KANGAROO CUP Pairs Championship
Hayling Island 2022
HAYLING ISLAND - 26th APRIL 2022
This would be the 10th Spring Kangaroo Cup at Hayling and we arrived to find perfect links golfing weather with lots of sunshine and a light breeze. There was a field of 12 pairs with Matthew Gibbens, Jem Harnett, Jan Houlberg joining us for the first time and I had the pleasure of my son John partnering me while visiting from the USA.
Davenport & Hanna started well leading with 13 points after 4 holes with Berry and Pimbley on 11 points. Henry who had gone for an upgrade partner in Gibbens (plays off 1 handicap) started his day with the only birdie 2 on the first hole. Sadly that was their peak of the day. Patel went close to having his first hole in one on the closest to pin 5th hole which somehow ended up 1 foot behind the hole! Clifton & Field set the best first 9 holes score with 31 points by steady golf from Field who turned 2 over par with Clifton birdieing the 9th for 4 points. There were 3 teams with 27 points with Jones guiding his virgin partner Harnett around his home course. Hedges & Taylor scored 7 points on the 7th – the only 7 pointer all day. The course was playing like a true links course with running fairways and with the gorse in full flower making any stray balls difficult to find.
Field continued his good form and was 1 over par standing on the 14th tee when out of nowhere appeared a Snowman – dropping 8 shots on the 5 holes where both scores counted, so home in 21 points giving a total of 52. These holes were mostly into the wind with all teams struggling. Defending champions Pitchford & Pritchard kept up their steady play scoring 26 points on the back and nine for 53 points equalled by Berry & Pimbley to lead by 1 point from Clifton & Field and Hedges & Taylor on 52 points. The lunch service was slow, resulting in the afternoon tee times dropping back by 30 minutes.
Pitchford & Pritchard had a wobbly start to the afternoon round with zero points on the 2nd hole giving Berry & Pimbley the lead, with Espley & Maciver (who were well down the field at lunch having their identical twin brothers turn up for the afternoon round) scoring 10 points the 4 better ball holes. Clifton & Field scored 9 points on the better ball holes and were in the running.
With so many teams in the hunt it was down to the last 5 holes of better ball play. The closest to the pin on the 5th hole saw many teams falling out of contention with Field & Clifton only scoring 1 point, with 2 points for the teams Hedges & Taylor and Espley & Maciver. Lancaster took the prize for closest to the pin matching his partner from the morning round – but missing out on the birdie 2!
Espley’s twin was level par after 4 holes but stumbled on the 5th with a double bogey but that would be his last dropped shot of the round, the team scoring 22 points on the last 5 holes. On the same holes Jones & Harnett scored 19 points, Lancaster & Patel 18 points followed by Hedges & Taylor with 17. Berry & Pimbley playing in the last group with Espley & Maciver both kept the best for last banking 11 points between them on the last hole of the day. At the presentation it was revealed that four teams had tied on 77 points, a first in the Kangaroo Cup. Espley & Maciver took their 2nd title after an impressive 32 points in the afternoon, Jones & Harnett came 2nd with 27 points with Hedges & Taylor scoring 25 points, ruing their missed par putts on the last hole.
