Aldwickbury Park Early Birds

A fine start, sunshine and a light breeze should be a recipe for high scoring. Well it turned out to be exactly that, high gross scoring! The average gross score today was up at 97.4 with a pitiful 28.17 average stableford, only 5 out of 12 players making 30 or more. The greens, while almost perfect, were brutal with pin positions in very tricky positions and very hard to hold. Adding to our problems, the rough is getting to it's summer best. Little surprise that we found it hard going.  Birdies were scarce today with only two being scored: Pete Laurence (7) and Coenraad Fourie (16) Well done both! Our winner today, Paul Gardner, managed to keep it together for a score of 34 points, very good in the circumstances.  Pete Laurence managed second place on countback from Martin Lythgoe with 31 points. Well done Pete. The front 9 went to yours truly with 18 points. Well done Me. Pete Creighton managed a fantastic 19 points on the back 9 despite a blob on 13. Well done Pete.  We've a

 An early early start for some of us early birds. 3 ball 07:32 tee time with a couple of 3 balls in front of us led to us experiencing some millionaires golf. A mixed bag in our group. Richard started out feeling quite negative with nothing going right for him. I was busy worrying about getting off home to pack and head off to Devon (from where I write this report) and Pete (Laurence) was busy being a lucky, lucky, low handicapper.  Pete rode his luck on a number of holes including the 4th where he hit the trees on the right but still managed to carry on through to the rough at the top of the fairway and the eight where he found the centre of the two fairway bunkers off the tee. Pete looked very much like he'd go on to make a good score with a solid 18 out but the wheels came off a bit on the back 9 as amen corner took it's toll.  Only two birdies this week. Paul Gardner (7) and Steve Brewerton (9) Well done gents.  Well our winner today carries on a purple patch indeed. He joi

  A perfect day with blue skies all the way, little to no wind and the course in great condition. Should mean great scoring right? Well apparently someone forgot to tell the greenkeepers that! The greens today were wonderful but BRUTAL! On the plus side, it was nice to be out in the sunshine and great the company wasn't half bad either.  In our group, Jock was the star of the show, at least the first half of the show anyway. He hobbled onto the first tee, "I've taken some ibuprofen" he said as he gingerly bent down to place a ball on the tee. Beware the injured golfer! He had trouble following through initially but seemed to free up later in the round when he announced that he'd followed through. As Jock is a man of a certain age, we wondered exactly what he was referring to and asked if he needed to go change. It was a slow round today, I think due to some new members in front of our front group. We waited what seemed a particularly long time on the 14th tee as t

 A find frosty start to the morning, blue skies and warm weather forecast but you wouldn't think so when the early group started out on a 07:32 tee time.  We started with a slight hiccup, at least I did! In my bid to be efficient and make sure I had everything I needed for an early round followed by a trip up the M1 for Cobblers duty, I broke from my normal routine and placed all my items of clothing, drinks, food etc. in a bag by the door. I then proceeded to leave the house and head to the golf club, unloaded my belongings it discover I'd forgotten everything. Never fear though, Emma was straight in the car and up to the club with my things just in time for me to tee off. The disruption to my schedule proved to be a bit much for me this week and I deserved the title Calamity Geddes on the day. The highlight was hitting my ball out of a divot on the 5th hole straight at my own back incurring a 2 stroke penalty leading to my 2nd of my 6 blobs on the day. My only consolation on