For possibly the first time in BB history of playing in the UK, the number of players in buggies today was over double the number of walkers. Indeed before we set off the realisation dawned that we even had one more buggy than was needed and it was returned for a credit. Life’s like that nowadays.
The balls were thrown and a 3-ball comprising MikeS, MikeW and Bill set off first followed by two pairs – JohnH and PeterR playing with JohnT and myself.
This was the first time for some weeks that JohnH had played and after 3 holes we harboured some suspicions that he had spent the intervening time in a Florida training camp with David Ledbetter – he was on the first 3 greens in regulation and accumulated 10 points. Had he kept going at this rate he would have racked up 60 points by the end of the round, easily setting a new BB record in the process, perhaps even a world record. But golf is not like that, well at least BB golf is not like that and the following holes saw the normal BB cocktail of 1’s and 2’s, but with some very good ball-striking through the round.
His partner, Peter, was having some issues with his radar off the tee and one might have thought that with his background he would have got out the soldering iron and fixed it straightaway. But the days of bi-planes flying on string and balsa wood are long gone and he apparently needed to employ a recently qualified flight engineer to sort it out – I suspect that, when he left the course immediately after finishing, he was probably heading off to Heathrow to find some such person.
JohnT was hitting the ball increasingly well and with some useful meshing both we and JohnH/Peter completed the first 9 holes with identical team scores of 21. Amazingly enough, the 3-ball in front of us scored exactly the same number. This all goes to show the excellence of the incomprehensible handicapping system operated by the DisHon Sec Handicapping, aka Nick. Let us hope that he does n’t return from Japan with some mystic Eastern methodology to add in.
The weather by now was really beautiful for golf, making for a very pleasant stroll round Huntswood despite their latest innovation of adding ponds here and there to the already significant miles of ditches crossing nearly every fairway.
Last week I was musing on the universal question of whether or not golf is a pukka religion according to Wittgensteinhegel’s 5 principles. I think I saw more proof of the yes answer today. Last week I moaned at length about the malevolent god of the bunkers and I think he heard my wailing in the desert because this week he ensured that my mis-hit shot to the 9th green went round the inner edge of the bunker before it was spat out onto the green about 6 feet from the pin.
Also JohnH hit his drive on the 18th at 45 degrees to the required direction straight into very deep woods on the right. “Oh Chr*st!” he exclaimed, at which point there was a sound like a cannon going off in the woods and the ball flew out into the middle of the fairway. That clearly produced a more positive result than the normal call of “Oh Sh*t”.
JohnH also had to go off straightaway leaving 5 of us to enjoy Huntswood’s excellent cuisine and friendly ambience. It may not be in the Golfing World’s top 10,000 courses but it does seem to suit us.
The team results became a tad more spread over the back 9:
MikeS, MikeW and Bill 21 + 13 = 34
PeterR and JohnH 21 + 16 = 37
JohnT and Richard 21 + 20 = 41
And the individual scores for the Autumn League were:
Richard (39), JohnH (31), MikeS (28), MikeW and Bill (27), PeterR and JohnT (21).
Last week my handicap went up to 18 and I fear that I celebrated too well today and next week it will back down again – bad strategy, but that’s the thing about golf – it is designed to knock you off any perch that you might have briefly enjoyed.
