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The Tale of the GO 2007...
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The Gentlemen’s Open 2007 saw a return to the spiritual homeland of the event, Scotland. The first visit to the West Coast promised testing courses in breezy, links-filled Ayrshire, with the competitors based in Saltcoats.
After the obligatory night out in Glasgow on the first night, a day of sports and the world premiere of the spectacular GO 2006 official film followed on Sunday. With appetites firmly whet and the sun shining brightly for the first time all summer, the stage was set for another excellent GO…
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Day One - Captain’s Cup (West Kilbride and Largs)
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Enthusiasm was soon dampened on the first tee at West Kilbride as the first Captain’s Cup fourball - which pitted Team Buff captain, James Buffoni, and John Roberts against messrs Christie and Fletcher - sprayed tee shots to all parts of the course, with the exception of the fairway…However, nerves soon settled and both pairs matches shaped up delightfully. Whilst traded holes were the order of the day in the first pairing, steady golf in the second saw most holes halved in the Collard and Turner versus McGregor and Reeve match. Despite the contrasting flow of the two matches, both went all the way to the tricky eighteenth. Buffoni helped his team to share the spoils in a match which they had led three up at one time, whilst captain Reeve had an inspired birdie from the firing McG to thank for claiming the points in his match up…
With the morning’s action leaving the Captain’s Cup nicely poised at twelve points to four in favour of Team Reeve, the boys recharged the batteries before making the short trip to Largs Golf Club.
The afternoon featured some intriguing line ups, not least the head to head between two of the pre-GO favourites, Fletcher and Collard.
Again, the matches could not have been tighter as, with the exception of the McGregor 6 & 4 against Turner, points were again up for grabs in all matches as the boys teed off on the eighteenth.
In the end, it was honours even as Fletcher held his nerve to hole a snaking eight footer to win a titanic battle with Collard, whilst Roberts (versus Christie) and Buffoni (versus Reeve) did the business for Team Buff to leave the team competition still decently poised at 28 points to 20 in favour of Team Reeve.
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Day Two - GO Round One (Irvine Bogside)
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The tone for the first round of the GO was set by a wild eyed member of Bogside enquiring as to whether all the GO competitors had 20 balls in the bag, “because you’ll need them to get around out there…”, then cackling an hysterical Scottish laugh. The warning was well founded on a day where the wind seemed to blow sideways on every hole, and the penal rough swallowed balls as hungrily as a Buffoni devouring a fry up in a skanky cafe.
As the day drew to a conclusion, there were a few surprise names at the top of the leaderboard on a day which had seen excellent rounds from both Christie and Roberts, the latter round including a spectacular net albatross on a long par four. Nobody had played themselves out of contention although Fletcher, McGregor and Collard had relatively disappointing rounds and Turner found himself bottom of the pile. Meanwhile, James Buffoni nearly provided an exciting end to the day as he sent an ill-advised slash of a bunker shot from the front of the 18th green bouncing through the Lexus and BMW laden car park.
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Day Three - GO Round Two (Kilmarnock Barassie)
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A longer, and more forgiving course greeted the gentlemen on the second day. Again, it was a day when some of the underdogs performed well, with Christie holding his nerve to maintain his lead at the top of the leaderboard and Roberts and Reeve holding their unexpected positions in the leading pack. Ominously for the field, Collard crept his way into second place despite not hitting the heights of ball striking he had reached during the team event. Elsewhere, two of the pre-tournament favourites, Fletcher and McGregor continued to struggle whilst Buffoni and Turner were cut further adrift of the action end.
The day also had a very close call for the first ever GO hole-in-one - a knifey roll from the leading edge of the Poulter-esque Reeve’s pitching wedge made a beeline for cup on a short, blind par three and - given its finish position - only Stephen Hawking could explain how it failed to drop…
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Day Four - GO Round Three (Prestwick St Nicholas)
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nother peach of a course and peach of a day greeted the bowling/ electric shock/ dance-off weary competitors on ‘moving day’.
Unfortunately for Cameron Christie, round three lived up to its title as he slipped dramatically down the pile with joint-worst round of the day, an unwanted result he shared with the slightly improving, cigar-fuelled Turner. At the action end of the event, Reeve continued to hold his nerve whilst, significantly, Fletcher ground out the round of the day to move within sight of Collard at the summit of the tournament. Elsewhere, McGregor continued to struggle with his game and Roberts also began to falter.
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Day Five - GO Round Four (Turnberry)
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The final morning of the competition saw the players face an early alarm call for a drive to the most prestigious course of the week - Turnberry, which will host the Open in 2009. Added to the obvious test of the course was the worst weather of the week and a few sore heads following a night on the sauce and the karaoke for a few of the gladiators the previous night…
Action in the cheap seats followed a familiar pattern of a lot of “CG”/ “JF”, rank bad golf, punctuated with the odd memorable moment, including a blistering seven iron from Roberts to set up a kick in birdie at the 10th. McGregor again failed to fire, although Buffoni and Turner both produced steady patches of golf to record reasonable scores on the day.
Meanwhile in the lead group, in what would prove to be the most eventful final round in GO history, Reeve remained in contention until the inward nine but could just not quite bridge the gap to Collard and Fletcher as sadly the host, Christie, faded to his lowest score of the week. Sam Fletcher chipped away at Ben Collard’s lead throughout the round, eventually taking the lead on the back nine, before losing a ball with his approach to the 18th when a bogey would have been sufficient for victory. With Collard over the back of the green in two, Fletcher reloaded from the middle of the fairway but could not record a point, leaving three time champion Collard with the chance of an up and down to share the spoils. The tension was palpable as Collard sent a swinging putt of some 12 feet on its way, only to see it agonisingly it lip out to give Fletcher his second GO title…
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GO CHAMPION 2007 - SAM FLETCHER
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Captain’s Cup - Overall
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With a number of players struggling throughout the week, Team Buff never threatened to close the gap from day one of the team event, although they did score a minor victory by outscoring the champions Team Reeve on the final day.
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CAPTAIN’S CUP CHAMPIONS 2007 - TEAM REEVE
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Western Gailes . The course has played host to the Curtis Cup, PGA Championship, Seniors and prestigious Scottish Amateur Championship. Western Gailes is also one of the final qualifying courses when The Open is played at Turnberry or Royal Troon. A real test for the final round of the tournament.
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Epilogue
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The end of a great week, which passed too quickly as always, always brings with it a period of reflection…
The GO 2007 saw a huge improvement in Collard as a man, with a comparative deterioration in his golf game - this can only be for the good of the GO…thanks to Astrid.
The axis of evil, in the shape of four years of Fletcher/ Collard domination, is beginning to threaten the openness of the GO and like the good, Labour ruled British we are, we must find a way to level the playing field. Suggestions are already coming in thick and fast including starting everyone else on the green whilst SF and BC play from the champ tees or inflicting minor injuries on both at the start of the week. A more boring solution would be for everyone else to practice more and improve, but I’m sure a better solution can be found.
Finally, thanks again to the Christie family, and particularly Cameron, for providing an ideal base for the event, and a hugely well thought out and well organised week.
Hopefully 2008 will be another great year and will see the return of some GO faces from the past…
[NT]
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