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

[Marshy77]

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.

Haven't played Northcliffe for a while, since a few of my mates left. Always enjoyed the course but always felt that there's something just missing to elevate it more. Can't put my finger on it.

Played Keighley this afternoon. We left a little disappointed which is a shame as we normally really enjoy it. Seemed to be missing a little love and attention to certain areas. Clubhouse wasn't open, shop seemed run down, certain parts of the course a bit scruffy and area's that looked like they should be GUR but weren't marked. Just bits that left you wondering what was going on when they're normally spot on.

 

[garyinderry]

Played Ballycastle in an open today. Took a wile to get used to the firm conditions. Greens were kinda slow too which took a wile to get used to. Getting shots to hold downwind wasn't easy.

Poor front 9 of 7 over. got it going on the back with 2 over.

Work to be done with the driver. I can't trust aiming right and I keep pulling it when trying to fade it. Need to trust aiming down the right side.

Had two nice sand saves back to back. My nephew recorded the first one.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

VE day comp yesterday. Bitterly cold, drawn with someone that is erratic at best. I was crap and he wasn't much better. I was so cheesed off being out there I had mentally checked out after 9 and it was a long second 9.

 

[nickjdavis]

Good match today in the first round of our Summer Singles matchplay. Was giving away 4 shots. Won the toss and elected to bat first.

Between us we hacked and duffed our separate ways up the first hole before I holed a 25 footer for a double bogey 7, and with my opponent about 15ft away from the hole in 5 I felt a decent chance of scrambling a half...but no he goes and drains his putt for the win.

Second hole I hit a great 3 wood and then drained a 30 footer for a birdie 2 to hit straight back. Then promptly gave the 3rd hole away with a loose approach shot to the green. A half in par on the par 3 4th hole saw us reach the first of my opponents shot holes with him 1 up.

He hits a decent shot down the middle and me, still fighting some recent "left off the tee" issues, pulls my tee shot into rough. We eventually reach the green with me having played 3 but only 5ft from the hole and him off the back of the green with a tricky chip from a rough lie....which he knocked stone dead, leaving me to miss the 5 footer that would have given me the half.

We both had "tree issues" down the 6th but mine were less severe and a bogey was good enough to immediately drag the game back to a 1 hole defecit. A deficit became all square on 7 and promptly became a defecit again on 8, the second of his shot holes where a net par was enough to secure him the win. The match remained one hole in his favour at the turn which saw a sequence of holes where I desperately tried to drag myself into the match, only to concede the next hole, winning 10 with a par, losing 11 to a birdie, winning 12 with a par, losing 13 to a nett bogey, winning 14 with a birdie and then losing 15 to a nett birdie.

Opponent then hits a beautiful 7 wood to about 6ft on the par 3 16th to secure him a 2 hole lead.

Tee off on 17, he hits a conservative, get the ball in the middle of the fairway, keep out of trouble shot....and I muller one of my best drives of the day down the right side of the fairway, only to see it take a wicked bounce left under some trees. Opponent then hits his 7 wood again (a few holes earlier I thought about looking in the greenkeepers shed for a hacksaw) over the corner of the dogleg to leave around 150 yards to the green, whilst I am force to hit a low runner out of the trees, just long enough to "see round" the dogleg...but some 185 yards away into a fresh breeze.

I proceed to hit a magnificent 3 wood to around 12ft and my opponent finds the heart of the green...maybe 25ft from the hole. He hits a loose putt which runs about 3ft past, but it becomes irrelevant when I hole my putt for birdie to keep the match alive.

Down 18 I hit a good drive to the left edge of the fairway, leaving just 100 yards or so in, which in the wind was perfect PW territory. After a looseish drive my opponent overclubbed his approach and ran through the green, leaving a tricky chip off a downhill lie. I'd hit a great approach which had just taken a firm bounce and ran maybe 14ft past the flag. Opponents chip is poor and struggles to roll out leaving him a par putt of around 10ft. In trying to be positive with the putt and making sure it got to the hole I ran my 14 footer around 3ft past the hole and had to watch as he attempted to sink his 10 footer for the match. His putt just drifted wide and I thankfully holed the knee-knocker to halve the match and take us back up the first for some sudden death.

As we had played 18, there was a ball on the left of the fairway, not far from where my drive had finished up...as we walked up the 18th a lad emerged from the trees, walked to the ball and knocked it back on to the first fairway where there were another couple of balls....obviously having a late afternoon practice, playing a couple of balls. Nothing unusual in that, but it ultimately had a direct bearing on the outcome of the match.

