Rule Measures Up
Saturday 30th January 2016
County Men's Squad Get Together Sat 30th January 2016 Trevose G&CC
West Cornwall GC's 15 year old Finn Rule (pictured above) was an impressive winner of today's county men's pre-season get together at Trevose G&CC. In the individual stableford competition and with 19 hopefuls taking part in cold windy but dry conditions the Lelant club's 4 handicap county junior was playing the course for the first time in competition and returned a total of 37 points to win on countback from Aaron Stephens (Newquay) and Cary Clark (Merlin).
With County Captain David Kneebone looking on, Rule eclipsed some of his peers with an excellent round of golf. One handicapper Stephens, who has represented the county at men's level previously, was the winner of the CGU Champion of Champions Depot Cup event at Falmouth in September 2015 and his good form continues. The unheralded Clark off 2 also produced an excellent performance as the trio found themselves at the top of the leadeboard.
Trevose G&CC's own junior George Leigh was another to return a fine score of 36 points together with clubmate and 2015 Amateur Championship runner up Carl Burley. The 13 year old Leigh was playing alongside Rob MacGregor and Matt Lock, both of whom were impressed with the youngsters game.
37 - Rule, Stephens & Clark
36 - Leigh & Burley
35 - Cris Fleming (Perranporth)
34 - Tom Rowe (Tehidy Park)
33 - Joe Reynard (Truro), Rob MacGregor (Tehidy Park), Matt Lock (Newquay)
Kneebone was delighted with the day's event saying 'This has been very worthwhile and I have been impressed at how the juniors stood up playing alongside the more established and older players. It is obviously early in the season but there are some good signs for the year.' He expressed thanks to Nick Gammon and David Cowan of Trevose for their hospitality and assistance in staging the competition.
Arguably most disappointed on the day was Falmouth GC's 17 year old junior Ben Browning who would have claimed all the plaudits but for failing to sign his card which led to his disqualification. Browning returned an excellent 38 points and his performance did not go unnoticed by Kneebone. It serves to further fuel the optimism surrounding the future of Cornish county team golf.
The County Men's team have two further matches ahead of the start of the 2016 Channel League season. On 21st February they will face an Exeter University team at St Enodoc and then on 12th March the annual match against the Royal Navy, scheduled to take place at Tehidy Park.