MARTIN Hole, last year’s Men’s Captain of Minehead Golf Club, carried out his last duty when he presented a cheque for £8,626,27 to John Higgie, who is the RNLI Minehead Lifeboat Operation Manager, and Richard Newton. the RNLI Minehead Chair.

This amount is an incredible effort on Martin’s behalf and reflects the wonderful support for him and his charity from Minehead & West Somerset Golf Club over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, on the course, Minehead played the Men’s Spring Cup on Sunday with 63 members taking part in this prestigious medal competition which was further divided into two divisions based on handicap.

Not surprisingly, given the good conditions, it proved to be a closely contested event. The overall winner with a nett 69 was Greg Hawker, ahead of Craig Sully who finished second with 70 on count back. Beau Nicholls took third place overall and first place in Division 1.

Following a surfeit of qualifiers recently, the Seniors’ started the week with a welcome Bowmaker at the end of which Doug Hayhoe, John Burrow and Tim Tennant with 83 points were the winners. Second with 82 points were Mark Ruttley, Sandy Lyons and Nigel Trevelyan, while Martin Hole, Mike O’Keefe and Edward Frewin were third on 79.

On Wednesday, the Seniors played a Waltzing Bowmaker, which was won by Martin Hole, Roger Green and Tim Tennant with 75 points, second place went to Chris Durman, Doug Hayhoe and Tim Evans, who were just ahead of Roger Read, Adrian Ryan and Sandy Lyons.

The first round of the Marshall Cup was played on Friday. with 36 entrants. There were two outstanding scores achieved by Doug Hayhoe and Mike O’Keefe who both returned a nett 67, but on count back it was Doug who claimed the honours.

Third place on count back was new member Phil Mackenzie, who finished ahead of Andy Giles fourth and Paul Thompson, fifth after all returned with 70.

Meanwhile, the first Minehead Seniors competition of the previous week was a Stableford played in sunny conditions with a strengthening wind.

Due to the proliferation of matches currently underway, the number of entrants was smaller than usual, though it did not detract from an excellent performance by Edward Frewin to claim first place with 38 points. Second on count back with 35 points was Sandy Lyons who was ahead of Tim Tannant who took third place.

On the Tuesday Minehead Seniors played a match at Burnham & Berrow Golf Club which resulted in a 5.5/0.5 win for the home club. On the following day the seniors were at home to Enmore Park Golf Club and managed a good result by winning 5.0/1.0.

Yet another qualifier Stableford was played on the Friday. Taking advantage of the benign conditions early on, Malcolm Bruce continued to hone his unique putting skills anywhere from 100 yards to score a superb 43 points. In second place with 40 points was Andrew Coward while Mike O’Keefe continued his good run of form with 39 to claim third place.

On the Saturday, golfers from the Enmore Park club made a second return to Minehead, this time for a men’s match. In a close encounter the result was a 3-3 draw, which was celebrated by both sides in the clubhouse after the match.