FORTY two pairs turned out for Ross Golf Club’s men’s seniors 55-plus inaugural Autumn mid-week Pairs better-ball stableford competition, reports KEITH RAY.

When Colin Price was elected Ross Seniors Captain for the 2019/20 year he was granted the opportunity to introduce a new Trophy event to be played for each year by the men’s seniors section members.

This was to rightly commemorate the playing days his late father John enjoyed at the Gorsley-based golf course, where John was a real character and is still remembered today with considerable fondness.

This resulted in Mark Whitmore and Steve Woods (pictured right) being declared winners of the Trophy played for the first time in this format with a highly impressive performance.

Having been part of the winning Ross-on-Wye President’s Cup team a few days previously, Mark and Steve engineered a fast start with gross birdies on three of the first four holes which meant they came off the 4th hole with 14 points already in the bag.

Whilst the Navy tees make several holes shorter, it adds a challenge in that the three par 5s become par 4s, so holding their own for the rest of the front nine was pleasing.

Mark added another gross birdie on the challenging 9th for the pair to close the front nine with 26 points and a better-ball gross score of only 31 shots.

With both players enjoying key moments on their back 9 holes in finishing with a total of 22 points, it gave a tremendous overall score of 48 points.

This proved more than enough to claim the No 1 spot to win the Shield by two points from their nearest rivals.

As runners-up with 46 points Bryan Davis and Tim Lewis will feel rather unfortunate to have found the winners in such fine form, as will Phil Andrews and Bill Lawrence who scored 45 points having adapted so well to the club’s tree-lined course since becoming members earlier in the year.

There were a host of 44 pointers in Claus Kopp/Ian Hatton, Colin Bennion/Robin Smith, Graham Russell/David M Rees and Graham Higdon/Adrian Berry.