There was a mighty dingdong of a battle for the Ice Bucket at Temple yesterday. Four Ballbashers made it to the starting line and the balls fell so that MikeS and RobM formed one team and MikeW and Richard the second. The weather was kind with no wind, rain or frost and in was warm enough for 4 layers to be sufficient.
The competition was for the Ice Bucket which is a Better Ball team game and with just 2 pairs playing we could all see the whites of the opponents’ eyes (or at least the bloodshot whites). I am not going to bore you with a shot-by-shot account of the match but I will say that the golf was of the highest calibre for a BB game. Vey few tee-shots were duffed apart from one which I will tell of later and the scoring was high.
After the 6th hole on which RobM scored 4 points we were tied at 16 points each team. We then halved the 7th with 3 points each and came to the 8th where from the lower tee, I out my tee-shot to within 8 feet of of the pin while MikeS was about 15 feet away. His putt was on a great line but pulled up 6 inches short while I sunk mine for a 4-pointer and with 2 points each on the 8th, that gave MikeW and myself victory on the front 9 by just 1 point, 25 to 24.
En-route, RobM, who had been driving consistently longer than the rest of us, claimed the LD prize on the 6th with a drive which was at least 40 yards ahead of everybody. He managed to turn this into a successful 4-pointer – Mike and I hadn’t minded him out-driving us so often if he didn’t convert his drives into pars but his performance on the 6th brought a whole new set of dangers as far as were concerned.
Our individual scores thus far were MikeW (17) and Richard (23), MikeS (21) and RobM (19) so, just like last week, although both teams had combined totals of 40 points, our meshing had been one hole better to give us a 1 shot lead.
The scoring dropped off a tad on the back 9 and at one stage MikeW and I had a 2 shot lead but they drew level after the 15th. On the 16th you leave your bags about 50 yards in front of the tee and walk back to drive off. It was here when the only seriously wayward drive occurred when MikeW hit a hard low drive to the right of the target and struck my bag with a great force before canon’ing down towards the 15th green where he must have enjoyed an interesting discussion with the guys finishing the hole there. Fortunately for the team I enjoyed better fortune and scored 3 points which MikeS and RobM matched on the 17th.
So we reached the 18th all square on the back 9. We used this hole for the NPin2 prize and we all put our second shots onto the green. It was only when we arrived there that we could see that my ball was marginally closer than my partner’s at about 20 feet from the hole while our opponents were right down on the bottom edge of the green. I should say at this point that the greens were incredibly smooth, not over-fast which suited me, but just like carpet so the putts rolled beautifully.
Both teams scored 3 points so we finished all square on the back 9 with our one shot lead on the front sufficient to give MikeW and myself the narrowest of victories for the Ice Bucket by 46 points to 45.
MikeW and Richard 25 + 21 = 46
MikeS and Robert 24 + 21 = 45
Richard (42), MikeW (32) = combined 74, MikeS (39) and RobM (36) = combined 75.
LD RobM
NP and NPin2 Richard
