The Golden Divot News

News, Headlines and Comments

2nd January 2000.   Steve wins the first Challenge of the new century.

20th May 2000.   Martin achieves a 100 wins at Rodway Hill Golf Course (Old and New Courses).

13th August 2000.   Martin cards a record 2 birdies and 12 pars (77.7% of par) and a personal best score of gross 72, net 59 at Rodway.

28th August 2000.   The 392nd challenge  was held at Boothferry GC on Sunday 27 August.   Steve was declared the winner carding gross 91 (net 74) a clear 6 strokes ahead of Ian (a surprise 2nd place after being awarded a handicap of 19 by the Executive Committee).   Due to work pressures, Craig was unable to compete much to the delight of the remaining competitors.

The weather was fairly good, warm with a little breeze.   There were a few spots of rain but it was insignificant.   Steve had the honour of starting the challenge as the reigning champion and about 4 hours later was declared the winner.

The current buzzword is “course management” and from the results it appears that Steve managed the course that much better than the rest of the competitors.

3rd September 2000.   Daryl cards personal best non-winning net score of 63 (gross 85) at Rodway.

26th November 2000.   The 399th challenge was held over two rounds of the old RHGC (totalling about 4700 yards instead of the normal 5473 yards of the full course).   Steve achieved a magnificent gross 74, net 57 to win the challenge by 8 clear strokes (18 gross strokes) over Daryl with Martin trailing in third place with gross 83, net 70.   This was Martin’s 9th consecutive barren challenge and the betting is 3 – 1 that he will achieve 10 barrens on the next challenge, which coincidentally the 400th.

Of the 37 challenges this year, Steve is way ahead with 18 wins.   Martin and Daryl trail with 13 and 6 respectively.   It looks like being Steve’s year.   He tops the 2000 league table but remains behind Martin in the overall league table.   Martin has scored more pars and birdies than other members and has also achieved 2 eagles this year.   Incredibly, Steve is almost matching Martins AWGS of 83.

23 December 2000.   As predicted, Steve has won the final challenge of the year.   His 2 stroke victory over Martin at RHGC today confirms that the Championship goes to Milton Road, and well deserved, winning 50% of the 38 challenges –  6 more than Martin and 13 more than Daryl.

Since 1 Jan 96 both Steve and Martin have won 68 times with Daryl just behind with 62.   It looks like that Martin’s star is on the wane whilst those of his competitors are rising – year 2001 will be extremely interesting with, I predict, Steve confirming his ascendancy and Daryl, carrying a bad back, will be looking to eat into the 6 game lead.

15th July 2001.   Craig cards his worst score, gross 106, net 93 at Rodway.

31 December 2001.   The tour in 2001 was not as interestingas predicted.   Foot and mouth disease and extremely bad weather onlyallowed for 23 challenges to take place and only one of these at NorthernHQ.   Martin against all predictions was proclaimed Tour Champion with11 wins – Steve following closely behind with 10.   Martin won thelast Challenge on 17 November, Steve trailing badly in third place with gross100, net 83 (his worst card all season).   Martin carded the season’sbest score on 10th February at Rodway, gross 76 net 63.   Jim failedto card a score this season and Craig’s only showing produced a disastrous gross106, net 93, at RHGC on 15th July.   Daryl only won twice in the year,possibly due to his suspect back, probably due to him carding gross 100 or moreon seven occasions.   All players are looking forward to betterweather and more opportunity to play in 2002 which is the 10th anniversary yearof the Golden Divot.

31 December 2002.   Steve slaughtered the opposition this year winning 22 of the 36 challenges, a win rate of 1.64 – the best recorded in the history of the Trophy.   A new course was authorised this year, being Kingswood GC near Thorne in Northern HQ.   Needless to say Steve won this beating Daryl by six shots (only 1 net shot though!).   The long awaited 10th Anniversary Challenge was played at Rodders on 2 May 2002 – exactly 10 years to the day of the first Challenge.   Daryl won this carding a gross 92 (net 75) beating Steve 94 (77).   Jim even managed a single symbolic drive on the 12th.   Due to poor weather at the beginning and at the end of the year only 36 challenges were completed.

