Aldwickbury Park Early Birds

  Magic man was out with us on the course today. Paul Gardner (AKA Paul Daniels?) performed some pretty amazing slight of hand/magic with the ball on the putting green. We watched in amazement as he putted the ball straight through the flag to the opposite side of the hole. Had he done this just once we would've suspected it was just a fluke and maybe our good old friend lady luck was up to no good but he repeated this feat on a number of occasions. Did he make the ball disappear and reappear or was it the hole? Either way we were all perplexed by this show. Steve Brewerton had a go at doing what Paul was doing but could only manage to sling-shot round the hole and end some way back from where he came. Best leave these dark arts to those who understand them! Paul tried to play it down by missing a certain put on 16 by hitting the ground before the ball but we were not fooled by this, we've seen what he is capable of. Behind us on 16, Steve Reynolds found a way to avoid putting ...

  From Wikipedia... Luck  is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The  naturalistic  interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to random and non-random natural and artificial processes, and that even improbable events can happen by  random chance . In this view, the epithet "lucky" or "unlucky" is a descriptive label that refers to an event's positivity, negativity, or improbability. Well there was some good luck to be witnessed out on the course today for sure. The luck of Jock on the 13th hole where his duff second shot trickled through the hedge and came to rest in the drop zone for the path. There was the luck of my second shot on the 16th which went into and out of the bunker to give me a shot at reaching with the 3rd shot. There was no doubt some bad luck also with puts not quite dropping, the unfortunate bounces into the rough...

  After the recent hot spell it was almost a relief to wake up to evidence of rainfall and the threat of showers as we embarked on this weeks melee at Aldwickbury Park. Some confusion this week as Pete Laurence had dropped out with Covid (get well soon Pete) and Coenraad turned up to take his place only to realise he was actually already down to play. This is what happens to people who have reached that time of life where every day is pretty much the same as the rest, I know!  Anyhow, all was well and 11 turned out to what was to prove to be a pretty good day of golf.  The benign conditions resulted in some excellent scores. 10 out of the 11 players managed to score 30 points or more and it was pretty tight as the range of those 10 was only 9 points. 33.73 was the average stableford score and our gross score average was 94.  There were 8 birdies out there today including a remarkable 3 birdies in our group on the 11th hole. I think this may be a record and as one of ...

  As we kick of this year's Olympic Games, following a soggy opening ceremony last night the sun shows it's face again over Harpenden. A nice cool breeze with a gradually hardening course made for some fun golf. Of course, or should I say off course, the rough is still brutal and although we got around in around 4hrs 20mins, it felt a lot longer. Only one birdie out there this week to Pete Williams on 12. Well done Pete. The average gross score was 95.5 and the average stableford score was 31.09, both meeting our "usual" standard.  Our winner this week with 41 points is Peter Creighton. Pete had trained all week to take this week's title and he's playing tomorrow to keep a good run going. Well done Pete, a well deserved victory. In second place is Pete Laurence with 34 points. Well done Pete, a good score despite the lack of birdies we usually see on your cards.  Steve Reynolds took the front 9 with 17 points. Well done Steve. Pete Williams took the back 9 wit...

  Jason shared a picture of his garage this week following a slightly drunken commitment to decorate it IF England reached the final. Well done England for making Jason go to the trouble!! Following last weekend's washout conditions for the club champs (now rearranged for end of August) the conditions were near perfect this week and the scoring reflected that. Average stableford score was up at a healthy 32.57 and gross score average was at 93.4. In fact all but two early birds managed to break 30, a rare event given a field of 14 players.  A story from the course this week from one Roger (Gibbs) about another Roger (Small)....  Story of Roger on 6. Standing on the tee, standard warmup and THWACK. Massive divot behind the ball. Ball still on tee. Takes another swing, the ball rolls at 100mph, hits the yellow tee marker, knocking it 10 feet down the tee. Ball rebounds to our left in the trees, about a yard in front of us. Thanks Roger's for the contribution, I wish I was t...

  Well this picture doesn't get used much these days but it's perhaps appropriate given we've had over a week of sunshine albeit with some windy days to keep the temperature down. I was happy to be out in the earlier group this given the hot weather that was forecast having already suffered super hot temperatures on Monday this week.  Scoring was made a little difficult this weekend by the brutal rough which is not giving up balls easily. We had a bit of hunting to do on our round and we saw one of the later groups hunting on the first hole, perhaps the shape of things to come. The average scores today were not the best but certainly not the worst. Average stableford score was 29 points and average gross score was 96.4. There were only 3 birdies out there this week: Pete Laurence (15) Andy Simpkin (8) and Duncan Miller (4) Well done gents - Notable that nearly 50% of Duncan's front 9 score was due to his birdie! The winner today was yours truly with 36 points. I think t...

  I am First. I am First. First I am. That First I am! That First I am! I do not like that First I am!   Would you like to be the man? I do not like to be the man. I do not like it First I am.   Would you like it on the course? I would not like it on the course. I would not like to be first of course. I do not like to be the man I do not like it, First I am   Would you like it in the bar, to be the best man by far? I would not like it in the bar. I don’t want to be the best by far. I do not like to be the man. I do not like it, First I am.   Would you like it on the wall? I would not like it on the wall. I would not want to feel so tall. I do not want to be the man. I just don’t want it, First I am.   Would you like it on the shelf? Would you like it for yourself? Not on a shelf. Not for myself. Not on the wall. Not feeling tall. I would not want to be the man. I would not want it, First I am. Wo...