All 37 players teed off just after 9.00am in a shotgun start and the weather stayed kind for almost the entire round — a short sharp shower tested our wet weather skills, but it soon passed and we were all dry again by the time we finished.
Bearing in mind our aim was to raise funds for the Adrien Monnoyeur Junior Golf Academy it was good to see a few of the Juniors enter the competition. Seven-year-old Enzo played alongside Jan Joullié, Guillaume Monnoyeur and David Slaven in his first grown-ups competition — he won two leather golf gloves specially made for juniors.
Other juniors were the Coleman brothers, Louis and George. I had the privilege of playing alongside George and his attitude and behaviour on the course was a breath of fresh air. At only 11-years old the future of golf is in safe hands if our juniors play and behave like George. The best score of the day came from a junior — Alexis St-Jean who played alongside Gérald Rousse and Nick Trantom scored an impressive 43 points. It was a strong three-ball as Gérald and Nick both scored 38 points.
The Ladies section scores were not far behind with Marlène Desimpelaere and Lucy Hole scoring 34 points, while last year's winner, Diane Slaven came in with 37 points to take first prize.
There were four Nearest the Pin prizes. Reg Hole won two of them (2nd and 10th) and Jean-René Vidaud was only 62 centimetres from a hole in one on the 16th. Amazingly nobody managed to put a ball on the green on the 4th.
The overall winner on the day was Jean-Marc Doré, Pallanne's Capitaine des Jeux and an enthusiastic Musketeer. He scored 39 points to take the perpetual trophy. The Musketeers Charity Day Trophy is an historic hickory-shafted 'brassie' mounted on a beautiful wooden backboard. It will soon be a feature in the Clubhouse with the names of the first two champions engraved on it for posterity.
One of the most exciting parts of the Charity Day is the auction. This year Musketeers had been particularly generous — we were given a set of golf clubs, private air flights, a bottle of vintage 1970 port, a couple of golf drivers, a brand new Ping Scottsdale putter, signed gloves and photographs from Colin Montgomerie, signed books, a historic one-iron from the 1920s, four sets of green fees from nearby golf clubs, a range finder, buckets of lake balls, bottles of wine and much more. Bidding was fast and furious and we managed to raise more than 2,000€. There are several donations still on their way to us and once all the accounts are finalised we should be handing over more than 2,500€ — double last year's amount.
A huge thank you to the donors, the bidders, the helpers on the day and a very special thank you to Miguel for his generous contributions to the auction lots — he even bought one of the lots he had donated!
Well done to all who contributed to a great day — the Musketeers can be proud of their efforts to promote junior golf.