On Sunday, 7th May, Farrington Park was host for the regional finals of the “Race to Woodhall Spa,” an event organised by England Golf.

Men and women with the lowest aggregate of their best four net score differentials last year, from clubs all over the south-west were selected to play in it. Sue Skyrme was the person with the lowest score from the Farrington Park ladies’ section and qualified for entry.

Sue had an early tee time and there was still a heavy dew on the ground to add to the dampness from the rain on the day before. Her friend, Lally Gibson was acting as Sue’s caddie, so she had Lally’s support and calm nature to draw on. Several of her friends from the section had turned up to watch her tee off on the first hole and to cheer her on as her round progressed.

The course was looking beautiful and in great condition thanks to all the hard work from the Farrington greenkeepers in the preceding days. There was a starter and ball spotters on the first and thirteenth holes. Sue played a very steady round including an amazing par on the par 5 13th hole. Her second shot on the 17th didn’t go quite as far as she would’ve liked, but nothing daunted, her ball sailed over the water with a beautiful shot to score a six on that difficult hole. Sue finished with 31 points and in seventh position overall, just one point behind the six players who go through to the final at Woodhall Spa.

The Dickinson Cup is a Somerset Golf Union medal competition for ladies with a handicap index of 20.1 or lower. The winner of a club qualifying competition goes forward to the County final.

The Farrington qualifier was held on the Thursday prior to the “Race to Woodhall Spa”. Thirteen players out of a field of forty-four were eligible for the Dickinson Cup and the remainder played their monthly medal competition in divisions according to their handicap. Division 3 was won by Janet Corbett with a nett 75, followed by Lesley Stone (nett 79) and Peggy Edwards (nett 82). Heather Woodland was the only player in Division 2 with a two-spot birdie at the par 3 15th. Her ball landed so close to the hole that Heather must have thought she was about to have an expensive order at the bar! Countback was used to determine third place in Division 2 where three players finished on nett 77. Carol Jones took third ahead of Fiona Hassard and Sandra Hares. Second place was claimed by Angela Hudd (nett 76) but the clear winner of the division was Jackie James with nett 71.

In the Dickinson Cup competition, Corinne Durbin had a two-spot at the par 3 8th and Jackie Walker claimed two at the par 3 10th and 15th holes, respectively. A low score was difficult to achieve in the sunny but very windy conditions, but there was respectable scoring from the low handicappers. Maureen Charlton finished third with nett 77, only one shot behind second placed Wendy Butt. However, the winner of the competition and Farrington Park representative for the Dickinson Cup, showed her class throughout her round. After starting slowly, Mandy Hobbs had a purple patch, with pars on holes 10 and 11 and an eagle on the par 4 12th, she finished her round with a par at the 18th to card a nett 74. Jane Ball