Old Faces, New Acquaintances and Same Old Story

I have been busy over the last few weeks organising the 2nd Golf Monthly Spring Meet and it was held yesterday, as last year at Royal Ascot. A gathering of twenty four avid golfers arrived with a few casting a wary eye over the clubhouse to seek inspiration for the weather to come. The Golf Monthly Forum (click on the link at the side of the page) is a wonderful melting pot of ideas, opinions and adventures about the game of golf and definitely worth a look. This event was graced by players from all over the country including Norwich, Liverpool, Cornwall, Leicestershire, and the South Coast and after introductions, bacon baps and coffee it was off to the first tee.

I have to say a huge thanks to Royal Ascot for their hospitality, especially Sheila Thompson for her patience with all my queries and having to move the date (several times), the greenkeeping staff who had the course in pristine condition and the captain and committee for letting us get the full flavour by using the white tees. In addition a special thank you to Ascot legend, committee member and all round good egg Tommy Goode who did a wonderful meet and greet for each group on the 1st tee.

From a personal perspective, I had a wonderful days golf in the company of three enthusiastic gentlemen from Camberley Heath, East Horton and Dulwich & Sydenham. We all had varying degrees of success. I was in the second group out and so there was still a sizeable audience watching. One of the forum's attributes is its banter which can be fierce and those gathered were quick to put the pressure on. I dug deep into my memory banks and fired a five wood away. Mercifully it went straight and a friendly members bounce meant it finished just short of the green and I could walk away head held high.

In fact my head was pretty high for most of the first nine holes. I was pretty steady early on and then made a very unusual two at the par 3 sixth hole having hit a five iron to about ten feet. I wobbled on the 8th where I wasn't in contention for nearest the pin (or indeed nearest the green) but managed a par at the 9th to get a creditable 19 points by half-time.

I'm not sure where it went wrong though. I managed a solid enough par at the 10th and made a bogey (nett par) at the next. At the twelfth I hit a poor drive and was blocked out so hit a wedge over the trees to leave what should have been an easy 7 iron in. I pulled that, duffed a chip and walked away with point thanks to a single putt. I didn't score at the next thanks to a three putt and having hit my best drive of the day at the fourteenth proceeded to chop my way down the hole to not trouble the scorer again. By the time I made two points on the last hole I'd come home in a measly twelve points for a grand total of 31. Still it's not the done thing to win your own event. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

In the end an 11 handicap raider from the West Country called Tony Reed (Pokerjoke as he's known on the forum) went away with the spoils with 40 points. There were two scores of 38 including the guy from Camberley Heath in my group (Anthony Lawrence) who had a superb 21 points coming home also off a handicap of 11. He was really steady all the way to be honest and a few wayward putts cost him the title. The 3rd place prize was won by a guy from near Leicester who spookily enough was also an 11 handicapper and who had 20 points coming home.

The most pleasing part of the day though was the feedback about the course, particularly the greens and how true (if not overly quick) they were and the welcome, hospitality and layout of the course. A lot of guys had returned from the inaugural event in 2009 and could really see how the course had come along and the first timers to this years event were all pleasantly surprised. Most thought it was a true and fair test and to be honest you can't want for much more.

I had played a practice round on Tuesday with a postie from Liverpool and a guy from Bude in North Cornwall who had travelled up to play in the day. We made up a four with a guy from near Heathrow who had come along on a recent members open day and who was keen to have another look at the course before the main event. It was a brilliant round in terms of the fun even if the quality of the golf was lacking.

All in all it has been a great couple of days golf. Thanks again to everyone who made the effort to travel down and play and to everyone involved with Royal Ascot for making it happen. From my own viewpoint, things are going to be a bit quiet. I'm knocking it around with my regular cohort Hywel Lloyd on Sunday as we prepare for our first round match in the Volvo Matchplay which is a national fourball betterball knockout event. It starts off locally and we've got a draw at Maidenhead against a 14 and 16 handicapper on a course that is hosting their club championship that weekend. Maidenhead has a reputation for quick greens anyway so these could be something else. Other than that I'm not bothering to run the gauntlet of racegoers to try and get to the club so will use next week to work on all parts of my game elsewhere. Who knows, I might even find something that can work for both nines and not conk out after 11 holes. Ho hum.