Aldwickbury Park Early Birds

The last day of October in a year we'd all like to forget. With another national lockdown looming our intrepid group decided to brave the forecast heavy rain and strong winds to get some golf in before we're stopped again from enjoying ourselves. Enjoyable is not a word which would be appropriate to describe todays ludicrous conditions. At one point it was hard to see the ball through the air due to the rain and by the time Paul and I had finished the back 9 it felt like I'd jumped in a swimming pool with all of my clothes on.  With (lucky) Richard missing out due to a puncture, we were reduced to 3 balls on the 08:44 and 08:52 tee times. We thought we would be in for a slow round with a four ball in front. As we rounded the corner onto the second tee however, the second fairway was empty. "Wow, they've cleared the second already!" I observer, "no they haven't said Paul, they're over there!" I looked like the whole group had decided to go the...

A gloomy grey Saturday with a forecast of strong gusting winds and rain later in the day. Definitely a day that should favour the early start. Fortunately we had two groups out by 8am to take advantage of the conditions. The average score was higher this week reflecting that our group is adjusting to the winter conditions and benefiting no doubt from preferred lies being in play this week. Birdies this week for Andy (11), Pete Laurence (16) and James Miller (2,9,10) Our winner this week is Peter Creighton with 39 points. A solid front 9 of 19 followed by a more solid back 9 of 20 takes the prize. Well done Peter. In second place is Andy Simpkin with 38 points. Andy started with a slightly below average 15 but spurred on by a birdie on 11 went on to post 23 on the back 9! Well done Andy. The front 9 (18 points) went to Duncan who also took 4th place this week. Had Duncan not had so much trouble with the par 5s this week he may have taken the prize. 9 over gross Duncan, not bad at all, w...

It's been a few weeks since the last outing, weather and competitions have seen to that, so it was nice to be out playing with the Swindle this weekend.  The forecast was for a grey old day with a small chance of the odd rain shower. The rain held off, the winds were light, perfect conditions for golf! The averages reflected the conditions with average stableford of 30 and an average gross score of 92.33. This week saw the introduction of the long awaited internal out of bounds between 12 and 13 on the 12th hole. It seems the 12th took more than it's fair share of victims today. It is, I think, ironic that the purpose of the OOB it to prevent people driving the hedge yet the first victim of the swindle was yours truly who NEVER uses a driver off this tee. My 7 iron was pushed slightly right helped by a little wind and took a nasty bounce to nestle on the line between the last two posts and therefore OOB.  There were birdies for James (5), Pete Laurence (6) Peter Creighton (3) ...

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...