Unless you happen to carry a conch shell in your bag, you have to have very acute hearing indeed to hear the sound of the sea when on Temple golf course but Temple has always marketed itself as a links-style course and right now that is exactly what it feels like – with the dry fairways running very fast, the wind blowing hard and the sun shining. However there is one significant difference between the typical links course and Temple and that is that most links courses do not include fairways on the extreme tilt and, therefore, if you hit your ball straight down the middle that is where it will go – not so on Temple.
Yesterday, obviously the latter problem did not in any way affect the one Ballbasher brought up playing golf on links courses where strong winds are almost always an ever-present – and that is Alan. Working as a student at a hotel overlooking the Royal and Ancient’s St Andrews’ fairways, he was able to bunk off and take his pick of the links courses presumably with Maureen on the bag which is possibly why he carries only 6 golf clubs.
A sensible golfer yesterday should have concluded in the car park that it would have been sensible to leave most wedges in the car and go for the low running shots. I, for one, gave no thought to this idea. JohnS, who was not playing yesterday, was brought up in Brighton and he is a great fan of the low runner as well.
The balls fell so that MikeS and Alan formed one team, playing with Roger who was partnered with Bill. In the second group PeterR and RobM formed one team and Richard and MikeW the other. Despite RobM hooking his first drive into the trees on the left – a not untypical event, his partner Peter par’ed the hole and MikeW and I found ourselves on the back foot straightaway.
Peter hits the ball a long way and for the most part he was belting it down the fairways on the front 9 and even if it never rose more than 2 feet off the ground the ball just ran and ran. By the time we came off the 7th green he already had 17 points and with Rob contributing 4 on the 7th and 3 on the 8th, they comfortably beat MikeW and myself 22 to 19 on the front 9. The only hole they struggled on was the alarmingly tilted 9th hole where, to avoid your ball rolling down the hill into the Thames at Hurley, the only sensible club to use was the putter.
Elsewhere Alan was giving a master-class in the art of avoiding the wind, clocking up 4 points on both the 1st and the 6th holes and scoring 21 on the front 9. This as exactly the same score as his team’s so I guess that Gangsta MikeS spent that 9 holes just congratulating his partner and polishing his sporran whenever required.
They also scored 21 on the back 9 which was unfairly consistent of them but, by now, MikeS had clearly taken advice from his partner and he made a solid contribution. By the time we reached the back 9, MikeW had remembered which end of the club to use and we gave a better account of ourselves which coupled with our immediate opposition going slightly off the boil, meant that we ended up drawing that 9.
Deciding that we had been battered by the wind for long enough, despite the sunshine we ate inside the clubhouse where we were joined by Nick, JohnT and Stuart who was on crutches but who had amazingly driven himself to Temple, once again giving us all a lesson in how to stay upbeat in trying circumstances. Alan spent some time over lunch trying to influence the DisHon Sec Handicapping, Nick, with offers of sponge cake to look kindly on him when it comes to calculating his new handicap but Nick is as immutable as granite when it comes to handicapping matters despite his addictions.
The team scores were as follows:
Alan & MikeS: 21 + 21 = 42
PeterR & RobM 22 + 18 = 40
MikeW & Richard 19 + 19 = 38
Bill & Roger 17 + 13 = 30
The individual league scores:
Alan (37), Richard (33), PeterR (31), RobM (30), MikeS (29), MikeW (25), Roger (22) and Bill (20).
Be First to Comment