Derllys Court go down fighting at Machynys

THE cancellation of the seniors competition at Derllys Court Golf Club last week saw the main focus of attention turn to the opening match of the South Wales Seniors Classic for the section’s A team at Machynys.

In very blustery conditions the already lengthy course became even longer as the first match got under way.

A slow start from Phil Pickersgill and Graham Parry quickly got worse as they found themselves fighting to stay in the match.

A Parry chip-in for a birdie at the 8th hole got the pair back to just 3 holes behind, but their opponents proved too good and took an early victory to go one match ahead.

The other two matches proved to be compelling affairs with four well-matched players going toe to toe for 18 holes.

John Hartley and Ken Breaker were 1 up at the turn, with Breaker sinking some key putts, but found themselves 1 down at the start of the final hole. Hartley played the 481yard hole superbly and with both Machynys players finding greenside bunkers and leaving themselves challenging putts for pars, Hartley’s birdie putt shaved the hole and the match was lost.

The final match had seen Graham Owens and Meirion Evans taking an early two-hole lead, but failure to find the bottom of the cup on numerous holes eventually proved expensive and with the match all square after the 17th hole, a creditable halved match was negotiated on the final hole, leaving Machynys the winners by 2½-½.

This week a field of 60 seniors compete in the first of the 10 rounds of the Dawn Patrol league, with a visit to Newport Links for the opening team match of the season later in the week.