Cornwall Golf Union
Cornwall in Narrow Defeat to Somerset
[County Captain Peter Simmons Reports]
Cornwall travelled to Burnham & Berrow on the Saturday 20th April and had a practice round in preparation for their first channel league match of the season against Somerset. The team selected was a mix of experience and youth which was always my plan this year to start feeding younger players into the team to gain valuable experience and lessons from playing high level amateur golf.
On Sunday the weather was dry and sunny but with a cold wind and a stiff breeze, perfect weather for Burnham & Berrow! Heading out top for Cornwall were Jared & Sam who had a very close game that was nip and tuck all the way to the eighteenth hole and in the end required two, very good up and downs from both sides to halve the match and provide a half point for each side. In match two Kieran and George also had a very close encounter but lost on the final hole 1 down. There was some great play on both sides, and this was a match that could have easily gone the other way but Somerset held their nerve to win.
Match three in the foursomes had the big man, Rob Macgregor partnering up with Jamie Greet and with some solid play the Cornwall pair would run out winners by a margin of 5&4. Match four saw Adam Bridgewater teaming up with Ethan Tempest who were unable to get the momentum they needed and eventually lost the game 3&2. At number five Matt Richards playing with the 2023 County Champion from St Enodoc, Louis Archer played some excellent golf and would go on to level the overall match score at 2.5-2.5 with a comprehensive 4&3 win.
In the singles Rob Mac would lead Cornwall out and despite losing the first hole to a birdie Rob was in no mood to play many holes and wrapped up his match on the 12th hole 8&6! A good start for Cornwall but we know that Somerset are a strong team and that proved as Curtis Edwards and James Short both won their matches comfortably against Jared Mortimore (5&4) and Sam Crocker (6&5). Jamie Greet meanwhile was battling hard and had the edge on his opponent for moist of the round and would eventually prevail by 2&1. A very good win and meant the screws were now level again.
Matt Richards was playing at number five against Tom Trowbridge which was always going to be a close match…. I will come back to this one in a moment… For Cornwall in match six, was Kieran Faulkner was struggling to find his ‘A’ game for the afternoon after a strong morning performance and lost 5&4 to Ollie Tripp. Andrew Isaacs defeated Louis Archer 4&2 to give Somerset the edge and Adam Bridgewater then lost to Luke Appleton 4&2 which meant that to tie the match we needed wins from Matt, George and Ethan. Ethan duly delivered with some fine golf against Troy Young winning 4&3 and George Law who was playing local Burnham & Berrow player and multiple club champion won 3&2 showing the captain that he has what it takes to compete at the higher level. With these results the match now hinged on Matt to win his game and with a two hole lead standing on the 17th tee it was looking hopeful but Somerset were not done as they won the difficult par three 17th and then Matt’s tee shot went a little left off the eighteenth and must have found some boggy ground and the ball was unfortunately not seen again. Match halved. The overall score line was 8-7 to Somerset. Agonisingly close but Cornwall came up just short.
My thanks to all the players for their commitment over the weekend but we now hit the season knowing we have a team that can compete we just need to sharpen up in some areas. Thank you to Burnham & Berrow and their staff for hosting the match, always a privilege to visit and play and to Mark Waite the captain of Somerset who is always great company.
We move on now to the second Channel League match which is against Dorset on the 5th May at West Cornwall GC.
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