Predictions for Woodhall Spa Pensioners v Athletes meet

Once he got dried off, change of clothes, hot soup, 90 mins with heater blasting out in car and a hot coffee back at our GC, his teeth had just about stopped chattering :-)

I think he is also another one for new waterproofs.
Mine were supposed to be the DB's, top of the range. Pah!, cling film would have been a better option.
Take care, hope your back is on the mend.
 
Massive thanks to my playing partners:

Pieman & Aztec on day 1....2 forum legends and Pieman never ceases to amaze me with his length........he hits the ball a long way as well....:D

It was a keenly contested match between myself and Vig and those 2....Pieman was coming in with irons where we were hitting woods and john had lots of shots......a lethal combination.......I felt we were in for a hammering when we lost the first, but we quickly steadied the ship and managed to get a couple a head thanks to some great close approach play by Vig.
Deciding moment for the match probably came at the 8th....a par 4 playing 288 off the yellow which involves carrying 2 lots of water...club selection off the tee is crucial, ( unless you are the pieman of course).....Paul drove the green and was only about 18 foot away for an eagle....I had opted for the more conservative safe wood and 56 deg wedge option.......Paul just missed the eagle but had a gimmee birdie and they would have got it back to only 1 down if I hadn't rolled in the 9 foot downhill breaking birdie putt.......hole halved in birdie 3's.......it's what matchplay is all about........we never really looked back after that despite some heroic putting from John on the back 9.....great match played in great company and in a great spirit..............Johns second shots from the red Tees were some of the best I've ever seen...... :whistle:

....:thup:

You remember saying on Saturday, as we walked off, "I tend to go on about the shots i've played and didn't think a had today".
You just spoiled it ;-().
Quote of the weekend, whilst walking down the 1st (yes 1st) "i hope we don't lose to a dog licence". Jeez, we had n't even hit our second shots.

Big thanks to all I played with.
Paul & Jon, great game on Saturday, shame someone had to lose.
 
Once he got dried off, change of clothes, hot soup, 90 mins with heater blasting out in car and a hot coffee back at our GC, his teeth had just about stopped chattering :-)

I think he is also another one for new waterproofs.
Mine were supposed to be the DB's, top of the range. Pah!, cling film would have been a better option.
Take care, hope your back is on the mend.

My waterproofs were Hi-Tec, they did a pretty good job apart from one thing; the jacket had a good rainproof zip and kept the rain out but the trousers just had an ordinary zip on the flies.

When I took them off I looked like I'd pissed myself! (I did the sniff test just to make sure I wasn't taking the Old Fart role too seriously and luckily I wasn't, unless my sense of smell has gone...)
 
My waterproofs were Hi-Tec, they did a pretty good job apart from one thing; the jacket had a good rainproof zip and kept the rain out but the trousers just had an ordinary zip on the flies.

When I took them off I looked like I'd pissed myself! (I did the sniff test just to make sure I wasn't taking the Old Fart role too seriously and luckily I wasn't, unless my sense of smell has gone...)

I couldn't tell whether I had or not
 
I was waiting to play my second shot at the second, when this mirage came slowly towards me out of the driving rain. It seemed to have a ghostly hallow around it, and for a terrible moment I thought it might be the Grim Reaper coming to claim another old fart. It then spoke to me in a wide boy accent I vaguely recognised

'too fecking wet and windy for me Rich'
 
Hats off to Galvin Green - boy is their stuff good! My upper body was bone dry thanks to my jacket, and that was as wet as it could've been. My Glenmuir waterproof trousers also did ok - a bit damp in the crotch area but all in all a good job.

As for my Nike wet weather glove...what a piece of crap! I got to a point where I had no confidence in being able to keep hold of my clubs on the follow through so I ended up taking the thing off and playing with no glove at all. Much better!

Oh, and below is the result of my drive down the 18th on Saturday. Sums up my golf nicely :whistle:
 

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Finally made it home this afternoon. Many thanks to everyone for a great time, especially Smiffy for all the organisation.

Apologies to TXL for not giving him much support on Saturday - Justone & G1BBO took advantage of our good nature.

Special thanks to Steve79 for saying lets walk in on the 8th tee - an honourable draw.

Can we do it again, but without the weather!
 
Hats off to Galvin Green - boy is their stuff good! My upper body was bone dry thanks to my jacket, and that was as wet as it could've been. My Glenmuir waterproof trousers also did ok - a bit damp in the crotch area but all in all a good job.

As for my Nike wet weather glove...what a piece of crap! I got to a point where I had no confidence in being able to keep hold of my clubs on the follow through so I ended up taking the thing off and playing with no glove at all. Much better!

Oh, and below is the result of my drive down the 18th on Saturday. Sums up my golf nicely :whistle:

I can see an old mans face with a long beard at the bottom of that tree. Smiffy gets everywhere.:mad:
 
I'm not sure ANYONE would have walked in had Smiffy not walked back past the entire field!!!

