🏁 And with that — the 1st Annual Sodbury Swingers Mid-Week Summer League has come to an end. Starting way back in April, the season has absolutely flown by — but there have been enough golfing stories, bottle jobs, broken clubs, bandit accusations and completely avoidable disasters along the way to fill a clubhouse.
🪧 Round 9 certainly didn’t disappoint. Ryan saved his best until last and absolutely flew in with 23 points, comfortably the best card of the round. Unfortunately, nobody was actually there to witness this exceptional display of golf, so we’ll just have to take his word for it. Callum also picked the perfect time to turn up, firing 22 points, while Luke posted 15, Aidan and Ash 14, Trott 12 and Andy 11. Ads looked at the league tables, realised he wasn’t winning fuck all and sensibly escaped to Germany instead.
🏆 And that means Ryan Higton is our first ever Stableford League Champion! Starting the final round in 5th place on 128 points, Ryan produced a massive 23-pointer when it mattered most to finish on 151, jumping four places and nicking the title by just 2 points.
🥇 Ryan — 151
🥈 Callum — 149
🥉 Trott — 147
4. Ash — 146
T5. Aidan — 144
T5. Andy — 144
7. Luke — 132
8. Ads — 124
Callum deserves a mention too — his 22-point finale dragged him from 6th all the way into 2nd. Trott had led going into the final round, but unfortunately chose the exact wrong evening to forget how a tee shot works.
💩 Trott v Andy was supposed to be the heavyweight title fight. 1st v 2nd. Both playing off 7. Everything on the line. Naturally, they both proceeded to top almost everything off the tee and have an absolute mare. Trott stumbled home with 12 points and a gross 50, Andy managed 11 and a 51, and Trott somehow scraped the match 1 up. Less Clash of the Titans, more two blokes fighting over the last damaged driver in the American Golf clearance section.
✈️ Aidan did exactly what was required against Luke, getting himself 3 up with 2 to play and securing a 3&2 win. Match finished, job done. Naturally, he then decided to start getting clever and absolutely fucked the final two holes, scoring precisely zero points across them. Thankfully for him, the match was already over — apparently the safest way for Aidan to close out a match is to legally finish it before he gets the opportunity to bottle it.
🔥 The biggest story of the finale though was Ryan v The Course. After eight rounds without a single defeat, The Course finally met its match. Ryan’s 23-point masterclass earned him a 3&1 victory, making him the only player all summer to beat The Course. Slightly inconvenient timing given he also needed Aidan to lose if he wanted the Matchplay money — but still, someone finally killed the bastard.
😬 Ash had everything to play for in the final match of the entire competition. With Ryan already clubhouse leader on 151, Ash knew he needed roughly 20 points to steal the Stableford title. Instead, Callum decided to shoot 22 while Ash produced 14, 20 putts and a 3&1 defeat. After spending most of the season right in the title hunt, the dream finally died with the finish line in sight.
🏆 The final Matchplay League was every bit as close. The Course’s first defeat left it stranded on 20 points, while Aidan’s win over Luke moved him onto 20 as well.
The final top five:
🥇 The Course — 20
🥇 Aidan — 20
3. Ryan — 18
4. Ads — 15
T5. Trott — 13
T5. Ash — 13
Obviously, The Course can’t walk into the clubhouse and collect twenty quid, so Aidan takes the £20 Matchplay prize as the highest-finishing actual human. Ryan’s brilliant final-round win dragged him onto 18, but Aidan did just enough against Luke to shut the door.
💰 So our inaugural winners are:
🏆 Stableford League Champion — Ryan Higton — 151 points — £20
🏆 Matchplay Prize Winner — Aidan Panvalkar — 20 points — £20
A massive thanks to everyone who took part in the first version of this. We’ve been making it up, fixing apps, adjusting rules and learning as we’ve gone, but it’s given us competitive golf all summer outside the normal club comps and, judging by how tight both tables were right until the end, it’s worked pretty bloody well.
🍻 And although the Summer League is finished, the Swingers calendar definitely isn’t. Portugal 🇵🇹 is up next, attention will then turn towards the proposed Sodbury Swingers Winter League from October, before we’re back at Marriott St Pierre in November.
Nine rounds. 81 holes. Two champions. One imaginary golfer that nearly embarrassed the entire society.
Good Golf. Great Company. Roll on the next one. ⛳🍻🏆
