StaySure Regional Final This week Mike Lake and I were at Foxhills Golf and Country Club near Cobham for the regional final of the StaySure PGA Trophy as 74 pairs competed for only 2 spaces! Chances were slim but we were there to enjoy a fantastic venue and golf course and hopefully play well and give ourselves a chance. An 8:40am tee time was early and with a trip round the M25, a really early departure time was needed. Fortunately, the M25 was ok (for a change) and we arrived in plenty of time; bacon roll and some cups of tea, a warm up on the range, a chip and a putt and we were ready to go. The format was a better ball stableford and Mike was receiving 90% of his handicap which meant getting 14 shots. Looking at the other regional finals the average score to get in was around 8 points better. We got off to a perfect start, with Mike making nett birdie on the 1st before we dropped a shot on the 2nd. Mike then made another nett birdie at 3 before I made biride at 5. Another nett birdie at the par 5 7th and a birdie from myself at 9 meant we made the turn in 22 points and tracking where we wanted to be. Mike then rattled off 3 nett birdies in the next 4 holes, but we then hit a lull where we made 3 pars in a row. 7 better with two to play and we needed a strong finish. Possibly the best hole I played all day I made birdie at the tricky 17th then we had a 530 yard par 5 to finish. 8 better with one to play I really felt we needed a birdie to have a real chance. Both of us were in good shape after our drives. I could just about get there in two and Mike was getting a shot. But unfortunately neither of us could get the birdie and we had to settle for 44 points and sit and wait. After an hour a 45 points came in and then it was a waiting game. We had finished our round at 1pm and it wasn’t until 5pm that two other pairs, one after another came in with 44 points and knocked us out on countback. We officially finished in a tie for second but only two went through and we missed out. We had a great day and I was really pleased to see Mike play so well. Not only because of the day, but because Mike was one of my guys that signed up to the winter unlimited coaching sessions and we did a lot of hard work - It was great to see it transpire to the course. We will just have to try harder next year.
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