Having secured their place at this prestigious competition the Gaudet Luce trio of Teddy Fee, George Stephens, and Harry Evans arrived at Woodhall Spa for their practice round in good spirits; they soon learned that the Bracken Course, with its narrow fairways, unforgiving rough and undulating fast greens would prove a stiff test of their golfing abilities.  The competition was a Stableford competition with the 2 best scores counting on each of the two days.

The first day saw George lead off the team with a booming drive down the first, he set a blistering pace through the first 4 holes; however, the course soon started to bite back with George managing to play steady golf for the rest of his round scoring a solid 33 points. Next out was Harry who couldn’t recreate his form from the practice round on the front nine – he did however recover well to score 20 points on the back nine bringing in a respectable 32 points. Teddy Fee was last out; his consistent driving and solid approach play, as he battled the baking greens and the hottest of the day’s temperatures, allowed him to secure an outstanding 38 points. This left the team on 71 points tied 8^th on the day – 7 points behind Ludlow. The boys felt they were in with a chance but knew it would be tough.
Day 2 saw the boys going out in the same order with temperatures even hotter than the day before.  The rock-hard fairways meant the drives were running on, often finding the rough or bunkers that appeared to be out of range. The tricky pin placements and the freshening breeze provided even more of a challenge and all three battled hard through their rounds. George’s 30 points were the first score closely followed by Harry who sunk a 20’ putt on the 18^th to post an excellent 35 points. There then followed a long wait for Teddy – but it was worth it – Teddy had played some of the best golf seen on the day – his 43 points were quite simply outstanding. His birdie on the SI 4, par 3, 16^th was one of the highlights with most players relieved to walk off with a par. Once Teddy’s score had been processed the scoreboards updated to show they were the clubhouse leaders.
There then followed an even longer, and more anxious, wait for the final groups to come in. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be on this occasion with Westridge, from the Isle of Wight, matching Gaudet’s 78 points but having scored 72 points on day one the trophy was theirs by a single point.
Despite their disappointment, the boys stayed on to see the presentation before starting on the long journey home.
Thanks go to Worcestershire County Golf, Gaudet Luce in particular Mark Hewlett, for their support, and to Ian Griffiths for making all the arrangements for the trip.