Rob Henderson Trophy 2021

Match Report
Rob Henderson Trophy
Old Course
20.04.2021

A fine day in Fanling with plenty of lessons

An afternoon tee time, a 40 player field, 11 guests, 10 committee members, 7 match play matches and back on the Old Course for a second time within 30 days promised a lot of excitement from the start. 

The key questions of the day were in the order of importance:
Would the O’s win the Nearest to Pin? (see last match report)
Would the scores be better than a month ago?
Does it help to read the LSWGS rules ahead of matches?
Does name dropping win you any prizes?

The 12.04 tee time meant that there was ample time not only for breakfast but also for the driving range and unsurprisingly, there was a queue at the driving range for the first time ever, caused by eager LSW’ers. Would that have an impact on scores? Absolutely! In our field of 29 members, a very impressive 22 scored 30 points or more. The mean score was 33 points and the average 32, which was 2 points more than on March 22^nd. Key learning: Afternoon tee times produce better results and beers on golf carts help too.

Knowing the issues around slow play in a field of 10 4balls, your match secretary printed the pace of play on each of the lovingly prepared scorecards for every team. Did that help? No. There are many good reasons for slow play but the best one is still, well, slow play. This is something we will be putting a particular emphasis on over the coming months as we risk losing our playing rights in Fanling, in the event it continues. There will be measures put in place as of our next match and those will be communicated shortly. Should those not result in marked improvements, we may need to implement rather draconian and unpopular measures, which hopefully does not need to happen. 

The Pace of Play at the Old and New courses is 4 hours. This gives a player around 40 seconds on average per shot, including swearing after the prior shot, walking to the ball and finding it, selecting clubs, lining up and hitting the ball. 5 seconds more per player per shot in 4 balls results in 30 minutes more per round. For those who now have a picture in their head of players having to run around the golf course, relax. Most time is lost on the tee boxes and on the greens, not on fairways.

The yellow ball team competition resulted in impressive 4 teams returning the yellow ball after 18 holes and a respectable 33 points for the winning team, consisting of Rossouw, Pedersen, Boothby and Allen. 

With the 2020 Match Play season nearing a close, Dave Collins landed two impressive wins, beating Notker in a walk over for the 2020 season and Randy with 2 & 1 in the 2021 season.

Other winners were Noel, also completing his 2020 semifinal, Todd, Lorenz, JP and Will. Minor momentary irritations around the match between Jonny and Will could be resolved instantly by the match committee, consisting of JP, Dave and Lorenz, by simply reverting to the rules of the society which can be found at www.lswgs.com. Since 2018, tied matches are decided on countback and in line with the spirit of the game of golf, a player himself is responsible for knowing and observing the rules.

Mostly very tight matches with the exception of Kosuke, who was probably under the impression that he still needed to let JP win.

Again, a photo finish for the shot of the day. Carel was under the impression that it would be a good tactic to put his second ball in the rough close to the green on the 11^th hole. The ensuing challenges resulting from this minor mishap included chipping the ball over a 5mm cart path edge which proved to be unsurmountable, resulting in the ball bouncing off that very edge, over Carel’s head and into the jungle. A solid 8 on that hole for Carel. On that note, GolfGenius will correct your scores before transferring them to GHIN so GHIN shows a 7 on that hole for Carel, even though a double par certainly looks more impressive.

JP, fresh from scoring 41 points on March 22^nd, was a little behind coming to the 14^th hole. Clipping two tree branches with his 3^rd shot he landed his ball on the green for a one putt birdie, on the way to stardom. The next hole, being the famed dog leg right, then however, sent the shivers through his spine. He shanked his tee shot to the right, with the ball landing in the woodwork. Unimpressed, JP used the names dropping strategy, explaining to Martin that Gary Player says, when in the woods – play a wood. JP had probably made that up, but he did so anyway and miraculously, managed to get his ball to 10 yards before the green. Also behind on his putting stats, JP pulled out the putter and without further ado holed the putt from 20 yards for yet another birdie. The shot of the day by popular vote and yet another expired golf travel voucher for JP, kindly sponsored by GolfAsian.

Other notable wins on the day included Simon Hague as best guest, and Tiku for lowest gross as well as Mark Hall with the only 2. Andre Kriesel truly believed that this time he was safe with 25 points and not in danger of winning the keenest golfer yet again. Wrong! A beautiful pink towel to dry his tears though. The O’s did not have the upper hand on the Nearest to Pins (probably because we don’t have any) but Peter Boothby, with yet another solid performance, was runner up on countback against the lowest gross serial winner Stephen Ahmoye, who managed to win the Sugarcane Trophy on a Gross 74 with 39 points.

The 3 key lessons of the day:

• It helps to know the rules
• Your place is right behind the group in front of you
• Input shots, not X’s in GolfGenius for every hole and adjusted scores will be transferred to GHIN after the match