Imurg
The Grinder Of Pars (Semi Crocked)
Went to the Belfry today with CVG to play the PGA National on a 2-fore-1 deal. Arrived in good time and had the obligotory bacon roll and coffee before being paired up with 2 guys from Preston.
Off we went, the course was looking good. We were warned that the greens were fast - about 9 on the stimpmeter. Jeez they weren't kidding! Slick or what?
CVG had a very good front 9 coming in with the same gross as me (43) for 19 points to my 15. The greens were troubling me a bit although I was getting the hang of them - it was the rest of my game that hadn't turned up!
On to the back 9 and a not so steady 47 (13points) for CVG let me in at the last to take it with 42 for 18 points (33-32).
A nice lunch followed while we watched the Matchplay.
But 1 thing annoyed me.
The 17th green slopes steeply from front to back. The strokesaver says to keep the ball below the hole. Well if you'd have tried that you would have rolled back off the front. The pin was placed on the downslope. Both CVG and myself missed putts from above the hole by a whisker that, had they been on a flat green, would have gone no more than 6 inches past the cup. They both rolled off the front. In fact I missed another and it did exactly the same thing. Some of the putts from below the hole only just stopped and if there had been any breeze they would have gone too.
A ridiculous pin position in my opinion and it left a bad taste. The rest of the green had plenty of borrows to make putting tricky enough without giving us a 16th at Augusta-style pin position.
Otherwise a very enjoyable day. Not sure the PGA is worth the £70 they want as the normal fee but £35 was decent value.
Going to try to go again in the Spring - they'd better not have the pin in the same place on the 17th - I will not be impressed!!
Off we went, the course was looking good. We were warned that the greens were fast - about 9 on the stimpmeter. Jeez they weren't kidding! Slick or what?
CVG had a very good front 9 coming in with the same gross as me (43) for 19 points to my 15. The greens were troubling me a bit although I was getting the hang of them - it was the rest of my game that hadn't turned up!
On to the back 9 and a not so steady 47 (13points) for CVG let me in at the last to take it with 42 for 18 points (33-32).
A nice lunch followed while we watched the Matchplay.
But 1 thing annoyed me.
The 17th green slopes steeply from front to back. The strokesaver says to keep the ball below the hole. Well if you'd have tried that you would have rolled back off the front. The pin was placed on the downslope. Both CVG and myself missed putts from above the hole by a whisker that, had they been on a flat green, would have gone no more than 6 inches past the cup. They both rolled off the front. In fact I missed another and it did exactly the same thing. Some of the putts from below the hole only just stopped and if there had been any breeze they would have gone too.
A ridiculous pin position in my opinion and it left a bad taste. The rest of the green had plenty of borrows to make putting tricky enough without giving us a 16th at Augusta-style pin position.
Otherwise a very enjoyable day. Not sure the PGA is worth the £70 they want as the normal fee but £35 was decent value.
Going to try to go again in the Spring - they'd better not have the pin in the same place on the 17th - I will not be impressed!!
