St David’s Day Stableford, Saturday March 1st, Queens.
Bandit Fest – Queens 1st March 2025 - by Tariq Ali
Respected Members,
On a dry, if somewhat breezy, day, we had the pleasure of playing the majestic and elegant Queen’s Course for the first time in 2025. After her enforced layoff, the Queen’s offered sanded fairways but better greens than the King’s following its maintenance.
Our esteemed organiser of the weekday rollups, Alistair Shand, had the honour of teeing off first. Unfortunately, the pressure was too much for him, and he carved his tee shot to the right, thus missing one of the widest fairways on any course. He did recover, however, and posted a respectable 31 points for the day.
There has been a rumour that the Council may be handing out sombreros at next week’s AGM. The top four this week would be worthy recipients of such fine headwear. Dr. Jonny Dickson confidently predicted that he intended to surpass Jake Knapp’s 59 at PGA National this week. If only he hadn’t scored 15 points on the front nine and matched his one-under gross score (25 points!) on the back nine, then he would have easily beaten Knapp’s score.
Dr. Dickson sat confidently in the Dormy afterwards, basking in the glory of his back nine. As other scores were recorded, Mr. Billy Z. McNeil jumped to the top of the leaderboard (again), no doubt aided by his new Vokey wedges. Unfortunately, Billy didn’t notice Mr. Alister Wallace following behind, who clinched victory this week with a stronger back nine. If Brian McNulty had scored more than one point on the 17th, he would have matched Alister’s score but would have won with a better back nine.
Congratulations to all. Any emails regarding handicaps should be directed to Mr. Aitchison for review.
Notable Mentions
· Mr. Scott Williamson has the honour of being the first player of 2025 to land a ball in the water next to the 13th green. Although the ball was sitting partly submerged, he refused my encouragement to remove his socks and shoes to play the shot. Maybe next time.
· Congratulations to Mr. Michael Page on the amazing birdie on the 14th, which resulted in four points, giving a very consistent 18 points on both the front and back nine.
Reminder – The AGM is this Friday, 7th March. Please let Keith Stirling know your attendance or apologies.
We celebrate St David’s Day with our first full field event of the year. A “warm up” stableford to get us into the mood for the coming season. Even better it’s our first chance to play the Queens this year. There are plenty of spaces available so get your entries in via the app asap. The draw will appear here later in the week. Any special or late requests please let Iain know.
