NOTEBOOK By Ron Kent
Interesting characters A nice thing about golf is the number of places you go to and the people you meet, which you would not otherwise. One such for me was when the Seniors’ team travelled over to the Isle of Wight for the Southern Counties Foursomes final at Sandown. We played Kent in the morning and I was kindly offered a lift on a buggy, by one of the Kent officials. He turned out to be one of their best senior golfers in recent years, sidelined on this occasion by a knee problem. It was Dave Jessop, whose name will be familiar to motor-cycle enthusiasts everywhere. Since his retirement from competitive motor-cycling, Dave has devoted himself to golf and has been a regular member of the highly successful Kent Seniors team in recent years. He regularly goes down to South Africa in the winter and plays on the “Seniors Tour” there.
Dave Jessop tends the flag
To his credit, he did not set out to bore me with details of his motor-cycling career, but I was intrigued to find out a bit about him when I got back to Bury St Edmunds. Born in Ipswich, he had a glittering career, perhaps reaching the pinnacle in 1980 when he finished runner-up in the World Speedway Championship at Goteborg, Sweden and won the British and Commonwealth Championships in the same year. On three occasions he was a member of the World Team Cup winners.
Dave rode for a number of clubs including King’s Lynn Stars in 1979-81 and Mildenhall Fen Tigers in 1986-87 in East Anglia. As one would expect, Dave is strongly competitive about his golf and, although unable to play, was much in evidence at the Seniors Foursomes event where I enjoyed his company. Surprising where golf sometimes takes you.
Foursomes Golf It was disappointing as much for County officials as it was for the small number of pairs which entered, that the County Junior Foursomes had to be cancelled through lack of support. It should have taken place during the recent half-term holiday but with just 17 pairs, the time and expense could not be justified. The event has struggled for several years despite valiant attempts to keep it going. The reasons why it bit the dust could be twofold at least. 1. Once the bastion of inter-County golf, few golfers play foursomes golf these days. Why is that? Well, I would suggest it has much to do with television’s pursuit of individual performance in national and international events, showing leaderboards several shots under par. Except for Ryder Cup matches, foursomes golf is never shown and, in truth, there are few, if any, foursomes championships at top level to show anyway. Another reason may be the number of individual stroke play competitions available these days to junior golfers. Looking at the junior fixture list for 2014, it is extensive and exhausting and, maybe, there is neither the time nor the energy to play foursomes as well.
Technology takes off Finally, I noticed a piece in our local freebie newspaper about a new initiative by Ian Duncan, former Captain at Stowmarket, who set-up clubnoticeboard.co.uk, the basis for several of the club websites here in Suffolk and beyond. It reports that Ian, with Fairway Flyovers, has developed aerial photography of golf courses for clubs to use on their websites. Ian’s partners have invested in a remote controlled “quadcopter” to provide the filming for inclusion on club websites, the theory being that “stunning imagery is the way forward for golf club websites”. Anyone interested should contact Ian direct on 01359 244537. 5