Team Engelbrecht claim one point win in inaugural Ryder Cup event at Al Hamra Golf Club
Last weekend saw the Inaugural Ryder Cup event take place at Al Hamra Golf Club which saw two teams of members battle it our over two days of competition. Later named the ‘Champions Challenge Cup’ the event consisted of two teams of 12 making up 6 Fourball matches on day one, followed by 12 Singles matches on day two. The two teams were selected by Al Hamra’s two current Club Champions Rita Engelbrecht and Steve Rayment who had the difficult task of pairing up their players accordingly in order to try and get the best possible results. Team spirit and positivity was of the upmost importance and the two captains even chose their team colours for the event, Steve chose his Sunday best yellow or ‘Custard Tart’ shirt for his team while Rita went for a much more sociable white. Along with the obvious main team prize there were also some individual prizes up for grabs which were kindly sponsored by Steve and Rita. Prizes would be awarded for the best team and individual result from each team, along with four nearest the pin prizes over both days.
Day One, and time for the Fourballs. 6 pairs from each team teed of against each other early Friday afternoon in a bid to try and get as many early points on the board as possible. With some exciting matches on the cards Team Engelbrecht made the most of the first day with 3 wins and 2 halved matches, giving them a score total of 4 points for day one. On the other side Team Rayment only managed one win thanks to the duo of Mohammed Darwish and Karl Rowe and the 2 halves to give them a score total of 2 points. This meant that it would be 4 points to 2 going into the second day and leaving a lot of extra work for Team Rayment to do.
Day Two, and time for the Singles. 12 Individual matches got under away Saturday afternoon in perfect golfing conditions and again with some awesome pairings out there it was surely going to be a close finish come the end of play. With Team Rayment needing 7 ½ points to win and Team Engelbrecht only needing 5 ½ all of the pressure was on Steve’s team to perform and win the trophy. Team Rayment got of to a great start with two wins and a half in the first three matches, this meant the 2 point deficit was gone, and it was down to the last 9 matches to battle it out and win the trophy for their captain. The next few games were very close with both teams picking up points equally, but by the 9th match it was all over, Otto Hoefer managed to ease past Mike Morgan with a winning score of 7up. This turned out to be enough to win the match for Team Engelbrecht on a winning total of 9 ½ points enough to beat Team Rayment by one as they finished with 8 ½ after the small consolation of winning the final 3 matches.
Overall it was a great weekend had by all where members showed their true team spirit and support capped of by great captaincy from Steve Rayment and Rita Engelbrecht. This will surely be a great event to continue over the years to come.
