We had a great stroke of luck yesterday in that Mike had been unable to obtain an earlier tee-time than 11.36am. By this time the wintry sun had dissolved the frost and there being no wind, we were able to enjoy the best conditions that winter can offer. So much so that I never had need of my 4th layer. At about 2pm it started to turn colder but by then we were halfway round by the back 9 and the warmth of the clubhouse kindled in our imagination.
Despite the late start, your editor had somehow managed to lose an hour and had the shock of his life when sitting in his study and realising that it was 11:10am and not 10.10am. With the car still iced up and an Amazon delivery van blocking the drive exit, it was only by driving a tad above the speed limit that I managed to arrive in time. Rob M, for one, was more than pleased to see this behaviour in someone else for a change.
It was good news to see that Pete F was free to play and he greatly enjoyed the renewed ability to see a golf ball at least 150 yards away which was about as far as we could hit it due to the cool air and sticky fairways which prevented any run.
Nick had had to pull out after picking up a does of Der Grippe in Berlin and JohnH had to pull out becuase he had to pick up the grandchildren and in the afternoon and he suddenly realised that the late start would render this impossible. This left six Ballbashers who were easily split into two teams.
Pete, RobM and I tee’d off with 3 reasonable drives which received the usual warm compliments from the opposition who were MikeS, MikeW and Bill. On the second hole my 2 playing partners disappeared over the ridge along the right-hand side of the fairway presumably to enjoy distant Constable-like views of Marlow in the wintry sun. This route was not greatly beneficial for our scoring and to be frank, it was only form the 5th onwards that we managed to post a reasonable team score on any any hole. I was particularly annoyed with myself on the Par 5 4th where 3 good shots had put my ball onto the front part of the green, but it took me 4 putts to get the ball into gimme range. Admittedly the hole was about 50 yards away up the top of the green but none-the-less, post-game reflection might deduce that this had cost us dear – but, to be fair, we could probably find dozens of such incidents between the three of us.
After blobbing the first 3 holes, Pete remembered how he should be playing the game and he went on to score 28 points on the remaining 15 holes which was entirely creditable on the day. Rob was also playing steadily until he discovered on arriving close to the 9th green that he had left his pitching wedge behind close to the 8th green. To my horror he proposed to run the 450 yards back to the 8th green to retrieve it – I had visions of us finishing our round close to midnight. But we did think that he would meet in his buggy about halfway back up the 9th fairway and perhaps he could borrow that to continue his journey which would have had the added benefit of holding up the whole field of players behind us. As it happened, and very fortunately, Bill had found Rob’s club and brought it along with him so no time was lost.
I was happy with my 24 points after 11 holes but then the wheels fell of with a clang which must have been heard in Australia. I managed to hit a large tree on the left with my tee-shot on the 12th hole and, with a big clunk, the ball totally disappeared, which was quite sad as it was my last Ballbasher-logo’d Titleist golf ball which had been a solid friend during recent rounds despite looking somewhat the worse for wear. Rob then told me that Ballbasher balls had a half-life of 2 shots in his experience which suggested that there must be a layer of Ballbasher balls under every impenetrable bush at Temple.
The result for me was a dismal total of 7 points over the remaining 7 holes which hardly contributed to our team score. Luckily Pete was playing steadily so we were not disgraced.
Back in the clubhouse, the later tee-time and thereby finish, caused mayhem in the Ballbasher meal selections. It was about 3.45pm and we had had no lunch but supper was not that far away. I was feeling very hungry and opted for the standard tuna salad plus a bowl of chips on the side – a decision I was to regret later in the evening. Others were more sensibly abstemious and MikeW disappeared without having anything at all. At least we did n’t have to put up with his feigned surprise at his team’s narrow victory overall! The scores were:
MikeS/MikeW/Bill 35 + 35 = 70
Pete/Richard/RobM 37 + 32 = 69
MikeS (33), Richard (31), MikeW (29), Pete and Bill (28), RobM (24)
