Hello golfers,

Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly newsletter. This week's email has an exclusive interview with World Long Drive champion Joe Miller as he looks to defend the crown he won in 2016, as well as a report on the Sundridge Park Team. Enjoy the read.

Bradley Cook Competition

So close...and yet so far away. This sums up a fantastic day of golf that saw Sundridge Park come within a whisker of making the final of this year's Bradley Cook Competition. Trailing 3-2 from the first leg we came so close to gaining the three wins we required to take us through on points. With two wins recorded we then lost two matches to birdie putts on the 19th and had another narrow defeat on the 17th.

Thus we lost the day 3-2. But with a points tally on the day of 14 for us and four for Royal Cinque, it was literally a putt here and there that was the difference between victory and defeat.

Wilding Cole Final

Unfortunately it was a different story in the Wilding Cole Final vs Lamberhurst at Mid-Kent. After a hard fought tie the overall match was drawn 4-4 and a system of overall accumulative holes won was employed to identify the winners. Unfortunately Sundridge Park were beaten by 3 holes overall with Lamberhurst taking the trophy. Commiserations to captain Martin Dennis and his team consisting of Mark Rowe, Gordon Hedley, Bernie Rowland, Richard Jones, Gary Church, Don Harrington and Dermot Kenny.

Medal and Balchin Cup

A superb nett 63 saw Colin Pringle take the Medal and with it the Balchin Cup on Saturday over the West course, in the runner-up spot was Don Harrington with a nett 65 with Gary Bowers third with a nett 66. In Division Two it was Will Edmonds with a nett 68 who pipped Brian Chessum to the top spot on countback with Martin Taylor taking third place with a nett 69.


Ladies Stableford

An excellent 37 points saw Lisa Heywood take Division One of the Stableford played over the East course with Sandy Charlick shooting 35pts to take the runner-up spot from Jan Boldt 32pts. Tone Clarke won Division Two with 35pts.


Bank Holiday Mixed

A massive 47pts saw the team of Julia & Tim Low take the top spot in the Bank Holiday Mixed with Basseyr & Melville Dunbar taking the runner-up spot with 40pts in third place was Julia & Jeff Wright taking third place with 39pts.

D+D REAL Czech Masters

The European Tour makes the stop in Prague this week for the D+D REAL Czech Masters at the Albatross Club for the fourth year in a row.

Two-time major winner Martin Kaymer headlines with 2015 champion Thomas Pieters and Matt Fitzpatrick. Also in the field are 2016 Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, European Open winner Jordan Smith, John Daly and last week’s winner Julian Suri.

It marks the first week of the 2018 European Ryder Cup qualification so is a fantastic chance for some of the hopefuls to get their names high up the points list early. The year-long qualification process will see the top four from each of the European and World points lists automatically qualify alongside Thomas Bjorn‘s four wildcard picks.

Last year at the Czech Masters, American Paul Peterson edged out Thomas Pieters to win his maiden European Tour title. Peterson birdied the 72nd hole to shoot a new course record of 64 and beat Pieters by a single stroke.

Designed by Keith Preston, the course at the Albatross Golf Resort opened for play in 2009. It’s a testing track with seven large lakes together with a selection of well-placed bunkers and 1,200 newly planted trees.

Player watch:

Matt Fitzpatrick – The Englishman has an incredible record at the Albatross Club, finishing fifth last year and third in 2015.

Jordan Smith – Smith will fancy his chances of making the 2018 European Ryder Cup team and could get qualifying off to the perfect start with victory here. The Englishman won the recent Porsche European Open for his maiden European Tour title in his rookie season on Tour. He won the Challenge Tour Order Of Merit last year after winning the EuroPro Tour OOM the year before.

Thomas Pieters – The Belgian loves this place, having won here in 2015 and came agonisingly close a year later. He missed the cut last week at Made In Denmark but should still be one to look out for this week.

Click here to keep an eye on this week's leaderboard.

PowaKaddy Demo Day

We're delighted to announce that PowaKaddy will be coming to Sundridge Park on Saturday, giving you the chance to view the entire 2017 Electric Trolley Range with the help of PowaKaddy Experts. Here are the key details:

Saturday, 2 September - 10am to 2pm - FREE

Pop by to take a look at their fantastic range for yourself.