In it’s 92 year history the OGGS has a good number of anecdotes, of glory, of failure, and of glorious failure …a new story can be added to the folklore after today as a young team with an average age of less than 30 and an average handicap less than 5 met at a sun-baked Denham and attempted to qualify for Grafton Morrish finals, alongside 14 other 6-man teams including some big names in Public Schools golf such as former Hewitt winners Malvern, Oundle, Bradfield and Clifton.
The Leader brothers (Ruaraidh and Robert) were a natural 1st pair and made a confident start. They were followed by the experience of John Boulter (making a welcome return to OGGS colours after a horrible knee injury) partnering Cameron Grieve, fresh from a recent Hewitt debut. At that point and with the clock ticking there was no sign of Karl Frey, a last minute addition to the team having declared late availability and benefitted from the gracious self-withdrawal of Captain Elect (Niall Booker) who was content to rest. Keeping with the ‘last minute’ theme Karl messaged half an hour before our allotted tee times to note that he was running a little late and could he possibly be in our 3rd pair and hitting at the evens …. As the 1.20 time approached there was still no sign of our illustrious Oxford Blue , and non-playing team captain Willie White was looking increasingly stressed at the thought of having to actually play!
As debutant Thomas Roynon Brown displayed veteran skills in expertly running the clock down for as long as possible before launching a perfect drive down the 1st fairway, Willie looked at his watch, shrugged his shoulders, tied his golf shoes and wandered down the fairway, shaking his head as it appeared an afternoon on the course, not the bar, beckoned. He pondered a practice swing and again looked at his watch in disbelief, when from the trees and looking relaxed and nonchalant appeared our 6th man, Karl Frey having abandoned his car by the first green and strolled up to play the second shot of the Glenalmond 3rd pair…. as promised. Never has timing of an appearance been more finely judged and so the OGGS six were off.. with Karl giving a thumbs-up and effortlessly launching a wedge to 5 feet.
At this point, this OGGS team were either going to tear it up and write their own place in the history books by easing to one of the qualifying places or conversely to tear up their cards….. regrettably, it was closer to the latter, and luck was not with our team. With the 2nd pair victims of an unfortunate wrong-ball incident the Glenalmond team finished 14th on the day.
Looking for positives, this was a young team, and foursomes stroke play/stableford is a challenging format where experience helps, especially on a fast running, sun baked course where fairways and greens are vital. This group with at least 2 likely long term Hewitt players will only keep learning!
In the meantime, the southern exiles of the OGGS continue to gain momentum and look forward to a few more outings over the summer – all of which are on the excellent OGGS website and ready for sign-ups !
W. White
