The Lakes course was the venue for the end of year Ladies’ Medal Winners Medal competition. This was a very exclusive club - you had to have won a medal this season to be part of it. The weather, cold and breezy with rain forecast, wasn’t exactly conducive to elegant golf, it was more think even more about your shots and accept that the ball wouldn’t be going as far as it would in warmer conditions.
County player Emma Tipping, playing off two, came in third. Emma was only one over her handicap after seventeen holes but thanks to visiting one of the two lakes either side of the eighteenth ended her round with a net seventy seven. Gilly Grant off ten had a fantastic front nine and was just three over with a gross thirty nine. Intermittent rain made the back nine a bit harder and Gilly finished with a gross eighty six, net seventy six.
The overall winner was Sue Ker, she went out with just one aim, to play to her handicap. Sue, who has been playing for just three years and is off twenty one said that playing with better players always helps her to concentrate more and playing with Emma did exactly that. Sue had a slight lapse on the fourth however, she touched the ball in her practice putting stroke and incurred a penalty shot. Sue said that at the start of the year, an incident like that would have thrown her completely but she has learned to compartmentalize errors and move on from them. Sue was eleven over on the front and ten over on the back to come home with a net seventy two. Since starting a program of lessons with Greetham Valley Pro Jim Hetherington at the start of the year, Sue has dropped four shots off her handicap, won this competition, the July Medal and the Dryden Salver for the best net in the Ladies Championship.
Scratch handicapper Sophie Beardsall won the lowest gross with a seventy eight.
Round two of the Winter Order of Merit was also played on Sunday in the same weather conditions, the scoring was fairly low as a consequence. Steve Anderson didn’t play too well tee to green but more than made up for it with a flurry of single putts once he was actually on the green. Steve came in with thirty nine points to take the win and the fifty points on offer as well as getting two shots taken off his handicap. Michael Fish, who came home with thirty eight points, was second on count back from George Brand and was cut by one shot. George had twenty three points in the front nine but made a bit of a mess of the eighteenth by thinning his chip to the flag through the green to end the hole with a six; he was cut half a shot. Steve now leads the Order of Merit table with fifty one points. Round one winner Trevor Smith is second on fifty and Stef Dutton who had thirty six points this week is in third with forty one points. Michael Fish moved up to fourth on forty one points, he pushed Ted Burke who was second in week one into fifth.
The Sturgess Volvo competition played in late August was cancelled due to Rutland’s monsoon type conditions part way through most players’ rounds. The rain was so strong that the pathway from the eighteenth green to the clubhouse turned into a swirling torrent of water. No such problems on Saturday though, warm, pleasant and more importantly, dry conditions were the order of the day for the competitors on the Lakes course.
After winning the Ladies’ Doubles competition three times, Sally Bowker, playing off thirteen, and playing partner Sophie Beardsall off scratch found themselves in the final yet again and trying for an unprecedented fourth title. In their way were the formidable pairing of Emma Tipping off two and ten handicapper Heather Morgan. In the front nine both pairings had birdies and net birdies, the lead was swapped several times but Sally and Sophie managed to carve out a three hole lead at the turn.
Club President Martin Boughton held his annual President’s Golf Day on the Lakes course over the weekend. He had arranged perfect weather for the invited former Captains and members who assembled for a shotgun start. Greetham Valley Chairman Frank Hinch, who started on the first tee, had a great game, the 18 handicapper blitzed the field to take the win. Frank got off to a great start when he birdied the 1st hole, then several pars and the odd bogie were followed by a brilliant birdie on the 9th, this meant that he had 22 points at the turn. A couple of visits to the trees presented no problems but a ball in the bunker on the tricky par five 13th could have. Frank took his usual couple of practice swings outside of the bunker and calmly stepped in, lined up and flew the ball to less than two feet past the flag, the ball then very helpfully spun back into the hole for a par. Frank had 20 points on the back nine to give him a total of 42 to take the win. He said that the conditions were perfect and everything just seemed to fall into place. Men’s Vice Captain Trevor Smith off two was second with 41 points and Assistant Course Manager Stuart Raybould took third with 39. 
Seventeen handicapper David Aldred has had an excellent couple of weeks! He came second to Tim Howlett in the September Medal, then last week he won the first round of the Seniors’ Winter League with 43 points and a couple of days later he and partner Fred Aspin came fourth in the Market Harborough Invitation with 71 points, only one behind the top three who all scored seventy two. And this week he won the Seniors October Medal! David puts his brilliant run of form down to a repair that he has had to his knee in the past few weeks, not a replacement but enough to take the pain away which means that he can concentrate on his game and not his knee. 
The Men’s October Midweek Medal was also played on the Valley course but this time off white tees. Shaun Denholm’s round didn’t start off too well, he bogied the first three holes but then went on a mini run and dropped only one shot in the next five holes. In the end he managed to get nine pars and nine bogies. Shaun, who has been playing well recently without taking the top spot said that he was pleased with the win but even happier to have his handicap cut to twelve. He is trying to catch up with his son Fraser who has been cut from eleven to six so far this year.
After the recent rains, the Lakes course was a beautiful emerald green as the Doubles Final got under way on Sunday 30th September. Forty to fifty miles an hour gusts of wind made the going very tough for the finalists, Leon Wych and Gary Ferrar who were taking on Iain Bain and Dave Morgan. Ian off twelve and Dave off six won the Winter League final in March of this year and were hoping to do the double. 
Greetham Valley’s Seniors section has had a very good year, winning or drawing most of their team matches, their most recent win being against Scraptoft at home: the Greetham team won six and a half to one and a half on the Valley course. They have only one more match to play this week away to Birstall. Captain Peter Macdonald Pearce said that he was delighted and proud of the support that he has received this year, with sixty four seniors playing in the various matches, some of whom are pictured here. Peter, in one of his very few quiet moments, did a rough tally and came up with the startling statistic that those pictured here had over a thousand years of golfing experience between them!
Mixed foursomes stroke play isn’t the most popular format in a golf club’s competition line up hence the smaller than usual field for the Martins Mixed Foursomes at Greetham Valley last weekend. One of the problems with the format is that if a player plays a bad shot, they don’t get a chance to rectify it and have to leave it to their partner, usually with a slightly embarrassed look. Second Team Captain Alan Bennett chose to take the even numbered holes while his partner, Christine Edwards, took the odd. This meant that after driving on the eighth, he didn’t use his driver again until the sixteenth and promptly hooked it into the trees, however, it is the same for everybody in this format.
