Aldwickbury Park Early Birds

  Sunshine all the way today and the time for the legs to come out.  Fine sunny conditions on the golf course this morning with a brisk easterly wind to remind us that it's technically still winter! We started the weekend with potential for controversy with our competition master, on one of his very rare posts on WhatsApp, suggesting we should perhaps abandon the rules of the game in favour of having fun. Well, the early group were having none of it and voted 3 to 0 that we should play by the actual rules of golf. This wasn't to help us at all but I will sleep easy tonight knowing that no matter how bad the rules make your round seem on paper, there is always someone worse off than yourself. Before we get to the scoring I'll share a few of my more comedy moments on what was a pretty underwhelming round for me. On the first hole I hit a reasonable drive into the rough on the right of the course. Finding the rough of course means the ball stops a bit quicker than normal and I...

  A little cold and more than a little windy this week but I think we were happy to have the course open and to be out playing. The course was wet and muddy and the wind was a big hinderance on some of the more exposed holes. This didn't stop all but two players scoring less than 100 today with an average score of 91.8 and average stableford score of 30.92.  According to an unnamed source, the wind helped Roger Small to slice first and second ball into the woods off the first tee today. This didn't stop Roger giving some advice to James Miller on the 5th when he was having trouble chipping on. It would appear from the score that Roger's advice didn't help on 5 but inspire James to pars on the next two holes. The inspiration continued on the back 9 where on the 12th James hit the ball into the hedge and received a "lucky" bounce out (10 yards back) then proceeded to get over the hedge and up and down for Par!  Birdies today for Steve Reynolds (5,6) James Miller...

  What a contrast from the weather of a week ago. A frosty but fine start to the day with light winds. It made it difficult to track the ball for the first few holes but beats sitting indoors watching the trees bending over and fence panels flying around.  The course is still difficult in parts due to the normal winter wear but it was in very good condition given the recent wet and windy weather. There is a lot of debris to negotiate around the course, particularly around 10/11 which seem to have accumulated more than a fair share.  Anyway, the conditions were fine, we were chomping at the bit and that must lead to some good scores! More than half of the field of 14 scored 30 or more and whilst there were 6 stragglers, one had a really good excuse, he only played two thirds of the course.  Yes, Richard applied his usual just in time approach to getting to the golf course only to find himself under house arrest. The Chinese made keyless entry system had decided that h...

Apologies for the late posting of this report but I had to dash off to Cornwall after my round and I'm now writing this report as the sun comes up over Widemouth Bay.  Back to swindling after a couple of weeks of Captain's out and in. Some good results for the members of the swindle. Myself and Martin Lythgoe were part of the top two groups in the Drive Out and Peter Creighton and Jock Hunter were 2nd and 3rd in the Drive in. Also, as mentioned by MetroGnome on the WhatsApp, 7 Early Birds in the top 20!  The weather was ok considering it's the middle of February. A bit windy but quite mild and fairly firm course conditions with the grass starting to grow again. Spring is just round the corner! Well done to Peter Creighton for getting a round posted in the end. 0740, 09:56 and 08:36 were I think just some of the tee times that Peter was up for. Tony kindly dropped out to make space for Peter on an Early Birds slot. Looks like Richard turned down the opportunity to post a swi...

  Well this reporter doesn't have much to say about the golf this week having struggled to wake up before 10am this morning after getting back home from a party at 3am! Glad I bailed on the 07:40 tee time in the end as I don't think it would have been good for my stats. Not having experienced today's conditions I can only suppose that they looked like good conditions and the scores generally reflected this.  A few birdies today: Pete Laurence (9) Steve Brewerton (9) Coenraad Fourie (15) and Paul Gardner (17) Well done gents. Our winner today with 39 points is Steve Reynolds. Steve seems to be getting the hang of winning these days and with a round of 78 definitely deserved it. Well done Steve. In second place, snapping at Steve's heals with a solid 38 points is Andy Simpkin. Is Andy going for the bridesmaid spot this year, 2 second places from 2 matches so far! Well done Andy. Front 9 went to Roger Small who managed 21 points on the front 9 but could only post another 1...

  HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!! Yes it was a very wet start to the 2022 campaign and it made for a VERY tough round for us mere mortals. It rained pretty much all the way round and by the back 9 there was plenty of standing water on the greens. WHY then did so many people finish!!?? Martin Deery, Tony Froud and John James had the good sense to call it a day after 9 holes. Tony's motives come into question when you look at his front 9 score, more on that soon! One quite remarkable incident today and sadly I can only give an impression of what happened despite being there as I cannot recall where exactly on the course this happened. Richard eagerly approached the tee box and went through his normal warm up routine then promptly released the club on a practice swing and launched it over to the left of the fairway. Thankfully no-one was hurt in this unusual display of aggression but I'm convinced it impacted my concentration for the rest of the round. Judging by my scorecard, it happened re...

  Well, in 2020 I got done by two MDs, in 2021 it seems I got done again by two MDs. -           2021: My MD advised me not to play golf after I had fallen drunkenly from a train preventing me playing for the two points I needed to regain the POTY top spot which had recently been taken by M artin Lythgoe and to add insult to injury D uncan Miller also leapfrogged me on the last day to share the spoils with Martin. -           2021: My MD told me to self-isolate after testing positive for the dreaded Covid-19 virus which has been responsible for a couple of years of grief. Then on the last day of the season M artin D eery swoops in to take the top spot with a nail-biting win, which we’ll get to later. As I write this report and reflect on what could have been this season, I could allow myself to be despondent thinking about what could’ve been, but I think this was meant to be a year of ...