HRole of
Honours and trivia
Steve Saul won the very first SBS Golf Society day in 1994 at Wergs golf club. The day was called The SBS open. It was a 36 hole day event
Alan Newell was the first player
to win the same Major 3 times (The SBS open 1996, 2003 and 2004) He has now been joined by Jason Maybury
who won the 2015 Invitational to make his set. Alan is the only player
to win the Players Championship (2014) in addition to all four
Majors making him the only player to win all four Majors and the
Players Championship. Craig Downes joined this list and has won the
Masters five times now, defending the title in 2024 following his 2023
success.
Alan Newell was the first to win all 4
Majors and he was been joined by Jason Maybury, who by winning the
2015 Open joined this elite club. Craig Winchurch has now joined this list, when he won the Invitational at Handsworth in 2022
Alan Newell (10 Majors) Jason Maybury (8 Majors) and Craig Downes (6 Majors) are the only players to win the same Major 3 times.
Jason has won 7 Majors. Classic 2001, Masters 2012. Masters 2016, Invitational 2012, 2013, 2015, Open 2015 and the 2025 Open
Craig has won 6 Majors (SBS Masters 2003, 2004, 2006, 2023 and 2024). and one Classic win in 2005
Four Majors
Craig Winchurch has also won four Majors, making him the sixth player to win at least three. He has now won all four Majors
It is the SBS Classic which alludes he and the players.
Three Majors
Mark Jones now has 3 Major wins after winning the 2011 Invitational at Penn. he has won three different tournaments..
Iain Geddes who won the 2023 Open at Fulford Heath, to take him to three Major wins. He has two Opens and one Classic win.
Ian Willcox went 14 years without winning any Majors, then won 2 in one season (2008 Masters and Invitational) He now holds three Majors after his 2018 Open win. He was only the second player to hold 2 Majors in one season and like Alan Newell, who did this in 1996 he won in succession
James Bache now has 3 Majors. He won his first with the 2008 Open and then the 2023 Classic iat Oxley. He seens to like Oxley and the Classic as he won there again in 2025 to take his 3rd Major trophy
Two Majors
| Only Nine players have won two Majors,
besides the ones mentioned above and these are Steve
Saul, Andy Malcolm, Roger Swinderman, Shane Morrison, Chris Wasley, Tom Willcox, Ian Tipton and Ian Ratcliffe Shane retained the Classic in succesive years (2009/2010) Andy won the Masters and the 2013 Open and became a two time winner in one season as well as in succession. Roger is now a 2 times winner of a Major. He won his first Major in 2011 at the Masters winning his first Green jacket. He now has two Majors having waited 8 years to win another Green jacket in the 2019 Masters. This 2019 tournament was widely regarded as on of the most exciting competitions, with Roger chipping in at the last to record the win. Steve Saul won the very first SBS society day in 1994 at Werges (The Open) and then won his second 9 year later , when he took the 20023 Classic at little Lakes. Chris won the 2017 Masters at Ludlow and the 2022 Classic at The Shropshire. Tom won the 2021 Open at Oxley and the 2023 Invitational at Great Barr Ian Ratcliffe won the 2019 Open and the 2025 Masters |
Alan Newell was the first to win
two Majors in One year (1996 Open and 1996 Classic)
.Although he won the 1996 Open and Classic in succession there was only 2 Majors at that time.
.Alan Newell was the first to win 2 Majors in the same year and season, when he won the 2003 Open and the 2003 Invitational. The Invitational was played late that year but still formed part of the 2002/2003 season. He is the first to hold two Majors in the same year (since 4 Majors came into existence) with the full 4 Majors being played.
Jason Maybury has now won 2 Majors in one season when he won the 2012 Masters and the 2012 Invitational. He reapeated the feat again in 2015 winning the 2015 Invitational and the 2015 Open.
Jason Maybury became the
first to win the Invitational two years running (2012 and 2013) and
this now means that all of our Majors have been successfully defended. Alan
Newell defended the Open, in 2003 and 2004 Craig Downes the Masters 2003 and 2004, then 2023 and 2024 Masters. Shane Morrison
defended and won
the Classic in 2009 and 2010. This means that Craig Downes is the only
player to have defended and won the same Major twice. .
Jason Maybury
won his second Major at the
2012 Masters eleven years after winning his first at the 2001 Classic.
This beats the previous record of years between wins, previously held
by Steve Saul, who waited nine years after winning the 1994 Open and
then the 2003 Classic.
In 2010 Lee Crooke won his
first Green jacket (Masters competition) at Cleobury
Mortimer, after admitting he was in the worst run of form in his life.
