Round Norfolk Summer Golf Tour 2018. Round 3 at Barnham Broom Valley course

The Barnham Broom Valley Vase

Round Norfolk Summer Golf Tour 2018  Round 3 took place at Barnham Broom Valley course on Wednesday. Once again it was a good turn out with 3 tee times required to accommodate the field. Due to transport issues Golf Dinosaur Monster couldn't make it to today's event so Kevin's left hand back pocket had to step in to collect entry fees.

Massive hands were needed to send all 9 balls in the air and the groupings were decided.

Leading off was last weeks winner, Ian, who had also smashed 23 pts on the back 9 of a round yesterday so was the clear favourite going into today's event. He got things underway but although his front 9 looked tidy he didn't achieve any 3 pointers and ended on 14.

End gets the day underway

His back 9 fell away with 4 blobs so was well off the pace this time on 24 points.

Ian makes a rare par on the 15th

Once again Tracey started well and with 16 points after 8 holes was top of the leaderboard. Sadly she only managed another 8 points over the next 10 holes to also end on 24.

Tracey's opening drive is a good one as she started the round well............

Sandie was the final member in the opening group and it was a similar story to the others as she also finished on 24 points, leaving all three out of the running.

Sandie flirting with the river on the third

The main battle of the day took place in the middle group where the tours's lowest and highest handicappers went head to head. Chris was also in this grouping but struggled to reach the greens in regulation thus keeping down her score. She never recovered from finding out she got no shots on the long par 3 4th hole whereas Vince got two. She failed to score on it although produced trick shot of the day by chipping through a gap in a tree. Inevitably Vince got 4 for 3 points. Yes that's right a 4 on a par 3 leading to 3 points, you couldn't make it up.

Trick shot of the day but sadly no points.

Helped by a series of 3 point bogeys (apparently there is such a thing) Vince took the halfway lead on 18 points.

A rare blemish as Vince fails to score on the 8th

Greg was doing well to keep in touch and thanks to an opening hole birdie was just 2 points behind on 16pts.

Greg putting on the 7th ending in a par

All was not well in the final group as Kevin, Mike and Bob could only muster 7 points between them over the first 3 holes. Mike and Kevin decided to have a huffing and puffing contest instead. After 3 wayward shots on the 6th Kevin reached peak stroop before chipping in from the path by the river for a par bring his ranting to a sudden halt. Normal service returned on the next hole where his tee shot bounced from the green into the river. For once his driving remained straight so he did manage 14 front 9 points.

Kevin missing a par putt on the 4th

His back 9 was a little better with only 1 blob and two club throwing incidents to report. His 29 points gave him his third third place finish in a row.

Kevin drives off on 14th before putting his next into the trees before scrambling a point

Mike had only managed 2 points in the first 4 holes but over the round he proved faultless with one item showing excellent use of the ball retrieving tool. The way he rescued "his" ball (although it turned out it wasn't) from the river across the tenth was text book. He also won biggest divet taken from whacking your club into the ground  camp with a nicely timed 3 wood on the 11th fairway, although Kevin went much deeper with his pitching wedge on 13 the divot was much smaller. He ended on 25 points.

Ironically the shot that caused the big 'frustration divot' on 11 hit the willow tree and came back on to the fairway.
 All that fuss over nothing, really!

Bob never really got going and had a mixed round of very good stuff and not so good stuff. As the tours tree whisper as always he had them on his side with his ball coming back into play off one branch on the 1st and somehow missing all wood after a wide teeshot on 13. However his 27 points never threatened the prizes.

A miraculous recovery from Bob on the 2nd as he chips it over a log and a pond
and on to the green

Meanwhile Greg and Vince continued their ding dong battle with the lead changing hands several times. However when Vince hit an excellent teeshot onto the 17th Greg could contain his frustration no longer with a cry of  'great shot, wrong handicap'. I think we've all been there.

Vince teeshot to 17

After Vince got a 4 for 3 Greg sunk a fabulous putt to also claim his 3 points and take it to the last.

Greg makes his par on 17 to stay in the game.

With both players on the green in 3  it was Vince to go first and he rammed his putt in for an unassailable lead as Greg spoiled his card and 3 putted for his only blob of the day. His 32 points was comfortably 2nd and Vince's 35 points was a clear winner.

Next week the action moves to a double header at Stoke-by-naylands and with good fields expected both days the RNSG competition leaderboards will really start to take shape.