We welcomed Steve Wilson into our midst today for a freezing cold Novelty game at Temple. He was too polite after the event to say whether or not he would return for more such enjoyment but he did enjoy a modicum of success so all may not be lost.
We were playing a Novelty game using the Choose 10 scores per 9 holes (2-balls) or 15 per 9 hole (3-balls) format. There were 7 bravehearts playing and the balls were thrown so that MikeW & SteveW were paired playing with the BuggyBoys Roger & Bill and the 3-ball comprised RobA, RobM and myself.
The 3-ball set off first and RobM delivered his standard hook/pull off the first tee into the left-hand boondocks at such high speed that the ball was never to be seen again. Curiously, although this is his 1st tee norm, he did not repeat this shot again over the remaining 17 holes. Mind you he rarely does repeat a shot and RobA and I opined on the 10th hole when RobM was playing his second shot from the most obscure place imaginable, that he has probably the widest experience of any of us in terms of the geography of Temple and its flora and fauna.
This format for golf does have its pressures when you are deciding whether or not to include a 1-pointer mid-9 holes. We were saved from some of that stress during the early holes by a number of blobs racked up by my partners. For some curious reason probably linked to old age I had in my brain that we were having to choose 10 holes rather than 15 (our score was going to be divided by 3 at the end of the game) and I was feeling moderately relaxed on the 6th tee by which time we had chosen 6 scores but then RobA pointed out that it was 15 that we were after and the pressure mounted.
Luckily this stung us into action and we managed to score eight 2 and 3-pointer in the next 3 holes leaving us only needing one score on the difficult 9th. Here we posted our only single point of the round.
Rob’s hip was playing him up, not helped by the bracing wind blasting across the 11th fairway and he decided to call it a day after the 12th – behind us Roger had lost all feeling in his hands and also decided to call it a day. The rest of us soldiered on and RobM and I at least got our strategy right on the back 9 and avoided having to select a single-pointer. Eventually we finished the round and fled for the clubhouse. At least the wind had dried off the mud so cleaning up was not such a monumental task.
We were joined in the clubhouse by Peters F and R and we enjoyed a jolly chat about recent avalanche deaths and historic near-misses amongst us over some warming soup. Some time was also spent realising that we do not have a clue how AI works and that therefore we would do our best to avoid it if only we could recognise it.
Scores were:
MikeW & SteveW 13 + 9.5 = 22.5 (winning the front 9 and overall)
Richard, RobsA and M 11 + 11 = 22.0 (winning the back 9)
Bill and Roger 6.5 + dnf = ?
So on his first outing Steve put 4 BashCoins into his bank account – an excellent start!
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