From our correspondents Players A & B enjoying the mellow fruitfulness:
“Compared to last week at Wycombe Heights there was one hugely noticeable difference at this week’s outing at Temple… no mud… and that’s after a lot of rain over the past few days. Add to this sunny weather – well at least for a lot of the time – and some wonderful autumn colours and the joys of playing on home ground were obvious.
Mike, who’d done a sterling job in booking a tee time on a day when availability was minimal had also cleverly worked out how five of us could play when only one tee slot was on offer. This involved him “cuckooing” his way into the following three ball group organised by Jim Mclean and, on the basis that Mike joined them for post match drinks and scored 31 points, it was clearly a successful solution.
Our group comprised Alan, Rob, Bill & Nick and, in what was a very pleasant round, a couple of things really stood out: Rob’s drives, which were impressively consistent, and Alan’s drives, which were in several instances incredibly long given his knack of putting virtually no effort into his swing. Oh yes, and then there was Player B’s arrival on the 11th which started out with him slyly moving his trolley to stop an excellent shot by Bill reaching the green followed by his usual score-sapping mayhem on most of the following holes.
Rob turned in a score of 35 points to win the day, with a v.impressive 21 on the front 9 – no luck, just very solid play – and 14 on the back 9; Mike scored 31 points split 14 & 17 to win the back 9, Alan scored 31 points split 15 & 16, Bill scored 26 points, split 16 & 10, and Nick scored 25 points, split 18 on the front 9 and a Player B assisted 7 on the back 9.
Richard and Peter R kindly joined us for lunch in the clubhouse and reported that they were both due to see the ubiquitous Nick Morgan for further prognoses on their knees this week… fingers crossed that they’re back playing before too long.”
Editor’s note 1: It’s obvious that the new Handicap Index system has borrowed something from the time-honoured BB System because, despite the fact that he won with 35 points, Rob’s playing handicap has gone up by 2.
Editor’s note 2: I stood by the practice green observing the group as they drove off the 18th tee. The Autumnal mistiness inhibited my inbuilt Tracman from closely observing the ball flights. The only thing that I did observe was that after they had driven and left the tee, only one ball was visible on the fairway and there were several Ballbashers ferreting around in the long grasses near the overflow car park. I then knew without doubt that it was indeed the Ballbashers I was observing. (It does not really need saying but it was Alan’s ball resting on the fairway).
I looked whether what happens when your trolley stops another player’s ball hitting the green and the answer is intriguing/surprising. It is that the ball must be played as it lies and there’s no penalty to anyone. A two shot penalty only applies if it’s obvious that you were deliberately moving your trolley to stop the ball hitting the green and, in this event, the ball is still played from where it lies.
In this instance I was wholly at fault… my trolley shouldn’t have been where it was (i.e. right in front of the green), I was far too slow off the mark in moving it, and then misread the flight of Bill’s ball so that I moved it right into the trajectory of his excellent shot. So, the fact that I was hopelessly unsuccessful in getting my trolley out of the way is Bill’s problem, not mine. This doesn’t seem at all fair to me.