Wednesday saw the first game of the very aptly named Frostbite League. It was 5 weeks since we had been able to venture out onto the course due in the first 3 weeks to the timing of Xmas and New Year and subsequently to the parlous weather. On Wednesday we were promised an initial cold start in the mist but then the sun would arrive and burn it off` to leave us in glorious blue skies.
I have no idea how much money the Met Office has now spent on super-computers to provide more accurate forecasts but it clearly has not been enough, and instead of the misty cold weather disappearing at 10.00 am, it hung around until about 1:15pm when we had reached the 17th, by which time our tiny hands were well and truly frozen.
I am not making excuses (perhaps I am) but such weather does not make one’s body feel particularly flexible – quite the reverse really – and a golf swing feels and sounds like the movement of a rusty 5-bar gate. There were 4 of us playing and the balls fell so that Alan and I were partners playing against the Mikes S & W.
All 4 drives off the 1st tee disappeared in the direction of the misty trees on the right and after 2 more poor shots I found myself in the bunker on the right of the green. I there discovered that the sand was frozen hard and my attempts to play a normal shot involving some sand failed utterly – I really needed a pneumatic drill. In the course of the round I found myself in several more bunkers and at the end of the day I discovered that I seemed to have relocated various bones in my right wrist and hand following collisions with the so-called sand. Fortunately we have lots of IbuLeve in the medicine cabinet and I have growing confidence that surgery will not be required.
MikeS had started with an unbelievable putt on the 1st for a par whereas Alan and I had managed 2 blobs between us. This was to set the tone for the front 9. After 5 holes we had a team score of 5 points while they had 12 and by the time we came off the 9th, they were up to 22 and we had 13 which actually matched my own score. MikeW did not seem at all bothered by playing off concrete in a cold mist and had scored 19 on his own and that included a blob on the 4th where his partner had conveniently contributed 2 points.
MikeW had been greatly encouraged before play started to discover that his handicap was in fact 25 and not 24 as he had been assuming. If you ask me it would have been more accurately set at 15 but we have no Rule 19 in the BB Handicapping System.
Despite knowing only too well that trying harder never works at golf I was determined to do so on the back 9 but failed utterly to improve and indeed went backwards resulting in 2 points after 4 holes. My partner did a little better and he had 5 but the opposition were not at all concerned about our puny failures to at least attract their attention by outscoring them on a hole. MikeW added a comfortable 18 points on the back 9 to win individually by a country mile. In an attempt to fight the cold, MikeS had been wearing 2 pairs of golf gloves which definitely hampered his game and made finding a tee in his pocket an impossible task.
As the golf Gods often do, they allowed the sun to finally appear on the 18th and two of course managed to score pars which of course are guaranteed to bring us back next week for another dose of physical and mental anguish. The clubhouse was very welcoming and we enjoyed the normal craic over something warming.
The team scores were:
MikeS & MikeW 22 + 19 = 41
Alan & Richard 13 + 16 = 29
Individual league scores:
MikeW (37), MikeS (28), Richard (24) & Alan (20).
