Thurlestone Golf Club

The ladies played their last competition of 2017 on Wednesday as a rainbow tee stableford writes Liz Line.

The competition was reduced to 14 holes and involved playing off different coloured tees on each hole, some blue (junior tees) some red (ladies) and some yellow (men’s).

The winner was Sheila George (36) with 34 points, from Gill Hicks (13) 30, third was Trish Gledhill (20) 29, and fourth Julia Dorey (17) 27 points.

The four captains are preparing to take up the reins of office in January 2018 at Thurlestone.

The junior captain this year is 15-year-old Finn Whelan, who plays off nine and is a pupil in Year 11 at Kingsbridge Community College. Finn started playing at 10 years old and was in the junior team when he was 11. He learnt with the Thurlestone Academy, having lessons with Steve White and his team.

His vice-captain is Sammy Ingham, who attends Stover School. He is 14 years old with a handicap of eight, and has been a junior team member for the last three years.

Both Finn and Sammy are involved in the Devon U16s squad and are hoping to help with the development of the younger players throughout 2018.

The new seniors captain is Tom Burnett, who takes over from Chris Holmes who was captain for three years.Tom comes from a golfing family with both his parents keen players.

He joined Thurlestone Golf Club in 1983, but was unable to play golf regularly due to commitments of a young family and work. He is now living in South Huish with his family.

Upon his retirement 10 years ago, he was able to start playing regularly at the club and so joined the seniors’ roll-up. He now plays off a handicap of 19. His participation in the senior section has provided valuable focus days for the week, with the regular roll-ups as well as participation in a variety of matches and competitions and enjoyable short golfing breaks both home and abroad.

Tom looks forward to being able to contribute to the growth of the seniors; encouraging new members, and taking it forward as captain for the next three years, having enjoyed being roll-up organiser and treasurer.

The ladies’ captain is Heather Spencer, who plays off 13 handicap, lives in Kingsbridge and has been a member of Thurlestone Golf Club for 12 years.

She was captain of the Still Cup team when they reached the final in 2014. This year she was team captain of the ladies’ Annadota team and played for the Presidents team, as well as being vice captain. Heather joined Thurlestone in 2005, but actually moved down to Kingsbridge towards the end of 2008. Her last club was Hindhead in Surrey.

Her 2018 charity is a very small charity called William’s Fund, where all money raised is handed over to cancer research for children at Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Harry Cattell is the club captain and has plenty of experience on the golf course. He joined Copt Heath Golf club in 1967 and remained a member until 2013, when he decided to retire to the South Hams.

His lowest handicap achieved was five, but he now plays off nine. After leaving school Harry joined the Merchant Navy as officer cadet and served for two years.

He then joined the family business, trading as wholesale fish merchants in Birmingham, and when his father retired he went on to manage the company.

He eventually sold out to a larger company and worked for them as a department manager. He and his wife Susan had holidayed in the South Hams for many years and always wanted to retire here, which became a reality four years ago, when he joined Thurlestone Golf Club.

His charity for 2018 will be the Hope Cove Lifeboat.

Thurlestone has the captain’s drive-in on New Year’s Day to look forward to.

Last year the weather was terrible so the competition afterwards was abandoned. We hope for better weather in 2018, so come along to wish the four new captains good luck and try to guess the length of their drives in aid of their charities, and wish everyone a very happy New Year.