High scoring at Temple

I had the great fortune today to be teamed with the two members of our society who have installed simulators in their garden sheds. And before any of you start recalling Jane Fonda in Barbarella encountering such a device – these are not the same at all – these are supposed to help improve your golf. And, while on the one hand, Robert’s appears to be doing the job, it would seem that Nick’s might need further tuning.

Nick did reveal, in an off-guarded moment, that he keeps his simulator set at a 20 mph following wind. Up until this point I had no idea that these devices came with the optional extra of a wind tunnel, but you learn something new every day. His reasoning is that, if he stands in a following gale, the simulated ball flight seems to match his thinking on how far he hits the ball on a real golf course. Given that, during our typically 4 hour round of golf, the wind does not deviate too far around the compass, one might surmise that, for at least half a dozen holes, Nick would find conditions much to his liking.

The first such hole we encountered was the 6th. Up until now Nick had scored 6 points in 5 holes but with the wind behind, his drive went a huge distance down the left-hand middle, his next shot was into the centre of the green and he came off the green with 4 for 4 points. Sadly, although the 9th, 10th and 11th were also playing downwind, something was amiss with the sort of wind it was and the magic was not to be repeated. Instead we were treated to a set of enigmatic variations off the tee that Elgar would have been proud of.

Elsewhere in our trio I was frittering away shots here, there and everywhere, and wondering how it was that I had scored better on Monday playing with only 3 clubs and a putter than I was managing with the full 14 today. Roger only plays with 5 clubs plus a putter and he scored a fantastic 39 today so there might be something to be learnt here. Perhaps another downside of Anno Domini is increased confusion in the area of club selection – an MRI machine might be more helpful than a simulator in throwing some helpful light on this syndrome.

But the star of our team was Robert (M that is) who, after a relatively slow’ish start was galvanised by his birdie on the 6th to score two more 3-pointers on the 7th and 8th and thereby reach 16 points on the front 9. He had been hitting his tee-shots prodigious distances but then messing up the next shot, but now he put all of that behind him to include huge second shots and monstrously long putts into his repertoire. His performance on the 12th was a master-class. He hit a drive well over 200 yards tight down the left-hand side so it ran gently into the middle, then played a wedge (!!!!) to 3 feet behind the pin and sank the putt for his third 4-pointer. He added another such display on the 17th for another 4 points, and should have done so on the 18th but had to settle for a par, but still totalled 26 points on the back 9.

Nick and I were very happy to have had the luck to have him as our team-mate especially when the very tight results were revealed at the denouement.

Roger, Rob and JohnT had scored 42 on the front 9 and then added 40 to reach 82.
Mike, Bill and Pete had scored 39 on the front 9 and then added 42 to reach 81.
Nick, Robert and I had scored 37 on the front 9 and then added 45 to also reach 82.

So, in BashCoin terms, Mike, Bill and Pete had kindly funded the rest of us.

Individually, Robert won with 42 followed by Roger (39), Bill (38), Mike (35), Pete (34), JohnT (33), Richard (32), Rob (30) and Nick (26).

As a result of scoring 4 birdies, Robert has been rewarded by the Mighty Wurlitzer Mark III with a 4 shot cut in his playing handicap – must make all of that investment in the simulator feel very worthwhile!

We finished in the clubhouse debating over lunch whether or not Johnson should or would go – the majority felt that he should purely on a matter of principle. However the alternative view that all politicians tend towards mendacity and what’s a party between friends, was also put forward. It will be interesting to see what comes to pass.