Top 5 Finish For School At British Schools and Colleges Final
In what was a huge build up to this years British Schools and Colleges finals we were very confident in going out there and bringing back the trophy. After 15 long rounds of qualifying the team was picked and we were satisfied that we were taking the best team possible to represent the school at the national finals. With all of the team showing great form in the lead up to the event we had every reason to believe it was going to be our year.
The event was to be played over 36 holes at the very prestigious Forest of Arden course in Birmingham. The first round was to be played on the Aylesford Course with the second to be played on the Arden Championship Course. It was a 4 man team with the 3 best scores to count each day.
After pretty smooth travel arrangements on the Tuesday morning we arrived at the Marriott hotel mid morning which was situated on site at the golf course. After a nice leisurely walk around the front 9 holes of the Arden Course we made our way into the clubhouse to have lunch. After lunch we then proceeded to play a practice round on the Aylesford course which was the course where the first 18 holes of the event where to take place. The practice round enabled the boys to have the opportunity to take notes on the course and to prepare fully for the first days play.
After a nice relaxing breakfast on the Wednesday morning the boys made their way to the practice area in preparation for their tee time at 10.30am. The first of the boys to tee off was Sean Dimmick followed by Brendan Lawlor, Joseph O'Neill and Aaron Lennie. Conditions were a lot tougher than to be expected with a strong wind blowing throughout the day. Through the front 9 holes the boys were playing some solid golf with the best of the scores coming from Joseph through 9 holes. With just 4 holes left to play Sean, Brendan and Joseph found themselves well in contention with good scores on the horizon. A good finish was required if we wanted to be leading after day one. However a disappointing finish to their rounds seen the team sitting just 1 shot behind the leaders going into the final day.
The final round was to be played on the Arden Championship course where we found ourselves at the other end of the draw and teeing off early morning. It presented an entirely different challenge with the Arden course playing well over 1000 yards longer than the Aylesford course we played the previous day as well as a much stronger wind to contend with. If we were to overtake the leaders and forge a gap at the top of the leaderboard before they teed off later in the day we needed each player on the team to play to their potential. Unfortunately on the day this was not the case and a few too many mistakes on the front 9 left the team with too much to do on the back 9 meaning we fell short in terms of where we felt we should have been. The two best scores over the 2 days came from Joseph O'Neill 71 (+1 Aylesford) and Sean Dimmick 73 (+2 Arden).
A lot of good play from the boys over the 2 days was enough to finish in an excellent 5th place out of 27 teams in the finals. There were plenty of positives to take out of the trip especially the way in which the boys conducted themselves throughout. They can be very proud of themselves both in their golf and their attitude and they certainly are a credit to the school. Well done boys!
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