DURING the past couple of weeks, the golfers at Bigbury have been inconvenienced by marine layers floating across the course. But fortunately, this has not caused problems for the Bigbury Golf Club’s competitions schedule and there continues to be exceptional scoring for many.

The lead for this Gazette article is courtesy of our Club Professional, Sam Edwards, who reports on his popular fortnightly Turn Up and Play (TUAP) competition, as follows.

“Sunshine and a gentle breeze, a typical Bigbury summer’s day for the July 30 TUAP. A few talented players finished with their scores in the red, much like my sunburn from Tuesday.

With 33 players in the field, we have four prizes and a lowest gross to give out, a nice and simple leaderboard without the need for countback, a TUAP first!

Richard Willman came in with excitement about the prospect of his new irons. However, sadly, they were still being custom-built for him, so instead, we set him up with a new driver to try. 39 points later, and the new driver is on order to go with the irons. I'm looking forward to seeing the next score in the 40+ range. Colin Barnard did try some new irons though and with 41 points, they’ve made themselves cheaper immediately.

Becoming a regular in the TUAP prize pot is John Cocks, and if you take a look at his card, you can see he's experienced enough in the countback game, 24 points on the back nine setting him up for a strong total of 42.

He must have been writing his winner's speech over lunchtime, but the best was yet to come, and John settled for second place.

Dot Kenneth (pictured), the only lady to participate in the TUAP, has been in fine form through July and is not ready to slow down just yet.

Back-to-back nett eagles on six and seven led to a front nine of 22 points, and as golf is a game in which we all crave consistency, Dot managed that yesterday with another 22 points on the back nine. 44 points overall takes home the top spot. The only dampener was that she couldn’t reap the rewards of her two on 15, having opted out of that competition.

Mick Rees and Colin Barnard entered and successfully managed twos, so each takes up £32. The final prize goes to Bob Brocklehurst for a very steady round of golf and the lowest gross prize.”

Dot is certainly on a purple patch having been the overall winner of the ladies July medal with a score of nett 68 and this will certainly lead to a handicap reduction; she will not be playing off her 30 handicap for a while.

In second place overall was Cathy Harrington (19) with a score of 70, and third was Amanda Burchell (6) with a nett 71. Amanda had the only two on the day.

IT WAS another very successful year of the Thurlestone Solheim Cup with 40 ladies playing but this time, it was USA vs Europe.

Both teams were blessed with a fantastic day weather wise and they were all in the spirits of the event as well. It was the same playing format as last year and USA came out on top again.

The ladies captain Fiona Turner presented mini prosecco bottles to the winning team & chocolate bars to the runners up. The money raised will go to Kingsbridge Care Hub charity. Thanks go to everyone who took part.

On Sunday, July 27 a mixed team of nine pairs from Thurlestone travelled to Torquay for the inaugural matchup. There was some excellent golf played and home course advantage shone through with Torquay winning 6-3.

There were wins for Thurlestone by Nikki and Peter Smith, Liz and Charlie Barker and Barbara and Graham Smith.

The impressive course conditions were commented on by everyone, as was the delicious carvery that followed. Thurlestone now look forward to hosting Torquay next year.

Thurlestone juniors George Inch and William Hoskin represented the Devon u18's against Cornwall at Perranporth on Tuesday in their final league match. George was always ahead in his match and won 4&3, William however was involved in a tight match but kept his nerve to win 1-up on the 18th and Devon won the day 9-3.

On Thursday 31, 50 seniors took part in the Seniors’ championship competition. The winner of the nett championship was Robert Hyde (17) nett 62, from Mike Day (27) nett 63. The winner of the gross championship was Ian Neal (9) with gross 73 from Alistair Whaley (8) with gross 75, and Ashley Pigott (11) also 75.

It’s said that history doesn't repeat itself. Ian Neal and Rob Hyde proved this to be wrong. Both retained their 2024 titles, Ian claiming the gross championship 2025 and Rob the nett championship. Keep going for the third time next year gents!

THIRTY Dartmouth seniors tackled another Stableford qualifier on Monday, August 4.

The competition was blighted by horrendous weather with storm Floris edging slightly further south than forecast! High winds and driving rain saw many seniors run for halfway cover, never to return as meaningful golf seemed an impossibility.

A few brave souls did stay the course for a longer than normal round and surprisingly a number of good scores were notched up. John Garner edged Keith Moffitt by a countback whisker with both players finishing on 38 points.

Excellent rounds too from the ever-consistent John Oldrieve and Graham Burton who finished third and fourth respectively. Very well done to all on the result top table. Snyone finishing with thirty plus points deserves a medal because the early starters may have got the worst of the draw but it was a bad weather for all throughout.

One birdie two was scored at the par three fifth by Robert Wotton. Competition guru Nigel Osborne was in charge of the cards. Many thanks to him. In other news. Steve Atkins defeated Alistair Forbes in the last quarter final of the Blight Trophy individual knockout. He will now play Gary Bonser in the semi and Ian Metchette will go head to-head with Nigel Osborne in the other.