Not The Least Bit Bothered

Played in the monthly stableford today. I was in the first group out on a pretty chilly overcast morning, playing alongside a real Royal Ascot stalwart Ray Grubb and a guy with whom it's always a pleasure to play with Gary Wells. Ray had done the calling at the Bingo Night at the club last night and had slightly over lubricated his voice (had a few!) but it didn't seem to affect his game. Gary on the other hand was struggling especially on the front nine where he amassed a total of 6 points. To his enduring credit though the worse it got the more he laughed. Even more to his credit, his rallied on the back nine and played very close to his handicap for those holes and began hitting it well. What a stupid game.

Ray was Mr Consistent and the hangover didn't affect him. He was doing really well and definitely in contention until an unforced error at the 16th and a missed green at the 17th put the skids on. He even managed to stick a ball in the hazard in front of the tee box on 18 and was forced to play three off the tee but walked off with a bogey 6 (nett par) after a tenacious birdie with the second ball and finished with a creditable 34 points which will be close but no cigar.

And so, what about me? Well the tally of 26 points (13 for both nines) really doesn't tell the story. The quality of the ball striking in general was very good although I did seem to be fighting a bit of a hook on the front nine. I got off to a solid start at the 1st but a duffed tee shot at the next really was the catalyst for the inevitable nul points on the hole. From then on, I seemed to manage to put myself in trouble from nowhere. I missed the green with a short iron at the 4th and at the next recovered well from a poor drive to leave me an 8 iron from 127 yards. I pulled another one left and it managed to find a resting place by the back of the bunker on a bare downhill lie with no green to work with. With my ailing short game, the duff into sand was inevitable.

Similarly on the 7th I struck the tee shot really well but turned it over too much right to left and it found the out of bounds by about a yard. I did rally though and closed the front nine with two pars. The 9th in particular was playing very long and it took a well struck driver and everything I had with a 5 wood to find the target and two putted from ten yards.

The back nine was really a case of more of the same. A decent start at the 10th after a poor drive and good recover was negated at the next. My tee shot went left (just for a change) into sand and landed in a small depression in the sand making the shot much trickier. It rattled off the front edge and the chip back was weak. Two putts later and I was marking down a five from nowhere again. And so it goes on. I hit a good drive at 12 and the hybrid second shot was hit perfectly. Unfortunately I had started it too straight from where I was standing and it hit a tree limb and dropped straight down. I recovered onto the green and three putted for a point. Having got single points on 11 and 12 I followed it up at the next three holes with single point scores. DOH! The thing was the quality of the shot was great but the unforced errors on and around the green meant that with all the will in the world I wasn't going to put a score together.

The 16th was playing into the wind. I hit a good drive and had 217 left into the green. With nothing to play for and a 0.1 handicap rise safely banked I pulled out my three wood to take the shot on. I flushed it perfectly and it cleared the bunker some thirty yards short and made the putting surface finishing no more than twenty feet away. The three putt was almost written in the stars. Even at the 17th things didn't change. I missed the green just to the right and found another downhill lie on the edge of the bunker. Fortunately there was a hint of grass under the ball and got it to within four feet but missed the putt.

Just to rub salt into an already gaping wound, I hit a glorious 7 iron approach into the last to finish within five feet of the hole and set up a birdie putt and a chance to claim some kind of fleeting glory. The fact that it didn't even sniff the edge of the hole probably tells you everything you need to know.

That's another 0.1 back onto the handicap and 13 is looming large. Do you know what? I don't care. I know I'm hitting it well. I grant you that every now and then the direction is off but on the whole they are going where I'm aiming. It isn't as if I'm hitting big banana slices or snap hooks and loosing balls left right and centre. I just can't put a score together. It's that simple and why I'm not the least bit bothered.

I have to say Ray and Gary made it a wonderful mornings golf and we whizzed round in about three and a quarter hours. The course played long but is recovering from the recent wet spell and the greens putt well but are struggling with some moss in them. I'm going to knock it round in the early morning roll up tomorrow and hope that that'll be the round where it all comes together. It's so tantalisingly close and that's the great thing about golf, there is always tomorrow.