OBGS - 2026 South East Cup

Friday 15th May, 2026 Fulwell Golf Club

A busy time in London & SE (work, family-life …  you know the drill) meant only five qualifying OB’s played at Fulwell on the 15th May: Richard Morgan (‘RdR’); Ian Wilson; Dylan Kelly and Staffan Raw-Rees. We were, happily, joined by RdR’s son-in-law, Charlie, to make up two three-balls (I’ll come back to this).

RdR was making a long-awaited appearance after previous years’ plans were derailed by work and travel commitments; he also joined Ian and myself in the ‘still recovering from a joint operation’ club …

The course was good condition, if not a little fast and firm and like most courses at this time, in need of some rain to help the green staff return it to it’s usual fantastic state – though the greens were still receptive and as true as ever.

The golf was steady and competitive, well, at least for the front nine ! At the turn, everyone had scored between 16 – 18 points, with RdR and Steffan tied at the top.

Whilst Steffan held his form (and fitness ?!) and discovered he could hit his driver consistently after all (!); the rest of us could not raise our game, or faded to varying degrees, as a variety of ailments, fitness and concentration took their toll. In the end, Steffan retained the trophy he won last year with a fantastic 40 points, 3 points clear of Dylan and Ian, with RdR and myself coming in a further couple of points behind. (Yes, the OBGS handicap committee will be sitting again next year - and will be even more stringent than the three shot cut he had this year !)

Charlie (RdR’s son-in-law) was a pleasure to meet and a more than welcome addition to the day as an impromptu guest to make up the numbers. Charlie’s attendance added to a question posed by Steffan earlier in the week: given the difficulty in numbers attending the day, could the day be expanded to include guests ? Steffan specifically had a couple of Old Llandovarians in mind … which raised the notion of an OB v Old Llandovarian ‘London & SE’ match.

If either of these ideas would increase the probability of more OB’s getting together to play golf, whether through providing greater justification for the time off/being out of the office, or any other reason, I would, personally, be all for it.