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

Another blue tee medal today, 3 yards shy of 6,700 yards.
Playing:
- Dunlop Peter Thomson irons, early 1960s
- HB&S 1, 3 and 5 woods, 1970s
- Greenway putter from Sri Lanka if memory serves me correctly, 1960s?

Could have been a great round but the driver misbehaved on the back 9.
Out in 2 over par 38, back in 9 over 45 for 83 gross, two OBs and a drive into a water hazard did for me.

Net 70 will see a small cut but but 68 is the leading score. :(
 
Garbage, absolute garbage. Started well, level after 5 with good birdie chances on all. Missed a 2 footer on 6 for par and just lost my head. Was +7 for the next 6 holes with 4 3 putts then went -1 for the next 4 and thought “might still break 80 here”. Finished double, bogey for a crap +10.

No excuses, greens were good today as they moved all the pins into places that still had a lot of grass as some greens are getting bare in places. Drove it really well, hit irons crap, chipping poor and putting is making me want to quit. Think I holed about 20 feet of putts in total.
 
Today I played at Silloth in a ladies singles open, what a roller coaster of a round, I felt hard done by on the first where my 2nd to the blind green looked good but finished by the side of the green down in a valley and my chip ran off the other side so I started with a double bogey, but then I settled and had 4 pars, two of which were decent birdie chances, plus sadly another double so finished the first 9 pretty much on handicap. This did not prepare me for what came next
10th thinned 8 iron found a awful stance in a bunker resulting in double bogey,
11th 3rd shot to 2 feet for a birdie 4
12th wayward tee shot found and horrendous lie, a hack out then a poor chip ended in a triple bogey
13th a bogey
14th holed a nice putt for a birdie
15th a bogey
16th holed a nice putt for a birdie 2
17th terrible drive ended up such 6 inches off the ground in the middle of some rushes had to take unplayable ended with a double bogie
18th 2nd shot to par 5 went through the green couldn't get up and down so a par.

What a rollercoaster of a back nine, I finished 2 under my handicap but it could have been so much better.

As for the course, I had played it once before when this forum organised a trip to Silloth and Southerness but I couldn't remember too much, I really enjoyed it, I loved the variations in altitude, something you don't always get on a links course, the blind holes were interesting and I think I would do better on those holes if I played them again. The greens were good and course was in lovely condition. It has definitely a course to revisit and despite having to stay overnight due to the 2.5 hour drive, I expect that I will return next year for the same competition.
 
Very weird round hole-by-hole scoring for me in a comp yesterday. A game of two halves that's for sure.
4th hole was a greenside bunker shot! Very nearly did the same thing on the 18th with a small gallery watching (well, half a dozen lager boys who finished earlier)
Found some strange places over the back of greens 6th, 8th and 12th.

250426 score.jpg

Somehow managed to equal my 8th best which is a 5.3
Came nowhere in the comp, 30th out of 111 entrants, but got my entry fee back with the 2.
 
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Very weird round hole-by-hole scoring for me in a comp yesterday. A game of two halves that's for sure.
4th hole was a greenside bunker shot! Very nearly did the same thing on the 18th with a small gallery watching (well, half a dozen lager boys who finished earlier)
Found some strange places over the back of greens 6th, 8th and 12th.

View attachment 57825

Somehow managed to equal my 8th best which is a 5.3
Came nowhere in the comp, 30th out of 111 entrants, but got my entry fee back with the 2.
I had a very similar round. Putting a card I decided to just relax and play it for fun.

Off our front tees - made a bit of a pig’s ear of our quite a bit easier front nine - doing it six over par (usually do that nine in no more than a couple or three over). Then back nine not playing or thinking any different did it in one over. So a 7 over par 79 level with my PH for front tees of 7. Though 1.2 over PH given the CR of 70.8 for these tees, I’m more than happy with that outcome.

A tidy 36pts but (for me) a bit odd. And I missed an under three footer for a 2.

A top 8 counting 5.4 dropped off the bottom of my record but yesterday’s 7.1 is a decent replacement.
 
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I am still in recovery from a long lay off last year.

Every time I play I think 'here we go I am back' and then the fatigue kicks in, 2 blobs in the last 3 holes spoilt and otherwise good round. I already had another one on the hardest hole on the course but managed 34 points, winning score in the group being just 37.
Greens are still recovering from spring maintenance so a few shots dropped to putting.