The first is a par 5 and by the time we'd reached the tee the solo player was well out of range, up in the distance, playing a couple of shots towards the green from the middle of the fairway. We both hit decent drives and decent second shots to the heart of the fairway....but, when we reached my opponents ball, it was sat neatly inside a perfectly sculpted fresh divot...right next to another near identical divot. Both unrepaired and both lumps of turf visible a few yards up the fairway. My opponent's character is such that, in years gone by he could let such an incident really get to him, to the extent that his rage was such that you just had to leave him be for a few holes in order for him to collect himself. However these days he is a bit more relaxed but still, I could see there was anger in him, not so much about being in the divot, more that it was obvious who was responsible for said divots and the fact that he hadn't even bothered to repair them.

Anyway, still no doubt with a seething mind, my opponent shanked his third shot out of the divot, I hit a nice approach in to around 15ft, and two putts was enough to snatch the win....the first time in the match that I had been in front!

A quick beer in the clubhouse was had and then we went off for a curry. Just got home in time to watch the Inter - Barca match....all in all a good day.

 

[rulie]

Good match today in the first round of our Summer Singles matchplay. Was giving away 4 shots. Won the toss and elected to bat first.

Between us we hacked and duffed our separate ways up the first hole before I holed a 25 footer for a double bogey 7, and with my opponent about 15ft away from the hole in 5 I felt a decent chance of scrambling a half...but no he goes and drains his putt for the win.

Second hole I hit a great 3 wood and then drained a 30 footer for a birdie 2 to hit straight back. Then promptly gave the 3rd hole away with a loose approach shot to the green. A half in par on the par 3 4th hole saw us reach the first of my opponents shot holes with him 1 up.

He hits a decent shot down the middle and me, still fighting some recent "left off the tee" issues, pulls my tee shot into rough. We eventually reach the green with me having played 3 but only 5ft from the hole and him off the back of the green with a tricky chip from a rough lie....which he knocked stone dead, leaving me to miss the 5 footer that would have given me the half.

We both had "tree issues" down the 6th but mine were less severe and a bogey was good enough to immediately drag the game back to a 1 hole defecit. A deficit became all square on 7 and promptly became a defecit again on 8, the second of his shot holes where a net par was enough to secure him the win. The match remained one hole in his favour at the turn which saw a sequence of holes where I desperately tried to drag myself into the match, only to concede the next hole, winning 10 with a par, losing 11 to a birdie, winning 12 with a par, losing 13 to a nett bogey, winning 14 with a birdie and then losing 15 to a nett birdie.

Opponent then hits a beautiful 7 wood to about 6ft on the par 3 16th to secure him a 2 hole lead.

Tee off on 17, he hits a conservative, get the ball in the middle of the fairway, keep out of trouble shot....and I muller one of my best drives of the day down the right side of the fairway, only to see it take a wicked bounce left under some trees. Opponent then hits his 7 wood again (a few holes earlier I thought about looking in the greenkeepers shed for a hacksaw) over the corner of the dogleg to leave around 150 yards to the green, whilst I am force to hit a low runner out of the trees, just long enough to "see round" the dogleg...but some 185 yards away into a fresh breeze.

I proceed to hit a magnificent 3 wood to around 12ft and my opponent finds the heat of the green...maybe 25ft from the hole. He hits a loose putt which runs about 3ft past but it becomes irrelevant when I hole my putt for birdie to keep the match alive.

Down 18 i hit a good drive to the left edge of the fairway leaving just 100 yards or so in, which in the wind was perfect PW territory. After a looseish drive my opponent overclubbed his approach and ran through the green, leaving a tricky chip off a downhill lie. I'd hit a great approach which had just taken a firm bounce and ran maybe 14ft past the flag. Opponents chip is poor and struggles to roll out leaving him a par putt of around 10ft. In trying to be positive with the putt and making sure it got to the hole I ran my 14 footer around 3ft past the hole and had to watch as he attempted to sink his 10 footer for the match. His putt just drifted wide and I thankfully holed the knee-knocker to halve the match and take us back up the first for some sudden death.

As we had played 18, there was a ball on the left of the fairway, not far from where my drive had finished up...as we walked up the 18th a lad emerged from the trees, walked to the ball and knocked it back on to the first fairway where there were another couple of balls....obviously having a late afternoon practice, playing a couple of balls. Nothing unusual in that, but it ultimately had a direct bearing on the outcome of the match.

