Golfing grandmothers steal the show at Leighton Buzzard Golf Club

Golfing grandmothers have stolen the show at Leighton Buzzard’s Plantation Road club, with one formally being installed as Captain of the 90-strong Ladies Section…and another hitting a hole-in-one in the ladies drive-in competition won by a grannie who only took up the sport five years ago!

With lockdown restrictions now allowing outdoor social gatherings, four-times grannie Sandra Carter celebrated her “drive in” six months after taking over as Ladies Captain, escorted to the first tee dressed in a big cuddly dog costume with colleagues wearing dog-face masks against a musical backcloth of “Who Let the Dog Out” and “How much is that Doggie in the Window.”

The ruse was the work of Ladies Vice Captain Lesley Bednarek and reflected Sandra’s love of animals. As well as having three children with husband Brian, the family had two dogs, two horses, two ducks and two cats.

The tee-off drive competition was won by grannie Val Brown and the drive-in competition for the coveted Rosewear Bowl was won by grannie Joyce Young.

Joyce joined the Leighton club five years ago through the Academy scheme and won her first trophy with a score of 37 points to achieve her personal target of winning a trophy this year. Runner-up was Judith Ammon with 35 points, one clear of Gill Macdougall with Christine Robinson and Olivia Campbell heading a 60-strong chasing pack with 33 points. Cicely Goldsmith won the nine-hold competition with 11 points, beating Beryl Wood by a shot.

For good measure, grannie Sue Preston hit her first hole-in-one since taking up the sport a decade ago, using her driver for the inch-perfect ace on the 150-yard 14th Par 3 hole. And as she left the club, Robin Lawes breezed in having also hit a hole in one, using a seven-iron for his inch perfect shot on the 150-yard Par 3 11th.

In earlier Ladies competitions, the Spring meeting was won by Carmen White-Lawes with a nett 72 and the Senior Ladies qualifier was won by Jackie Stimpson with 73 points.

Mobile systems specialist Tom Fitzgerald is the new holder of Leighton’s Wallis Cup, beating a field of 160 with a score of +7. It was a first trophy win for 59-year-old Wing based Tom since joining the Leighton club 20 years ago. Runner- up was Danny Bailey with a score of +6, one better than third-placed Theo Aurora, with Matthew Lowe and Mark Leng a shot adrift.

And Gareth Davies won the May Medal with an impressive nett 60, six shots clear of Shaun Cavanagh with Nick Tingey and Lewis Greene taking third place with nett 67s.