Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Duo cut it on back nine
Ian Cusselle and Trevor Stannard won the finale to the 2022 Canterbury Festival of Golf on Sunday after scoring 24 points on the back nine.
Cusselle and Stannard began at the 13th in a morning shotgun start and made a total of 44 points to win the WW Martin Four Ball Better Ball Stableford on countback from two other pairs in a field of 48 pairs.
Cusselle said: “It was redhot out there, we were tiring towards the end and it was slow, there were a lot of people on the course.
“It’s always a joy because it’s tough to win up here. When they called out fourth place on 43 we knew we were ahead of that and we knew we’d had a great back nine and that clinched it.”
Second-placed Nigel Hylands and Wayne Catherall were up to 41 after 16 holes but paid for a single-point bogey at the 18th.
Brandon Ware and Wal Kalinowski were also punished for their only single pointer, a 17th hole bogey, to finish third.
Astonishingly Stannard putted out at the last with the same ball that he started the festival with on Monday, six competitions and 108 holes earlier. “It’s the only one I’ve got,” he joked.
Nigel Hylands played the round of his life as he, Zenya Allen, Francis Davis and Nick Miller scored 92 points to win Saturday’s Shepherd Neame Festival Team Stableford.
They won by three from Anne Fox, Gill Lamond, Mike Harrison and Colom Mclaughlin, who held off Steve Lennon, Alfie Janman, Ben Hyder and Paul Betts on countback. But Hylands, who scored his first hole in one in Thursday’s Festival competition, was quick to acknowledge the key role Allen played.
He said: “I had the round of my life, I shot 77 gross. It’s insane.
“We gelled as a team, it was wonderful. But the main one really was Zenya, she was just really, really good and apart from me she was the secondbest scorer.”
Hylands added: “We knew we were playing well but never expected to get that many and it actually made it harder because we started thinking we might win.”
Christine Bowles holed a 20-foot birdie putt at the 17th as she and husband Stephen and Barbara and Sam Plews won Friday’s Wingham Timber Texas Scramble.
Sam Plews followed up with a close chip and run at the 18th for Stephen Bowles to nail their seventh birdie for a gross 64, net 50, to win by two.
Jacqui Mount, Claire Wilson, Elizabeth Carlotti and Di Plommer scored 92 points to win Thursday’s Morgan’s Pomade 1-2-3 Waltz Team Stableford.
Bruce Maguire won Wednesday’s Biffa Individual Stableford competition. He won by two from Christine Bowles.
Maguire said: “I had a really poor one on Monday and got myself tensed up trying to make shots that I’m just not capable of.
“I just concentrated on trying to relax, swing through the ball and not try to hit it so hard and it worked.”
Steve Skelton, Alan Cook and Peter Rogers were victorious in Monday’s Seniors Texas Scramble Medal. They won on countback from Philip Cheeseman, John Mcneil and Bill Woledge.