FAMILY AFFAIR FOR CAPTAIN’S DAY WINNER DAN….

CAPTAIN’S DAY WINNERS (left to right): Christian Lester, Dan Hill, skipper Simon Rossiter, Gill McDougal and Roger Hughes

The return of competitive golf attracted a record 235 members to compete in Simon Rossiter’s Captain’s Day at Leighton Buzzard’s Plantation Road club, with a social evening and prize presentation “restoring life” after the gradual return from the pandemic lockdown.

With measures still in place to comply with social distancing requirements, it was a dawn-to-dusk golfing marathon before skipper Simon completed formalities.

Winner of the coveted Captain’s Day competition was 32-year-old mining finance advisor Dan Hill, who carded an impressive 45 points to beat club colleague Christian Lester by a shot, with Roger Hughes taking third place with 43 points on countback from Jamie Stone.

For Dan it was a first major trophy win in his six years as a member of the Leighton club. But after carding 11 pars, Dan thought he had blown his chances when he “blobbed” on the 16^th, to finish with just three points on his last three holes

.“Thankfully, it all came good in the end”

said a relieved Dan, who celebrated his success with wife Katie, two-year-old daughter Molly and six-week-old son Rory after being presented with the trophy, a silver Quaich (a traditional Scottish drinking dish) donated by Gill McDougal in memory of her late father Maurice Lesley, a long-time member of the Leighton club after moving to the town from his native Scotland.

As a result of his high-scoring win, Dan had two shots sliced from his 18-handicap while runner-up Christian also had his 16-handicap reduced by two shots.

The Ladies nine-hole competition was won by Josie Sheridan with 22 points, Lila Garrod taking the runners-up prize with 20 points.

There were nearest-the-pin prizes for (2^nd ) Graham Hazel and Gill Nutkins; (9^th) Paul Ahmet and Lel Brazier; (11^th) Peter Gadsden and (14^th) Sam Messenger. Nearest the line prizes were won by Ian Alexander, John McKay and Rosie Hartnell, while 15-handicapper Corey Kearsey hit the longest drive of the day, with Nigel Chapman nearest-the-pin in two on the Par 4 18^th.

Said skipper Simon:

“It was great to see so many members taking an active part after the lockdown, with some fantastic scores and an enjoyable social evening to complete a long day.”