Last updated on May 6, 2022
Yes it was time for another Novelty game based upon multipliers. Thankfully for the gently decaying Ballbashers, who can hardly remember when they last recited a times table, the mathematical skills needed rarely went beyond the the Two Times Table and, in some cases, needed just the genius to remember that 1 x 1 = 1.
As soon as Richard had realised that he was holding 3 of his own golf balls, the correct number were thrown and the 7 players divided into a 3-ball of Alan, RobM and Richard followed by a buggy-driving 4-ball of JohnT , JohnS, Nick and Roger. JohnS was returning from his medically-enforced layoff and was delighted to discover that there was a spare place in a buggy. He celebrated his return by chipping in from out of the rough and scoring another par having played his tee-shot into deep jungle at 45 degrees to the intended line of travel – obviously his lay-off has not diminished any of his natural golfing skills!
Nick’s tale of Alan’s amazing 25 points over 10 holes at Temple yesterday preceded him so I was more than pleased to discover that I was in his team. However, as is in most things golf-wise, that was yesterday and today was today. As a trio we suffered serious problems with our direction-finding equipment – in Rob and Alan’s case that was generally off the tee and, in my case, it was always the second shot towards the green. If the tee-shot was required to be hit down the right-hand side of the fairway then they normally chose the left and, if there was a bunker to be found on the left-hand side of the green, then I found it.
We also battled with the slowness of the greens – a hearty wack was required to propel the ball anything more than 10 feet and there could be no pussy-footing with the 3-footers. Of course, none of us had the first idea of what would make a competitive score. Especially because I had concocted (sorry, I meant deeply researched) a handicapping system for a 4-ball playing against a 3-ball in a multiplier format, whereby the 4-ball played off 75% of their handicaps and the 3-ball were given 1 shot extra per player.
We only knew that when Alan scored a 4 for 4 points on the 14th, that both of us scoring just a single point each to go with it, was a bit of a waste in a multiplier format. We had discussed this earlier when Alan got 3 points on the 5th and the best we managed was a single point to go with that one, but clearly had not learnt from this mistake.
We reached the halfway point with 37 points, mostly made up of 2 x 2 = 4 scores. Alan had bought a box of 12 shiny new golf balls before he started – I was n’t sure how many he still had left at this stage but that was not to be an issue as he rediscovered the form of yesterday and our scoring improved. Rob had been serving up his normal recipe of massive shots straight down the middle interspersed with shots whose trajectories were a mathematical marvel of incursive parabolas but everything clicked on the 18th where he missed a birdie by 3 inches and we scored 6 points between us which gave us 42 points for the back 9.
The denouement revealed that Nick and Co had scored 34 to our 37 on the front 9 and 38 to our 42 on the back 9, thereby giving Alan, Rob and me a clean sweep of the BashCoins. This led to a discussion about the iniquity of the handicapping system used and plenty of shared learning of what it should be next time we play a similar format.
Huntswood is tight course full of out-of-bounds opportunities, small very slow greens and long walks between green and tee but somehow we all seem to enjoy playing there. The staff are always very friendly and the clubhouse is pleasant and relaxed – it all made for a good day.
