THE HEMISPHERE CUP
Founded 2000
17th
Hemisphere Cup – Aberdovey, Wales
May 19th/20th, 2016
Land of my Fathers
Back to
Wales and it was good to have Bruno and Jas join us for the 17th
Hemisphere Cup at Aberdovey Golf Club. The Jersey golf scene must be
flourishing with three islander’s taking part in
the Cup and surely one year we must visit this offshore tax haven. It was also good to see David
Burns back in the pack following his forced lay off in 2015 due to a self inflicted
injury from building a zip line in the garden.
2016 was
the first year that we did not see David Whiteing teeing it up after 16
straight appearances. Let’s
hope he is back in 2017 to fall asleep in his starter.
The match
had a wet and delayed start as the Jersey participants had some flight
challenges but, as always, it became a close and enjoyable couple of days of
competitive golf. The score?
Bookies will stop taking bets as the match had a familiar result to
previous years……….
The
Match Summary
Round 1 – Fourballs (Thursday PM)
And it rained, and rained and rained. Whilst two matches set out, Pete
had a nap in the car whilst waiting for the Jersey trio to arrive. By the time they did the worst of the
rain had passed and they were able to play catch up on the links.
No one was quite sure on how the
course looked as it was heads down golf but Dave and Sarge
got off to a half with Bronson and Jan. Alex and Ollie fell at the last (one
down) after being up for much of the match against Andy and Brandon.
Pete and Bruno then came through late
with a 5&4 victory over Jas and Magnus to leave the match all square at the
end of the first day.
Round 2 – Fourballs (Friday AM)
It
was going to be a vital set of matches on the Friday morning and once again the
Northern team wished they had gone to bed a bit earlier the previous night (and
with a bit less claret on board).
Alex and Sarge were sent out first to get a bit of early momentum
for the North. It did not
happen. Magnus and Jan saw them off
5&4 and Sarge’s performance was described
by various commentators as ‘poor’. Bruno
and Dave brought the match back level with a 2 up victory on Andy and Jas
on what turned out to be a lovely morning
for golf.
The final game between Ollie and Pete versus Brandon and Bronson
was a tight affair through to the 8th when with the match all square
Brandon hit a thinned approach to the green that caught the flag square and
fell within tap in distance of the hole. From looking like going one up the
North fell one behind and never got back in the game. The South were
3.5 to 2.5 up heading into lunch.
Round
3 – Singles (Friday PM)
After lunch and 36
holes in the last 24 hours a few bodies were feeling the effects and needed a
bit of warming up and greenside yoga was
the rage.
Trailing by a point Alex was sent out
in Match No 1 by the North and he
delivered with a hard fought 2&1 win over Bronson who was struggling whilst
remodeling his swing.
Match
No 2 saw the Battle of Jersey as Bruno and Magnus went head to head. The money was on Bruno after a
strong showing in the first two games, but Magnus was not having any of it and
came through with a 4&3 victory.
Sarge completed a dismal
showing on home soil (Only Warren Gatland would see
anything positive in his performance) when he lost Match No 3 to Andy 2&1.
The South were now only half a point
from retaining the cup with three matches to go and they did not have to wait
long before Ollie succumbed (after hitting every shot over three rounds up the
left rough) to Jan by 5&4 in Match No 4.
Dave and Brandon played together in Match No 5 and Brandon rolled over and had
his tummy tickled by Dave 7&5.
Pete and Jas played in Match No 6 and with the match all over Pete came
through strongly 8&7 (no photos exist if this match as being last out there
was no one to take the photo!)
So it was all over and the South had
won by 6.5 to 5.5 (For the third year running).
Special Mentions
Jan
deserves a special mention for flooding the Penhelig
Arms on the Thursday night. As
water cascaded through the ceiling on to poor people having dinner below, Jan
pretended it wasn’t his fault.
The
Captains Cup
The
Captains Cup was awarded to Dave Burns
due to some strange clerical error.
Photographs
Photographs from the 17th Hemisphere Cup
Detailed Results
Detailed Results from the 17th Hemisphere Cup