The first is a par 5 and by the time we'd reached the tee the solo player was well out of range, up in the distance, playing a couple of shots towards the green from the middle of the fairway. We both hit decent drives and decent second shots to the heart of the fairway....but, when we reached my opponents ball, it was sat neatly inside a perfectly sculpted fresh divot...right next to another near identical divot. Both unrepaired and both lumps of turf visible a few yards up the fairway. My opponent's character is such that, in years gone by he could let such an incident really get to him, to the extent that his rage was such that you just had to leave him be for a few holes in order for him to collect himself. However these days he is a bit more relaxed but still, I could see there was anger in him, not so much about being in the divot, more that it was obvious who was responsible for said divots and the fact that he hadn't even bothered to repair them.

Anyway, still no doubt with a seething mind, my opponent shanked his third shot out of the divot, I hit a nice approach in to around 15ft, and two putts was enough to snatch the win....the first time in the match that I had been in front!

A quick beer in the clubhouse was had and then we went off for a curry. Just got home in time to watch the Inter - Barca match....all in all a good day.

Nice victory, well played!

 

[AussieKB]

Finally got back to a 4 handicap and went and shot 4 over, so might be cut back to 3

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Finally got back to a 4 handicap and went and shot 4 over, so might be cut back to 3

Good shooting

 

[Imurg]

Out with Fragger this morning....crocked knee still troublesome but steady...
Started on 10 and made 3 nice pars before a lazy double.
Par, birdie, birdie after that and a solid finish to the 9, turning 1 over for 21 points
On to the other side.
The wind had picked up and swirled a bit, as usual on that 9..
4 pars and 5 bogeys and I've shot 6 over 77 for 38 points and a small cut - just before a big board comp on Sunday..
Fragged did OK.. I'm sure he'll be along in a while...
Greens are now Premier League...whatever they've done in the last week has worked wonders.
Smooth, a bit of pace and check if you hit it right...rest of the course is still like concrete ...

 

[RichA]

Out with Fragger this morning....crocked knee still troublesome but steady...
Started on 10 and made 3 nice pars before a lazy double.
Par, birdie, birdie after that and a solid finish to the 9, turning 1 over for 21 points
On to the other side.
The wind had picked up and swirled a bit, as usual on that 9..
4 pars and 5 bogeys and I've shot 6 over 77 for 38 points and a small cut - just before a big board comp on Sunday..
Fragged did OK.. I'm sure he'll be along in a while...
Greens are now Premier League...whatever they've done in the last week has worked wonders.
Smooth, a bit of pace and check if you hit it right...rest of the course is still like concrete ...

Over in east Herts nothing is holding on the greens.
Except putts, which are all coming up short; while cut shorter than ever, the grass has taken on the characteristics of velcro.

 

[Imurg]

Over in east Herts nothing is holding on the greens.
Except putts, which are all coming up short; while cut shorter than ever, the grass has taken on the characteristics of velcro.

Ours were like that a week ago.....obviously some witchcraft going on over here...

 

[Springveldt]

Played at Goswick yesterday in their Open. First strokeplay comp I've played in in a long time!

After basking in mid 20s when playing wednesday it was a bit of an adjustment to playing in 8 degrees and a 30mph wind that made it feel about freezing. The pro shop must have cleaned up in wooly hats sales!

To give some idea of how difficult it was I ended shooting 20 over (with a 9!) for a net 78 and ended up 23rd out of 123 competitors. I don't think anybody broke net par and the top of the leaderboard was largely lower handicappers. Once the +3 PCC was added this morning and the 9 reduced to net double it's actually ended up being a counter and leading to a 0.3 cut!

Goswick was superb though, fantastic condition and great layout.

As an aside I'd finally got my 90s blades back after having them refurbished and absolutely loved using them off the tight fairways! Bizarrely I'm terrible with my long irons in my normal clubs but have absolutely no issue with the butter knives in this set.

My mate played in it as well. He's a scratch golfer and a brilliant ball striker yet he shot 84 with a 10 on a par 5. Sunday was brutal conditions in the north east, I played further down the coast and ours was the same, a +3 PCC and no one broke 80 in a field of 70.

 

[Teebs]

Shot 71 gross to win my match 2&1 in the club scratch knockout.

Best ever score off the whites, 4 birdies.

Absolutely buzzing after a few really (really) bad weeks at work with a new Boss who's driven me to find a new and better job...

