'Exciting pairings' for the new Elite Foursomes Championship

The inaugural edition of the competition, being backed by the Guernsey Press, will take place over five days starting from Saturday, having been put together by Island men’s team manager Dave Jeffery.

It will see 24 players put into 12 pairs, selected by Jeffery from golfers in contention for the Island men’s and senior men’s teams, compete in an 18-hole strokeplay qualifier on Saturday afternoon from which the top eight pairs will progress to the knockout stages.

The first round of matchplay will take place on Sunday morning, with the semi-finals following next Tuesday and the final likely to be on Wednesday.

‘Jeff Davies came up with the idea,’ Jeffery said.

‘Having seen coverage on social media of a foursomes event in Jersey recently, he drew my attention to it and suggested we could do something along similar lines and get our players ready for the inter-insulars.

‘We want to give more competitive golf to the top players in the island and it is also about getting those players to bond as squads as well as trying out different pairings to see if they gel – if you can gel at foursomes, you will be all right in fourballs too.’

Jeffery added that the reaction from the players when the idea was first mooted earlier this month was ‘very positive’ and that there had been no objections to the duos he wanted to see play together.

‘I have the responsibility of pairing them up for the inter-insulars and a lot of the combinations were common sense anyway as they are used to joining forces – it is not rocket science. I think there are some exciting pairings.’

The inaugural competition has been hastily arranged due to the an unusual gap in the local golfing diary due to the annual horse-race meeting being cancelled due to the pandemic.

‘There was a danger that if we didn’t do it now, then there would not have been space in the calendar later in the summer so we thought it better to do it now, take this window of opportunity, and then we can tweak things if it proves popular.

‘I see no reason why it cannot be an annual event, though my preference would perhaps to be to have it closer to the inter-insular matches in future.’

The qualifier will start at 2.30pm on Saturday, with the first round of knockout matches at 9.30am on Sunday.

PAIRINGS: D. Blondel and D. Bisson, J. Blondel and S. Mahy, T. Le Huray and D. Rutledge, CJ Elmy and D. Griggs, J. Nicolle and J. Marshall, T. Pattimore and S. Le Huray, A. Evans and O. Chedhomme, R. Mills and R. McKenna, D. Jeffery and W. Anees, W. Harwood and N. Tanguy, C. Walker and M. Bertrand, N. Vaudin and D. Nicolle.