The University of Nottingham (UoN) Golf Team defeated the Nottingham Trent University (NTU) Golf Team in a tense play-off, to win their first official Varsity event and give UoN another Super Wednesday point.
In the bright morning sunshine, the Super Wednesday event was kicked off at 9:10 with the three foursomes matches, where two players from either team play each other, with the winner being the team who won the most holes.
Walton and Butterworth heading down the 1st hole fairway in their Foursomes match.
Harry Walton and James Butterworth were the first to tee off for UoN, and a close first match meant that Walton and Butterworth were 1 Down through 11 holes. Walton and Butterworth were 2 holes down with 2 to play, but showed incredible resilience to halve their game by winning the last two holes.
Ariff Rose and George Cairns showed their skill by going 2UP after 4 holes, and held that lead to win their match 2UP. Felix Maxwell and Charlie Normanton found themselves 2UP after 9 holes, and that lead was converted to a 2/1 victory for the UoN boys, to leave UoN 2.5 to 0.5 up, needing just 2.5 more points to win the golf event, with the 6 singles matches coming up.
During the break, the rain and sleet set in, making the conditions much more difficult for the singles matches, and was the stage for a spirited Trent fightback. With Felix Maxwell and Ariff Rose winning their singles matches and James Walton and Harry Butterworth losing theirs, George Cairns and Charlie Normanton needed to just half a point to win the event for the golfers.
With Cairns 1DWN with four to play and Normanton 2DWN with 2 to play, UoN needed something special to avoid a play-off, and when Cairns won the 15th hole to level the scores with three to play, it looked like UoN would just sneak through with a 5-4 victory.
However, when NTU took both matches with narrow victories, a play-off was required to separate the team, with James Butterworth the man chosen. With the 18th hole shared, Butterworth held his nerve to sink the winning putt on the 1st to win the game for UoN, and give them their 7th point of the April Super Wednesday.
To win pic.twitter.com/BndKTLzCG9
— UoN Golf (@NottsUniGolf) April 27, 2016
Words by Connor Higgs
Images: IMPACT Images Team
Follow @ImpactVarsity16 for more updates on the 2016 Varsity Series
Um… it’s James Butterworth and prob Harry Walton