and only nine of those on the front 9. However, as the front 9 continued, the 6’s and 7’s started to rack up – Ash hitting a couple of 7’s to his obvious frustration with Shandy following suit and David, Lance, Gary and Paul also notching up a front nine 7. Mark was keeping his head down and putting together a solid score considering the conditions, as were Robert and Gary. Shandy and Keith weren’t too far behind, especially when factoring in their plus 10 handicaps.

The back 9 started uneventfully for most players, although David (7) and Paul (8) probably threw away any chance of victory at the 10th hole. By now the wind was blowing at near gale force conditions and from a direction that made reaching the 11th hole very difficult and blew many shots far left at the 12th. Only Paul and Lance managed to negotiate those two holes in less than a total of 10 shots. Shandy hit four balls from the 12th tee after his first veered sharp left onto the driving range (although it was eventually found) and an air shot at this tee left David on the ground in hysterics. At the shorth 14th, Ash hit to within 7ft of the pin to retain the Closest to the Pin trophy, which was just as well as he’d forgotten to bring it with him. Robert and Gary began their battle for supremacy with Robert sinking a par to level with Gary. However, Gary struck back with the only birdie of the day at the 16th. Unfortunately for Gary, Robert managed to par the final two holes to become the clubhouse leader by one shot. He waited in the clubhouse, and waited, and waited, and waited…….for some reason the others were almost five holes behind and were almost caught up by Trevor and Keith who started 90 minutes late. After a mini-meltdown at holes 11-13, Shandy played the last five holes solidly to equal Robert’s score – although Shandy was oblivious to this fact until it was pointed out to him by others. The players then waited for Shandy to slowly eat his dinner and be ready for the playoff hole, while Robert finished the pint of Guinness that he’d unwisely ordered. Shandy stuck to soft drinks. After a quick trip to the toilets “to wash the bacon fat from his hands”, Shandy was ready. He lost the coin toss to Robert and was invited to tee off first. His shot sailed into the hedge, while Robert found the edge of the green. Shandy was fortunate that his ball had made it through the hedge but made a mess of three shots in a row to find himself on the green in 5. Robert putted his second shot to within a foot of the hole and Shandy knew that his race was run, picking his ball up and shaking bacon-greasy hands. Robert had become the first person to retain the Open trophy – also winning the gross score trophy and equalling Dan’s longstanding record three wins in the Open. Four players were within three shots of winning and, despite the wind, it was another successful competition. David was left to rue the fact that he always scores a gross 74-78 – except this year, when it would have been enough to give him victory. Shandy was left frustrated by the fact that he led the Open until the very last hole, as shown by this graph.