Warwickshire Golf
LADBROOK PARK RETURN AND WIN
The Warwickshire cup is a winter scratch foursome’s knockout tournament where each Warwickshire affiliated club can enter a team of 6 to compete for the title. The final was kindly hosted as always by The Warwickshire Golf Club and saw the two finalists, Olton and Ladbrook Park, go head to head, on the magnificent Earls course, after progressing through the knockout stages.
Both teams had a difficult route to the final, most notably Olton having to beat last year’s defending champions The Warwickshire in the semi-final, with Ladbrook Park defeating a strong Handsworth side.
The first match of the day saw the current county Boys champion Joe Macilraith and Jake Scott from Olton take on England boy’s squad player Max Martin and Ian McFadden. The match remained close throughout and some solid golf from tee to green saw Ladbrook take an early lead and maintain it into the back nine.
Next out was Liam Phipps and George Allen against big hitting duo Jake Larden and Ed Hull. The Olton pair got off to a fast start with some solid golf and accurate iron play taking the first two holes. However, it wasn’t to last as Jake and Ed came back taking advantage of their length on the par five’s winning the fourth and sixth, then eventually regained the lead when Ed holed a long birdie at the seventh. The pair pressed on opening up a three hole lead through twelve but a crisp iron to the par three thirteenth from Liam and a solid putt from George saw them get one back. Alas, the deficit was too great and as the Ladbrook pair took the 15th, Jake proceeded to unleash his biggest drive of the day on the next, easily over 300 yards, and a par was enough to close out a 3&2 win.
1-0 to Ladbrook.
The last match out was between Olton’s Mike Pell and George Parker who were taking on Ladbrook’s Tim Davis and Tim Cooley. The two Tims started well capitalising on a few errant drives from the Olton duo and took an early lead. However it wasn’t to last as the Olton pair responded with some brilliant golf winning holes five, seven, eight and nine to reach the turn commandingly 4 up.
Time for a late charge.
A monster birdie putt snaked in on 12 and a mistake from Olton on the thirteenth saw the deficit reduce to 3up and with a comeback looming in Ladbrook’s favour this was a crucial stage in the match. Mike responded splitting the fairway down fourteen and when George hit a laser like iron to the green it put any chance of a comeback to rest. The match ended with a 5&3 win for Olton.
1-1
With the match now tied and the cup hanging in the balance all eyes turned to the top match which was looking tight.
Max and Ian had relinquished their lead and by the 17th the match was all square. Both pairs played the hole well finding the green in regulation but as Macilwraith’s putt missed, Ian was left with a 6 footer to regain the lead and take charge of the match. The putt missed and it was over to the eighteenth.
By now a large gallery had formed to watch and with a long accurate tee shot needed to reach the green in two on the par five Jake Scott stepped up. Jake renowned for his ball striking ability smashed his drive over the tree line down the middle to put the pressure back on Ladbrook. Max, recently gaining length from the tee after bulking up, bombed a drive straight down the middle and matched Jake for distance. The pair were side by side.
Both teams elected to lay up and it was Olton to play first. With tension building in the crowd, Jake hit a good wedge but it just rolled off the green into the fringe, leaving Macilwraith a delicate 20 foot chip for birdie. Ladbrook had an opportunity and if ever there was a time in this match that a good shot was needed it was now.
Max didn’t disappoint. A beautifully struck wedge, checking on the top tier and almost going in for an eagle saw Ladbrook take a step closer to the trophy. The tension in the crowd was at a climax as Macilwraith set up to his chip. With the ball needing to go in it landed on the fringe and rolled out towards the cup. A foot away it looked in and as a few of the watching Ladbrook members’ hearts were in their mouths…
It stopped agonisingly just short.
A Ladbrook sigh of relief and Ian was left with a three foot putt for the title. He confidently popped it in to secure the match and the trophy.
Congratulations Ladbrook Park you are this year’s Warwickshire Cup champions.
We would like to thank all this years teams for participating and congratulations to both finalists on a great display of golf. Don’t forget to follow us on twitter for updates on all our golf events this summer.
Written by George Allen
Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.
