The scoring for the Balchin Cup was sensational and it was Ian Humphries who took the silver wear with a nett 64 on countback from Tony Lopategui. Tony had the consolation of winning Division One, Jack Edge continued his good form with a nett 65 just pipping Dave Gibbons on countback with Keith Elvin taking fourth place with a nett 66. Runner up to Ian in Division Two was Peter Meehan with a nett 67, Ray Watson took third place with a nett 69 on countback from Peter Blake who took fourth place.

A nicely compiled round of 37pts was good enough for Sandy Charlick to win the Ladies Stableford and Golf Foundation Broach. Rachael Martin took the runner-up spot in Division One with 35pts. In Division Two it was Angela Mace who took top spot with 34pts with Ladies Captain Elaine Lopategui the runner-up with 33pts.


Autumn Meeting

A large field assembled for the autumn meeting last weekend played over the East course on Saturday and the West on Sunday. It was Aiden Lee who took the top spot in fine style with a nett 136 with Dave Spooner taking the runner-up spot on 139. The results are as follows. 

36 hole nett Winner - Aiden Lee - 136 
36 hole nett runner-up - Dave Spooner - 139 
36 hole nett 3rd - Chris D'Souza - 141 
36 hole nett 4th - Peter Young - 143 

36 hole scratch Winner - Dan Dring - 141 
36 hole scratch runner-up - Andrew James - 147 

Saturday 1st nett - Ian Cogswell - 68 
Saturday 2nd nett - Dermot Kenny - 69 
Saturday 3rd nett - David Blair - 71
Saturday 1st scratch - Jack Edge 

Sunday 1st nett - Simon Astwell - 65 
Sunday 2nd nett - Tim Low - 66 
Sunday 3rd nett - Mark Rowe - 68 
Sunday 1st scratch - Mark Peache - 73


 

I am making my European Tour debut this week...as a caddy! Matt Ford who I've coached for over a decade asked me to caddy for him in the first two rounds of The KLM Open this week, something I have never done and although slightly nervous, I'm looking forward to the challenge (mostly not getting in the way of players & caddies for thirty six holes). 

I'll let you know how I and in particular Matt gets on.

A strong field has assembled in Spijk in the Dutch province of Gelderland to do battle, Thomas Pieters defends the KLM Open and will be amongst the favourites for this event, having secured victory two weeks ago in the Made in Denmark. Other star names on the start sheet include Pieters' fellow 2016 European Ryder Cup team member Chris Wood, European Masters winner Alex Noren and home favourite Joost Luiten.

Click here to find out more about the event.


 

Drive for show, putt for dough? 

This is one of golf's great debates: given the choice, what would you rather be - a great putter or a great driver?   

Without wishing to influence your vote - and you can vote below on our website - we'd take a guess that most of you would go with the former; that if you are a confident putter and better than most, your scores will be far greater.

Others may say you could be the best putter in the world, but it counts for nothing if you're chipping out sideways from the fairway rough all day long - therefore accuracy and length off the tee would be preferable.   

There's no right or wrong answer, of course, although how good does it feel when you bomb one off the tee? Actually, it feels pretty good when you hole back-to-back 30-foot birdie putts, too.   

Vote on what you'd rather be, we'd be interested to know.