HowDidiDo Qualifiers for Portugal in February

Throughout the past Golf season, across the UK, golfers have been battling it out to qualify for the finals of the HowDidiDo National Matchplay Championships, to be held in the Portugal next February. The last stages of qualifying happened throughout October and below are a list of those who will be jetting out for some winter sun and golf next year.

Singles
Chris Wall from Middlesbrough
Karl Worsley from Bury
Patrick Goffin from Gorleston
Arun Ganatra from Whipsnade Park

Mixed Pairs
Robert Stewart and Karen Bissell from Torvean
Kimberley Vardy and  Kevin Vardy from Retford
Jane Lee and Andy Rogers from Fingle Glen
Yvonne Brown and Brian Medlam from Broadstone

Pairs
Brian Neil and Barry Bloomer from Bishop Auckland
Robert Brown and Brian Williamson from Kingsknowe.
Richard Cooper and Andrew Newby from Wakefield Woodthorpe.
Steve Roberts and Mike Anderson from Mellor and Townscliffe.
Keith Finlay and Mark Turner from Camberley Heath.
Peter Shore and Ross Ranson from Crondon Park

Senior Pairs
David McNeill and Dennis Wright from Billingham
Stephen Rayer and Martyn Harris from Tytherington
Brett Halling-Brown and Stephen O'Connell from Mendip, Burnham and Berrow
Steve Bowler and Pete Lyons from Cottesmore

OUT OF WORK EAST KILBRIDE GREENKEEPER WINS ELECTRIC TROLLEY
An unemployed greenkeeper from East Kilbride has won the inaugural HowDidiDo Golf Monthly order of merit. And a PowaKaddy sport electric trolley is winging its way to Scotland as his reward.
The competition was open to all amateur golfers whose handicaps are listed at HowDidiDo – Europe’s largest golfing community – and was aimed at the thousands of regular golfers in the UK and Ireland who compete in medal competitions and enjoy benchmarking their game against friends and fellow golfers.
It ran from August 1 to October 31, and the placings were determined by each player’s three best medal rounds at their own club during that period, with the scores worked out on best net differential to ensure a level playing field regardless of the difficulty of the individual courses.
And Playsport Golf’s Michael Wilson, emerged as the competition’s overall winner, just 34 points ahead of his nearest rival.
Understandably, the 23-year-old was delighted – and a little shocked – with his success.
The eight-handicapper said: “I hadn’t been checking it so I was really surprised. I was still checking my medal rounds but not the order of merit leaderboard.
“It was only when a lady at my club showed me that I knew – and I was over the moon. My family are really pleased for me as well. I don’t know if we’ll be celebrating at the club, but I have seen they’ve put up a notice on the club website.”
Rathbane Golf Club’s Patricia Costello emerged victorious in the ladies’ section to win a pair of FootJoy My Joys golf shoes, two-dozen Titleist proV1 balls and a Titleist StaDry waterproof stand bag. She scored 3,672 points to beat her nearest rival, Claire Ross, from Tain GC in Ross-shire, by just 21 points.
The 42-year-old home help said: “My friends started texting me saying ‘congratulations’ and I was asking ‘for what?’. They had seen it on the HowDidiDo website. I was absolutely stunned. I can’t believe it.
“My own club is so happy too. Several of the men had also entered and they have been in touch too. They knew more about it that me. I never expected to do well as there were so many people involved.
“It’s a tremendous concept – even just to be able to judge yourself against other players from other clubs is great.”
Costello started playing just two years ago – when her family presented her with a set of clubs, a pair of golf shoes and a bag for her 40th birthday. And now she plays off 11!
HowDidiDo’s managing director, Barry Dyett, said: “The response to our first order-of-merit competition was phenomenal and it has been a real pleasure to contact all our winners – congratulations to all of them.
“There appears to be a real desire for this type of competition at the grass-roots level of the game and I believe there is a great future for the HowDidiDo Golf Monthly order of merit.”
Michael Harris, the editor of Golf Monthly, added: “Golf Monthly was delighted to partner HowDidiDo in launching the order of merit in 2011. I was confident the concept would capture the imagination of UK and Irish club golfers but I could never have predicted more than 11,000 of them would have participated in its first year.