• We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas from all at Golf Monthly. Thank you for sharing your 2025 with us!

I played today and..(Rolling) -originally created by JohnnyDee

It’s a combination of high handicappers getting an increase (and then further extra shots for their course handicap) and the course playing shorter at this time of year with winter tees / greens.

Low handicappers tended to get a cut and obviously less impact from slope into their course handicap.

Am trying to reserve judgement until we’re back on the full course but I’m not loving the WHS so far.
thats winter comps for you, Nairn Dunbar was the same the last couple of winter comps, last year i had one round where i shot 48 points with 7 birdies and still wasn't in the top 3:LOL:

shorter courses, slower greens and the ball stopping on most greens regardless of the shots hit into it, i shudder to think of the scores this year, but havn't gone for winter membership this year as nairn is not going to a super short winter course this year
 
drove over this morning in torrential rain and still dark till well past 9am. stopped raining about 10 not a soal on the course so the just the Doc and i went out. Quite breezy with a strong NE. down wind was a doddle even the first was drive and a wedge, 2nd Drive 8 iron... ect etc, turning back into it was much harder work having to take 3 and 4 clubs more. enjoyable game though. you could see a fair bit of snow around on the hills over in Ross shire and Sutherland, even the ones the back of Loch ness, luckily none closer to Inverness
 
First round back after lockdown, knew it was going to be long when the three ball of elderly ladies in front of us where still chinwagging in the car park at their tee off time. Free time slot before them so no one holding them up. Eventually they get round to starting, with all three of them taking three shots to reach the first fairway. You can see where I'm going.... or not.

Admittedly we were a two ball, obviously going to be quicker, we had a 4 ball behind us, one of the slowest 4 balls in the club. Anyways, despite waiting on every shot, being on the tee behind them before they could play their second shots from 20 yds away, they were intent on not allowing us through. After 3 holes, we somehow had a hole and half between us and the 4 ball behind, but it got so slow, the 4 ball caught our 2 ball by the 7th. On the 8th, one of the ladies came over to me and said


"thank you for being so patient, but one of our group needs to drive back to Dunstable before dark......"

What the actual f.......??? How on earth they thought letting us play through would slow them down I know not. I'm all for anyone playing golf at any level, but for pete's sake, let quicker groups through, especially when there's a two hole gap the other side.

Rant over, happy to be out playing again, and I shot two under handicap. ?
 
Reunited with my two regular golf mates today! First we had a meeting at Grims Dyke to discuss next year's membership, which went well so we signed up. Exciting times. They're members only on the course though at the minute so we had booked 18 at Rickmansworth for the afternoon.

It was pretty cold, but just bareable in my baselayer, polo & gilet plus wooly hat and FJ Wintersof gloves. I thought I played alright for the most part, but winter golf is always a struggle for me anyway. Had a decent spell through the middle section before the round fell apart from the 15th - a long par three that's uphill and was playing into the wind. It's a bastard hole at the best of times, given the conditions I decided to hit driver. There's a path that goes up the hill, around the front of the green and round to the right - my ball has bounced off the path, then bounced off the path again further up, which launched it right up onto the far side of the 16th tee! Tried to pitch it back but got it stuck in a bush. As you do. Carded a 7 in the end, then another quad bogey at the 16th, triple at the 17th and a tidy par to finish. ?

Ended up with 30 points, but then I checked how many shots I was meant to have in the England Golf app and it turns out I only got 28 points, so whatever. Shot 89 anyway. It's a par 65 so not the best, haha. But who cares, we got the golf lads back together and even managed a pint afterwards - a 'takeaway' pint of a can sat outside in the freezing cold, but it still counts.
 
Played this morning in snow. Managed 19 points on a shortened course, but gave up after 9 holes, as my partner was too cold.
Evidently he had arrived unprepared for such poor weather which was a little strange.
Anyway it was good to get out, and didn't feel too rusty, except I reckon I would have been knackered after 18 holes.
Sadly my course is waterlogged, so our 4 ball is off tomorrow.
 
It was a scramble today at the club. I didn't feel like I was playing great, but we still used three of my tee shots already on the front nine so at least I got something right. We only made two birdies on the front nine to three bogeys, and parred the entire back nine to finish +1 gross - not great really. Our group had the highest handicap score because one of us was off 28, but we still won't feature anywhere in the leaderboard I don't think. I actually seemed to play better after I took my winter gloves off, which was a shame as they were quite handy in the cold - I don't really want the nagging suspicion than I can't play in them, but we'll see. We ended up using two more of my tee shots, I holed us a nice putt on the 12th, and my lag putting was pretty solid - often I was the only one getting by the hole when others left it a couple of feet short. Other than that I didn't contribute a huge amount. Course was a mud-fest by other teams seem to have fared a lot better than us, ha.
 
Well, Lockdown 2.0 did me no favours. I was in really good form beforehand but today was a reality check. 24 points, 13 out, 11 in.

Really enjoyed the round nevertheless, it was a beautiful day with barely a breath of wind. Onto the next.
 
Having not held a club for six weeks they felt quite heavy to start with and only had a half set as cannot carry more due to my dodgy knees. Ball striking was pretty good and we got 39pts on my first time in the pairs Winter League.
 
2nd knock since lockdown ended, we had the BEAT THE PRO event for the retiring PRO at our club. was nice to be in the same group has him and the club champ this year. Need another month off as we took the title with 47pts pairs stableford. +3 myself and could have been 50+ points if the putter had some form :-)

Always nice to win the first comp you enter at a new club :love: and then you find your old club is flooded and shut again :cry: sad times. :devilish:
 
went out this morning with slow Dave, can't say i played any golf TBH was utter tripe. it ws so bad i even used one of the Honma D1 balls i found, still suprised i managed the same ball all the way around the crap i hit:rolleyes:
 
went out this morning with slow Dave, can't say i played any golf TBH was utter tripe. it ws so bad i even used one of the Honma D1 balls i found, still suprised i managed the same ball all the way around the crap i hit:rolleyes:

You need to get rid of the Ping copies and get some proper irons...:D
 
Had a nice knock around the Hotchkin this morning. Touch frosty to start with but the sun came out eventually.
Considering it was my first smash since mid October I did play well in patches.

Partner and I managed a 5 and 3 win somehow.
 
Out with little chubby bro this afternoon
Very foggy, course was open, but shouldn’t have been.

Both played decidedly averagely and decided to call it a day after 9, an honourable draw was recorded

Birdied the 6th par 4 which was nice
150 yard approach shot to the general area that I thought the green was, as I couldn’t see it, downed the 10ft putt ?
 
And it was dreadful. Played like I’ve never been on a golf course before, but what really have me fuming is that I repaired 19 fresh pitch marks on ONE of our greens today, and I probably missed a few. Looking at the tee sheet, there had been 30 people out before us. Absolutely disgusting.
 
First match of the Winter League, three matches lost to Covid.

We started well, winning the first two holes, but weren't able to win another after that and ended up losing 3 & 2.
 
First round after lockdown 2, solid front 9 out in 17pts tired a bit on the back 9 for 15 pts.

Drove the ball well and putting was OK. Short game not as sharp as it needs to be but I have 2 weeks until it matters.

Absolute joy to be out on the course and then a substantial meal and a couple of beers afterwards. Picked up the range finder I’d ordered pre-lockdown so a new toy to play with next week.
 
Top