Neil Mulholland Racing - Golf Day 2023

Six teams of owners and others connected with the stables got together on Friday 15^th September to compete in the 2023 edition of the Neil Mulholland Racing Golf Day and several owners took the opportunity to pop in at the stables to see their horses before making their way to Cumberwell Park to hit the fairways.

As always, the team at Cumberwell Park gave the group and warm welcome and there was time to socialise and enjoy a bacon roll and tea or coffee in the clubhouse before the first group was due on the tee.

With four loops of nine holes at Cumberwell, this year we took on the Blue and Orange nines and the hills and warm weather made it a tough walk for those who did not reserve a buggy for themselves!

Thankfully for all concerned, Neil accompanied by owners Richard Flower and Mike Burbidge had hired their own buggy which was stacked full of cold drinks and chocolate bars and they were available to regularly provide each group with a boost on the course.

It was the winners for the last two years who led off the six groups Captained by Dan who was joined by Dave Fear, Michael Blake and Adrian James, event organiser Phil Boyle, was next out with Bob Bunch and Fiona Cox and they were followed by the Fighting Chance Syndicate team led by Kevin Slocombe with his teammates Martyn Starnes, Courtney Walsh and Sam Kotadia.

Event regulars, Philip Dicks, Jeff King, Steve Knight and Alan Painter formed the next group followed round by Steve Bristow and his team of Pete Carter, Dan Penhale and Jamie Bryant and last out was the stables team with Mick Deedy, Tony Hester, Bryan Carver and Tom Pirie.

With the best two scores counting on each hole, Phil’s team was at a big disadvantage with only three players and with two of their number departing after nine holes, the same applied to the Fighting Chance team.

So it proved with these teams filling the last two spots on the final leaderboard with scores of 54 and 60 respectively.

Taking 4^th place with 72 was Steve Bristow's team and Philip Dicks' team was 3^rd with a score of 76.

The stable team recorded a very creditable 91 which would have been enough to win many similar events but there was to be no denying the hat-trick for our two-time winners who used their “home advantage” (with Michael and Adrian regular players at Cumberwell) to great effect with an excellent 96 points.

The longest drive competition was won by Pete Carter and Fiona Cox took the nearest-the-pin prize after a fine drive on the par three last hole.

Once the prizes were dished out by Phil, the teams said goodbye for another year and headed for their respective homes and Neil headed back to Conkwell Lodge to prepare for the arrival of 300 National Racehorse Week visitors the following morning!