“We recently had a July golf break at the Manor House Golf Club, Castle Combe, located near Bath. The eight of us are all members of Hill Top Golf Course in Birmingham, James McFarlane, Keith Pedley, Mark Gullick, Joe Farrell, Kevin Bradley, Terry Bansall, Roy Gurmakh and Carl Pedley (myself)
Our groups have attended this trip for the last 10 years as it always has the best facilities for the price, the current deal is £99 for two rounds of golf, overnight stay in the Waterfall Lodge with breakfast and evening meal. The course is always in peak condition with the ever-changing pin positions always a test for any standard of golfer.
During last year’s trip, we arrived at the par-four 8th hole which is named ‘Stepping Stones’ and is 276 yards in length. We all took out our drivers as we had a competition for nearest the pin in two. One of the teams (James) landed it to within eight feet and sank his putt to card an impressive eagle, five Stableford points and most importantly he took the money too.
This year, as we approached this impressive hole James had it ringing in his ears about last year’s success and how he’ll fare this time, whilst being reminded of the added pressure of the nearest the pin bonus.
As this is a courtesy hole, half of our group were positioned greenside and waved the rest through. Three attempted the green, but all came short. Last but not least James took his turn and to everyone’s amazement his drive landed short of the green and with two bounces and a short roll it sank!!! Everyone went crazy and to make this achievement even more amazing the group had a fourball behind them that contained the owner of the Exclusive Hotels Group (including Manor House) who only plays here around three times a year.
After the round, we all got together in the clubhouse and we were greeted by the owner again who wanted to congratulate James by offering him and his wife a nights stay at the hotel at a later date.”
