Six Ballbashers enjoyed an Eclectic Bonanza at Temple on Wednesday with Bill leading the way with a 16 point gain in his score but everyone enjoyed an improvement of some kind. There was no obvious reason why this should be the case. Of course the weather was just right for playing golf – warm but not too hot and not much wind.
And there was a very good reason why excellent scoring should NOT have been the case – the fairways at Temple have been mown to within a millimetre of their lives and, as a result, the canted fairways have become a real hazard. They are akin to the pinball machines on a seaside pier in that you have no control over the final destination of the ball. For example a half-decent drive with a slight fade on the 1st hole will find you playing your second shot from the 12th fairway and the only way to avoid losing a ball through the hedge on the left-hand side of the 9th is to keep it in your pocket.
I was so incensed (yes – me!) by losing the second ball in 2 weeks on the 9th that after the round I marched off to see Keith with the simple suggestion that a low-level piece of rabbit-proof wire fence along the hedge below the 9th hole would not be a bad fix to the problem – you could even have a drop-zone. From the tone of his response I can only guess that this suggestion had already been made 1000 times this year alone but in his very typically polite way, he told me that this would very possibly require the course to be re-rated which is an enormous hassle so we will need a new set of tactics for that hole in the summer – perhaps use a putter from start to finish?
RobM got round the problem of balls bouncing all over the place on the concrete fairways by never using a fairway. As you can see from the photo opposite this was by no means the perfect solution and although he ended up with the same number of golf balls that he started with, they were now a motley collection of pickups involving brands which have long demised. Sadly this problem with his radar persisted yesterday at JFGS meet at Newbury – he would welcome any polite practical advice on how to improve the chances of hitting the ball towards the hole rather than 45 degrees to either side of the direct line.
My other partner on Wednesday was JohnS who also enjoyed a big improvement in his eclectic score and between the three of us we managed to score reasonably well in each half. The 3-ball in front of us comprised Bill, Nick and Alan, and I am pleased to report that by-and-large we enjoyed a smooth journey round the course without anyone pressing from behind.
Nick has constructed some sort of devilish spreadsheet which tells him the size of his score improvement opportunity on each hole – it’s called the SIO Index. Bill tried to nab this sheet off him over a cup of tea afterwards but it is a very closely-guarded trade secret and Nick was having none of it. PeteF joined us for tea and I am pleased to report that he was looking impressively mobile so might be joining us before too long.
The team scores based on the total of the 3 and 4-pointers scored by each team were:
JohnS, Richard and RobM 23 + 25 = 48
Alan, Bill and Nick 18 + 15 = 33
