In the Ross Golf Club's January Stableford event to kick-off the 2009 season, and to decide the 12 members to qualify for the final stages of the Barnfield Trophy, David Thrower romped home to finish No 1 in the competition.
His massive 44 points total - 8 shots better than his handicap – included just 27 putts to hole out, thanks to his new putting device. Having scored his best-ever round, David said " I've never been a long hitter, and at my stage in life, I knew I wasn't going to get an extra 30-40 yards off the tee, so I started to concentrate more on my short game.
"Thankfully I was able to get my hands on a prototype of the new Putter Scope, an innovative putting alignment device which really helps me aim straighter and now I'm stroking the ball from the centre of the putter face.
"Having spent 20 minutes on the practice green with the Putter Scope, I was able to take this new-found putting regimen out onto the course. Like most club golfers, I normally take 34-40 putts per round of golf, which on average is around 45% of one's total number of shots for 18 holes of golf, but with my new putting skills, I'm sure the Handicap Committee will be watching me very closely!"
While David, headed handicap Division 2, the top performer in Division 1 was Richard Matthews with 42 points, and joining the qualifiers were Brian Macnamara, Adam Gillespie and Brian Clouder all with 41 points each, and Stan Beale and Mark Bedney with 39 points each. John Tecke and Chris Bullock also with 39 points each, having both qualified in previous events, were able to maintain their good form.
In Handicap Division 2, Nicholas Tamblyn, Mike Talty, Peter Metcalfe with 42 points each and Lawrence Hull (40pts) and Richard Topping (39pts) got their names in the qualifying mix, with Gerald Turner, having qualified in December with a winning performance, followed this up with another creditable 42 points achievement.