Mark Jones, became the fifth player to win at least three Majors, when he won the
2011 Invitational at Penn. Craig Winchurch
became the sixth player to win three when he won the Classic at
Ingestre in 2017. Ian Willcox now has three after the 2018 Open
at Lakes, becoming the 7th to hold three.
Interestingly
Craig Winchurch, Mark Jones and Ian Willcox have not won the same Major more than once,
whereas some players specialise in just one.
When Phil Bache won the Open in 2010, he emulated his son James’ Open win in 2008, thus becoming the first father and son connection to have won any Major. Tom Willcox won the 2021 Open and therefore became the second father and son connection to win a Major . His father, of course being Ian Willcox who has won 3 Majors Ian and Tom are the only father and son combination, to win two majors.
James Newell became the 3rd father and son combination to win a Major, when he won the Masters at Bewdley Pines in 2022. His father of course being the organiser Alan Newell
Jason Maybury
also became the only player to win the Order of merit twice and also in
succesesive years. He went on to win it a third time in 2014/2015 season
Major Winners
(more than one win)
| 10 Alan Newell |
| 8 Jason Maybury |
| 6 Craig Downes |
| 4 Lee Crooke |
| 4 Craig Winchurch |
| 3 Iain Geddes |
| 3 Mark Jones |
| 3 Ian Willcox |
| 2 James Bache |
| 2 Andy Malcolm |
| 2 Shane Morrison |
| 2 Ian Ratcliffe |
| 2 Steve Saul |
| 2 Roger Swinderman |
| 2 Tom Willcox |
| 2 Ian Tipton |
|
Rob Hunter 1994 |
Mark Southern 1997 |
Phil Cole 1997 |
|
Hans Jenkins 1997 |
Martin Smith 1998 |
Frank Calleia 1998 |
|
Scott Guy 1998 |
Nigel Tennant 1999 |
Dave Tibbetts 1999 |
|
Steve Crowe 1999 |
Andrew McCilroy 2000 |
Paul Chafer 2000 |
|
Andy Smith 2000 |
Bill Wammond 2000 |
Richard Halford 2001 |
|
Guy Allen 2001 |
Mark Sidaway 2001 |
Craig Williams 2002 |
Ricky Muddimer 2002 |
Julian Gibbon 2004 |
Phil Dunn 2004 |
Dave Yeomans 2006 |
Keith Parton 2007 |
Doug Rowenhorst 2007 |
| Stuart Rice 2007 | Dennis Wells 2007 | |
| Micky Robertson 2008 | Richard Fellows 2009 | John Webb 2009 |
|
Phil Bache 2010 |
Mark Swales 2010 | Phil Billingham 2011 |
| Paul Morgan 2011 | Mike Bache 2012 | Ken Ford 2012 |
| Steve Giddings 2013 | Andy Smith 2014 (he is not the 2000 Classic winner, this was a different Andy Smith) | Paul Smith 2014 |
| Darren Slater 2015 | Andrew Round 2016 | Jonathan Turner 2016 |
| Phil Parsons 2017 | Stephen Beach 2018 | Rob Hill 2018 |
| Matt Stansfield 2018 | Paul B Smith 2021 | James Newell 2022 |
| | Alex Allen 2022 | |
Some of the biggest surprises over the years of people being very good golfers but not winning, stems back to the mid 1990’s. Graham Huggins was a quality golfer, but never won a major. In the mid 90’s the tour had just begun and handicaps up to 28 were allowed and no handicap system prevailed. This would have made it difficult for him.
The bearded wonder, had a beautiful swing in the manner of Lee Crooke and had he not died in the early years of the new millennium, Graham would surely have won.
Bob Hunter was a nearly man as well and gave up the tour early in the new millennium. With his nice play, he could have been the first Father and Son players to have won a major, as Rob won the Open in 1995.
Steve Bache should be better off in the
Major count. Steve has come close on a number of occasions and is now
the only memeber of the Bache crew not to win
Perhaps the biggest disappointment comes from Paul Tristram. Paul has played in many majors and has finished second in a few, but a win still eludes him. Given his style of play and his fortune he should have won by now. It is felt that he has all his luck on his home course at Enville.
Mark Swales has also been one of the unluckiest players, losing on countback no fewer than four times, although he has won a Major
Order
of Merit
The Order of Merit was started in 2008, to acknowledge the best golfer over the 4 Majors. It also recognises that although a player may not have won a tournament during the season, he/she may have amassed a number of points to win the OoM.