30th March 2003.   Followinga meeting of the Handicap Committee the revised handicaps are:

Martin from 13 to 16 (+ 3)

Steveremains at 16

Daryl remains at 22

18th April 2003.   Steve,Daryl and Martin visited Jim in Scotland for the Easter holiday.   A”Scotland Challenge” was played at Duff Royal Golf Course, Banff, onSunday 20th April, which Steve duly triumphed.   He magnanimouslydeclared that the challenge would not count in the tour statistics.  Jim is arranging for a permanent Scotland Challenge Trophy to be prepared.

27thDecember 2003.   The 2003Championship went to the wire with both Martin and Steve in with achance.   The 500th Challenge was played over the back nine holes atRodway in driving rain but as it was the decider the three-ball played to thebitter end.   It was eventually decided on the final green with Steveemerging as the Champion with a gross 85, net 69.   Martin lost by asingle shot, carding a gross 86, net 70.

10thApril 2004.   The Tour moves toTurriff where Jim has set up the Scottish HQ.   Steve wins the secondchallenge in Scotland with a comprehensive win (net 80) over Martin (net 85) andJess (net 81).

18th December2004.   Martin is declared Tourchampion for 2004.   Of the 42 challenges played he was declared thewinner of 27 (a 64% win with a rate of 1.5).   Included are 7consecutive wins between 14th August and 16th October.   Steve broke this winning streak on 24th October.   Martin averaged 42.5 points per challenge in the Order of Merit and carded 16 birdies and 275 pars during the tour.   Steve carded more birdies with 19.

2nd January 2005.   Martin achieves a record 8 consecutive wins (from 12th November 2004).

8th January 2004.   Steve breaks Martin’s consecutive wins.

26th March 2005.   Martin triumphs in the Scottish HQ Challenge at Turriff GC.   Steve, Daryl and Ian attend the challenge whilst Jim films the proceedings.

1st April 2005.   Martin cards 1 birdie and 10 pars at Rodway winning the challenge with a net 67, 8 better than Steve.

13th August 2005.   Daryl wins his first Challenge since 26th June 2004, 46 challenges ago.

16th September 2005.   Steve cards a personal best of 2 birdies and 10 pars (66.6% of par) at Rodway.

31st December 2005.   Martin is declared Tour Champion for 2005.   Carding 24 wins from the 39 challenges his win rate is one win for every 1.63 Challenges, 0.07 more than last year.   His Average Winning Gross Score is 83.96, slightly beating last year’s 84.04.   He scored 19 birdies and 212 pars carding one birdie for each 11 pars and averaged 40.44 Order of Merit points per game.  He carded the best score in 2005 (gross 79 net 63) and his worst score was gross 93, net 77 at Rodway on 8th October.

8th July 2006.   Steve achieves 8 consecutive pars (4th – 11th) at Rodway.

26th August 2006.   Martin wins the Scottish HQ challenge at Thurso GC.

10th September 2006.   Jess cards an almighty gross 80, net 58 to record the best round of the year to date.  He also cards 1 birdie and 10 pars.

17th September 2006.   Steve, for the second time in this tour, cards 10 pars.

31st December 2006.   Martin is declared Tour Champion for 2006, a hat trick of tour championships, with 25 wins from 42 starts – a win rate of 1.68.   14 birdies and 259 pars helped him to achieve this distinction.   Steve limped into second place with 12 wins from 41 starts, a rate of 3.42.   Though carding more birdies than Martin, 17, he could only manage 217 pars.   Jess was placed third with 5 wins from 34 starts, a win rate of 6.80.   He carded 9 birdies and 112 pars.   Martin was the only member to record more than one birdie in a round – carding 2 on 18th November.   His average Order of Merit score was 41.3, totalling 1736 for the tour.   Steve managed 36.5 and 1496 and Jess 32.1 and 1092.

31st December 2006.   The following handicaps for the 2007 Tour were authorised by the Handicap Committee:

Martin   –   16   (no change)

Steve  –  19   (increase of 3)

Jess   –   28   (increase of 6).   However, Jess has opted to continue with 22.

Ian   –   To be determined by the Handicap Committee as and when required.

Jim   –   To be determined by the Handicap Committee as and when required.

26th May 2007.   Daryl wins away from home.   He scores a stunning victory at the Scottish HQ playing at Thurso GC.   Carding a gross 102, net 80, his net score is just 1 better than Martin, four better than Steve, and 7 better than Jim.

Page last updated:  11 January 2009