This report comes from our correspondent (PR) and concerns the Farnham Putter.
“As they met up at the first tee, awaiting the arrival of JohnS, Alan and Peter realised that there were some stressful vibes emanating from the car park. John was seen wandering between the car park and the Pro Shop looking lost or confused – we could not be sure which. On the dot of the appointed time he joined us for the tee off having been searching for his car keys, which were eventually found by the driver’s door having been dropped in nervous anticipation of today’s big event, the Farnham Putter competition.
After a quick audit of clubs by the BB Chief Auditor it was agreed we each only had six clubs and a putter and were cleared to go. The three of us settled into a neat group all in line towards the first hole and things looked promising. But the fine weather and dry conditions meant the ball was bouncing – in the case of Peter normally through the green and off the back on the second shot. The greens were slow but the ground was hard as concrete.
By the second hole it was clear that the conversation was going to be more engaging than the golf on such a sunny day. The first few holes went quite well by BB standards, but in these bucolic conditions the scorecard soon became populated by blobs by the fifth hole, and we settled into our comfort zone. One felt the golf was becoming of secondary interest as we reviewed our modest achievements on the first nine, which finished with three blobs. At this point John was three ahead of Alan and four ahead of Peter.
The second nine started with renewed enthusiasm, and the scoring stumbled back to life, for a while. Some remarkable shots were exhibited, some involving trees, others going off in various directions, even vertically. On at least two holes we were reminded of John’s ballet pretensions as he pirouetted off the front of the tee. It proved of little benefit. However, making full use of his handicap on the 11th John took three shots to leave the tee box, and yet still scored 6 for 2. This had a demoralising effect on the other two and on the 16th we only scored 1 point between the three of us.
We were becoming soporific again, but the conversation was good. Determined to muster something in the last two holes we accumulated 11 points in a thrash to the finish, with Peter scoring his only par to round off his otherwise understated outing. The terrace review of scores was appropriately brief, in fact it may not have even taken place. With Peter on 22, and Alan 24, John took the Putter back to its rightful home with 26.
With such modest scores the conversation quickly turned to ornithology, and the reintroduction of storks to Sussex. With several diversions into medical matters along the way, and reflections on the BB close historical connection to Farnham Park, the chit chat served to take our minds off the golf, and to allow us to enjoy a very pleasant sunny day out. As we are obliged to take a photo of the trophy being awarded, we realised just in time that with Peter on the camera we had to flag Alan down, as he sped off down the drive, to carry out the handshaking duties with the winner. Another nervous car park experience to finish off the day.”
