Surrey Golf
England Golf South-East Group Men's Qualifier
Sussex were the hosts of the SEG qualifier on the 13th of July with eleven counties vying to qualify for the National Finals later in the year.
The Dyke, set atop the South Downs overlooking Brighton hosted the event and offered a fair but challenging test. After the recent out of season weather the players were happy to catch it on a reasonably benign day.
The Surrey 1st Team was represented by Max O’Hagan, Aadam Syed, Luke Stock, Monty Holcombe, Harry Butler and David Corben.
The morning round saw Surrey return a score of 353, seven under par from their best five scores. Monty led the way with a solid 67, Luke a couple more with 69. The captain got to four under before losing a couple coming in to post 71, Max and Aadam rounded up our total with scores of 72 & 74.
At lunch BB&O led on 344, nine ahead of Surrey who were in third place.
After lunch the wind strengthened and as the final groups made the turn the news made for mixed reading. Aadam had made the turn at four-under but Monty had unfortunately gone the other way turning at five over. The other four were hovering around par. We required a strong back nine.
Monty would deliver with a stellar five-under back nine to shoot 72 and finish at five-under for the day. Unfortunately, Aadam would run into significant trouble at the courses challenging 16th hole and undo all his good work up to that point. He would finish with a 73.
As the captain came down the last couple holes it was evident we were too many off the lead. Max would struggle with the downland greens all day and post 75. A couple uncharacteristic wayward shots from Luke would result in a 77 and Harry would post a 73. With David posting 70 we would fall 10 shots adrift of the winners, Essex, who finished at 14 under par.
Some post-mortem evaluation would show that over 17 holes we were ahead of Essex, but one particular hole would cost us showing the finite margins in such a demanding format.
As ever can I thank John Noble, Jim Christine & Simon Crockett for their tireless efforts, and all the assistance we received from caddies and supporters.
Congratulations to Essex and we wish them well at the national finals in September. We look forward to next year's qualifier which is to be hosted by Bedfordshire.
Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.
