Captains' League trial

The New Year has brought changes at the Royal Malta Golf Club. On the competition front, an experiment was carried out for Round Four of the Captains' League. Everyone was asked to tee off from the 1st tee on Saturday morning instead of the usual Thursday and Saturday morning starts.

The idea behind this is to give everyone an equal chance under the same conditions, and it also allows those who wish to have a lie in bed take a later tee time.

The downside is that the club loses the social aspect of everyone finishing together and having a drink while results are announced.

The jury is still out on the future of this format, with the Captain's committee shortly to discuss the matter and maybe extend the trials to other competitions.

Warren Allcock had the best score on the day with 40 stableford points playing off a handicap of 3, which really is very good golf.

Runner-up was senior member John Earland. He scored a creditable 39 stableford points.

On the team front, Kim Borg's side is leading with 708 points, followed by Victor Satariano (698), David Ellis (691), John Lewis (683), Tony Bonello (682), William Beck (666) and Paul Stoner (658).

With three rounds to go, any of four or five teams could still win the overall competition.

The club also reverted to 1st tee bookings only, and this is welcomed by the majority of members as it means that they will no longer encounter long waits half-way through their round as people start from the 10th tee.

There are also more tee times being dedicated for members, which is also very welcome, as is the fact that visitors now have to produce a handicap certificate. This, in theory, means that all visitors should be fairly competent golfers.

The DAB monthly medal was played between January 11 and 13.

Roman Vella had one of those days that occur once every so often. He had a gross 82, which is a net 62 after deducting his handicap. This is a terrific score and with it he won the Third Division and the overall best net score.

If that were not enough, he also had a hole in one, a feat most of us do not accomplish in a lifetime. It cost him a round of drinks for everyone, but he won a lot of golf balls, as well as many boxes of DAB beer.

All the DAB medal results were:

Division One: 1. John Lewis (net 65), 2. Hans Proell (66).

Division Two: 1. Patrick Carey (67), 2. Tom Richardson (67).

Division Three: 1. Roman Vella (62), 2. Edwin Busuttil (65).

On December 14, the Ladies Section held the Oliver Weber competition, sponsored by Katie Blake. Eva Helzen was the winner with Jenny Scicluna the runner-up.

January 18 saw the ladies holding another competition sponsored by Brn Kennard, of Bodyworks. This was won by Lilian Field with Judy Ryan runner-up. The prizes for nearest the pin and longest drive were won by Kay Chopping and Joanna Cassar respectively.