With the Order of Merit firmly decided for 2022 it was good to see some keen stalwarts for breakfast and on the 1st tee at the heavily modified course.
PaulB was keen to stick to his diet, but failed miserably when confronted with the best £9 breakfast this side of the M25. Others (IanT knows who he is) couldn’t remember what they’d ordered and JohnT ate the last friendless bap.
Eleven golfers managed to hit the opening, generous, fairway. Bringing up the rear was a late arriving Rick. Out of breath, he failed to keep up the remarkable quality of golf shown by the rest😩.
The usual howling wind and horizontal rain on this course was mercifully absent, but the thousands of trees that have been planted over the years still seem stunted and losing the fight to stay upright. Beanie hats for JohnT, Prev and Beardy (and his jacket) marked them out as wimps in such benign weather.
Scores reflected the conditions and a good standard emerged across the board. This hid a multitude of sins, misdemeanours, mistakes and cussedness that were duly taken into account when the fines were dished out.
It’s great to see how keen SteveW is to subsidise our future rounds through the fines kitty. With 5 puts on the 9th and nearly hitting his own trolley that he’d parked 50 yards ahead of the tee on the 12th, he was on a roll. Carrying his clubs whilst pushing his trolley across the ‘No Trolley’ lines was unusual, but certainly not out of character. Setting off his car alarm was the icing on the cake.
MarkB spent the day bouncing off buggy wheels, out of bunkers and lakes but didn’t evade the fines master. Frazer started the day poorly by bringing in an unpolished trophy and finished by not putting his name on the16th NP and aiming at the NP2 marker on the 18th and missing!. IanT played safe on the 8th but still found water. This was good practice for the 14th when he played out of the pond. Good job his trousers were waterproof. The choice of the 7th for one of the NPs was not popular. The Captain, despite his years of experience, confuses a slice as playing for a fade. Prev confused his sand wedge and 8 iron, and did something with his trolley to the Captain that was indecipherable on the DOB sheet.
Alan found to his cost that, although the fines master may be ‘Over the Hill’, one shouldn’t say it in polite company. Sitting before the Captain at the excellent dinner proved expensive.
Congratulations to all the prize winners, with Steve receiving the winners trophy from Captain Shorter.
See you all soon!
Roving reporter: John Thorp