Aldwickbury Park Early Birds

A cold brisk northerly wind signalled that winter is nearly upon us, quite a contrast from recent weeks. The colder conditions and recent rain meant receptive fairways and greens allowing a bit more aggression but the wind was strong and would be a major factor in play. Mention for the Miller brothers and myself Paul the Champ Gardner last week in the Captains day. Securing 4th and 2nd place respectively with 43 points. Paul may've mentioned it but we managed 2nd due to a well worked birdie on the 18th. A monster 5 wood from me off the tee followed by two wedge shots to within 6 feet or so of the pin to choose from. We chose the longer of the two which was below the hole and Paul putted out. A real team effort and we could've won overall had it not been for fluffing our second shots on the 13th following a another monster tee shot putting us within 107 yards of the pin. Two duff attempts meant the best we could manage was 5 for 2 rather than the 3 for 4 the tee shot deserved. T...

The inaugural Aldwickbury Park Early Birds Autumn Meet took place on Sunday/Monday 20/21 September 2020 at Wokefield Park.  Prizes for each day: 1st - Box of Srixon AD333 Tour balls plus PGA Towel / Repair tool set. 2nd - 6 AD333 Tour balls. Front/Back 9 - 3 AD333 Tour balls. Day 1 Tony Froud had already made his apologies for not wearing the trousers in his house and being unable to attend the first round due to "visitors." Unlucky Tony! Everyone else managed to make it to the first tee on time for our 13:16 start and in time to be told to stand further away from each other by a grumpy pro.  The weather was hot and windy and the fairways and greens were baked to a pavement like consistency making for some challenging golf with every wayward shot (and some not wayward) being exaggerated by the course.  Scoring was difficult and the average score of 28.09 reflected this. Highlight of the day for me was Roger Gibbs warning us of the second tee that you should avoid the jigs...

Perfect golfing conditions yet again at Adwickbury Park and a healthy turnout, double last week's count, to compete for the pot. There is only one story this week and it was interesting to behold if somewhat unbelievable. Duncan Miller started the day with not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4 but 5 blobs in a row. Yes, you heard it here, 5!!  Things didn't look great when his tee shot on the first scuttled off the toe of his driver down the right of the course. He put his second shot within range and we expected the usual DM recovery shot but he inexplicably overshot the green. He didn't manage to get it in close enough so was resigned to a doughnut on the first.  On the second another duffer off the tee followed by a trick shot bouncing off the ground and going about 20 feet forward. A reasonable shot in towards the green followed but DM yet again failed to recover and get down in the necessary 5 shots to score.  On the third he topped his tee shot long and left. He proceeded to k...

Apologies for the severe delay in publishing this week, I've been making friends with Mr Kidney Stone who joined me on Monday morning and has hopefully gone as I write this note. I wouldn't recommend his company, he's likely to stab you in the back or the side without any notice at all! Hopefully he's gone now but my guard is up! I was absent from this weeks proceedings thanks to the Men's plate on Sunday and golf at Walton Heath on Friday. Walton Heath went quite well with me managing to use the same ball for 30 holes of golf and scoring 34 points and James Miller scoring 33 points and taking away the guest prize of a few bottles of fizz. A splendid time on a very challenging Surrey heath land course. The food was excellent also btw! Sunday didn't go so well as I asked my playing partner if it was a stableford competition and he incorrectly replied "Yes" In my absence I have a couple of contributions from people who did play this weekend. First from M...

 A very bright and breezy day made for some challenging golf but perhaps more enjoyable than last week with no rain forecast. Thanks Steve for sharing the video of our intrepid Peter Creighton playing not one recovery shot but two from his favourite position on the 10th. I found one of Peter’s balls on 10 in a very similar position whilst looking for my own wayward drive, this was duly returned to it’s owner on the 16th when we crossed paths.  Also, thanks for the picture of Alex’s trick shot on 12, maybe a trip to the Fairground next time, try the ping pong balls into the gold fish bowls! Finally thanks to Martin for clearing up the confusion about bunkers being in and out of play by having the good sense to not trust his memory and take a photo of the sign in the club house. Someone should perhaps mention that placing such signs at the first tee might be a useful idea! Birdies this week for John James (17), James Miller (16) and Andy Simpkin (1) Scoring was generally reasona...

 What a difference a week can make. Constant rain over recent days with showers forecast for the day. My forecast was 25% chance of light showers, what it didn’t say was 75% change of heavy showers! It was wet, wet, wet!!  It was so wet, our back-up manual card nearly didn't survive With standing water on the greens and squelchy ground under foot we were in for some pretty poor scores today. The average stableford score was just 29.27.   I saw a first today, two birdies scored by two players on the same hole, both with 30ft+ puts and both perfectly executed. This happened on the 3 rd hole where Richard sunk an amazing 30ft+ put which was perfectly weighted starting out right and looping gradually in to drop into the hole, any less weight and it would have been a near miss. “You’ve seen how to do it now Roger, you just need to do the same.” He had and he did, another perfectly weighted put. Well done both, that was worth writing about.   Two more birdies ...

A hot a windy day at AP promised punishing playing conditions and it delivered. However this seems to have been agreeable for most and our average score posted of 33.71 was one of the best ever.  Before I get to scoring I must relay a few tit bits shared by a member of the group in front of me. When we arrived at the seventh hole Roger "Hits it like DeChambau" Small had accumulated 21 points including a 2 for 5  on the 7th. Roger proceeded to crumble on 8 starting hooking the ball about 120 yards into the long rough separating the 8th and 7th holes followed by a hitting the ball to the right of the course resulting in a lost ball. This was despite the efforts of his fellow golfers who at this point were already very well rehearsed locating Roger's balls. Roger had a chance to reboot his round on 11 when he chipped his second shot onto the green only for his colleagues to point out that he had chosen to strike the wrong ball and was playing Peter Creighton's provisiona...