Playing with the slowest player in our group did not help. He gets gimmes which would not be given to other players to help speed up play.
 
18 hole medal today, played in the roll up as well. Did okay shot a gross 78, despite some poor holes, 1 birdie. Driving was poor. 5wood went awol as well at times which forced two bogies onto my card.
10th so far , 5th in division but replaced a score with a lower one, so HCP reduction.
Generally happy.. need to get the driving back in the box though!
Stats changed to 40 % centre 57% GIRs
 
We had our Scratch Salver today...a comp that you have to qualify for by playing well in the monthly medals in the previous calendar year.

Only around 14-20 people qualify each year, this year 15 played with handicaps from around 5 up to 12.

4th place shot gross 80.

However, any of the top 3 scores would have been enough to win the competition in any of the previous 20 years.

One guy shot a gross 72, a young 16 year old managed to shoot a fantastic 1 under gross 69. The winner however managed to shoot a course record equaling 67.
 
Last minute decision to play in one of our early season back tee strokeplay/medal board comps as saw there were a couple of spots available midday time. And blimey o'reilly managed a one over gross front nine and a four over gross back nine. Had some lucky breaks but really didn't take full advantage of some good birdie opportunities. Hey ho...that's golf. And as I am only doing cards at the moment to clear my handicap record of scores about a year old...I wasn't that fussed about what I scored.

In any case my nett 67 is Top 10 and that's fine by me. One of the guys I was playing with off 26 was a bit all over the place, but scrambled well and had some outrageous luck...in the end I had him down for 91...and when I took his handicap off I had to check...nett 65...that can't be right I thought. But of course off 26 just about anything can be right. No matter. There is a nett 64 in that'll win it and in truth even if I had taken better advantage of my good approach stuff it's wishful thinking for me to go round in 2 over gross. Once upon a time we had a max handicap allowance of 18 for board comps - no longer. So be it.

And off the bottom of my handicap record will go a 10.3 to be replaced at the top by a 3.7 - and my HI will come down to about 7.2 - result!
 
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Doubles knockout match today. Playing a couple of young lads who hit it miles, one is off 5, the other 10.

We managed to win the first and never looked back. 3 up by the turn with me and my partner playing really well. Finished it off on 14 for a 6&4 win. Short game which has been missing for weeks turned up, chipping was excellent and we both sunk a number of decent putts.

Very enjoyable day.
 
Interesting. My 77 yesterday gave me an unadjusted diff of 3.7, but I look this morning and a PCC of -1 has been applied - so my diff for yesterday is 4.6.

This is not the first time recently that a -ve PCC has been applied…either, or both, the way PCCs are calculated makes them more regular, or simply down to the recent uplift in our CR and Slope meaning our playing handicaps have all gone up, mostly by 2 or 3 shots, and so same gross scores give overall better nett and stableford scores and a -ve PCC more likely.

Anyway…no big deal, simply means my HI is not 7.2 as I calculated yesterday, but 7.3
 
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Played Northcliffe yesterday. We like the course. Massive, delicious breakfast in the clubhouse before starting. Course was a bit bumpy. Greens were poor, not recovered after hollow tining and very patchy. No attempt had been made to make them even slightly playable. Poor effort we thought. We gave up worrying over scores after a few holes. Thank god we had not elected to put a card in.
 
Paying with the same clubs as at the weekend:
- Dunlop Peter Thomson irons, early 1960s
- HB&S 1, 3 and 5 woods, 1970s
- Greenway putter from Sri Lanka if memory serves me correctly, 1960s?

First round of the seniors KO today, I could write pages about this match but I'll limit myself to one hole, the 15th.

I'd just won the 14th to go 2 up and hit a decent drive on the 15th, my opponent didn't have a shot on the hole and pulled his tee shot into a pond and was still short of the green in four. I had an easy 9 iron third shot and thought, "middle of the green should see me 3 up with 3 to play".....

But I hit a poor shot miles short and then watched in disbelief as my opponent holed out from 100 yards, meaning I had to up and down from 60 yards for a half.
I didn't so lost the hole, and then lost the next to be all square!

Won the 17th though and halved the last for a nerve shredding 1 up win.
 
played my last game as a member at Bearwood after 19 years of membership on Saturday and resigned today, with 3 days left and not likely to play again as working. Already joined the new club - East Berrkshire - and playing for only 3rd time on Saturday. Looking forward to a new golfing chapter

Why the change?
 
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