The ASCA Tournament

The Tournament

The ASCA golf tournament is held annually between European airlines and is played off of scratch handicap for both men's and ladies teams.

The men's competition consists of four ball better ball, where the best 2 scores out of the 3 pairs count, and singles, where the best 4 scores out of 6 count towards the overall team score.

ASCA 2011 - Stockholm

After missing last years tournament the BA Golf section are sending a team in 2011 to Stockholm where SAS Airlines are hosting this annual tournament. The event takes place from 9th to 11th September with a practice day on 9th, Pairs on 10th and Singles on 11th.

ASCA 2009 - Portugal

This years ASCA scratch tournament took place from 21st to 24th April at the Ribagolfe 1 course 30 mins south of Lisbon, Portugal. The course itself was just short of 7200 yards and was in perfect condition, but proved to be very difficult for all the players due to the length, lack of roll on the fairways and the lightning fast greens. We were 6 th after the pairs and ended up 6 th overall, Aer Lingus being the outright winners.

This was a tough introduction for our two ‘rookies' David Burton and Dan Barrett, but all players struggled, the top score in the singles was 26 points which went to two Iberian players, Nigel Finch came in with a respectable 22 points.

The hospitality and organisation from the hosts TAP was second to none and this took our minds off the golf competition result!

The dinner and awards ceremony was held in a magnificent marquee at Cristo Rei overlooking the sea and with a spectacular view of the sunset.

Finland has a tough act to follow in 2010.

Reporter: Malcolm

The Team consisted of Malcolm Coleman (Capt), Dave Skiggs, Nigel Finch, Nigel Weldon, Dan Barratt and David Burton.

ASCA 2008 - Austria

Baden, Nr Vienna was the venue for the 2008 tournament hosted by Austrian airlines at the Golf Club Ebreichsdorf from 26th / 28th August.

The team (left to right) consisted of Nigel Weldon, Dave Skiggs, Dean Burton, Malcolm Coleman (Captain), Les Sibley and Nigel Finch.
After a very promising first day of pairs the team were lying 2nd, with a creditable final placing of 5th out of 11 mens teams.

ASCA 2007 - Luxembourg

The 2007 tournament was hosted by Cargolux and held at the Kikuoka Golf and Country Club, Canach, Luxembourg between the 13th and 15th June.

The Team consisting of Dean Burton, Dave Skiggs, Colin Price, Nigel Weldon, Nigel Finch and Malcolm Coleman came 5th out of 10 mens teams.

ASCA 2006 - Ballybunion, County Kerry, Ireland

Mens Competition

This years tournament was hosted by Aer Lingus, with 10 Mens teams participating, and held at the world famous Ballybunion course in County Kerry on the 27th and 28th April. There are two courses at Ballybunion, the Old course, which is the favourite course of both Vijay Singh and Tom Watson, and the Cashen course.

This competition was held on the Cashen course, which is considerably shorter than the Old course, but the fairways are narrower, the greens smaller and there is very little opportunity for the bump and run shots so often used on links courses. The course is on the banks of the Shannon estuary with stunning views of the bay from several holes, especially the 16th, 17th and 18th.

The BA team had been selected from the previous years qualifying competition at Reading and comprised of Dean Burton, Nigel Finch, Les Sibley, Dave Skiggs, Nigel Weldon and Alastair Wisely. The players either have to be currently employed by the airline or retired from the airline. Jim Griffiths traveled as non-playing captain. If the Ryder Cup team can have one, so can we!

The team flew out to Shannon a couple of days prior to the tournament to get in a practice round, they had heard that's what the professionals do. The coach journey from Shannon airport to the hotel in Ballybunion took nearly 2 hours with very little to see to alleviate the boredom. On arriving in Ballybunion, the team were keen to see the sights of the town, but as that took about 15 mins it was then finding a bar, of which there are many, to have the first pint of the 'Black Stuff'.

After the practice round, the team was confident of playing some good golf in the competition to follow. There was also a strange local rule enforced whereby it was compulsory to pick, clean and place your ball if it was on the fairway (winter rules to you and me). The organizers also suggested there would be a shot penalty if this was not carried out, but I don't think this was adhered to!

On the first day of competition, which was the four ball better ball, the BA pairings were Dave Skiggs & Nigel Finch, Nigel Weldon & Dean Burton and Alastair Wisely & Les Sibley. On a bright day with a bit of wind, Dave had the 'honour' of hitting the first ball in this years competition, which I gathered was a good one as it was far too early a start to actually witness it. All 3 pairs started very well and each of them only 2 or 3 over gross par after 9 holes, with some good golf being played by all players, especially Les who was giving away most shots. Unfortunately the back 9 was a different story, with tales of woe, bad luck and bad golf being told with increasing frequency. There was Dave looking more like a mountain goat searching for his ball on the hills just short of the 15th green, Nigel Weldon trying his hardest to put his ball onto the beach on the 17th and Dean missing the 17th green by about 25 yards right with only a 9 iron in his hand. Having said that, both Dean and Nigel managed to birdie the 18th, but don't ask Nigel how he managed his, as his ball was heading 10 yards left of the green and then somehow ended up in the hole!

Leaders after the first day were Icelandair with 71 pts, with their top pair scoring a very impressive 39 pts. The BA team was in a disappointing 9th place with 57 pts with Nigel Finch saying “we have never been this bad”. Dave & Nigel scored 29 pts, Dean & Nigel 28 pts and Alastair & Les 26 pts after all 3 pairs had scored 20 pts by the 12th hole.

The second day was the singles where individual scores count. For some reason, the team captain had decided to put Dean and Nigel Weldon out towards the back of the field (can't imagine why!). Again all our players started off well, but scoring was hard to come by on the back 9. However, the 4 scoring players had scored well and hearing about the other scores coming in looked as though they would move up the leaderboard.

The BA scores were Dean and Nigel Finch both with 25 pts, Dave 24 pts, Nigel Weldon 20 pts, Les 19 pts and Alastair with 13 pts. The best individual score was by Finbar Whelan from Aer Lingus with 30 pts. Both Aer Lingus and Icelandair had the best team score for the singles with 110 pts.

The overall winners of the competition were Icelandair with 181 pts, just pipping the hosts Aer Lingus by 1 point. A distant third were Cargolux with 165 pts. The BA team pulled up to a very creditable 4th place from the 9th place after the first day.

The gala dinner and prize giving was held in the restaurant of the Cliffhouse Hotel where all the players were staying. This was followed by a few drinks and an early night, I'm sure that was what happened, but there again ....... don't believe everything you read !

Ladies Competition

The Ladies competition was won by SAS with an overall score of 84 pts, followed by Aer Lingus with 57 pts and Finnair third with 43 pts. These were the only 3 teams competing. There was a new winner of the individual ladies competition, as Maija has left SAS and therefore unable to compete. This years' winner was Marie Nornam also from SAS with 27 pts. The girls from Aer Lingus were keen to point out to our golfers that not one BA player could score more points than the overall lady winner. This was treated with the contempt it deserved! The ladies team is made up of 4 players, with the best pair scoring in the four ball and the best 2 individuals in the singles. Unfortunately BA wasn't in a position to send a ladies team due to the lack of lady members in the section. It would be nice to be able to send a ladies team once again, so if there are any ladies who would like to join the section and play in a scratch competition against other airlines here's your chance.

Jim Griffiths