With the sustained good weather the course at Dartmouth is playing much easier now, hard fairways mean lots of run on the ball and in many cases two clubs less writes John Garner. Every now and again a player arrives at the club to try a round of golf to see if he likes it, decides he does and joins, he puts three cards in and is given a handicap of 26. Paul Humphreys is showing that he's a natural for the game, he's already won several circus days with alarmingly high scores with such little experience. Last Wednesday, however, he surpassed even his own expectations and scored a massive 46 points to win the competition by a country mile. Well played Paul, and his just reward is a four-shot cut to his handicap. Second was Steve Owen 38, third John Garner 37 on countback from fourth Sam Knight 37 and fifth Barrie O'Shea 37. On Saturday the monthly medal and Sandbanks Trophy round one and the England Golf Gold Medal was played. It never ceases to amaze what that word medal can do to a golfer's mindset. Mark Collins has been playing really well of late and was really looking forward to playing, that is until he approached the 13th. He nearly drove the green with his tee shot but then took another eight shots to put the ball in the hole; head now spinning he commented on how quickly the game can leave you. Quick as a flash, Bob Wotton replied: 'Don't worry Chino, it'll only get worse...' Joe Turner began to despair at how many three-putts he was having, but then four-putted; Kevin Eighteen looked at him and said: 'At least it's not another three-putt...' Even that was surpassed by Dean Raspin, who five-putted the 16th. But best of all, after all he's been through recently, it was nice to see Arthur Carr back at the bar after a round chuckling not chuntering. The star of the day, though, was undoubtedly Clive Westwood. Another natural to the game, he has always been there or thereabouts. On Saturday he played a different game to the rest of us and came in with  an incredible net 65, so well done. In second was Brian Mushens 71, third Sam Knight 76, fourth David Thompson 77 and fifth Dave Nicholls 77.