The CGS travelled to Cheshire for a weekend away, the venue was Carden Park and it was HOT!

The weekend event as recently become a double header with two majors being played for. The first days event would be for the Chairman’s Trophy and the scores from the first day would also count towards the first round scores of the two for the Charlie Sifford Memorial Trophy.

Some 35 members and guests travelled down from the Midlands, London and Bristol to play the Nicklaus and the Cheshire courses. Some of the players brought their partners to enjoy the facilities that were available.

It was HOT, HOT, HOT! the Caribbean golf society certainly brought the weather that’s for sure.

Most golf courses have been struggling with the heat, fairways have been very dry, which meant that the golf ball as been be running and running, its been like playing links golf on parkland courses. Carden Park was no different. Its a lovely looking venue, a very nice hotel with great facilities for the entire family and two good golf courses with very good layouts. The first days play would be for the Chairman’s Trophy and this was held on the Nicklaus course. The Nicklaus course is the premiere course of the two and holds many pro events, this can be seen with the number of teeing positions available with the furthest one being the black tees which in some places was a 100 yards or more further back than the yellow tees.

Although the layout of the Nicklaus course was very challenging the greens were in very poor condition due to disease and this played a big factor in some of the scores that came in, it was hard to trust the line of the putt when the ball could bounce left or right due to the poor playing surface.

As with most rounds of golf there’s always someone out there who just seems to get all the breaks and the ball just goes where they want it to. Event though the greens were in poor state you still have to get the ball onto the putting surface and Clyde Pile was the man on the first day who was able to do just that. Clyde posted a fantastic score of 42 points which considering the conditions could be regarded as a one-off performance however that wasn’t the case as in runner up spot with 40 points was Carlton Donalds who also was able to manoeuvre his golf ball around a dry golf course. In third place with a score which could win on any other day was Ian Higgins who posted 39 points, which included a front 9 of one under par gross where he had many holes where he was putting for birdie, it’s a shame his hard graft was only good enough for third, due to Clyde’s good scoring.

After day one’s golf it was time for some rest and relaxation. The first day is always a long one due to travelling to the venue then playing 18 holes of golf, also with the warm temperatures it was especially draining so a nice meal and cold drink was a welcoming site. After the meal there was the presentation of prizes and the award of the Chairman’s Trophy to Clyde for his 42 point victory. On day one there were also other prizes to be won and they were for the longest drive and nearest the pins. The longest drive went to Ansel Pottinger, nearest the pin was won by Trevor Lammy, nearest the pin in two shots was won by Junior Harris and nearest the pin in three shots was won by Ian Higgins.

There were also four guests in attendance over the weekend and they were Allen Motsi who posted a very credible 37 and 32 points, Frank Skinner who travelled down from London to post 34 and 30 points, Ian Clark a new guest at a CGS event who posted 30 and 24 points and former CGS member Nigel Harris who travelled from Bolton to also post 30 and 16 points.

With the evening now in full flow with the usual banter and setting the world to rights it was time to get some welcoming rest before starting the second round of the Charlie Sifford Memorial Trophy on the Cheshire course.

Day two was held on the Cheshire course and everyone was hoping we would get some better greens and we weren’t disappointed. The Cheshire course is meant to be second to the Nicklaus course but it’s layout provides another stern test and along with the dry conditions managing a running golf ball was again a key factor to scoring but with better greens at least good putts would be rewarded. Once again the heat was the telling factor and staying hydrated.

This was the second of two rounds going towards the Charlie Sifford Memorial Trophy. After day one Clyde, Carlton and Ian were all in prime position to build on their day one scores and for everyone else, day two provided an opportunity to move up the leader board with a better second round.

Again for day two there were longest drive and nearest the pin prizes on offer, but the main focus was to win the Trophy and for some vital order of merit points which were on offer the higher up the leader board you could get with Order of Merit points going to a combined score total. With two more majors to come the competition for Order of Merit champion is getting close.

With the sun beating down on us all, the first tee shot would be to a par three and at this point we were able to see if the greens were as they said which it was, so game one! As a society we agreed to play the first as a courtesy to help speed up play as teeing off at near lunch time it was going to be a long day with a late finish, so trying to reduce that time was a good decision especially with some long journeys home at the end.

The weekend as been a bumper time for on course prizes, day two on course prize winners were; Trevor Lammy who took the prize for longest drive, Ian Higgins who won nearest the pin, Errol Murray who claimed the nearest the pin in two and nearest the pin in three was won by Paul Ramsey.

So onto the final positions of the combined scores from round one and two. In third place with scores of 37 points and 31 in round two totalling 68 points was Ronald Ross. In second spot also with a total of 68 points with 35 points and 33 in round two was Eldridge Cunningham and in first place and winning his first CGS event in a long long while was Roan McLeod who’s 34 points and 36 in the second round totalling 70 points was good enough to win the Charlie Sifford Memorial Trophy. It was his second round score which did it for Roan.

The 150 points scored for the win propelled Roan to 4th place in the Order of Merit. In 3rd place on the Order of Merit table is Ian Higgins whom at this point every year seems to be there or thereabouts. In 2nd spot is Eldridge Cunningham who was the runner up in 2021 to Chris Powell and with two events remaining Eldridge may need at least a win out of the two events to catch the current Order of Merit leader Eddie Wedderburn who’s hoping to be the first to win two Order of Merit titles having won in 2019.

Thanks to Carden Park for welcoming the CGS to their venue, its a shame the greens were poor on the Nicklaus course however we have since learnt that some discount opportunities may be available which our committee are in the process of finalising which will allow us a chance to revisit next year.