I played for the first time today in 50+ days and …...

[IanMcC]

Living in Wales, this was the first day of play for us. My wife and I played 18 holes, and it was fantastic. Didn't think of coronavirus or any other bollocks for the whole round. I scored 28 points and my better half scored 32! The greens were very difficult. The grass was pretty long, but they were burnt, so it looked quick but played slow. Rock hard as well. I have a high ball flight, but if I hit a green inevitably I bounced through. Fairways were fine, and well. Rough was not as long as I expected, and was fairly mown.
There was a wooden insert in all of the cups so the ball only dropped an inch or so.
Our tee time spacing is 12 minutes. Initially i thought this was too long, but our half way house is open taking card payments only, which wasn't too slick. There were 3 groups milling about at the shack at times. Down to 10 minutes would make that worse, but I expect to be told to reduce that time next week. Getting a slot is a bit of a nightmare. I have set up casual booking for midnight 2 days in advance, and all slots are being filled inside 15 minutes. The board have asked me to move the opening time to 8PM. It will be messy. 56 slots available for hundreds of golfers, and a slot is only a 1 ball unless you play with a housemate. We shall see what happens. Presently the first booking is 0800, because we wanted the pro in attendance. We might have to look at that and open earlier with an element of trust.
Playing again Wednesday afternoon. Cant wait.

 

[Ratter]

Apologies if my points have been covered , i have read most of the thread but may have missed some . My first round today started off very good , as good as anything i have played for a while , BUT , at the turn i started to fail , i was dragging my self around , fatigue set in , concentration gone and couldnt hit a thing , i packed in at 14 , all i can think is that 13 weeks furloughed and lockdown has impacted on my fitness more than i realised , and i am never one to play less than 18 normally ,i never "pop for a quick 9" , looks like i may have to break myself in slowly.
May have already been covered but our course had a nice little gadget in the holes , full depth cups with a plastic "bobbin" round the flag pole , once the ball is in the hole use your club to pull the bobbin up the pole and it flips your ball out , good for the current virus precautions but must be a god send for those who have back or mobility issues and find retrieving balls out of the cup difficult.

 

[timd77]

Lost 3 balls on the first 3 holes, genuinely worried I’d run out, thinned, fatted, skyed, pulled, sliced, topped...you name it, I did it. But I birdied the last and as my first round since before lockdown, it feels great to be back! Roll on Friday!

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Have played 3 rounds of 18 and lost in all three playing matchplay - I was 2 over gross , 1 over gross and 1 under gross ????

Hitting the new driver and 3 wood like a dream and getting at least ten yards more out of it

 

[Neilds]

Played first 9 holes today. Started with a bad hook and cocked up the recovery and blobbed the first - not a promising start, but to be expected with no range warm up. Played better after that and got 15 points and hit both par 3 greens in one. If I had hit my first putts harder And got closer to the hole would have saved about 3-4 shots. A pleasing round and looking forward to the next one, hopefully a full 18

 

[clubchamp98]

Have played 3 rounds of 18 and lost in all three playing matchplay - I was 2 over gross , 1 over gross and 1 under gross ????

Hitting the new driver and 3 wood like a dream and getting at least ten yards more out of it

Tough school.