Seniors away to Millbrook September 3 2024

Captain Richard Westergreen-Thorne and organiser Jonathan Lean with Millbrook's
 Martin Howell and Peter Whistler on the first tee

Captain Richard in the deepest bunker on the course

Organiser Jonathan Lean reports

 It was with some degree of trepidation with the windscreen wipers on double speed that the JOG team drove to Millbrook for this annual match.  The team were under strict instructions to have a good night’s sleep in order to be able to tackle the relatively mountainous terrain of this lovely course which is situated right next door to the Millbrook off-road vehicle testing track.

Fortunately the course is very well drained and so no slippery mud to deal with.

After the usual welcome with tea, coffee and biscuits we split into 2 groups of 4 teams with some off the first tee and the other having a bit of a walk to the 17th.

For those of you who have played Millbrook you will remember the first hole.  A long and accurate drive is needed in order to be able to get your second shot to the bottom of the cardiac hill leaving a blind third onto the green on this par 5.  Our captain set the tone for the day by putting his opening drive onto the testing track and therefore had to take 3 off the tee.  Yours truly hit a good drive only to put my second onto the testing track!  I managed to get onto the green in 5 just 5 feet from the pin.  Unfortunately it was the pin for the 16th hole on this enormous shared green leaving me with a good 50ft putt.  So, one down after one hole.

The second is also a par 5 where we scrambled a half only to go 2 down on the third which was a par 4 with stroke index 1.

Any course with 2 par 5 holes to start followed by the hardest hole on the course is a challenge indeed.  And so it proved as we lost the 5th also to go 3 down.

The tide turned on the 9th where our captain managed to chip from the bottom of a valley to within 6 inches of the hole for a magnificent birdie reducing the deficit to 2.

The 10th was the JOG nearest the pin.  Richard went first and put it on the green but his euphoria was short lived as my tee shot took a lucky bounce when landing on the green finishing 4ft from the hole.  Good enough to win the hole and a bottle of wine!  Back to one down.

Our charge was short lived though as our opponents won the next 4 holes to win the match 5 & 4.

The next match to finish was ‘Mr. 3 wood’ Paul Hammond and David Tamsitt who managed a 3 & 1 win.  Apparently Paul now needs to be called ‘Mr. Driver’.

Paul Life and Trevor Darrington came in next with a 3 & 1 win also and briefly things were looking good for JOG but this was also short lived as the next 4 matches all went the way of Millbrook.  A semblance of respectability was given by Barry Donovan and Alban Macdonald who won the last match 1 up with Alban holing a 15ft putt on the last green to secure the win.  The length of this putt gets longer with each telling of the story!

So, overall the result was a win for Millbrook 5 – 3.  The blow was softened somewhat when the Millbrook captain, Martin Howell confirmed that he could not remember the last time that they lost at home.  The value of local knowledge on this excellent golf course.  It is a tough course but with a lot of memorable holes with interesting challenges.  One or two steep climbs with footpaths looking like mountain passes with hairpin bends and some of the deepest bunkers outside of St. Andrews but well worth the effort.

I look forward to returning there next year.