Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Consistent Longmore gets his rewards at Canterbury
Consistency paid off for Michael Longmore as he won the John Hogben Stableford competition at Canterbury Golf Club.
Longmore won by a point from Ben Dancer on Sunday. With the 12th temporarily closed for ground work, Longmore scored a 34-hole total of 68. Tied for third place after Saturday’s breezier first round, two points behind overnight leader Graham Vaughan (WHS 13.0, sr 14) - who finished third overall - Longmore did not look a contender after making one point double bogeys on the first and fifth and failing to score on the third.
But he dropped only one more shot on the outward nine for 18 points and added 17 more on the back nine, capped with a fine birdie two at the 17th to just edge out Dancer. Dancer had trailed in 15th place overnight but rallied with a second round best of the day score of 36. Longmore said: “It felt like one of those days when it wasn’t going to happen, both days I struck the ball quite well, didn’t score well early on but kept plugging away.
“I’m really pleased to win a two-day comp. That’s probably the big thing because of the consistency in it, perhaps helped by others just not getting the scores in.” Ladies captain Alyson Wreford and Heather Hardy - who received 18 shots - scored 37 Stableford points to win the
Ladies’ Winter Cups by a point from Christine Bowles and Barbara Plews.
Joy Flynn and Charlotte
Launois scored a combined 35 points with 18 shots for third place.
Wreford said: “We matched drives quite often so we were able to choose the second shot that suited us, together with the hole set up, which made a great difference all round.” Barbara Plews had five net birdies in a haul of 35 Stableford points to win the Ladies’ Veterans Trophy by a point from Beverly Mcneil on Friday. Marion Hawes took third place with 28 points and scored a net eagle on the fourth.
John Gawler said he was “absolutely over the moon” to win Wednesday’s Men’s Stableford by a point, with a total of 33.
Nicholas Shearman had a birdie on the fifth to help take
second place, on countback, from Bill Pearson. Gawler said: “The last year was really bad. I had an operation on my right ankle last September and then I had a hand injury but now that’s all settled down I’ve started to enjoy it a lot more.” Danny Swan showed that his winning days are not behind him as he scored 37 points for overall top score by a point from Neil Webber, in Monday’s Seniors Stableford.
Swan began with a triple bogey eight but dropped only one shot on the next five holes on his way to a hefty 21 points for the front nine and added 16 more on the back to edge out Webber. Swan said: “That’s my first win in one of the Monday competitions for four years, it was one of those days when it just sort of clicked. I really thought that my days of winning anything at Canterbury were over but obviously not.”