2008 ACGA vs PALS GS Match

Sunday 28th September – SURREY NATIONAL GC

 The venue for this match has all been played at either Farleigh Court (2002 & 2006) or Merrist Wood (2004, 2005 &2007).  With it being the ACGA’s turn to arrange this year’s event a new venue was found at the Surrey National GC in Caterham Surrey.

The Captain Laville demanded nothing other than the return of the trophy from the holder PALS and he set about his team selection from the top of the order of merit but with Stuart Austrie and Colin Parson not available, the wild card picks were going to very important. 

With the opposition struggling to make up their 12-man team and the Vice Captain missing out on a Captain’s wild card, Steve Lee-Sang offered his services along with CJ to the PALS team.  This did not go down well with cries of Traitor and Judas ringing in Steve and CJ’s ears. 

With the mistakes of Faldo’s 2008 Ryder Cup single order fresh in his mind, Henry set out to put points on the board early with some strong pairings in the top matches. However when Leo Faure partnering Sedwick Gordon in the 1st match was seen walking back to the car park after finishing on the 14th green, the signs were not good.  Behind in the 2nd match were Steve ‘lend me an ACGA shirt & tie’ Garner and Malcolm O’Garro. Sadly they were not fairing any better going down 4 & 3 however the following matches were all well contested and needed to go down to the last green.

Having lost the first 3 matches and no point on the board, for the ‘Big Guns’ the best the ACGA could do is halve the match.  The signs were good in match 4 with Roger Goddard and Chris Thomas coming through with a point to stop the bleeding.  In this match Roger and Chris fought off a PALS pairing that included a an African American who playing off of 22 after 9holes openly confesses his handicap in the USA is 16!.  Winning the match Chris and Roger duly laid into our American friend who took the ACGA banter in good heart.

The remaining 2 matches were halved on the last green, which included a 30 foot putt of CJ’s for PALS on the last green.  There endeth the match 4-2 to PALS. So in its 7th year of the ACGA vs PALS Annual Golf Challenge Trophy its PALS who are one up (see past results below).  Many thanks to ACGA members who made themselves available and to PALS for being good sports and who we hope to see at the dinner dance (and by this we do not mean Messer’s Lee-Sang and CJ!).  ACGA Team selection policies will no doubt be a hot topic of debate at the AGM!!

MATCH RESULT - PALS WIN 4 POINTS to 2 POINTS

ACGA Vs PALS GS Sunday 28 September at Surrey National GC results:

L Faure & S Gordon vs L Keene & S Lee-Sang Lost 5 & 4

S Garner & M O’Garro vs N Taylor & D Bingham Lost 4 & 3

P Bennett & A Simmonds vs N Moore & N Taylor Lost 1 Up

R Goddard & C Thomas vs S Armstrong & T Hammond  Won 2& 1 

 K Murray & C Browne vs D Lindo & C Joseph Match Halved

H Laville & A Ferdinand vs P Keene & G Gilmore Match Halved

Past Results - ACGA vs PALS GS Annual Golf Challenge Trophy

2002       Match Halved (Farleigh Court GC)

2003       No Match

2004       ACGA Winners (Merrist Wood GC)

2005       PALS Winners (Merrist Wood GC)

2006       ACGA Winners (Farleigh Court GC)

2007       PALS Winners (Merrist Wood GC)

2008       PALS Winners (Surrey National GC)