The Cornwall Golf Union staged its annual dinner in Newquay on Friday night hosted by President Glyn Rowett - pictured above - at the Best Western Hotel Bristol. A magnificent total of 155 diners came together to celebrate and acknowledge Cornish Golf over the past year. 20 of the county’s 33 clubs were represented with the popularity of the dinner increasing over recent years. Rowett was joined at the top table by Union Presidents from across the region and Wales along with Anthony Scrivener of Ocean BMW Falmouth, sponsors to the CGU.

Rowett made a number of presentations after he and County Captain David Kneebone had addressed the audience. Central to their speeches was the 38 shot winning margin the Men’s County Team had won the English County Finals Qualifier with at St Enodoc in June as part of the SWCGA Championship week. There had been outstanding rounds in particular from Rob MacGregor (71 & 64), Joe Cruse (69 & 70) and Harry Hall (69 & 67), with the latter claiming the SW Youth Championship title. In thanking St Enodoc for their hospitality both made reference to the welcome and the excellent conditions all the competitors had been greeted with. Whilst the team ultimately finished 4^th of the 4 counties who qualified for the finals at Sandwell Park, Birmingham in September, reaching the final for the 2^nd time in 3 years was an achievement worthy of Duchy recognition. The entire ‘Sandwell Seven’ received mementos provided by hosts England Golf along with Kneebone. (Matt Richards, Rob MacGregor, Richard Jasper, Ryan Curtis, Joe Cruse, Josh Greenaway and Conor Wilson)

Budock Vean GC received the Summer Handicap League Trophy for their 2016 win in the 7 club league, where they ran out victors by two points over runners up Radnor. Team Captain Dennis McQuillan - pictured above - was presented with the trophy by Glyn Rowett, with his team members each receiving mementos.

The Young Player of the Year award was made by the CGU President to Truro GC’s Jared Mortimore, - pictured above - the 2016 County Junior Captain. In this year’s Men’s Amateur County Championship, 18 year old Mortimore bowed out at the Quarter Final stage, losing to finalist Ryan Curtis. In County Junior representation Mortimore played in 46 games for the Duchy winning or halving them 50% of the time. This year his form led to selection on 4 occasions for the full Men’s County Team and in his debut Channel League match he recorded a fine singles win. Two halves and just the one defeat in singles has been a good return for him and the county. In June County Captain Kneebone had no hesitation in selecting him for South West Week. The selection proved justified as he earned 4 points for his team.

The Player of the Year award was awarded by Rowett to Joe Cruse (St Enodoc) - above - who was described as one of this county's most dedicated, enthusiastic, experienced, talented and yet horizontally laid back characters and someone who would be Number One on just about anyone’s start sheet. His value to the Men’s County Team is beyond question.  Still aged just 24 he has made an incredible 74 appearances for the county since 2011 and gained an astonishing 109 career points with a 70 % win rate, something which is envied and yet hugely respected by our regional opponents. That respect is echoed at his home club where he consistently delivers excellent golf despite what many of us would consider a tough plus 3 handicap. This year he has become St Enodoc Club Champion for the 5^th time.

Despite the unquestioned talent prior to this year he had not yet delivered in the county’s premier event. 2016 was to signal a change though as he became Cornwall County Amateur Champion in Newquay in a 36 hole final where he emphatically defeated Ryan Curtis.  Cruse was a member of the historic English County Final-winning six-man Cornwall team in 2014 and this year did his bit to ensure the county again reached the finals. In South West Week he won the Clifford Burden Trophy for the most points gained across the week, 8.5 from a possible 10, not losing a single match. Rounds of 69 and 70 in the County Final Qualifier contributed greatly to the team’s huge winning margin.

After dinner speaker was Devon born former Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Somerset cricketer Peter Bowler (pictured above). An up and coming after dinner speaker Bowler regaled the audience with experiences of first class cricket injected with humour rounding off a good evening.

Earlier on dinner day some 28 hardy golfers had ventured onto an occasionally wet and windy Newquay course in a roll up stableford competition. Despite the testing conditions, Andrew Hitchens (West Cornwall) returned 34 points to claim victory by one point over Wilf Hutchinson (Mullion) with Hitchen’s club mate Gary Wignall third on 32. Newquay GC was thanked for it’s hospitality not only on county dinner day but also during County Week, which had been staged there in May. Rowett paid tribute to the efforts the club and its membership had put in to ensure the week was a success.

As a footnote to this article - re Harry Hall, CGU player of the Year 2015. Since then the West Cornwall player, currently studying and playing golf in his sophomore year at the University of Nevada and Las Vegas has had a number of notable achievements. He finished as top English qualifier in the English Amateur (3rd) and reached the last 16 where he was beaten by the eventual winner Scott Gregory. In August this year he was selected for full England International honours in the Home Internationals at Nairn. His performances have seen him recently move into the top 250 in the World Amateur Golf rankings.