IT’S glorious June and the golf season is probably at its best during the summer months.

Countless golfers will go to their local club, play a round of golf with friends, enjoy some social time, have a drink and a chat and then head for home after a thoroughly pleasant day.

But, at its heart golf is a competitive game, and majority of golfers relish the challenge of a competition, or playing against another club.

This month alone, the Downes GC competition diary lists 22 events. There’s everything from medals and stableford competitions, team games, friendlies and league matches.

June is also the month of the club championships. These take place for the seniors section, the ladies section, and the men’s club championship. All played over two rounds.

Players of all ages and abilities are able to take part in these competitions because of the handicap system.

This allows players of different skill levels to compete fairly. It represents a golfer's potential playing ability, and is calculated based on their past scores, adjusted for course difficulty.

The system ensures that players with higher handicaps (maybe less experienced players, or possibly older players) receive strokes to offset their scores against those with lower handicaps.

For example, in the men’s club championship, several players with a handicap of over 30 compete fairly with players whose handicaps are two or less.

The winners of these competitions are divided into two categories. Category one is actual or gross score. Category two is the handicap score where players record the number of shots they played, and then deduct their playing handicap. It makes the game very inclusive and fair.

Downes Crediton has a strong seniors section. To qualify to play in this group you must be 55 years old. Downes is fortunate to have a large section of members ranging from 55 upwards including a good number of octogenarians and some pretty active nonagenarians!

The seniors section championships were played on June 9 and 16. The seniors club champion (gross score) was Martín Garnsey with two rounds of 69 and total of 138. A super score, well done Martin . The net/handicap winner was Gerry Hodder.

The ladies section championships were played on Thursday, June 19 and Saturday, June 21. Given the weather this last week, the ladies had little recovery time between their rounds.

The ladies championship golfer this year is Ying Wong (gross score), in second place was Lyn Parry. The handicap winner was Fran Shrubsole.

Well done to all the ladies who took part in this year’s championship.

There was extra excitement for the ladies when a hole-in-one was scored on the pretty 13th hole. Well done Shirley!

Finally to the men’s championship, which took place on June 14 and 21 with over 60 competitors, and was a very close contest.

The winner of the scratch/gross competition, and now the Downes club champion, was Dan Brown with and overall score of 142.

The winner of the net competition was Tommy Carter, with a handicap score of 135. Again very well done to all who took part in these events.

A final footnote for this week. The winner of the men’s handicap competition is presented with a trophy called the Buller Bowl.

We shall find out more about this next week!

Mike Palmer