PLAYING A DREAM
14-year-old girl beats County Lady Golfers to prize.

High drama enveloped the Wiltshire County Ladies Golf Championships at Bowood Golf and Country Club as a young teenage girl, a first time entrant, walked away with the bronze shield, the top prize in the second division of the County Championships.

Durrington’s Susannah Bojdys(14) a junior member of Upavon Golf Club and Bowood Golf Club played ninety-three holes of golf over the three days to beat off an opposition often over twice her age, many of whom were veteran county competitors.

The three day event, involving a total of five rounds of golf on Wiltshire’s premier golf course, was a real test of skill for Wiltshire’s lady golfers. The competition was divided into two classes: the Silver for those top golfers with handicaps from zero to 20 and the bronze division for those from 30 to 21.

Susannah started at the bottom of the entry of thirty two, as the youngest and with a current handicap of 27. The first day’s preliminary qualifying round played as stroke play medal competition saw Susannah make the cut with a round of 106, net 79.

Of the original 32 only half started on the second day with Susannah the least experienced. Match play -first round On day two the competition format changed to match play and each competitor played the others as equals.

In the first round, Susannah was drawn against Kathy Leadbetter from Salisbury and South Wilts Golf Club. After a tight match noted for the precision of the putting by her opponent, Susannah’s longer drives helped her establish a 4-hole lead at the sixteenth hole and her opponent conceded the match.

The gruelling golf marathon, marred by slow play because of the appalling weather, saw Susannah take her quarter-final opponent, Linda Bowden an experienced Bowood member, to the 21st hole. Susie managed to avert defeat by squaring the match with a firm 8-foot putt on the eighteenth after going one down on the 17th.

The match lasted nearly 5 hours and it was seven pm before the victory was secured and Susie had her pass through to the semi-finals. ‘Playing a dream’ A fierce tussle between Susannah and of Lesley Askham also of Bowood GC, including two lost balls saw a final victory for Susie at the eighteenth hole and a pass through to the semi-finals against Priscilla Grey of West Wilts Golf Club.

One of the many drenched spectators returned from watching Susie’s match with the words, ‘That young girls is playing a dream out there!’

The Finals

With the word now out about Susie, the prospect of a real battle in the Bronze divided people’s loyalties and many spectators moved between the Silver and Bronze division finals from one match to the other throughout the afternoon .

Susannah taking advantage of adrenaline and confidence went six-up by the seventh. She then faltered losing two holes on the trot and was beginning to look vulnerable but at the tenth where she stemmed the rot by halving the hole. Confidence regained, she went on the win the eleventh and she was five up by the thirteenth where her opponent conceded the match.

Looking back Carol Barrett this year’s County Organiser from Chippenham said it was the joy of seeing her out-drive the opposition off the tee that was giving her the edge.

Susannah Bojdys a pupil of South Wilts Grammar School was entered by the Wiltshire County Ladies Junior Golf Organiser to gain experience of a top level competition with no expectation of winning. In the event, torrential rain, high winds, and fierce competition could not stop the progress of a young fourteen-year-old girl from Durrington.

Susannah was part of a small squad of junior golfers receiving a new form of apecialised coaching from Nigel Blenkarne, Bowood’s Director of Golf. On his recomendation she had just received a new set of Mizuno Widac golf clubs which had helped Susie increase both distance and consistancy of shot.