EarCat
Assistant Pro
While mainland UK has been bathing in 25 degree sunshine, the wee folks of Norn Iron have suffered rain upon rain all day today. As my dad and I pulled into the car park at Castlereagh Hills at 12:50, a fine rain started to fall from the heavens. With a sense of eternal optimism, my dad said to me "C'mon, sure it blow over in 5 minutes" and, despite there not being a breath of wind to take the rain elsewhere (a rarity in these parts), I loyally followed mon pere like an old labrador. 3 and a quarter hours (and 18 holes) later, there was a 2 minute respite of rain when we were walking down the 12th fairway, until big mouth here said "finally, it's blown over", cue heavy rain. Anyway, after we finished the first hole we walked to the second tee box (which I believe is the custom at most golf courses), we bumped into a three ball consisting of a middle aged woman &man and an auld man walking to the ninth tee box. Imagine my dad and my delight when we walked off the 17th green and saw them teeing off, they had played 9 holes in the time it had taking us two to play 16!!! Another little story of today's escapade, I nearly got into a scrap with a three ball on the 15th, they were playing the twelfth which runs beside the 15th, one of them was on our fairway and, I let him play first even though I had right of way because his 2 playing partners looked fed up waiting on him, anyway he topped it 20 yards in front of himself and about five yards from me. I address my ball expecting him to show me the same courtesy I gave him, (stand still, shut up) he keeps walking towards me, after about 5 seconds of this I look up and say to him, "here mate, any chance you can stand still for a second?" Begrudgingly he stops walking so I can hit my ball, so I step back up to my ball and just as I take the club back, one off the 2 other boys shouts to the other one (who is standing 5 feet from him) "I THINK IT'S SHORT OFF THE TREES!!!" I can't stop my swing like TW can, so I hit a low pull from 95 yards out that is 25 yards left and 10 yards long. As the ball left the club I don't even watch it, I just looked to my right and shouted "SHUT THE F*** UP!!!, which didn't get a response from any of them. I finished 4 over for the round, 6 bogeys and 2 birdies, which is even better because 2 of them bogeys were 3 putts on the two temporary holes which are just fairways cut short. Well chuffed because that is the first time I have ever played to my handicap in awful weather and I beat it by 5 shots. It was an eventful day to say the least.