 

[harpo_72]

9 holes tonight. Felt okay made a dreadful mistake on the par 3, resulting in a triple bogey and then a bogey down the next and one from the middle of the green on the last.
But lots of good stuff and looking promising… was actually spinning the ball which is good. New shoes are being warn in trying not to damage my feet in the process!

 

[garyinderry]

Monthly medal this evening. Rushed out of work and onto the tee.
Nipped round and home in time for the match.
Shot 2 over front. 1 over back. Frustrating evening on the greens. Lipped out for birdie twice and left one in the jaws. Finally managed to bag one of the 17th.
Had no idea what my score was the whole way round. Felt like 5 over or so. Was surprised to hear it was 3. Just kept plugging away and taking it hole by hole.

 

[Neilds]

Played 12 holes on my own yesterday evening. Had a hard day at work so was nice just to walk round in the sunshine, not a care in the world. Did score and would have had 26 points over the 12 holes and was striking the ball well (mostly!). Main benefit was fresh air and clearing the mind, nothing better.

 

[Deleted member 21784]

37 points and nearest pin in my society yesterday. Second place not bad

Heading out today for another round

 

[Springveldt]

Another awful round yesterday evening. After managing to shoot 86 in maybe the worst conditions I've ever played in on Sunday I followed that up with another 86 on a relatively calm evening. The signs were there from the first shot that I pulled and hooked 80 yards left straight OB without ever touching the course. Brand new ball as well, luckily the horses that are often in that field weren't there or I might have killed one of them as it went in like a bullet.

After that I drove the ball relatively well again, hit my irons not too badly but just misjudged some landing spots and got punished for it, duffed a couple of chips and managed to miss 2 putts from inside 3 feet that were both straight and neither even touched the hole. I've got 5 scores dropping off in the next 6 rounds so at this rate I might be testing the soft and hard cap limits.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Over 60s open AmAm at my club today.
Played with GG26, my nextdoor neighbour and A.N.Other who was a member at my club for 30 years and then went to Luffenham Heath about 5 years ago.

We did not threaten the top of the leader-board. We did manage to beat 4 other teams!

I won a dozen balls for nearest the pin in two shots on our par-4 18th hole. My birdie did not get on the card as two teammates holed out for birdies from further away.
It was a 7 point hole - the best on our card.

Gave 3 balls each to GG26 and neighbour. Other chap would have had 3, but he cleared off before the presentation.

There was a 3-way tie for first place on 90 points. We were a very long way behind.
None of my three guests had met each other before. We all seemed to get a long well and had a good day despite poor scoring.

 

[srixon 1]

Not today but yesterday. My first outing on the east course at Saunton. We played in the seniors open 4BBB. The tees were pushed forward and because of this my course handicap was scratch. Not ideal on a course you have never played before. I was probably about 6 over when we finished. I was caught out by a couple of the greens where the ball came back off the green because of the false fronts. Good job there was not too much wind as the greens were fairly fast with some tricky pins, especially on the par 3s. I loved the really fine sand in the bunkers, a joy to play out of. Highlight getting up and down from the front right bunker on 17 when my ball was about 2 inches from the vertical face. I need to get back there sooner rather than later. Definitely up there in my top 10 of courses played.

 

[GG26]

Over 60s open AmAm at my club today.
Played with GG26, my nextdoor neighbour and A.N.Other who was a member at my club for 30 years and then went to Luffenham Heath about 5 years ago.

We did not threaten the top of the leader-board. We did manage to beat 4 other teams!

I won a dozen balls for nearest the pin in two shots on our par-4 18th hole. My birdie did not get on the card as two teammates holed out for birdies from further away.
It was a 7 point hole - the best on our card.

Gave 3 balls each to GG26 and neighbour. Other chap would have had 3, but he cleared off before the presentation.

There was a 3-way tie for first place on 90 points. We were a very long way behind.
None of my three guests had met each other before. We all seemed to get a long well and had a good day despite poor scoring.

Thanks for the invite Voyager EMH. Had an enjoyable day even though the golf was mixed.

I had to smile on the last where there was the nearest in 2 prize on a par 4 of around 325 yards. We were the third last group and the leader was just 4ft from the flag.

Voyager’s neighbour thinned his approach, but it ran up onto the green to 3.5ft from the flag. Voyager then hit a great short iron to 3ft. The other member of the group then put his second to just 8ft. Unfortunately, it took me three to the green so I wasn’t part of this excellent finish. As noted, the others holed out leaving Voyager not needing to take his birdie putt.