Last updated on February 12, 2026
Just Alan, MikeW and myself felt sufficiently in need of fresh air to face the possibility of showers passing through this morning at Temple. MikeW had just returned from 3 weeks of glorious weather in South Africa so quite why he felt so disposed in anyone’s guess. For Alan it just reminded him of his childhood in dreich (I am informed by our Scottish expert) weather in the Gorbals or somewhere close. I had no excuse at all. Anyway we were not disappointed by any failure in the weather forecast and duly encountered about 7 showers with the 7th pitching up on the 18th when we had just about dried out from the previous 6 and the 7th was the heaviest so we finished the round soaking wet. What is not to enjoy!
To be honest the rain is marginally easier to deal with than the mud. None of us had seen Temple quite so muddy and there were scores of worms on the surface all trying to avoid drowning underground. But despite these natural hazards MikeW managed to score 40 points on his way round thus proving that there are no excuses.
Alan and I suggested that he had spent his time in SAF practising but he assured us that he hadn’t touched a club for 4 weeks and, of course, that is often the case – the returning golfer has quite forgotten what he had to worry about concerning the simple act of hitting a small stationary white ball in a forwards direction. We could have helped him out with a few suggestions in this area but he was connecting so well that I don’t think that anything would have disturbed his flow.
In the event that his shot onto the green had left him with a long’ish putt, there was nothing to worry about because the next shot would be stone dead. He scored 3 points on three of the Par 3 holes. Along the way to achieve this he sunk a monster putt from the front of the 10th green into the hole right at the back. The only Par 3 he had a problem with was the 5th where he had fun rolling up the front apron and then rolling down again.
All three of us parred the downhill Par 3 8th but for reasons only known to our distinguished handicapping secretary, Alan and Mike got 2 shots each and thereby each scored 4 points to my measly 3. More salt was rubbed into this particular wound when we all parred the uphill Par 3 13th. This time I didn’t get a shot while they did, so their pars were worth 3 points each while mine was only worth 2.
When we reached the 16th we were joined by PeteF + dog + another interesting overcoat. After witnessing Alan’s outrageous chip into the 17th hole from off the green, he headed for the warmth of the clubhouse while we dealt with the deluge. Once again all three of us parred the hole which finally convinced Alan that the Scotty Cameron putter that he had retrieved from the back of his garage in an attempt to fix the woes of last week, did actually do the job so no doubt we will se it out again next week.
By now we had given up any hope of catching Mike who was well in front:
MikeW (40), Richard (33) and Alan (29).
We enjoyed some warming fare in the clubhouse while we chattered about healthcare, Epstein things etc.
Roll on Spring!
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