Chris Lander defies the weather to claim Leeds Union stroke play title

WETHERBY GOLF CLUB’S assistant general manager Chris Lander overcame wet and windy conditions at Sand Moor Golf Club to win a Leeds and District Union of Golf Clubs major title at his first attempt, claiming the stroke play championship with a one-under par 70.

The plus-one handicapper carded two birdies and dropped only one shot, the latter occurring with just four holes to play and ending his chance of the third bogey-free round of his golfing career.

“I birdied the par-4 seventh and I birdied the par-3 10th, but then I bogeyed the par-3 15th,” said Lander, who has just celebrated his first year at Wetherby.

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“I got plugged under the lip of the bunker and just had to hack it out and two-putt, otherwise it would have been a lovely bogey-free round.

WORTHY WINNER: Wetherby Golf Club’s assistant general manager Chris Lander, left, receives the John Keightley Trophy from Horsforth’s Simon Lax, Leeds Union’s president elect. Picture: Leeds & District Union.WORTHY WINNER: Wetherby Golf Club’s assistant general manager Chris Lander, left, receives the John Keightley Trophy from Horsforth’s Simon Lax, Leeds Union’s president elect. Picture: Leeds & District Union.
WORTHY WINNER: Wetherby Golf Club’s assistant general manager Chris Lander, left, receives the John Keightley Trophy from Horsforth’s Simon Lax, Leeds Union’s president elect. Picture: Leeds & District Union.

“A bogey-free round is something that I’ve only done twice, so when you start quite well and you’ve not had a dropped shot you start concentrating on that. When I got up and saw the ball plugged at 15 I thought, ‘oh no’.”

As well as winning the John Keightley Trophy in his first Leeds Union event, by one stroke from Nathan Ali and Harry Hunter-Mapp, both Cookridge Hall, and Ben Stephens [Howley Hall], Lander lifted the John Robshaw Trophy for the best nett score of 71.

His background of learning to play golf on the coast at Southport helped prepare him for the weather at Sand Moor and he said: “It was rough, but it wasn’t unplayable.

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“I was in the third or fourth group out and it rained for the first six or seven holes. There was a fresh breeze to start with, and as the day went on the wind got steadier and steadier, but the rain stopped. First it was fighting the rain and then it was battling the wind as well, so it was a good test.

“There were some quite severe gusts and, the way the back nine is at Sand Moor, it was crosswinds as well. I think that’s the toughest, trying to hold the ball against the wind and shaping your shots into it.”

Lander is in the privileged position of straddling two of Yorkshire’s eight unions for he also has membership at Halifax Bradley Hall and is a former captain of the Halifax-Huddersfield Union’s senior side, helping them lift the Yorkshire Inter-District Union League title in 2019.

Leeds Union secretary John Grimbleby sounded him about as to his possible availability for Nigel McKee’s team, but Lander still feels a strong affinity with Halifax-Huddersfield and told their manager Frank Greaves prior to last month’s opening matches of the season that he would try to make himself available to play if Greaves was struggling to raise a side. Playing for both unions is not an option.

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“It gets a little bit difficult through the summer [being available for matches] when I need to work certain weekends at Wetherby,” commented Lander.

“Frank and I had a chat at the start of the season and I told him not to keep me in his top 12, but if he was ever short to give me a call and, if I’m available, then I’ll play.”

Lander won the Halifax-Huddersfield Union match play title in successive years, 2015 and 2016, and hopes to complement it with victory in Leeds’ equivalent competition.

Victory in Halifax-Huddersfield’s stroke play championship is also a goal to go alongside his Sand Moor success.

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He has become a member of Wetherby’s scratch team, notching up wins in his first two matches, and was part of the club’s line-up that gained promotion from the Seventh to the Sixth Division of the Yorkshire Union of Golf Club’s team championships.

He is loving his job at Wetherby, his first foray into the club management side of golf after working in retail with Direct Golf at Huddersfield Stadium, and said: “It’s a good membership and a fantastic area. I hadn’t played the course before, but it is very good, so I’ve fallen quite lucky really.”

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