It also rewards those people who have attended the tournaments during the year.
The season consists of the Classic from the previous year and the Masters, Invitational and the Open from the current year. The first season was 2007/2008
Originally each tournament was given a number of points depending on the size of the field.
If there were 50 players then the winner would receive 50 points and so on down to last place.
First winner (2007/2008) was Richard Fellows, who never won a tournament during the season, but thanks to his high finishes and attendance, won the award.
Order of Merit
2007/2008 - Richard Fellows (Cleobury 2007/Gaudet Luce2008/Great Barr 2008/Bewdley Pines 2008
2008/2009 – Mark Jones (Little Lakes 2008/Sapey 2009/Druids
Heath2009/Penn2009)
2009/2010 - Alan Newell (Little Lakes 2009/Cleo Mortimer2010/Little Lakes (Inv) 2010Little Lakes (Open)2010
2010/2011– Jason Maybury- The Shropshire (Classic)2010 Worfield (Masters) 2011) Penn (Invitational )2011-Little Lakes (Open 2011)
2011/2012 - Jason Maybury - Cleobury Mortimer (Classic2011) Lichfield (Masters 2012) Kidderminster (Invitational2012) Little Lakes (Open 2012)
2012/2013 - Andy Malcolm - Sapey (Classic2012) Worfield (Masters 2013) Bloxwich (Invitational 2013) Little Lakes (Open 2013)
2013/2014 - Andrew Giddings - The Shropshire (Classic 2013) Cleobury (Masters 2014) Swidon (Invitational 2014) Little Lakes (Open 2014)
2014/2015 - Jason Maybury - Fulford Heath (Classic 2014) The Shropshire (2015 Masters) Oxley (2015 Invitational) Little Lakes (2015 Open)
2015/2016 - Jason Maybury - Handsworth (Classic 2015) Cleobury Mortimer (Masters 2016) Penn (Invitational 2016) Little Lakes (Open 2016)
2016/2017 - Phil Parsons - Wrekin (Classic 2016) Ludlow (2017 Masters) Great Barr (Invitational 2017) Little Lakes (Open 2017)
2017/2018- Steve Giddings - Ingestre (Classic 2017) Cleobury Mortimer (Masters 2018) South Staffs (Invitational 2018) Little Lakes (Open 2018)
2018/2019- Jason Maybury&Ian Ratcliffe - Fulford Heath(Classic 2018)/ (Bewdley Pines (Masters 2019) Perton (Invitational 2019) Little Lakes (Open 2019)
2020/2021 - No competition due to Coronavirus
2021/ 2022 Craig Winchurch Little Lakes
(Classic 2021) Bewdley Pines (Masters
2022) Handsworth (Invitational 2022)
Cleobury Mortimer (Open 2022))
2022/2023 Iain Geddes The Shropshire (Classic 2022) Bewdley Pines (Masters 2023) Great Barr (Invitational 2023) Fulford Heath (Open 2023)
NOTE
From the 2010/2011 season the points system changed. (see below for system designed 2010 to 2017)
Only the top 10 golfers would score points
The system for scoring changed in 2017/18
to allow ten points for the winner and 9 for second and so on, so that
the player finishing in tenth place got one point. The previous system
is listed below
1st would score 100% of the amount of players playing
(eg 40 players would equal 40x100/100 = 40 points
2nd would score 75% of the amount of players playing
(eg 40 players would equal 40x75/100 = 30 points
So in future
1st = 100%
2nd = 75%
3rd = 50%
4th = 40%
5th = 35%
6th = 30%
7th = 25%
8th = 20%
9th = 15%
10th = 10%
This is also to be conducted on a
count back system to allow the points to be allocated.
Low
scores (18 holes) – these relate to scores handed in and on record.
Please
note these folks did hand in their scores. It is felt there may be
worse scores where people did not hand in cards
-Lowest score ever recorded by Mr G Whitby at The Open at Penn 2004 (1 point for 18 holes)
-Mr N Lindop scores 3pts to make lowest score in a Classic at Little Lakes 2000 (18 holes)
-Brian Keywood scores 9pts to make lowest score in a Masters at Ludlow in 2000 (18 holes)
-Rico Gambone
scores 3pts to make lowest score in an Invitational at Penn
2016 (18 holes)
Morning
session (8, 9, 10 or 11 holes)
-Lowest score by Phil Bateman at the Invitational Penn 2007 (0pts
for 9 holes)
Stand
in winners
Classic 2007 Stuart Rice stood in at the last minute for
Richard York and won