Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Williams follows in son’s footsteps with cup win
Golf
Three years after his son, Scott, lifted the Style Cup at Canterbury Golf Club, David Williams followed suit on Sunday by winning the same competition.
But whereas Williams jnr needed the benefit of a countback to gain the verdict in 2014, his father was involved in no such dramas as he got home with two strokes to spare after shooting a net 66.
That said, the result may well have been different had it not been for a calamitous penultimate hole for Williams’s playing partner and joint runner-up, Tony Pearce.
The two men arrived at the par-3 17th with Pearce a stroke ahead of Williams and needing two pars for a net 64.
But the 13-handicapper pushed his tee shot wide right, beyond a line of silver birches.
He managed to find a route through the trees but the recovery shot cleared the green and ran into the undergrowth. From a near-impossible lie, it took Pearce two shots to find the putting surface and three more to get down, leaving him with a punishing seven.
Twelve-handicap Williams, meanwhile, played the hole conservatively to make bogey and move into the ascendancy and when both men made pars at the last, he took over the clubhouse lead. The 54-year-old had given notice of his good form four days earlier when he claimed third place in the Wednesday Stableford with 40 points.
And he continued in similar vein on Sunday, opening his account with a birdie at the par-5 first.
Williams dropped only three shots in the next eight holes to turn in two-over 38 and although he bogeyed each of the first three holes on the back nine, he dropped only two more shots to complete a five-over 40 inward half for a gross 78.
Pearce, playing off 13, started badly with a triple-bogey eight after driving into trees and taking a penalty drop.
But he played the next eight holes in level par, making birdies at the seventh and eighth to repair two bogeys.
Three bogeys and four pars brought him to the 17th in a promising position before disaster struck.
Pearce eventually finished fourth on countback, behind 15-handicap Marcus Rabenda, who claimed second place and six-handicap Stewart White. Leading scores: 66 D Williams (h12); 68 M Rabenda (h15), S White (h6), T Pearce (h13); 69 L Tidy (h8), J Iddenden (h2), R Balcombe (h13), S Leggatt (h7); 70 G Lee (h15), D Tottman (h13), A Cowell (h15), P Blake (h11), M Lambton (h7), P Stewart (h12), P Cryer (h9); 71 A Brockman (h14), T Wenham (h11), J Isherwood (h15), J Coupe (h2), G Tottman (h8), P Bundock (h10), S Mount (h14), G Miller (h20); 72 J Macdonald (h4), C Jamieson (h18), R Beer (h7), M Bidwell (h5).
Nearly 50 golfers attended Canterbury Ladies’ Spring meeting which this year went ahead under a new format – a medal competition with a shotgun start.
The dry, gradually getting warmer conditions contributed to some good scores and with prizes for the first four in each division plus awards for best front and back nine, longest drive and nearest the pin on the 18th and eighth respectively, there was plenty to play for.
Diane Florence was the overall winner with a net 65, followed by Sarah Wetherell on 67.
The winner of Division 1 with net 68 was Lyn Lee and in second on 69 was Fran Fearn.
The longest drive winner (Division 1) was Ali Beck with Bettie Morton winning Division 2. Nearest the pin went to Anne Arnold.
The front nine prizes went to Maxine Field and Val Binns and the back nine to Sue Kerr and Andra Barney.
The raffle, in aid of the Captains’ Charity, the Children’s Assessment Centre at Kent & Canterbury Hospital on behalf of the League of Friends, raised £200.