By and large most Ballbashers are virtually in the dark when it comes to working out how best to execute any golf shot – at Maidenhead on Wednesday we were very nearly physically in the dark as well – luckily we were blessed with a full moon as we just about managed to stagger over the finishing line as the sun rose in California.
The reasons for this late finish can be partially linked to the late start we had been given by Maidenhead but also to that sensitive area of speed of play which is not a subject suitable for discussion in a polite wide-open forum such as this, but there is no doubt that the first group out found that their golf suffered from being watched by the second group out leaning on their clubs on the tee or fairway behind them and relief was only obtained when they let the second group through. Probably that’s the lesson to be drawn from this adventure. It is permissible (albeit marginally embarrassing) for Ballbashers to let other Ballbashers through in the same way as they would let any other players through if they felt that they were holding them up too consistently.
As for the golf, we found the course in excellent condition despite the threat of bulldozers taking over in the not-too-distant future. The ball was not running very far because of the lushness of the fairways and the greens were not as quick as we have known them to be but they were very smooth.
None of this bothered MikeS as he set off determined to hold onto the trophy he won last year. On the 4th which is a very long Par 4 at 467 yards he scored 4 for 4 points and on the 5th which is much shorter at 317 yards he demonstrated his versatility with a 3 for 4 points. Throw in a couple of 3-pointers and you can see how he scored 23 points on the front 9.
This also happened to be the same score as his partnership with Pete achieved which led Pete to correctly deduce that he had contributed zilch to the team score except for some occasional moral support. I was playing with my partner MikeW with them and we could only stand and admire Mike’s play as we garnered a relatively paltry 19 points.
On the 10th hole, Mike explained that he had played the front 9 very well last week and then completely screwed up the back 9. He must have woken up the golfing gods at that point who then thought that it would be fun to play the same game this week as Mike’s wheels then proceeded to fall off one-by-one to the extent that rather than scoring strings of birdies, he scored a string of one-pointers to add another 13 points to his total for the round.
However 23 + 13 = 36 and that was easily enough for Mike to vanquish the rest of us and retain the Brown Jug. Following on behind were me (32), MikeW (27), Pete (25), Alan (23), Rob (21), JohnT (17) and Bill (16).
As for the team game, Pete continued his strategy of not contributing a point to his team score whereas MikeW and I had a small improvement on the back 9 and the resultant scores were:
MikeW and Richard 19 + 20 = 39
MikeS and Pete 23 + 13 = 36
Alan and Rob 14 + 14 = 28
Bill and JohnT 14 + 14 = 28
MikeW outdrove everyone for the LD ball as usual.
Also as usual nobody managed to get onto the green on one for the NP or in two for the NPin2 balls. This is becoming an alarming trend which we have to hope does not represent waning powers of accuracy as well as of length!
