The three Ws struck at Effingham on Friday – windy, warm and wet – making the rapid change of golf gear look like the action at Portrush in the Open. Dragged away from the television in the clubhouse, all the talk in the morning was whether Rory or Tiger would make the cut.
The friendly morning fourball, in which each team fielded one player off full handicap, resulted in an almost unbelievable range of scores.
The lowest two scores for each team of 10 are dropped in the fourball. In wet and windy conditions, with greens showing variable pace, the Bank of England posted 205, the lowest total for some years, and the LMEGA and the Stock Exchange posted 242, but the FOREX posted an impressive 275 with a highest score of only 37. That equals the record held by the LMEGA in 2018 but which then included a 41 and a 39. The range from highest to lowest of 70 points was also a record for the competition.
The afternoon round was a foursomes competition and in this the LMEGA did very well adding 143 points from their best four pairs, an average of about 36 points, but it wasn’t quite enough to catch the FOREX, who added 140 points to their morning total.
So the trophy goes away again after its brief sojourn in LMEGA hands.