By Steve Acteson
Sarah Wetherell holed a 40-foot putt for a match-turning birdie on the par 3 9th as she and Ali Ord beat Becky Philpott and Joy Dunger 4&3 at Boughton GC to reach the second round of the Daily Mail Foursomes knockout stages.
Ord (h1) and Wetherell (h20) reached the grand finals in 2022 and need to win seven more qualifying rounds to emulate that feat and go through to the finale in Spain next November.
Canterbury Golf Club’s Sarah Wetherell, left, and Ali Ord were too good for Boughton GC’s Becky Philpott and Joy Dunger
They were giving 13 shots and Ord said: “We were two down after five but they had trouble with bunkers on 6 and 7, so we won them to get back to all square and then we won 8.
“They had a shot on the 9th, I hit my tee shot to the back the green and Joy hit hers to the front of it, so we assumed they were going to two-putt.
“Sarah had a 40-foot putt and I told her: ‘Go on Sarah, just put it in the hole’ and she made a two. Becky hit theirs 10 feet past and they missed the one back, so we turned two up and that was the turning point because we thought we were going to be all square.”
Caroline Collins beat Angela Jones 1 up in the final of the Women’s Winter Scratch Knockout for her fourth win of the year.
Collins said: “The turning point was when I went 1 up on 15. I hit a decent approach in and holed an eight-feet putt for a par.
“Then unfortunately Angela lost a ball off the tee on 16 so I went 2 up, she won the 17th when I went into the bunker on the right and then we halved the 18th.”
Jones, Tina Bird and Alison Mason were declared joint winners of the Women’s Winter League with 34 league points after the fifth and final Better Ball Stableford round, with Kat Jordan and Jen Rutherford joint fourth, two points back.
Jones finished second with Rutherford and Mason third with Lizza Berry to catch fifth-placed Bird at the top of the table and said: “It’s pretty unusual that there were three winners and I’d be surprised if it happened again.”
Sarah Wetherell and Cheryl Edwards won the round with 41 Stableford points, beating Rutherford and Jones on countback.
Wetherell and Edwards were out with 21 points and back with 20, while Rutherford and Jones had 22 on their front nine, including Rutherford’s birdies at the 5th and 8th and 19 on their back nine, Jones making a birdie at the 11th. Berry and Mason took third place with 38 points in a field of 10 pairs.
John Shiel and Jamie Bourne made six birdies in a one under par round for 42 points to win the eighth round of the Men’s Hallet Cup Winter League, on back-six countback from Shaun Pilbeam and Richard Blackburn.
Shiel and Bourne were the only one of the top-six pairs to start on the 1st and, after an opening double bogey, Bourne birdied the 3rd and 6th from 15 feet and Shiel the 5th and 7th for an outward 20 points.
Bourne then holed from 30 feet for vital birdies at the 13th and 17th with one bogey while Shiel had six back-nine pars to bring them back with 22.
Pilbeam and Blackburn covered their opening back nine in two under par from Pilbeam’s birdies at the 11th and 17th and a combined seven pars but had 14 points on holes 13 to 18 compared to the winners’ 15.
Pilbeam also birdied the 3rd and 8th in a front-nine 20 points for second place in a field of 49 pairs.
Mark Sladden birdied the 14th and 18th in an back-nine total of 23 points as he and Mark Bailey took third place with 41 points, on countback from Bernard Disneur and Pat Nash, Mark Ferrett and Andy Davies and Damian McDuff and John Kirby.
Shiel said: “Jamie had a 30-feet putt for birdie on the 13th and one from off the green on the 17th and that made the difference.
“It was tough on the back nine, but we ground it out and those two big putts won it for us.”
Bourne said: “I probably hole one of those every six months but I had two in one round and John made some good putts to keep us ticking over.”
Bernard Disneur got up and down for par at the last to win the Men’s Midweek Stableford on back-six countback from James Lambton.
Disneur (h13) began with a one-point double at the 1st but then scored six pars and two bogeys to reach the turn with 20.
He came back with 18 and, despite picking up on the 14th, he took 10 points from his last six holes, while Lambton (h13) had nine after a no score on the 15th and a bogey at the last, to follow a front-nine 20, with four-point birdies at the 3rd and 7th.
Graham Vaughan (h12) scored 37 for third place in a field of 54.
Women’s Winter Cup winners at Canterbury GC, Gillian Soutar, left, and Carol Bye, right, with Moira Holt, who co-presented the Winter Cups in the 1980s
Carol Bye and Gillian Soutar dovetailed perfectly to score 43 Stableford points and win the rescheduled Women’s Greensomes Winter Cups competition by six from second-placed Caroline Collins and Catherine Hinds.
Bye and Soutar (h15) birdied the 5th and had five pars and three bogeys to reach the turn with 23 points before coming back with 20.
Collins and Hinds (h14) birdied the 8th in an outward total of 20 points adding 17 on their inward nine. Val Binns and Jacqui Mount made 36 for third place in a field of 11 pairs.
Francis Hixson scored 39 points to win the Seniors’ Stableford overall by one from Division 1 winner Beau Hart, despite failing to score on the 14th and 17th and making a one-point triple bogey at the 15th.
Hixson carded four pars, four bogeys and a double for a front-nine 23 points and was up to 34 after 12 before saving the win with two point bogeys on the 16th and 18th.
Hart had 18 out and then one point from a double bogey at the 10th before finishing with six pars and two bogeys for 20 back.
Bill Woledge failed to score on the 2nd but birdied the 9th and 17th for a total of 37 points and third place overall, on countback from Peter Cheney and fifth placed Pip Tyler, in a field of 60.