Aldwickbury Park Early Birds

We dodged the weather again this week, as I write this brief report the sun has gone away and it's looking very much the rain is coming. A pleasant morning with moderate breeze made for another excellent day on the golf course.  Firstly I'd like to apologise for the mix-up with the scoring this morning. I honestly woke up and had a mare, with the fat finger issue on the booking AND forgetting to update the score sheets with the correct golfers. Anyway, it didn't impact my golf, more of that later. The bridesmaid posted the pic below on the WhatsApp this morning demonstrating how to use your driver as a spade! There were complaints from golfers following that they lost their balls down the hole that Steve left behind on the tee box. I'm assuming you didn't get past the ladies tee SR? Birdies today for yours truly (14) Steve Reynolds (8 and 16) Richard Hyne (6) Coenraad Fourie (1) Roger Gibbs (3) Roger Small (3) and Pete Laurence (3) Well done all! Summer league today...

In anticipation of rain and thunder Tony thought he'd turn up sporting a new look today, known in the trade as "Hammer-Tone" this new look has really taken off with the St Albans East-Side Massive. Tony kindly posed for me this morning before stepping out, I didn't realise he'd brought a friend! When asked about Tony's new look, popular fashion consultant Gok Wan confirmed that Tony was rocking it! We got away with the weather with only a short rain shower all morning and no thunder/lightning to contend with and Tony clearly found the new outfit heavy going judging by the scores. At least he didn't have to walk the course with all that bling, John's buggy was clearly struggling by the 18th! A 5 shot deduction for use of a buggy was discussed but Tony threw in the towel instead.  Welcome to Stephen Brewerton today who joined us for the first time. Stephen posted a solid 91 gross today and scored 28 points on his provisional 12 handicap.  The scoring was...

When we last swindled, England were making there way through the group stages of the Euros and none of us would've imagined that the next swindle would be the eve of an England vs Italy final at Wembley! Well today it is the eve of that final and the omens are good with lady luck shining down on the group today and keeping the rain away. Before we get to the scoring etc. a request from DS to stop leaving the ball lifter thingies up when you leave the green. Apparently two groups were accused of doing this so best the rest of us learn from their error and make sure they are down before you leave the green. This hopefully only applies for the next 9 days and in any case only applies to Andy Simpkin!!! Martin Lythgoe was guilty by association I believe.  Perfect conditions for golf today with hardly any wind and some good scoring. Average stableford of 30.15 and average gross down at 92.54.  Birdies today were surprisingly scarce. Steve Reynolds (17) and Duncan Miller (5) Our gro...

Well lockdown continues until at least 19 July but at least we're able to play golf! A dull overcast morning with a heavily watered course with light winds made for a pleasant morning of golf. 4 of our number were off CBLing so we were down to 12 starters off 3 "normal" tee times. This meant that for the first time in many months we all met on the patio for drinks and were able to announce the result. The results report therefore is more for those who couldn't make it on the day. The scores were good today with an average of 30.58 stableford and 95.7 gross despite one of our number failing to make 20 points. In fact 9 out of 12 players were above 30 points today so well done to all. Birdies today for Pete Laurence and Peter Creighton (9 and 17) and Duncan Miller (16)  Our winner today with 35 points was Martin Deery. Martin had a steady 17 out and 18 in with only a few dropped points on the card. Well done Martin. In second place yours truly with 34 points. I struggle...

Ole ole - ole ole / Ole ole - ole ole,   Feeling hot hot hot - Feeling hot hot hot ! Yes it was hot! Thankfully we were playing on Saturday and not Sunday as Sunday forecast shows 27-30 degrees which is just too hot for walking around looking for balls in the rough! Of course it's that time of year when the green keepers are making sure that play is slow and stableford scores are low by letting the grass grow and rolling those greens. We had some respite with the rain in recent weeks but I think we're in for concrete fairways for the next few weeks. Still, life is great when not on the course so best not complain. This week I had the pleasure of playing at 7am on an unsurprisingly empty course in a 3 ball with only two of the original 4. I was initially very unhappy that I'd volunteered for the switch due to being up late drinking beer the night before but as it warmed up found myself feeling rather smug as I exited the course at around 11am, all be it light on points (sorr...

Finally, we're allowed indoors to meet with our friends and family, share food and drink and hug each other and then out comes the sunshine! We shouldn't complain, it's been a long time coming and looks like we have a bank holiday with good weather. We were short on numbers today with a few of our number opting to play in a match and some drop-outs.  We had the pleasure of Andy in our group today and he was sporting a new putter. It was so new that he still had the plastic cover on it. It's probably just as well as he was NOT the same Andy that turned up last Saturday. His driver seemed to be working ok but the putter was definitely not. It's easy to forget the things that Andy says, particularly as he says so much, but today I'll focus on the first tee. I teed off first and hit a very high drive down the middle of the fairway (yes, down the middle!!) Pete complemented me on the drive saying it looked good, Andy didn't agree, "Did it though?" said ...

  Yes it's been great weather for ducks and the course was a little less than firm under foot today. Thankfully the rain stayed away for the morning allowing us to bumble around the course.  Early in the morning a strange man was found wandering around the golf course by the first group. They approached him cautiously as he seemed a bit lost and out of place but as they got closer they realised it was Martin Lythgoe, not some homeless person. Martin had previously planned to play elsewhere, favouring the company of others rather than the early birds but this was cancelled due to course conditions, at least that's what Martin's new friends told him.... Some birdies on the board to talk about today including two worth a mention. The first one was from Roger Small who found the bottom of the green on 14 then putted the ball all the way up the hill and found the hole, just. The second was Richard Hyne who hit the flag on 18 with his second shot with the ball dropping down for a...