NEWCOMERS and regular members came together for the first time as Hampshire Golf Club hosted its Lady Captain’s Day earlier this month.

The Andover-based club runs an Introduction to Golf series to help beginners understand the etiquette, rules and some of the main competition formats.

And on Sunday those newcomers, who play without a handicap, were able to take part in a tournament with the club’s more seasoned members.

Lady Captain Maria Clements said: “For the first time in the history of our club all the non-handicap members we able to take part.

“Usually for a competition you have to have a handicap, but we arranged the tournament so that you didn’t have to. We had a great day.”

The competition format was a ‘summer Texas scramble’ in which 23 players took part, comprising seven teams. Each team was allocated a non-handicapper from the Introduction to Golf series.

Gay Sutton, Fay Fradgley and team captain Tanya Waters took first place in the tournament with a score of 62.5.

Rosemary Parnell won the ‘nearest the pin’ challenge, Ann Wake won ‘straightest drive’ and Ann James finished the day as the non-handicapper with the greatest number of drives.

After the competition the players enjoyed a welcome drink, courtesy of Lady Captain Maria, followed by a club meal. All players were presented with a gift from Maria to thank them for participating on the day.