Aldwickbury Park Early Birds

  Yes, it's a long weekend and as the days shorten and mornings start to have a welcome chill in the air, we have the last swindle of August 2022.  Conditions were near perfect today, a light wind with sunshine and some cloud cover. The recent rains have started to bring a bit of green back into the course and the fairways were a lot more receptive than the last few months.  All this resulted in some average scoring perhaps caused by a little recalibration being required.  Just two birdies today for Richard Hyne (3) and Martin Lythgoe (17) Well done gentlemen.  Birdies were a sore point for me as I missed birdie chances on 10, 12, 16, 17 and 18! Our winner today managed was Richard Hyne with 37 points. Richard hadn't managed to finish in the last two weeks, in fact last week he barely got going. He had a wobble on 2 but steadied himself and went on to shoot +3 on the front 9 and +5 on the back 9 to take the top prize. Well done Richard. In Second place with 34 points is Martin

  Well today it was all about sand! It is the holiday season and to make us all feel like we're having a holiday in the sun, the green keeping team dumped a whole load of sand on the greens this weekend to make us feel like we're not missing out!  Back to the normal August weather this weekend. Some sunshine, some clouds, some wind and a hint of rain in the air. Personally I found it a relief after the recent heat although my golf didn't really reflect that.  Birdies were scarce today, probably as a result of the difficult greens: Pete Laurence (9) and Tony Froud (8) well done both! Our winner today posts his first win of the season. James has managed a second and a couple of back 9s before today but his first numero uno came today courtesy of a solid round of 78 resulting in 37 points, beating Martin Deery on countback. Well done James! Of course Martin Deery managed second place with a solid 37 points, failing to drive home his advantage on the last hole. Well done Martin

  Well this image says it all. Tony had it in his grasp, his first win of the season was there for him to reach out and take, all he needed was to par the last hole!! Well, as with Rory in 2011 with his famous masters miss, he didn't par the last hole, in fact he didn't score on the last hole. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them, then there's Rony.... Let's face it Rone, you were a little unlucky! Today was hot! I dont mean a day that made me sweat a little or a day that made me appreciate a nice cool shower, I mean a day that made me feel like I was Frodo at the end of the Lord of the Rings saga when he's trying to drop the ring into mount doom! The shade gave us a little respite but by 10am the ground was hot, our feet were hot and Jock looked like a lobster in a pot!  So, knowing it was going to be hot I came prepared. I had bamboo socks, an ice pack and 3 bottles of iced water to keep me in the zone. Along with the u

  With no rain in sight the course is getting dryer and dustier and somewhat less than predictable. No surprise then that with even a little wind the scores were down on average, helped of course by my round containing 7 blobs! I do have an injury which is making it harder to type this report but for a score of 19 there is little excuse! Thankyou to my Summer League team mates for getting our average up this week. The average stableford score this week was down to 29.42 and the average gross score up to 95.8.  No aces this week but the 16th was popular for birdies. Birdies for Steve Brewerton (16) Paul Gardner (7 and 16)  James Miller (16) Tony Froud (Lucky 17) Martin Lythgoe (2) and Steve Reynolds (9) Well done all! The winner this week benefited from a lift in his handicap due to good rounds from last year dropping off the list resulting in his recent form being more accurately represented, I checked the numbers (prompted by a 4 point par on 16) and no issue there! Peter Creighton st