Annodata 1st Round 2023 Vs Ilfracombe

On Saturday the 13th May RND played their 1st round of the Annodata matchplay competition against Ilfracombe golf club, with the sun shining and the course in great condition it was a great day to be out on the links.

First off was match captain Mike Colwill who got off to a good start going 1up down the first and 2up after a birdie at four, after losing the sixth hole to a birdie managed to win the seventh to get back to 2up, the ninth and tenth hole went to Ilfracombe to take the match all square, Then after losing thirteen to and birdie and fourteen to par Mike found himself 2down then won 16 to get back to 1down after halving 17 it was looking like he needed a birdie down 18 to halve the match, both players hit the green in two and Ilfracombe managed to win their 1st point when 18 was halved!

Second off was RND’s Josh Taylor who’s match was a very competitive encounter with very few mistakes from either of them. After having two birdies on the front nine and being two over par, Josh somehow found himself two down at the turn. They went back and forth with wins between holes 10 to 13, and then he managed to dial in the approach play which helped him win the next four and end the match on the 17th with a 2&1 victory, which secured RND there 1st point.

Third out for us was an in form Bob Colwill who started the match off strong by winning the first 2 holes, his opponent then had a 2 on the 5th to pull one back. Bob then won the 6th and 7th with pars and then hit the shot of day into the 8th for a tap in birdie to go 4 up. His opponent birdied 11 to get one back for Ilfracombe but shortly after that Bob birdied 13 to regain his 4up lead, Ilfracombe managed to win the 14th after a great tee shot but after halving 15 and 16 Bob secured a 3&2 win for the home team.

Fourth off was Gary Fisher for the home side,Gary was two over par for first 6 holes and with his opponent struggling he found himself 4up at this point, then Ilfracombe managed to win a few holes through 7,8 and 9 to make Garys advantage 2up after the front nine, Then Gary got back on track and was level par for 10, 11, 12, to be 3 up. He then held onto that lead through to the 16th where after missing the green he got up and down to finish his game with a 4&2 victory

Last out for RND was Shaun Loze his opponent quickly raced into a 3 hole lead after 6 with some excellent play and after Shaun managed to win 9 to make the turn 2 down his opponent then went and birdied 10 to regain his 3 hole advantage, Shaun dug deep and managed to win 11,12 and 13 to claw the game back to all square but after Ilfracombe won 14 and 15 Shaun had to dig deep once again and managed to win 16 and 17, a scrambled bogey down the last was enough to secure the win for RND.

This was a fantastic result for RND winning 4-1 to a very good Ilfracombe team who have knocked us out the competition in the previous two years and they even went all the way to Spain in 2021 and won the entire tournament so to get the win and go through to the next round is amazing.

Match Captain Mike Colwill