Monday, February 18, 2008

Daly Cup Championship


Yesterday saw the 7th running of Cape Town's most prestigous golf challenge, the Daly Cup. It was held at Mowbray Golf & Country Club in somewhat blustery conditions. There was a 10 strong field boasting 3 former champions and a host of top 10 players from the Playroom Tour. Allenbrook was looking to make history and become the only player to win back-to-back Daly Cup Championships in the Open Era.

In the field were a few Daly Cup deutants. Shank Miles and the British Pro Alex Roy started in the star studded field, but the most notable debutant was The Name Thompson. The Name has just finished serving a 6 month Daly Cup Ban after being suspended for the second time late last year. Much hype had arisen on how the Name would cope with the pressure of a Daly Cup and the crowds were out in numbers to see him off the 1st.

The betting odds were released from Ladbrokes late on Saturday night and showed Allenbrook as slight favourite to repeat his last Daly Cup performance at 3-1, with Charton (A previous Daly Cup winner) a close second at 7-2. The Bookies bet was Sanderoff playing off an 18 (The Daly Cup maximum allowed Handicap) at 7-1.

It was Charton, Thompson and Roy who would get things underway. Charton and Roy both found the semi-rough off the first tee and it was then up to Thompson to get his Daly Cup carreer off to a start. The crowd waited with anticipation as the Name circled his bag, like a shark circling a surfer, deciding whether or not to take the driver. A groan went out as he produced a much safer iron and got ready to hit. Not a sound rang out around the grandstands as the Name stood over his ball. And...he banged it out of bounds. The crowd roared with aproval and the games were on.

The next three ball consisted of Shank Miles, Rhino van Niekerk and defending Daly Cup Champion, Dayne Allenbrook. They all managed to get off the tee without a problem. Following them was the final 4 ball of Charles Sanderoff, Tom Dawson-Squib, Tim Florence and Murray King.

The front 9 was a slow process, but on the whole rather uneventful after the Name's early antics, except for Charton's frequent outbursts in which he would issue a barage of abuse in every which direction to the great amusement of his playing partners. Shank raised his bat with an unimperssive 51 and was now just enjoying the sunshine. Allenbrook emerged the leader at the half way stage by two strokes with a rather good 39. He was trailed by Sanderoff and Dawson-Squibb. A further shot back was The Name who had made a good recovery to come in with a 42.

And so the Back 9 started, and with it, The Name's charge had ended, making a pair of double's at the 10th and 11th he saw his challenge go out the window. The media had been proved right and it was once again shown that you cant win a Daly Cup at your first attempt. So, Allenbrook stood at the 12th tee box with a 4 stroke lead and in reach of his 2nd Daly Cup victory.

The wind had now got up to close to Gale force speeds, making the golf almost impossible, and threw the chances of posting good scores out of the window. In the Last few holes Rhino van Niekerk made a late charge along with Dawson-Squibb and Sanderoff, while all the others fell away. D-S was only 1 shot back, while Rhino and Sanderoff were two back with only the Medal 18th to play. Dawson-Squibb blew out under the pressure while the other two could only manage double bogey 6's. Allenbrook made a par 4 on the 18th to grab his 2nd Daly Cup Victory by a record winning Margin of four strokes.

Leaderboard:
+ 2 Allenbrook
+ 6 van Niekerk
+ 6 Sanderoff
+ 7 Dawson-Squibb


Most Golf went to a disasterously out of form Jambles Charton who came in with the first N/R in Daly Cup history after picking up on the 18th.

A great day was had by all and the next Daly Cup will eagerly anticipated. Participants will be notified closer tothe time, after all applications have been recieved.

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