Golfers from all over the south-east of England congregated at the newly named Heron Golf & Country Club – formerly South Essex GC – in Brentwood for the 7th annual TSG Masters on April 30.
A total of 32 members from the popular online golf club and golf society gathered at the Essex club all hoping to be this year’s TSG Masters Champion golfer – the first of the four ‘Majors’ that the website runs each summer.
This mixed golf event provided plenty of healthy competition and while some TSGers were familiar with the course layout, most were new to it. The field, ranging from 4 handicappers to 30, played the Heron & Hawk courses – two very different layouts offering their own challenges, the latter including some superb water features.
As always, it was the greens at Heron that proved the real test, with only six players reaching 30 points. After 18 holes, it was a Broxbourne-based golfer Chris Potten who triumphed, scoring a respectable 38 points to win by a single shot from Daniel Walker from Essex, with Surrey’s Jonathan Knowles taking third with 36 points.
Speaking after being crowned TSG Masters champion for 2023, Potten said: “I am in shock! I knew I was playing well after a run of four pars in the middle of my round, but I never expected to win. Before this, I had never won a golf day, let alone a ‘TSG Major’, so I can’t wait to get home and share it with the family. I would like to thank all the team at The Social Golfer for putting on another great event. The Heron is a real test of golf and no-one was more surprised than I when I found out I had come top of the leaderboard!”
There was also some fun to be had with two nearest-the-pin prizes and a straightest drive competition. The Golf News Guest Trophy was won by Essex- based golfer Michael Tricker.
Commenting on the event, Ian Mullins, organiser of The Social Golfer, said: “What a superb day at an ever-improving course. Even the rain held off. We’d like to thank all the staff and management for allowing us to hold this event here. We have been impressed by the amount of investment ploughed into The Heron GC in the last two years. All three courses have seen massive improvement and the club is well on the way to being one of the finest in Essex.”