Crazyface
Tour Winner
First of all I would like to thank Glynn Roddy at Woodhall Spa for two things. First of all allowing us to participate in the competition at all, trusting that Bar could actually play the game, and that I’m not all that bad. Secondly, for putting us out with Mr Captain and Mrs Captain who were great company and both immensely proud and extremely knowledgeable about their course. Mr Captain even predicting where balls would bounce to after driving off, usually in my case into one of the many, many bunkers. The course itself is undergoing a complete redesign which has uncovered even more historical bunkers which they have kept, wahooo!
Usual first tee nerves saw me land the ball on a fairway, but not the right one, but I was assured it was “a good way in”, and so it proved. Bar, hooked hers left but was underway. As a pairing, we didn’t have many golfing highlights to share with you. I managed a par early on. Bar got a par on a very tricky par three. Later on in the round, after finding a fairway for once, I got the ball close enough to the pin for me to putt out for a birdie. Bar managed to connect with one of her drives later on to send it whizzing past a course marshall on a fairway who said as she past him, “you must be off single figures”. She’s not, but can smack a ball off the tee.
The course itself had a links feel to it, with trees all around. For those who have played it before, hundreds of trees have been removed, which has opened the course up so that you can see all around, a feature I like. There is heather everywhere, where a few of my golf balls are currently attempting to win this year’s Golf Ball Hide and Seek Championship. There are a lot of bunkers. For instance, hole 18 has 14 of them. On one hole, I played it without touching the fairway, something that we’ve all done I’m sure, but have you managed it by going in to three bunkers? Some of the bunkers are very deep. How deep you ask. Well Mr Captain who is about 6 foot tall went in to a pot bunker by a green and vanished from view! Some are even deeper! The fairways were in need of some rainfall, move the course up north we’ve got plenty of the stuff, but this meant loads of roll for golf balls that landed on them, which then meant, for me, more bunkers. Oh and the bloke who is doing the redesigning, has had some of the fairways re-shaped towards the bunkers so if your ball is heading towards a bunker, guess where it will end up? Now onto my favourite topic, the greens. Perfect. Huge, lush, green, and the ball never leaves the surface when you attempt to get the ball in the hole. I say attempt because if you are in the wrong place and don’t take care a tap in par 4 becomes a 6. Yup, I did that. I liked the idea to have the pins narrow at the bottom in the cup, as this prevented any bounce outs when putting. This is a tough course, and you need to have your best game in play to do well. The food afterwards was excellent, sticky toffee pudding yum yum. Lady Captain was a delight and great fun to chat to.
All in all we had a fantastic time and I’m currently in preliminary negotiations with the wife over having another go next year.
Usual first tee nerves saw me land the ball on a fairway, but not the right one, but I was assured it was “a good way in”, and so it proved. Bar, hooked hers left but was underway. As a pairing, we didn’t have many golfing highlights to share with you. I managed a par early on. Bar got a par on a very tricky par three. Later on in the round, after finding a fairway for once, I got the ball close enough to the pin for me to putt out for a birdie. Bar managed to connect with one of her drives later on to send it whizzing past a course marshall on a fairway who said as she past him, “you must be off single figures”. She’s not, but can smack a ball off the tee.
The course itself had a links feel to it, with trees all around. For those who have played it before, hundreds of trees have been removed, which has opened the course up so that you can see all around, a feature I like. There is heather everywhere, where a few of my golf balls are currently attempting to win this year’s Golf Ball Hide and Seek Championship. There are a lot of bunkers. For instance, hole 18 has 14 of them. On one hole, I played it without touching the fairway, something that we’ve all done I’m sure, but have you managed it by going in to three bunkers? Some of the bunkers are very deep. How deep you ask. Well Mr Captain who is about 6 foot tall went in to a pot bunker by a green and vanished from view! Some are even deeper! The fairways were in need of some rainfall, move the course up north we’ve got plenty of the stuff, but this meant loads of roll for golf balls that landed on them, which then meant, for me, more bunkers. Oh and the bloke who is doing the redesigning, has had some of the fairways re-shaped towards the bunkers so if your ball is heading towards a bunker, guess where it will end up? Now onto my favourite topic, the greens. Perfect. Huge, lush, green, and the ball never leaves the surface when you attempt to get the ball in the hole. I say attempt because if you are in the wrong place and don’t take care a tap in par 4 becomes a 6. Yup, I did that. I liked the idea to have the pins narrow at the bottom in the cup, as this prevented any bounce outs when putting. This is a tough course, and you need to have your best game in play to do well. The food afterwards was excellent, sticky toffee pudding yum yum. Lady Captain was a delight and great fun to chat to.
All in all we had a fantastic time and I’m currently in preliminary negotiations with the wife over having another go next year.
