Yesterday we had a record turnout for a non-tour game with 12 playing, 2 on the waiting list and 2 extra joining for lunch. It is no surprise of course that this was Prosthetic Cup day when a large proportion of Ballbashers are retrieving ancient x-rays from dusty draws to prove that somewhere in their body is a piece of alien metal which entitles them to compete for this trophy. Alan organised the day and dealt with such marginal claims in the same way that he dismissed Andrew’s expense claims in days of yore.
Other Ballbashers were bent on complicating the handicapping system beyond it’s already arcane state by including factors relating to the number and type of prostheses the qualifying prosthetes sported in their otherwise pristine bodies – again these suggestions were sent to the boundary with disdain.
Pre-organising the teams and groups was more complex than planning D-Day and most players were quite surprised to discover who they were teamed with – pleasantly so in most cases so far as I could tell. It was great to see Ashley back on the fairways and also Stuart
It was a glorious day for golf and Temple was in fabulous condition with wild flowers everywhere except on the smooth fairways and ultra-fast greens. I suspect that the Head Greenkeeper had wanted to give us a taste of what it would be like playing in the US Open. The greens were so quick that several BBs enjoyed the experience of putting off the green – watching from behind it seemed to us that RobertM did at least twice on the Par 3 5th green – the different attempts to get the ball back on the green from the bottom of the hill seemed to require different clubs which had to be retrieved from the distant bag rendering the whole scene like something out of the Keystone Cops.
I enjoyed this experience on the 11th green where my ball came to rest on the top plateau above the pin. A very gentle putt wandered down the hill, had a close look into the hole, decided that it did n’t fancy the dark and sauntered on over the edge of the green and back down the fairway where luckily it was eventually stopped by a stray daisy. In these circumstances we sometimes struggle to see the funny side.
One person who had no such problems with the greens was Roger who left any putt from any distance either in the hole or stone dead. He was teamed up with Stuart and playing a 4-ball with RobA and myself. In our group Roger was the only prosthete and, watching his golf from tee to green it was very difficult to make out exactly what physical handicap he was suffering from as he rattled in a couple of birdies on the front 9 and another one on the back 9 to go with them. We were having quite a close game but Stuart also joined in the fun with a 4-pointer on the 8th which resulted in them beating us by 2 points over the front 9 with a big score.
You would never have guessed that this was Stuart’s first 18 hole trip around Temple for about 9 months – he was hitting his shots with gusto – one gap wedge from 110 yards onto the 9th green was particularly impressive – I’m not sure that this was complying with Sandy’s injunction to him to take it easy, but he was having great fun.
Our private battle carried on over the back 9 but once again Roger and Stuart defeated our best efforts – this time by only one point.
We were joined by Mike(don’t make me laugh)W and PeteF (who had allowed Stuart to take his place on the day) for lunch where the following very close scores were declared:
Prosthetic Cup
Roger (38), MikeS (32), Alan (31), RobM (30), Ashley (25), JohnH (24), Bill (23) and JohnT (16)
(Non-prosthetes: Richard (37), Stuart (30), RobA (27), Nick (25))
Team Scores:
Roger and Stuart 24 + 20 = 44 (winning the front 9 and overall and sharing the back 9)
Alan and JohnH 19 + 20 = 39 (sharing the back 9)
Richard and RobA 22 + 19 = 41
RobM and Bill 20 + 19 = 39
MikeS and Ashley 20 + 17 = 37
Nick and JohnT 15 + 18 = 33
Nearest the Pins:
NP on the 8th – not one player out of 12 got/stayed on the green!!!
NP in 2 on the 10th – complete lottery but noticeably won by Roger so perhaps skill was involved
NP in 2 on the 18th – won by Alan who deserved it for his organisational efforts.
So Roger won the Prosthetic Cup, an NP in 2 prize and shared the vast majority of the BashCoins with Stuart. Perhaps we should all spend a week loafing around Greek tavernas in idyllic bays?
All-in-all a hugely successful and enjoyable day’s Ballbashing!
