Round Norfolk Golf Tour summer comp 2017. Round 8 at Barnham Broom Valley

The Barnham Broom Valley Vase

Round Norfolk Golf Tour summer comp 2017 round 7, The Valley Vase, took place at the Valley course Barnham Broom on Thursday. It was a record of field for a RNSG tour event with 9 players teeing off although only 8 finished. There was also the welcome return of tour veteran John who had once again chosen to home his game abroad before starting his 2017 campaign. The approach had proved to be a huge failure in 2016 when he finished last in most competitions but he was sticking with it.

The balls went up in the air and the groups were duly chosen although Chris was not happy to have to play with Kevin. However you can't argue with the balls so they marched off to the first tee.

It only took one shot to put Kevin into a bad mood as despite hitting what looked like a reasonable drive his ball was never found in the lush rough. When he had recovered he hit a purple patch and had 13 pts after 6 holes. Sadly this was as good as it got as he took the rest of the round to double his tally and finished well done the field on 27 pts.

Kevin made a good recovery on second clearing the water with his second shot

Chris was having a much more solid round and was playing to her handicap with 20 pts after 10 holes. After that she had a poor run with 6 pts in 6 holes and would need to play well over the last two holes to get in contention.

Chris gets down in two from edge of 5th Green

The final member of the group, Jane was not happy with the green keeper who insisted on mowing the fringe of every green as she putted. This restricted her scoring on the front 9 but a good par on the 9th got her to 13 at halfway.

Jane made to putt on 3rd green as her partners knew the mower was putting her off

In the group behind David was making his return after injury and had been given the all clear by his acupuncturist to play. It was as if he had never been away and apart from an untidy blob on the short 7th was scoring well. He was leading the round with 26 pts after 14 holes but his 'golfer's' elbow was causing him too much pain and he was unable to complete the last 4 holes which had to recorded as blobs. Harsh but rules is rules and there is no appeals process.

Points galore on 3rd as David, Sandie and John get 8 points between them

John's Spanish training camp looked like it was working as he started very solidly. However he couldn't avoid throwing in some trade mark blobs in amongst a number of pars. He finished with an excellent par, par finish and 29 pts but out of the prizes.

John managed a great up and down from side 18th green, this chip was followed by excellent putt

Final member of the group Sandie had the best front 9 of anyone as she racked up 19 pts and with 24 pts after 12 holes looked well in contention. But then from nowhere things started to go wrong and she could only get 4 more points and 28 in all.

Sandie chipping on to 4th green. From where she was it was a surprise that she missed the green by a couple of feet

In the final group, bad boy Robert was suffering after a night on the town and claimed he had been partying to nearly 11:30pm. This seemed to affect his short game and he never really got going with too many one point holes, and only 26 pts overall.

Jill was also performing with good holes interrupted by a sprinkling of blobs. If she spent more time concentrating on her own game rather than laughing at the misfortunes of other players playing pin ball in the trees, then maybe she would be more consistent.

Jill once again laughing at a club throwing incident

Bob was going along solidly until a run of 3 pars in 4 holes just after the turn put him in the mix. His momentum was halted by three putting from 2 foot on the 14th. However he remained in contention with two to play.

Bobs second on 5th after hitting his drive nearly 50 yards

Back in the leading group Jane had now got her A game out and recorded 3 back 9 birdies shooting her up the leaderboard with 32 points.

Jane teeing off on back 9 and back into contention

Chris also birdied the 17th and those 4 pts plus two on the last also had her on 32.

Chris putting down hill on the 11th getting her ball nearly halfway

This just left Bob in with a chance to win but would need a par and a bogey on the last two holes. With the par secured on the 17th he was made to putt from 6 inches to secure his first win of the season and climb the money list.

Drama on the last green as Jill gets her putt out of the way leaving Bob to make his short putt for the win

With so many players competing the competition lists have had plenty of changes. Thank goodness RNSG have now got their brand new database system working.