Lightning strikes twice for 80-year-old Terry

Terry Hancock showed that age is no barrier to excellence when he ran up 40 points to win Canterbury GC’S Wednesday’s men’s Stableford, at the age of 80.

And Hancock, whose 14 handicap has now been cut to 12.7, was in good company. His playing partners Rob Green (11) and Phil Myers (19), finished third and fourth on countback, both scoring 36 points, while Mike Wilson (12) was ninth.

Second place went to Michael Parrot (13), just a point behind Hancock’s 40, after racking up 23 points on the front nine, before double bogeys at the 12th and 13th contributed to nine dropped shots on the back nine for a gross 81, a total of 39 points and a handicap cut to 11.8

And, despite an NR at the 18th, that opened the door for Hancock to notch his first Wednesday Stableford win since exactly the same date, November 13, back in 2013, after several near misses. He also scored very heavily on the front nine scoring 23 points at two over par, with a four point birdie at the 5th, before dropping seven shots on the back nine but adding another four point birdie at the tough uphill par three 11th. Hancock said: “I’m just pleased that I can still play a reasonable game of golf at a certain age. I only get a couple of decent rounds each year and the last one was in July, I think.’’

John Gawler (13), dropped five shots in his first four holes but quickly recovered with straight pars to the ninth for an outward haul of 19 points and a total of 38 to win Monday’s seniors Stableford by one point from Chris Cheeseman (18).

Tony Baxter (21) scored 34 points in the cold, breezy conditions to take third place, on countback from Robert Hollidge (11) and fifth placed Ian Florence (17).

Mohammad Nabi