Surrey Golf
Surrey first team v Kent
1st Team v Kent
Chislehurst GC
August 17th
On the back of a comprehensive away win in Hampshire our County team played our final regular season match against Kent at the wonderful Chislehurst GC.
The stakes were high as only a win would win the League section for Surrey whereas a draw would suffice for Kent to qualify for the South East Final.
A beautiful morning welcomed the morning foursomes with the Surrey line up as below.
- Luke Stock & Dan Magee
- Max O Hagan & Freddie Surgey
- David Corben & Alastair Kinnaird
- Ben Palmer & Jon Poulton
All four pairings started the morning well jumping into early leads around the turn. However, Kent were always in the game and a strong end to the morning from Kent saw the scores level at lunch.
Luke & Dan winning 3&2 and David & Alastair winning 5&4, with Max & Fred losing the 18th to a birdie to lose by 1 Hole and Ben & Jon losing by 2&1.
Onto the Afternoon singles and our order was as follows-
- Luke
- Freddie
- Max
- Dan
- Ben
- Alastair
- David
- Jon
The early exchanges were tight before Kent pushed for ascendancy around the turn.
News came in that only David & Alastair led their matches going into the back nine although the other matches were still close.
Luke battled hard but lost the top match 3&1, and soon after Max lost on the same green.
Meanwhile Freddie was playing the final hole and following a sublime approach, which hit the flagstick, that resulted in a birdie and half a point.
Good news arrived in the shape of Alastair winning 5&4 and David winning 6&5.
2.5 of the 4.5 points we needed in the bag but things were not looking great. Dan has been 2 Down early in the back nine, Ben likewise with Jon exchanging holes back and forth to be all square playing the 15th.
Dan had put on a fight back and had a putt narrowly miss on the 17th to be level. Off up the last Dan took on the narrow drive to leave his ball flag high about 50 yards to the right. His opponent layed up and then played to 25 feet. Dan had to get inside that which he did and make his opponent putt first. Kent missed and Dan calmly rolled in his must make putt to keep us alive.
Just then Ben appeared on the 18th tee with news arriving that he was also 1 Down.
This time both players laid up and played wedges to the green, Ben half as close as his opponent.
Kent missed and Ben like Dan calmly rolled his must hole putt in to make the score tied at 5.5 points each.
The outcome of the League would all come down to Jon. After a quick walk back down to the 16th we learned that Jon had won the 15th and was 1Up.
Following pars on the 16th, the vital match moved to the 17th where both players found the sloping par 3 green. Kent went first and narrowly missed whilst Jon slid his winning putt narrowing past. Jon had a 3 ft putt to go up the final hole in the lead but it lipped out and we were back to the 18th all square with us needing to win the hole. Any other outcome and Kent win the League.
Kent went first and surprisingly hit a driver which ended up near where Dan played from a few minutes before. However his approach came up short of the greenside bunker. Jon then played a lovely pitch to around 5 feet and after Kent chipped and took 2 putts Jon had 2 putts to win the match and the league. He only needed one.
This will probably go down as one of the best finishes to a Surrey match ever and those of us who were there will remember the last hour for a very long time. Having almost being down and out to winning the 18th hole 4 times from 4 attempts with birdies each time to gain the points required it was truly astonishing.
So we are off to Sprowston Manor in Norwich for the South East Final on October 5th.
Left to right back row Steve McNeill (County Secretary) / Jim Christine (Coach) / David Corben / in front Jon Poulton / Alastair Kinnard / Ben Palmer / John Noble (Lead Coach) / Simon Crockett (Board Member)
Left to right, front row Freddie Surgey / Dan Magee / Max O'Hagan (Captain) / Luke Stock
Team talk.
Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.