I was cheesed right off James. I was 4 down after 4, stood on the 5th tee and Captain Pugwash put his PW tee shot to 4 feet. That was it, I was getting out of there. Shook hands on the tee and scarpered. I know when I'm beat. Who else can say they played 4 holes on the Hotchkin course without getting their putter out once! In my rush to get to the 1st tee I had forgotten to change my glasses over. I wear varifocals for regular use but always swap them for single vision lenses when I'm playing golf. I hit a reasonable drive up the 1st and then proceeded to almost take 4 air shots in my efforts to move the ball further up the hole. I didn't realise what the problem was until the 3rd hole, and by then it was too late!
Made me laugh as I walked back to the clubhouse, my route took me down the side of the 1st hole again and Calvin was standing in the middle of the fairway waiting to play his approach shot in.
"I'm pissed off already" he said. He'd only played one shot!
Anybody who stayed out there for the full 18 holes deserves a medal. I think they were the worst conditions I have ever tried to play golf in. Ray Taylor said that it was as bad at Spey Valley when we went up on the Castle Stuart trip. I personally don't think it was. It was cold and wet, but we didn't have the howling wind to contend with up there. I saw that one out. But yesterday was just a bridge to far for this old duffer.
 
Made me laugh as I walked back to the clubhouse, my route took me down the side of the 1st hole again and Calvin was standing in the middle of the fairway waiting to play his approach shot in.
"I'm pissed off already" he said. He'd only played one shot!

Sorry I missed you Smiffy, I was in the same group as Calvin but while he was standing in the middle of the first fairway, I was in the rough over on the far side of the eighteenth fairway. :o
I don't normally hook the ball off the tee but that's what comes of trying to play a controlled three wood into the teeth of the gale.
 
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I think that the most unusual and creative shot of the weekend was on the 10th on Sunday.

Vera (name changed to save embarrassment) played her/his tee shot which somehow landed about 6ft behind her/him and proceeded to spin forwards back towards the tee leaving a 2ft shot to get past her/his starting point. Now I've seen big Phil play a shot back over his head but that was on a severe up slope. To play a similar shot off a level lie using a hybrid (iirc) takes real​ skill.

As she/he hadn't got past the green markers, let alone the reds, we felt sorry for her/him and didn't apply the usual penalty as a) we didn't know if she/he had the necessary equipment and b) if she/he had the equipment, as it was so wet and cold, would it have been possible to find it let alone get it out?
 
I don't think the player concerned is going to thank you Roger for giving him/her the new name of Vera.:mmm: I also thought it was very mean of someone to shout out 'come on papa smurf' just as you were about to tee off.
 
Looking at Brocket Hall as a possible venue for next years event, it looks like the cost is going to increase to around £199.00 per person to get the same deal as Woodhall Spa were offering us, if you want to stay for an evening meal there.
Another alternative is a return to Forest Pines. They are always offering deals and it would work out a bit cheaper.
I thought Forest Pines was in great condition when we played there last time. But I do fancy Brocket Hall!!

But seriously............I'd prefer to do this mid Summer than April in the hope that we got decent weather.
 
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Looking at Brocket Hall as a possible venue for next years event, it looks like the cost is going to increase to around £199.00 per person to get the same deal as Woodhall Spa were offering us, if you want to stay for an evening meal there.
Another alternative is a return to Forest Pines. They are always offering deals and it would work out a bit cheaper.
I thought Forest Pines was in great condition when we played there last time. But I do fancy Brocket Hall!!

Well smiffy let me be the first to put my name down for this then. I had a great weekend and look forward to the next one. Just ell me where, when and how much....:cheers:
 
Well smiffy let me be the first to put my name down for this then. I had a great weekend and look forward to the next one. Just ell me where, when and how much....:cheers:

If somebody wants to book that Brocket Hall deal up for later in the year (without the grub) then I'd be up for that as long as I can get the time off work.
 
Bit late but still. Great weekend, thanks to Smithy for the organising and for PNW for majestically captaining the whippersnappers to glory.
Thanks to Greg, Crow and Achilles on Saturday, we (me& Achilles) were holding on for the front 9 but letting you win three holes on the trot was too hard a mountain to climb.
Thanks to Hobbit and Euan for Sunday, a 3 ball as the last group was always going to get held up but standing about on every tee in the pishing rain is no fun. We agreed a half but we both know the truth….ta mate.
Why I went up to my room to phone HID on Saturday eveningI will never know, I put MOTD on and sat down and the next thing I knew it was 4am fully clothed on top of my bed, sounds like I missed a good drink and banter.
Will try to get back up to play the Hotchkin later this year as it looked a lovely track even in those conditions.
It was nice meeting everyone, see you next time.
 
Thanks guys for a great weekend. It will live long in the memory. Special thanks to Smiffy for organising the meet and to Leftie, Greg, Sweaty and Graham for the great company. See you at the next meet.
 
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