Perman Shield 2019 (First Round)

Highly regarded as one of most sought-after trophies in Kent Amateur team golf, the Perman Shield is open to all Kent golf clubs willing to put their best 8 players against another in scratch matchplay. The match play format is simple, 4 foursomes games in the morning, followed by 8 singles in the afternoon. If the end result is 6-6, the away team go through. You can swap players between formats, meaning that you can have 8 completely different players play in the singles, to the 8 players in the foursomes.

On the 25th May, Lamberhurst welcomed Chistlehurst GC. In 2018 Lamberhurst failed to field a side in an away version of this round, leading to a new Lamberhurst Perman team manager for the 2019 campaign.

I was pretty confident we were going to face a strong team, as their is a big catchment of good players in this part of Kent. Although clubs like Langley park, Sundridge park & Dartford GC usually attract the main core of young talented players, there is always room for good players off scratch looking to get into team golf at the smaller courses. There has been times where Sundridge‘s 8 man team, would have a combined handicap of +16.

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Team Selection

In the morning it was a simple team selection for Lamberhurst, we had all 4 of the Kent Scratch Foursomes players & 2 other pairs that were selected to compliment eachother. The order in which each team put their pairs out can be a bluff and double bluff game, trying to work out where the oppositions strongest pairs will be out.

Foursomes

Myself and Leigh were paired against a reasonably strong pairing, but around Lamberhurst we fancy ourselves against most. In the 5 years of foursomes, myself and Leigh have only lost 3 times, home or away. A quick bio on Leigh, a talented junior who went on to play Challenge Tour, before returning back to amateur. Without knowing the actual amount, I would guesstimate that Leigh has won the Lamberhurst Club Championship between 15 - 20 times. So he knows how to get it round Lamberhurst in a good number, shall we all just agree with that.

Myself and Leigh were off to a blistering start, hitting our first 3 approach shots inside 5 feet, 3up through 3. A poor 2nd and some suspect short game would lead Joel & Adam pegging us back to 2up through 4. The rest of the front 9, would not lead to any sparkling golf from myself and Leigh, but Lamberhurst was showing why local knowledge is so key. Myself and Leigh would also win the 10th, leading to 7up. A half on 11 & loss on 12 would see us 6up with six to play, a pair of birdies on the 13th would secure a 6&5 win. It was clear that myself and Leigh were the better pair on the day, but with Joel 20-30yds longer than anyone at Lamberhurst, he would be a handful in the singles.

Doc & Ben would secure their point early, which was to be expected being our other Kent Foursomes pairing. Chistlehurst would win the third point of the day, meaning the final game on the course had a big saying in moral going into the afternoon. At 3-1 down, Chistlehurst may go all guns blazing, but 2-2 would keep it very interesting and possibly cagey. The game would go down the 18th with Chistlehurst holding a one hole advantage. The Lamberhurst Birdie attempt would fail to find the bottom of the cup, leaving Chistlehurst two putts from 15ft to secure 2-2 at lunch. It would be the case and if I am honest, on paper 2-2 was a more than likely outcome. I say this as we had two recognized scratch pairs and two pairs that had potential to pick up a win.

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Lunch

Now came the lunch cat & mouse game, knowing we needed 4 1/2 points in the afternoon, we had a decision to make. Would Chistlehurst front load and put their best players out first, or would they sacrifice the first few games and get their best players near the back expecting us to front load. We made 2 substitutions at lunch, which strengthened the team for singles matchplay, also this meant we had some fresh legs for the afternoon. From what I could tell, Chistlehurst also made a few substitutions. I suspect Chistlehurst gambled and with respect to their players, sacrificed at least the first 2 games, in the hope their best players would get more winnable games down the order.

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Singles

I raced into a lead in my game, leading to a 5up lead through 9. Although I took my foot off the gas and struggled to focus again, I would win my game 3&2. It’s a part of my game I have to be more ruthless at, sometimes I can be so ruthless through the front 9 that I just coast to the win. Leigh would wrap up early with a 6&5 win, whilst the 3rd point of the singles would go in Chistlehurst‘s favour. Remembering that Chistlehurst only needed the draw (6-6), 4-3 after the first 3 singles points was a good start, but no means done and dusted. Walking back out onto the course to see how it was all going and offer some words if I felt they were needed, the initial good reports I had heard were starting to turn in Chistlehurst‘s favour. The 4th singles point had just gone in our favour, 5-3. Ben, who was playing Joel, was 4up at one point, now A/S playing 15. The 5th singles point would also edge in our favour, 6-3. There were 3 games out on the course, we were down in 1, A/S in one and up in one. The 6th singles point would go to Chistlehurst, 6-4. With good reports from our anchor game, we followed Ben down the 18th currently A/S, to see if he could give us the 1/2 point we needed to progress into the 2nd round. Joel would hit a 3 wood at the 270yd par 4 18th, whilst Ben laid up with a rescue. We found Joel’s ball long, out of bounds whilst Ben was within 40yds of the flag. I was pretty confident that at this point, Ben had the nerve to make a 4 from this point for the win.

The final result was 8 - 4 to Lamberhurst and we moved into the 2nd round. As in any team, your core players have to turn up if you want to progress in this competition. The 4 Kent Foursomes players all picked up both their points, but all team members played their part in the day.

There will undoubtedly be stronger teams as we progress through this competition, but for now we will enjoy this win and prepare for the next round.

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Tell me

Although I will never give out our tactics, I would be interested to hear from you in the comments how you would tactically put your team out for both foursomes and singles given the above situations.

Thank you for taking time to read this blog

GOC