By Paul Trow
Monday’s SJA’s Autumn Golf Day at Muswell Hill had an emotional finale when the Phil Sheldon Trophy was won by the late photographer’s great mate, Hugh Routledge.
Hugh, a regular supporter of the SJA’s golf days, clocked up 37 Stableford points on a windy September morning on the tree-lined north London course to lift first prize by a margin of four points.
“It’s a fantastic honour for me to win this trophy because Phil was such a close friend of mine,” Hugh said after receiving his prize from Phil’s widow Gill.
Pat Mooney, the recently retired sports editor of the Hampstead & Highgate Express, came second on his SJA golfing debut with 33 points, with former winner Chester Stern in third place a further point adrift.
The guests’ section was won by Don Cave with 34 points, followed by Sam Emery, son of the former SJA chairman David Emery, and Peter Luck’s guest Paul Llewellen, on 29 and 27 points respectively.
In the team section (best two scores out of three per hole to count), Routledge, Stern and David Richman romped to victory with 77 points, four clear of runners-up Cave, Gerry Cox and Mark Lomas.
Lomas also won the longest drive prize of a bottle of Glenfiddich whisky (kindly donated by Routledge) with a massive 308-yard effort on the par-4 17th, while nearest the pin on the short 12th went to Luck’s other guest, Richard Higgins.
A total of 15 players took part in the day and were then joined for lunch by Gill Sheldon, SJA chairman Barry Newcombe and SJA member Graham Morrison, who once again kindly donated four bottles of dessert wine as prizes from his family’s vineyard in the south of France.