Scores for Saturday 4 June 2022
Well, the weather didn't look promising this morning with forecasts of heavy showers and strong winds. The winds were definitely a feature, especially on the back 9 today. The rain held off until the early early group got off the course with only one brief shower before the other groups teed off. Looks like the rest may've had a downpour at that point so finished the round in soggy fashion.
James Miller is the main feature of today's report. Firstly it is his birthday today and he'd joined the early group with Duncan so they could both get off and celebrate his birthday. Happy birthday James! Then there was the golf....
On the first tee James hit is ball roughly on the same line as Paul Gardner, out to the right. In Paul's case the ball came to rest about 15 yards off the fairway in the rough between the fairway and the trees. Of course James hits his ball quite a long way further than Paul so his ball went into the trees somewhere in the region of the bell. James looked for a few minutes, found the ball, chipped out sideways and proceeded to get on the green and down in 6 for a point.
On the second tee James hit what can only described as a perfect tee shot. Nicely safe next to the fairway bunker with a great line in to the flag on the lower level of the second green. His second shot was not so good, almost a total shank, the ball went straight right towards the mound on the side of the hill. The ball then followed round the contours of the hill and onto the green, catching the slope and rolling down onto the lower tier about 8 feet from the pin. Well hit shots from Duncan and myself couldn't get in closer than James tee shot. James managed to sink the put for the most ridiculous birdie I've seen.
James' driving continued to impress on 4, 5, 6 and 7 with impressive distance great use of the contours of the course in all cases. It started to go wrong on the 8th where following another excellent drive, taking advantage of the slope to feed the ball round to the right of the fairway bunkers and position nicely to reach the green in two. The second shot came off the club like a rocket, hit the tree to the right of the fairway at bullet speed and rebounded back at James at breakneck speed putting him about 30 yards further back than when he started. He regrouped to scramble a 6 on this hole.
On the 12th hole he decided to lay-up given the strong headwind we faced off the tee. He positioned the ball nicely with a hybrid, just short of the fairway bunker before the hedge, position A! He decided to keep his second shot low to avoid the wind but sadly not high enough to avoid the bushes. James, being a lucky low handicapper, didn't lose his ball in the hedge as us mortals would no doubt manage, instead he rebounded off a leaf, keeping the ball in play and allowing him to flop the ball over the hedge only to fail to scramble a point due to a poor 4th shot.
The grand finale for James was the 15th hole. The wind was howling when we arrived on the tee, so much so that my hat blew off and as I tried to retrieve it I released my trolley from my control and it slowly clattered into James who went down like a sack of potatoes. James, not shaken by this, went down to the ladders to confirm the group in front were still in reach (they were) and hearing the bell returned to the tee box. Three of us teed off quite unremarkably. James decided to keep out of the wind it low and teed up lower than usual to promote a low ball flight. His ball flight was so low in fact that he hit the yellow tee marker to the right of the tee box, launching it beyond the ladies tee and his own ball BACKWARDS narrowly missing Paul and Duncan and coming to rest on the right edge of the 14th green. The group behind agreed that they'd not seen anything quite the likes either. James took a rescue and hit to the middle of the fairway on before the fairway bunker, taking his medicine like the serious golfer he is. James likes to use all available assistance on the golf course and used the black and white marker as a target for his 3rd shot. His shot was a little too accurate and his 3rd shot bounced off the marker stick, which it turns out is plastic btw! Needless to say James failed to score on the 15th!
No one can really say what was going on with James today. The golfing gods started on his side and we'd dubbed him Contour man early in the round given his almost super-human ability to recover a bad shot with clever use of the contours of the course or enhance a good shot in the same way. We speculated that maybe it was the new shoes were enhancing his game. At some points the wheels came off and things just started going wrong. It may've been the sand on the 6th where he christened the pot bunker at the front of the greet, maybe sand is James' Kryptonite! Who knows. All I can say is that it was quite entertaining from my perspective. Thanks for the entertainment today James and have a wonderful weekend.
James' new shoes.... Magic?
Birdies today for James (2 - Ridiculous!) Coenraad (11) and Jock Hunter (9) Well done gents!
Scoring was below average with an average stableford of 29.69 and average gross score of 93.1.
Our winner today with a score of 34 points is Paul Gardner. Paul had a solid round and his straight shooting was a real asset in that wind. Well done Paul.
In second place with 33 points is yours truly. I had a strong front 9 (19) but couldn't keep the run going on the back 9 with too many 1 pointers. My chip in on the 18th for 1 point sealed the 2nd spot after putting my favourite ball into the pond at the back of the green. Well done me.
Roger Small took the front 9 with 19 points. Well done Roger.
Steve Reynolds took the back 9 with 18 points, well done Steve.
Next week is the swindle challenge so good luck all those taking part.
Have a great week gents, see you in a couple of weeks.
Have a great week all, see you soon.
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