A bright and breezy spring day at County Down with the QUGS; it doesn’t get much better than that!
Lying between the sea and the mountains of Mourne, there are few more scenic venues in the world of golf. Old Tom Morris was commissioned to design the course back in the late nineteenth century ‘for a sum not to exceed £4’. What good value that was with the first nine, in particular, providing both the stiffest and most picturesque test any golfer might imagine.
While the core of the teams that played in 2022 remained, there were notable changes. Sadly, neither of the Dick brothers was available for selection, thereby bringing the decibel level at lunch down a notch or two. On the LUGS side, there was the very welcome return of Sam Baker as well as the addition of proper golfing steel in Tyler Kenyon and Scott Beattie.
And those changes made a clear difference with the LUGS racing to a 5-1 lead in the morning games. It was only the final pair for the QUGS that avoided the whitewash. Dan McCrea played the type of golf that you normally only dream of with long iron after long iron boring through the wind to finish close. His partner, Ethan Boal, was equally effective. In contrast to Dan though, Ethan played a power game, striping the ball enormous distances. And it was clear where that power came from; a conservative estimate was that the weight of his golf bag reduced over the round by about a kilo as sandwiches, fruit, power bars, glucose shakes and protein drinks were drawn from it every second hole.
At least Ethan had bought the food himself. Not so ‘Porky’ Kershaw the night before at Malone Golf Club. Spotting some ‘apparently’ left over sandwiches on an adjacent table, Porky went about hoovering them up at an alarmingly swift rate (especially for someone who had just finished his own supper), only to find the Malone snooker team return to their table in search of – now missing – sustenance.
Malone was where Dan had taken us for a warm up on the Thursday and where we (well, most of us) had dined handsomely before heading off to the ‘Bot’, a drinking den popular among the QUGS when they were significantly younger.
It was there, very late in the evening, that LUGS captain, John Dennis, delivered a stirring team talk. Though both style and substance were a little vague, it clearly worked as we raced to what for most teams would be a commanding lead. Following the capitulation post lunch against the SUGS though, nothing was taken for granted as we returned to the tee of the first hole which, by now with the wind really up, was playing as three woods and a mid iron.
John himself may have feared for the result as the well nourished Ethan, now playing with Ian Emerson, threw birdies and pars at him to soar to a commanding lead. George Yeandle, however, settled nerves and as a late call-up (or ‘super-sub’) delivered his second point of the day to see LUGS over the line.
Also securing two points was Tyler Kenyon. Hailing from Texas, he declared the strong wind to be nothing more than a light zephyr. His astonishing drive on the par five 18th in the morning gave his partner only an eight iron for his approach – to borrow from the greatest of all amateurs, he plays a type of golf with which most of us are unfamiliar.
A fine dinner followed back in Belfast. Speeches preceded the award of the QUGS/LUGS claret jug to the LUGS captain. A terrific day and roll on 19 April 2024 for our return back in Sandwich.
Morning
| QUGS | LUGS | ||
| Jack McClean & Peter Greene | Tyler Kenyon & Andrew Berryman | 1up | |
| Mike Graham & Ben Brennan | Joe Park & Kaihan Mobed | 5&4 | |
| Peter Murray & Eddie Bill | Mike Kershaw & John Dennis | 1up | |
| Micky Curran & Ian Young | Sam Baker & Alex Modgill | 4&3 | |
| Ian Emerson & Alan Irwin | Scott Beattie & George Yeandle | 1up | |
| Dan McCrea & Ethan Boal | 3&2 | Gorm Nielsen & Neil Falconer | |
| 1 | 5 | ||
Afternoon
| QUGS | LUGS | ||
| Peter Murray & Peter Greene | Tyler Kenyon & Mike Kershaw | 5&4 | |
| Ben Brennan & Eddie Bill | 2&1 | Alex Modgill & Andrew Berryman | |
| Mike Graham & Ian Young | Neil Falconer & George Yeandle | 1up | |
| Jack McClean & Alan Irwin | Scott Beattie & Gorm Nielsen | 1up | |
| Dan McCrea & Micky Curran | 3&2 | Joe Park & Kaihan Mobed | |
| Ethan Boal & Ian Emerson | 9&7 | John Dennis & Sam Baker | |
| 3 | 3 | ||
LUGS beat QUGS by 8 to 4
London University Golfing Society 