Glory for Gottfried as Martin’s mistake fails to cloud celebrations

Master of ceremonies Lottie Jamieson, Oliver Florence and Richard Gottfried with a badger.

WINNER Richard Gottfried had to leave for Luton empty-handed after the apathy of the defending champion disrupted Oliver Florence’s biennial birthday minigolf tournament.

Competition chiefs were forced in to presenting the British number 16 with a model badger as a temporary trophy to mark his one shot win at New Malden as West London’s Guy Martin had left the famous ceramic green minigolf ball some 30 miles away near Farnham.

The apathetic act from Scottish minigolfer Martin came despite two years of near constant claims that he wanted to get rid of the prize ever since he won it at the inaugural event 24 months ago.

It has now been recovered from the window sill of his bedroom at his family home in the Surrey countryside and will be handed over to Gottfried at the next available opportunity.

Guy Martin on his way to a seven at the fourth.

Traditionally, the victor is presented with the ball and a cheesecake, but with the trophy absent and no gluten-free cake option available, the musteline model was hastily drafted in as substitute for the ceremony.

Prolific blogger Gottfried, whose round of 36 was one stroke ahead of second placed Richard Skeggs, failed to let Martin’s mishap take the gloss off his victory.

Getting his ‘hams’ in a pickle, he said: “Knowing the fabled trophy was somewhere near Feltham was neither here nor there. At least it didn’t go back to Putney with former champ Guy Martin.

“With Tiger Woods recently victorious in a limited field non-tour event after a ‘win drought’ since 2009, I felt it was high time I did something similar in minigolf.”

He added: “I wish I had taken a photo of the badger-on-a-plinth stand-in trophy as I could have of framed it and put in on my trophy shelf.”

A magnanimous Martin, whose round of 48 shows how far he has come in the game since his winning score of 40 in 2009, added: “The good thing about losing was that I could get rid of the ceramic green ball – although the fact that I forgot it on Saturday meant that I was not even able to do that.

Oliver Florence, Emily Gottfried and the great cake (centre).

“I hope Richard Gottfried treasures it in a way that I did not.”

Elsewhere in the field, Florence struck a disappointing 46 to finish behind Wales’s Paul Jones – the top amateur with 41 – and Emily Gottfried (44), who made a special cake for the occasion modelled on the Maier Classic 3 minigolf ball.

Kent Open champion Seth Thomas and Birmingham academic Larry Cooley, who it has emerged once appeared on TV show Shipwrecked, carded 47.

It was left to Leamington Spa-based character Robert Clark to bring up the rear, coming home in 51 – still eight shots better than the 2009 wooden spoon winner, Melanie Hall.

Skeggs took the pro-am title, despite not having a partner, with a combined round score of 82.25.

A fire lights up the dining room.

Horley-based Gentle Touch however courted controversy by affixing a rubber ball pick up sucker to his club despite a ruling that every player had to use course equipment.

At the reception, attended by Dorking Advertiser chief Sam Blackledge, Cornwall’s Lottie Jamieson led the celebrations with a quiz and an eccentric game of pass the parcel, with prizes including a pine cone, a bell and a tea bag and a range of feathers.

With Trinity Mirror fire marshal Paul McManus keeping a close eye on proceedings, there was also a spectacular display of indoor fireworks, featuring several Rising Cobras.

The finale however led to a charred table – with McManus powerless to prevent such an incident occurring at a Florence function for the second time in three years.