The first weekend of October saw ten keen constestants make their way up to the early autumnal Highgate Wood for this year’s championship. The 2022 field was packed with talent – several returning players from the past two years’ championships, a couple of newcomers, and a reappearance from a stalwart of the Superstars Open era.
Logistical arrangements on the day led to most of the players meeting at a very agreeable local pub to discuss tactics, sample the local beer and distribute golfington “merch” in the form of engraved corkscrews.
We then made our way up to the first hole, where we split into two groups. Perhaps we were all a bit out of practice, but no birdies on the first hole. Enjoy this action shot though!
The second hole, the “Corridor of Uncertainty”, was certainly less forgiving. Several players petitioned that it be renamed “Corridor of Doom”, which the local course committee is considering with utmost urgency. One player made par (spoiler alert about who won), there were four at one over, and the rest had what can only be described as a bad day at the orifice.
The third caught a few players out with its difficult-to-avoid out of bounds area. The fourth was welcome relief though, with two players managing holes in one! All but one of the rest were on par.
The next few holes progressed relatively according to plan. The 6th in particular was the most consistently played hole with seven pars and three at one over. A couple of pictures follow.
There were a few dropped shots on “Woodcock Alley” that would prove decisive in the final tally.
The final hole “V for Victory” proved fruitful for most. Rather too fruitful for most actually. Given the three albatrosses, three eagles and three birdies scored on this par 5, another submission was made to the local course committee to lower the par on this hole by at least one, and possibly two shots.
Although everyone was fabulous, we still needed to add up the totals and take the votes for the “best dressed” prize.
Best dressed went to Megan, with a clear victory!
Where scores were concerned, there were no ties but an impressive number of very closely contested positions. Lars was the overall winner with 35, and second and third respectively were Stephen and Murdo, all separated by one point. Bryn did very well to come back after a few years out of the competition to take fourth place. The middle of the field was also very closely contested, with four players within one point of each other.
A fantastic competition!
