Congratulations to Martin Barnes, Andrew Green, Mike Metcalfe, Malcolm Terry who represented Wells at Saltford in challenging weather on Sunday 1st September.
The event attracted 28 teams of 4, 1st Tee off was 07.20am, some moaned about the early start, but benefited at the end of the day due to the biblical weather conditions suffered at 15.30pm
When the heaven’s opened and thunder & lightning caused play to be suspended, 19 teams had completed their round, leaving 9 teams short of the finishing post.
All players had gone through 10 holes.
The course flooded within minutes and major decisions were take based on health & Safety.
We may stand corrected but most of those retuning to the sanctuary of the club’s house were reluctant at best to venture back out, no one could blame them.
As a collective the club, the referees and myself as tournament director looked at the possibilities of getting players back out in a window which suggested further pay may be possible. More severe weather warnings until midnight made the decision to abandon play for the remainder of the day the only safe option. The course remained closed thereafter.
Since Sunday, the SGU competitions committee has given much thought in how best to manage the abandonment of this prestigious and long running event.
Options considered included the re-running of the event this year, the logistics of this so late in an already overcrowded golf calendar coupled with our consideration to members of any club who may have considered giving up tee times to facilitate such a sized field negated this as a realistic option.
We further considered abandoning all 3 competitions this year.
Our 3rd option was to consider the rounds completed by over 2/3 of the field and to analysis the scores recorded by the minority who’s round remained unfinished. In doing so and applying the balance of probabilities it was apparent that the rounds to be completed were unlikely to effect scores posted earlier in the day.
The competition committee’s decision is final and is as follows.
The Trounson, Presidents & Windwhistle Trophies 2024 will be awarded to the teams & individuals whose scores had been posted before play was abandoned.
The club teams who were unable to finish, 9 in total will be refunded the entrance fees paid in full.
The SGU will honour fees owed to Saltford Golf Club.
Prize money will be fully awarded in the form of E-vouchers to be redeemed at any golf club for goods and or services.
The Trounson Trophy is an annual strokeplay competition run by Somerset Golf Union where all clubs in the county have the opportunity to enter a team of 4 players {prior to 1983 the competition was for three players in each team}.
The competition is traditionally held at the club of the county President. Each teams final score is the sum of their best three net scores with the worst score being discarded. The Trounson Trophy goes to the team with the lowest total net score.