The Longest Day Report

HTL

Tour Winner
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
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Surrey
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Well we completed it. And also did it in style!

The Downshire Golf Complex provided us with spectacular hospitality and made the day extremely enjoyable.

I was picked up by Homer and the Mrs at 3:30am I was in a bit of a state after 45min sleep and a stinking hang over after beers after work escalated into a monster beers session up in London town.

We were on the tee at 4:30am and breezed through two rounds with no other on the course. We then stopped for lunch and were dying to get back out there. The shower plan didn’t happen so decided to test out our friendship and play some seriously smelly Golf in the afternoon. The second two rounds were still averaging 3 hours with the marshals driving ahead of us in buggies and asking people to let us through. This was the key to our success as the course was busy and also proved beneficial to the charity pot with people often reaching into their pockets to donate money.

The scores were neck and neck and decided on the 72nd hole. I can’t remember the exact scores for each round but the final scores were HTL 140 points + Homer 139 points. Homer took a strong lead after 2 rounds, however with me scoring two 40 point rounds to finish I snatched victory from Homers grasp.

We both played some spectacular Golf shots. Homers highlight included being 3 off a tee then cracking a drive straight down the middle and draining a 140 yard iron into the hole. I fell in love with my new Mizuno MP Fli Hi 4 iron and used it whenever possible, I was easily over 200 yards off the tee with it and creamed some about 240 yards so the woods took a major back seat. The victory was sealed by myself chipping in several times for birdies or par saves.

To conclude my rambles and get back to watching the Lions get dicked on by the Bocks, It was a fantastic day and can’t wait to do it again next year.
 
For got to add im still walking like John Wayne after a chafage situation.

Homer carried a full bag and clubs filled with his water bottles, balls etc for all 4 rounds. Some serious man points awarded for that.

Murth will be pleased to know I only lost 4 balls, 3 of those being in 4 holes. I was having a bit of hangover belly and not really concentrating for a few shots, spraying them into the long stuff.
 
Finished by about 6:30 I think. However, the day didnt end there for me I was dragged up the stables to help out for an hour then got stuck on M25. Got home about 9:30 and put dinner on, haven't a clue what it tasted like as I was put to bed after 10mins on the sofa.
 
Impressed, actually V impressed. More so with a body full of beer and little or no kip!!

Shame the lions haven’t got the same stamina.
 
No surprises about HTL's 'lack of sleep' though! I really don't know how you do it!

Hey Hapless - we could have done it if we were as young as HTL!! used to do everything with no sleep at that age!! :D
 
OK guys (and female forummers).

Finally crawled into bed about 11.00 last night and surfaced this afternoon about 1.00 as still as anything. Watched the rugby and with a round at Leatherhead tomorrow with HTL (we're still on speaking terms after four rounds together) I went to the range to a) try and find my lost game and b) to actually get the body moving.

It was a fantastic day and thanks must go to HTL for being such a good companion despite looking awful for the first 36 holes until the fry up kicked in.

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Also thanks to my lovely wife for agreeing to get up at 2.30am to go and pick HTL up and for coming up to the club regularly and bringing fresh drinks, bananas etc so we didn't have to carry too much in one go. Finally to the Downshire marshalls who did a great job in acting as and advanced guard and clearing a path through a society and several slow groups including one guy that should never be allowed to hold a golf club again. He was a sin against the sport.

Onto the golf and as Hywel has said it literally went to the very last putt which I needed to hole from 10 feet to tie but didn't.

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Score wise Hywel was a little inconsistant to start but then had a very strong finish. He scored 32, 28, 40 and 40 against my 30. 39, 35 and 35. I couldn't compete in the 3rd and 4th rounds. In the 3rd round he went birdie par birdie and both birdies came from a chip in and a putt from off the green. In the 4th round he chipped in at 16 when I was already starting to flag and was struggling to keep up with his scoring. I had a few good holes (law of averages I guess over the 4 rounds) but holing from 143 with a 7 iron for a par (3 off the tee) was probaby my best shot although I did hit a lot of good irons throughout to around 10 feet or less and couldn't buy a putt. On the ball front I lost 8 (three on the same hole over the 4 rounds)

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Anyone playing with HTL better be warned that his new 4 iron is going 200+ yards (we measured it on SC) and is constantly straight so he is very hard to play against although we made the 2nd round a matchplay game (had to hole everything though - they were the longest day rules) and I did him 4&3 and was actually dormie 5.

The only downside was the expected no show of Stevo as I hadn't been able to contact him via PM on here and he never returned my phone calls or texts. Its the second time he's pulled out without any explanation as he said he would be at the RA forum day and I paid upfront as he said he'd give me cash on the day and he never showed. When he said he was up for this I thought everyone deserves the benefit, but I have to say I won't be inviting him to anything else I get involved in.

To finish on a high though, it was great to see how fellow golfers were quite happy (apart from the sin against golf and his footie hooligan partner) to let through two guys raising money for a good cause and how many were keen to give cash (we got another £40 in cash on the day) and were all supportive of our efforts on the way round and in the bar afterwards.

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I think IF I do it again I'd definitely go back to Downshire. The course suits the day (not too much think rough) but still offering a challenging game each time. Off to take some ibuprofen and hopefully a good rub down from HID
 
Tight fitting adidas top mate and 22 years on the lager before I gave up. My gut is much better than it ever was during my drinking days (I had the archetypay pot belly and on someone tall and otherwise slim - not a good combo) but next to a fit golfing machine I had no chance!

BTW the second photo with us setting off is what 4.24am looks like for those not aware that there are two 4.24's in one day
 
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