It should n’t have been a surprise but, on subsequent investigation, I discovered that the e-mail that Roger sent forewarning me that he and RobM intended to join us for lunch yesterday at Temple had been dumped unceremoniously by BT into a spam folder. Very rude, I thought, but perhaps indicative of their return from the far zone of medical interventions. Anyway they both looked hale and hearty and were looking to rejoin us on the golf course in a few weeks, assuming that the weather discovers that it is supposed to be Spring and not Winter as is currently the case.
If MikeS is anything to go by, they should n’t be too worried about what will happen when they return. It is but 12 weeks since he had half a knee replaced and, given the way that he was smashing it down the fairway as in days of yore, joint replacements may be should be seen as a good thing.
Eight intrepid Ballbashers turned out to play yesterday which accounts for about 95% of all able-bodied Ballbashers who are in the country. It was extremely chilly standing on the 1st tee and woolly hats were the order of the day.
The balls fell so that Stuart/JohnS and MikeW/JohnT went out first followed by Alan/Bill and MikeS/me. Drives were liberally dispersed across the countryside without damaging the fairway and battle was commenced.
I managed to par the 1st hole which, as usual, turned out to be a very poor indicator of what was later to follow in my round. Mind you, the pair that eventually won also both scored 3 points on the 1st hole so perhaps it should n’t be regarded as a dark omen. The course was in brilliant condition again and the greens were particularly smooth and much quicker than any of us anticipated with the result that 3-putting almost became the standard.
The best way of avoiding the 3-putt was demonstrated by MikeS who hit his chip way long from the bottom-side of the Par 5 12th up onto the bank above the green. This position is normally guaranteed to result in the next shot causing the ball to roll way down the green again more-or-less finishing where it started. However, in Mike’s case, he demonstrated that if you slightly thin your chip back and hit the sprinkler head causing a serious deviation in the direction of travel, and then follow that by hitting the pin smack in the middle at about 50mph, the ball will fall into the hole and no putter has been involved.
Encouraged by my partner’s strategy, I tried the same approach at the 14th where I had thinned my wedge shot from a very good position into a very bad position on the grassy bank above the hole. I made the crass mistake of thinking that I could n’t possibly thin 2 wedge shots in a row before proceeding to do so, and there being no sprinkler head in the way, my ball shot straight back across the green to finish where it has started 2 shots previously.
Elsewhere on the course, JohnS, who must have been questioning his decision to come out of winter hibernation given the temperature, avoided a 3-putt by sinking something from 85 feet away on the 17th for 3 points on his way to an excellent 32 points which was enough for 2nd on the day which has resulted in him being at the head of the Summer League table after 2 games. I think his decision to come out of hibernation correlates with the emergence of hedgehogs from their hibernation and they are currently very confused by climate change thereby catching John out.
Bill was also enjoying a return to something like normal form. He has apparently had a lesson which will normally result in a retrograde step but, in his case, it has clearly worked and, contrary to recent form, he hit many a good shot off the fairway. Unfortunately his vision is not good enough to enjoy these excellent results and many times he took some convincing that his ball had gone 150 yards straight down the fairway and not 15 feet sideways.
Alan was having a bit of an off-day whereby his normally metronomic, no-apparent-effort, swing was very un-metronomic at times. On the 14th, he made a good attempt at bettering Nick’s record for the shortest drive. But while Nick’s ball had travelled backwards 1 foot, Alan’s had gone forwards by the same amount. His second shot propelled the ball about 6 feet forwards off the front edge of the green so, should we be interested in keeping a record of the shortest distance forward after 2 shots, Alan could be the first holder.
Somehow or other we managed to complete the round and joined the other 4 plus Roger and RobM in the clubhouse for lunch where the initial conversation revolved around who had the most artificial joints. We discovered that 7 out of the 10 players had at least one and, of the 40 hip and knee joints seated round the table, 14 were known to be artificial with Bill claiming the top spot with 3, he having decided that Mike’s ½knee was exactly that. There followed some debate as to whether having ½ new knee was better or worse recuperation-wise than a full replacement knee but, with no known method of calculating this, the subject was glossed over, the current unfortunate circumstances in which the SNP find themselves being much more enjoyable as a topic.
The team results were a comprehensive victory for Stuart and JohnS who won the front 9, back 9 and overall:
Stuart and JohnS 22 + 18 = 40
MikeS and Richard 19 + 17 = 36
MikeW and JohnT 18 + 16 = 34
Alan and Bill 17 + 14 = 31
The summer league results were:
MikeW (33), JohnS (32), Stuart (30), MikeS (28), Richard (27), Bill (25), Alan (21) and JohnT (17).
