After a week of in-depth soul-searching email debate about the relative speed of progress if you have a singleton in a buggy as opposed to a pair plus a reminder of the BB Local Rule concerning a lost ball, the opportunity arose at Huntswood yesterday to put some of this fuzzy logic to the test.

The Lego bricks were dealt out amongst the 8 players and the pairings were MikeW & Alan playing with Bill & myself, being followed by MikeS & Nick and PeterR & JohnS. All of the 3 buggy riders had their own buggy so we couldn’t test the relative speeds but we could check on the efficient positioning of the buggy when its occupant headed for the green. We need to stage a trial one day with a 4-ball comprising 2 players sharing a buggy and the other pair having their own individual buggies accompanied by a senior BB equipped with a stopwatch and a clipboard. In our group later on we also discovered that the buggy riders over 80 need regular driving tests.

If precise comparative measurement of buggy riders’ performance was not on the cards, testing the familiarity with the Lost Ball rules was very much so with lots of Out-of-Bounds opportunities plus many water hazards and balls running for miles into remote boondocks.

Our group got off to a truly impressive start with 3 out of the 4 of us losing balls in the two duck ponds now sited right in front of the 1st green. The 3 of us in the ponds had all decided to lay up with a gentle shot down the middle towards the hidden-from-view ponds – sadly the delicacy required exceeded what we could muster and all 3 balls were lost. The 4th member of the group had, sensibly as it turned out, put his drive into the fairway bunker and his bunker shot meandered its way down the hill and came to rest inside the hazard but not in the water and perfectly playable. That was MikeW and perhaps this was an augury of what was to come.

The rest of the front 9 holes were spent in fierce competition with Bill and I managing to mesh better than MikeW and Alan and thereby emerged the victor of our local better-ball team competition by 20 points to 18. MikeW claimed that their plan had always been to lull us into a false sense of security (impossible on a golf course!) before beating us up on the back 9.

Initially Bill stopped them in their tracks with a 3 for 4 points on the 11th followed by a brilliant 4 for 4 points on the Stroke Index 2 13th hole. They then got into their stride with a series of 3-pointers and by the 18th tee they held a 1 point lead overall courtesy of us cocking up the uphill Par 3 17th. This was despite us attempting to sabotage their efforts by having Bill run over Alan’s foot in the buggy.

The concept of using the buggy as a Weapon of Mass Destruction had not arisen during the detailed discussions during the week and maybe we need another BB Local Rule to cover this issue – the penalty would have to be dependant on the severity of the injury and whether or not the injured area was part of the original equipment or a more robust titanium replacement. In this case, despite Alan hoping that Bill’s buggy might have cured some form of foot deformation or even a bunion, the result was no noticeable difference in Alan’s score but Bill, who had been the team inspiration earlier in the back 9, obviously was effected by guilt and deigned not to score for the last few holes.

If, if , if, if my putt from 10 feet for a par on the 18th had been a foot longer we would have halved the match but as it was we went down by 1 point. Of course there was always the possibility that one of the other pairs might have topped all of us but only the denouement in the clubhouse would reveal the answer to that.

I should have said that, although the sun shone wonderfully for the whole round, we did have to contend with something close to gale force gusts from a north-easterly – us sailing folk would have had plenty of reefs in the mainsail but sadly I know of no way to reef a wedge and the wind played havoc with our approach shots or soi we could claim. A Scotsman should have been at home in the conditions with lots of low running 7-irons being needed, but Alan’s languid style does not include such shots. JohnS has always been a keen user of these and it is noticeable that he scored well on the day.

BBs returning to the clubhouse reported on many opportunities to use the Lost Ball rule so I think that we can presume that amongst this 8 BBs, that rule is now well bedded in. There was also only one example of a buggy being left 50 yards up the fairway when heading to the green to putt. A rapidly convened Disciplinary Panel dealt swiftly with the issue and all was fine without any top-heavy punishment such as keel-hauling.

The chat on the terrace afterwards strayed occasionally into the very risky area of questioning handicaps – the current DisHon Sec Handicapping once again made it very clear that he would be delighted if one of these sceptics would took over his mantle. Given that most of them would have trouble moving beads on an abacus, the thought of any of them taking over the highly temperamental Mighty Wurlitzer is too worrying to contemplate.

The team scores were:
MikeW & Alan: 18 + 24 = 42 (wins back 9 and overall)
Bill & Richard: 20 + 21 = 41 (wins share of front 9)
JohnS & PeterR: 20 + 20 = 40 (wins share of front 9)
MikeS & Nick: 12 + 13 =25

MikeW continued his winning ways in the League:
MikeW (38), Richard (33), JohnS & PeterR (28), Bill (27), Alan (26), MikeS (20) and Nick (13).

Next week its the first Eclectic League game – summer must be here.