The Club plays a friendly match against Ludlow Golf Club every year consisting of two days of match play in the style of the Ryder Cup.

This year, teams will comprise 10 players from each club who compete for 5 points on the first day in four-ball better-ball matchplay format. On the second day, 10 points are at stake in singles matchplay.

This year the match is hosted by Ludlow.

For further information, contact the Captain Jon Cooper or this year's team Captain Richard Owen.

Results
Report by Richard Owen

Result: 11½ to 3½ Loss

This year’s event took place at Ludlow Golf Club on Friday October 6th and Saturday October 7th. Ludlow was a team of 7 men and 3 ladies, captained by their club professional, Dan Francis. RPGC (8 men and 2 ladies) were represented by Ian and Julie Smith, Peter and Sheena Harrington, Kerry Sargeant, Paul Grand, Toby Hunt, Graeme Syme, Jurek Strelcyn and Richard Owen (2006 team captain). Following RPGC’s resounding win (12:3) last year, Ludlow were clearly looking to turn the tables. Extremely heavy rain the day before, and for the RPGC team travelling up on the Friday morning, made it all the more surprising to see the greens being watered as we arrived at midday. (How nice it would be if our course was underlain by free draining sand and gravel).

The first afternoon’s fourballs did not go RPGC’s way. It was not until the final match, when Jurek and Richard gained a ½, that we got our score on the board. The Ruffian’s dinner took place on the Friday night at a modern restaurant inside Ludlow Castle, and then moved on to the hotel bar where half the RGPC team were staying. The Ludlow crowd, led by their president Michael Hinks-Edwards, made us very welcome in Ludlow and a couple of them tried to drink us under the table on Friday evening.

It was always going to be an uphill task starting the second day in deficit by 4½ to ½. Despite good singles wins by Kerry, Ian and Toby, RPGC lost the match 11½ to 3½ and the cup had to be handed back to Ludlow as worthy winners. Home advantage seems to have taken its toll again and there were suggestions that we should try playing the event at a neutral course next year.

PICTURES

Pic 1   Pic 2   Pic 3   Pic 4   Pic 5

Please note, some of these files are large and can take some time to download over a modem link. Place your cursor over the link to see the file type and size in kilobytes (KB).