Royal Epping Forest Golf Club

Saberi Spoons – Another Fantastic Day for Dreamflight.

A huge thank you to everyone who supported Saberi Spoons Texas Scramble yesterday. What an excellent day it turned out to be, with great golf, plenty of birdies and, most importantly, a fantastic amount raised for a very special cause.

Originally held in memory of past member Ron Saberi, Saberi Spoons has evolved into an annual event supporting Dreamflight, the charity that gives children with serious illnesses or disabilities the opportunity to enjoy a holiday of a lifetime.

Dreamflight offers these young people something incredibly valuable – the chance to experience independence, build confidence, make new friends and discover what they are capable of. For many, it can be a genuinely life-changing experience.

And thanks to the generosity of everyone involved, yesterday's event raised an incredible £1,645.
Even more impressively, this brings the total raised for Dreamflight through Saberi Spoons to an amazing £4,515.

That is a fantastic achievement and something everyone who has played, donated or helped support the event can be very proud of. Thank you all once again for making Saberi Spoons such a success and for helping to make a real difference to these young people's lives.

The Golf
There were some excellent scores on the day, but the winners were in a class of their own.

3rd place – Lee Francis, Major Sundhu, Simon Bell & Paivi Mantyla. Gross 62 | Net 52.9 (back 9: 33)

2nd –place Terry Rymer, Don Johnson, Alan Alvey & Peter Lawrence. Gross 65 | Net 52.9 (back 9: 32)

With an astonishing 14 birdies and just four pars, the winning team recorded a gross 58 and net 51.6 – George Sharpe, Duncan Sharpe, Martin Tettmar & Tracy Sharpe.

Congratulations to all the winners – and well done to everyone who took part.

A great day's golf, a great atmosphere and, above all, a great result for Dreamflight.

The Poppy Appeal proved to be a wonderful way to close out the year. With 53 entries, a total of £159 was raised for the Royal British Legion.

A special mention goes to Päivi Mäntylä, whose tireless fundraising efforts deserve huge applause. There’s truly no escaping her when she’s on a mission for a good cause! Through the “Guess the Number of Titleist Balls in the Box” competition, Päivi raised an incredible £435 for the RBL.

The lucky winners each received a bag of 2nd chance Titleist balls — a well-earned prize for a great cause.

The total received in entry fees and contributions from members was a staggering £594.

Credit to the image by The T-Shirt Company.

After our annual AGM we had the Drive-In and Putt out. Linda Woods completed her term of office by putting out. Having putted the first putt some 6 feet past the hole managed to hole out with the return.

Next up—the Main Event. Our new Club Captain, Steve Cooper, kicked off his year with the traditional Drive-In. Everything was prepared perfectly: a dummy ball perched on a tall pile of sand. There could only be one result—a spectacular explosion of sand and mud, with the ball barely moving an inch.
Then came the real attempt, same setup, but this time with a genuine ball. Unfortunately, the result was much the same! While most people might have been mortified, Steve, true to form, handled it with plenty of good humour.

On behalf of ALL club members, we wish him well in his year of office.

A Big Weekend for the Club!
Last Friday we enjoyed the annual Past Captain’s Dinner, always a great evening to catch up and celebrate the year gone by. The dinner precedes the AGM to be held this coming Friday, where members vote in our new Club Captain.
On Sunday, the celebrations continue with the Captain’s Drive-In — a fantastic way to kick off the new captain’s year.
A huge congratulations to Steve Cooper, our Club Captain elect! We wish you all the best for the year ahead.
And a special shout must go to Dudley Barker, who played in the Past Captains’ round of golf before the dinner and returned a brilliant 42 points — well done, Dudley!

Sunday saw the ladies play in the national final of the NAPGC Whitewebbs Trophy at Winter Hill GC near Cookham.
Two 4BBB pairs entered a total 75 points, finishing in 3rd place.

But there was only a three point difference with the winners Huntswood on 78 followed by Plymouth on 76 REFGC on 75 and Warley Woods on 69 points.
Well done for getting there
Linda Woods
Tracey Sharpe
Paivi Mantyla
Sarah Cooper.

The course is closed daily up till 14:00 from today (Monday) through to Thursday this week as the Corporation carry out essential seasonal maintenance.

Saturday saw our Captains' Day event in really glorious weather. Not many pics of the day but everyone had a really good time, which went on late into the evening.
What a truly fantastic day it was. From start to finish everything seemed to run smoothly.
There were a few comments about speed of play but other than that everyone looked to be having a good time.
This was made possible by our helpers starting with Thelma Edwards, at the registration table. As organised as ever with our scorecards prepared that would put German efficiency to the test.
Brian Sinden who was our starter for the day. Not only that but he helped out by bringing the drinks, table and, chairs back.
Sue Taylor and Lisa Chinnery on the halfway house with enough cake on offer to feed half of Chingford.
Our wonderful bar staff who kept the queues down and the table clear of glasses. Sue, Alice B, Alice J, Jack
Matt Hartnell & Steve Cooper for wrestling with the halfway tent and replacing our club flags at the end of the day with the CoL flags and putting out all the NP and longest drive markers.
Finally, the food. Andy Shaw provided a fantastic feast. There was next to no queuing for food which was plentiful and varied. All in all a great day made possible by our helpers, staff and volunteers.
Now the results for the day
Alan Higgs - Winner (Best Back 9) Louis Pereira
Nearest Pin - 3rd Tom Dallender
Nearest Pin - 7th Paul Lovney
Nearest Pin - 13th John Crafer
Nearest Pin (In 2) - 12th Steve Herber
Nearest Pin (In 3) - 17th (Ladies) Linda Woods
Nearest the Line 15th Mark Dennant
Longest Drive Men - Tom Dallender
Longest Drive Ladies - Linda Woods
Guest Winner - Sadeem Abutrab
Guest Runner Up - Stean Pennicott
Guest Third Place - David Woods
Ladies Winner. - Tracy Sharpe **and Lady Captains Salver Winner
Ladies Runner Up - Paivi Mantyla
Ladies Third Place - Andrea Keeble
Cat 3 Winner - Louise Pereira
Cat 3 Runner Up - Dave Edwards
Cat 3 Third Place - Richard Ahlstedt
Cat 2 Winner - Pav Latif
Cat 2 Runner Up - Martin Hacker
Cat 2 Third Place - Bob Taylor
Cat 1 Winner - Tom Dallender
Cat 1 Runner Up - Luke Randall
Cat 1 Third Place - Jason Arnold
Overall Winner - Tom Dallender - Winner of the Captains Chalice

Our annual REFGC Vets Masters was held at our regular venue The Epping Golf Club. The normal start to proceedings being the obligatory bacon roll and coffee before tee off. The Vets Captain Dudley Barker led the matches out for what was to be a high scoring round for some.
Nigel Reynolds secured the win though with 41 points, with a number of 40 points hot on his tail.

On top of that we had the longest Drive - Pav Latif, Nearest the pins on 2 Terry Playle, 7 John Maloney, 10 Dave Edwards, 12 Terry Playle, 17 Duncan Mitchell.

Prior to the presentations we finished off with the standard golfers fayre of ham egg and chips.

A great day out and well organised as always by Murray Lawton-Dauie.