HawkeyeMS
Ryder Cup Winner
I'm just back drom my first Open at East Berks a 36 hole medal and it all ended up rather well. East Berks is a cracking heathland course in keeping with many in our neck of the woods. It's not overly long at around 6300 yds but it's tight and not the place you smash a driver off every tee unless you're really straight.
I played with a lad off 3, an East Berks member and another chap off 4 so I was most definately the runt of the litter in h'cap terms. We were playing for 2 trophies, the Wilson Bowl was the scratch prize ( I wasn't really playing for that given that about 80% of the field were Cat 1s) and the Lushington bowl was the handicap prize.
The morning round was pretty good, I ended up shooting 80 against a par of 69 but an SSS of 71 and really played well, 80 was the worst I could have shot but having never played the course before I was pretty pleased with it. My two playing partners had mornings to forget, my 80 being the lowest score in our group.
The afternoon started even better going out in 3 over gross and hitting the ball really well, you certainly wouldn't have known I was the high handicapper in the group. I still can't explain what happened on the back nine but I came home in a ambulance scoring +13 on the way in, playing some really sloppy shots that I can only put down to fatigue, for an 85
Anyhow, not surprisingly the scratch prize was dominated by the group behind me which consisted of 2 guys off scratch and 1 off +1. One of the guys came second shooting 70\69 ( he now plays off +1) but the fella who started the day off +1 shot 68\65 and probably now plays off +2 - now that's proper golf.
The big surprise of the day was that despite my collapse on the back nine, I won the 2nd prize in the handicap competition (I was actually 5th but 3 of the ones above me were the scratch guys and you're only allowed 1 prize) so I came home with £55 quids worth of vouchers for the missus to spend in m&s and a glass tankard. Not bad at all. On top of that, CSS was 71 both rounds so I'm down to 9.6 and edging slowly back to single figures.
So all in all it was a great day, dissapointing about the back nine this afternoon but that's the joys of golf. I'll definately be going back next year and will be looking to play a few more opens as well if holiday permits.
Off to sleep now as I'm driving down to Devon at 7am tomorrow for 4 more days of golf - cracking
I played with a lad off 3, an East Berks member and another chap off 4 so I was most definately the runt of the litter in h'cap terms. We were playing for 2 trophies, the Wilson Bowl was the scratch prize ( I wasn't really playing for that given that about 80% of the field were Cat 1s) and the Lushington bowl was the handicap prize.
The morning round was pretty good, I ended up shooting 80 against a par of 69 but an SSS of 71 and really played well, 80 was the worst I could have shot but having never played the course before I was pretty pleased with it. My two playing partners had mornings to forget, my 80 being the lowest score in our group.
The afternoon started even better going out in 3 over gross and hitting the ball really well, you certainly wouldn't have known I was the high handicapper in the group. I still can't explain what happened on the back nine but I came home in a ambulance scoring +13 on the way in, playing some really sloppy shots that I can only put down to fatigue, for an 85
Anyhow, not surprisingly the scratch prize was dominated by the group behind me which consisted of 2 guys off scratch and 1 off +1. One of the guys came second shooting 70\69 ( he now plays off +1) but the fella who started the day off +1 shot 68\65 and probably now plays off +2 - now that's proper golf.
The big surprise of the day was that despite my collapse on the back nine, I won the 2nd prize in the handicap competition (I was actually 5th but 3 of the ones above me were the scratch guys and you're only allowed 1 prize) so I came home with £55 quids worth of vouchers for the missus to spend in m&s and a glass tankard. Not bad at all. On top of that, CSS was 71 both rounds so I'm down to 9.6 and edging slowly back to single figures.
So all in all it was a great day, dissapointing about the back nine this afternoon but that's the joys of golf. I'll definately be going back next year and will be looking to play a few more opens as well if holiday permits.
Off to sleep now as I'm driving down to Devon at 7am tomorrow for 4 more days of golf - cracking
