Golf Monthly Forum Meet - Blackmoor Golf Club

The culmination of my golfing activity this weekend was the Golf Monthly Forum Meeting at Blackmoor Golf Club in Hampshire on Monday (27th). Established in 1913, it has matured over the past 98 years into one of the top 100 courses in Britain. It was originally laid out by renowned golf architect Harry Colt, whose maxim was: ‘The real test of a course: is it going to live?’ Blackmoor certainly has and is one of the 43 courses featured in the 2008 book ‘Creating Classics – The Golf Courses of Harry Colt’. The course consists of two loops of nine holes created from heathland, with fairways surrounded by heather, pine, birch and oak trees. Colt’s design principles have stood the test of time as golf is still played over sixteen holes designed by him. Blackmoor is home to a number of amateur and professional competitions, including the Selborne Salver which attracts both international and Walker Cup players. It is also a course often used by Hampshire Golf Union for their County Championships and from 1997 until 2003, it was a regional qualifying course for the Open Championship where golfers from the UK, Europe, America and Africa began their quest for ‘The Claret Jug’.

Forty four golfers from varying points on the compass travelled into the heart of Hampshire for the day. The format was a nine hole team event in the morning and a singles stableford off 7/8ths handicap in the afternoon. The temperature was still blistering but the sun wasn't as bright as it had been the day before at Camberley. I was partnered with a very good friend Robert Smith (or Smiffy as he is known on the forum) and two of his golfing mates. I've played many times with Smiffy and he has a wicked sense of humour and being off the same handicap as me meant it would be a competitive day between us.

The opener is 332 yards long but has a ditch in the optimum landing area at the 235 yard mark before going uphill to the green. It isn't a tough opener, at least under normal conditions but with a large contingent of the field still to go out and watching from the balcony, it certainly wasn't "normal." In the end I hit my five wood well, almost too well as it ran and ran stopping just short of the ditch.

The greens were undoubtedly amongst THE fastest I've ever putted on. The club had hosted one of its  prestigious members competition the day before and the greens had been ironed to speed them up further and the pins were placed in as close to their premium locations as possible. It was set up as hard as it would have been for a professional event. The greens were scary and full of guile and intrigue. To be honest some of the pin placements, particularly at the fifth could make you look very silly. I had a six footer from above the hole and then had a similar distance back the other way. I had hardly breathed on the putt. It really makes you appreciate just what a test it is for the professionals at places like Augusta.

I played the nine hole team event like a bit of a chopper. The decent swing and glass half full optimism of post Camberley had been swapped by a quick and jerky swing producing snap hooks and big pushes. Add in several three putts and the scorecard wasn't pretty.

I was determined to put on a better performance in the afternoon. I've gained a certain reputation on the Golf Monthly Forum over the years and so I felt a strong desire not to embarrass myself in front of so many of my peers. The online humiliation would be brutal and lengthy and so ignominy was to be avoided at all cost. Naturally I made a real pigs ear of the first to get the campaign off to a real flyer and didn't trouble the scorer.

We all settled down. Smiffy's mates Alan Bannister and Greg Lindley (both off 11) were hitting the ball well although Greg in particular was struggling on the greens. We'd decided to play for £2 per man on the front nine score, £2 the back nine score and £2 per head on the overall points tally plus 50p for birdies so there were high stakes up for grabs. I was doing reasonably until I came to grief at the uphill par 3 6th. I missed the green right into the bunker. I failed to get out first time and my next attempt had no sand under the shot and the ball went miles over the green. By the time we had reached the turn it was tightly locked with Alan and I on 14 points, Smiffy a single point back and Greg a little adrift on 10 mainly due to his putting woes.

I started the back nine in the same way as the front and chopped my way along it to fail to score again. With Smiffy and Alan both picking up points it was game on and I was now losing. The 15th at Blackmoor is rated one of the hardest par 3's in Hampshire. Playing 198 yards, it plays down a narrow chute to a well bunkered, uphill saucer shaped green that also runs from front to back. The prevailing wind is also into the players face. So hard was the challenge that the organiser was offering a prize to anyone hitting the putting surface and staying on it.

Alan went first and was short. Up stepped Homer. I'd originally opted to hit my 3 hybrid but having seen how short Alan was I decided to club up to my 5 wood. Come on Homer. Nice and smooth. It came off like a peach. Straight and true it pitched into the front edge took a hop forward and stopped no more than ten feet away. The group waiting to putt out on the 14th and those walking off the 16th both applauded my effort. Show me the prize. The birdie putt was a mystery. I saw it with about a foot of break and dead weight. This thing moved miles and it never got to the hole before tailing off. With Smiffy and Alan holing out for a par the pressure was on. I stroked it in dead centre and held a narrow one point lead in our group

The last of the par 3's is the 17th. Playing 164 yards it's played to an elevated green over thick heather. Oblique bunkers left and right call for an accurate tee shot. The heavily contoured green presents a difficult putting challenge. As if the other sixteen we'd just played hadn't. Still a point in front I hit a 5 iron to the left edge of the green. Leaving the flag in I hit the best putt I'd made all day to roll it in from twenty feet. I could taste the victory and see the cash. Alan had hit the green too but it had felt all day as though you were only trying to lag putts stone dead so I never expected him to make it. Make it he did to cancel out my charge for glory.

The last goes downhill and then back up to a green in front of the clubhouse. I hit a good drive but missed the green left into a bunker twenty yards short. Alan unleashed a corker and his second found the green. Having made a hash of all my bunker shots playing this one in front of the baying masses up on the balcony called for a bit of bottle. Please don't thin it or leave it in there. In the end it came out well if a little short of pace. However to reiterate just how fast the greens were as if we needed reminding, it landed on the left of the green and rolled downhill across the width of the green to leave a 25 foot severely sloping right to left putt. In the end I over read it, didn't commit and came up eight feet short. Alan also came up short but made a five. I needed the putt to take the cash. It missed and to be fair the draw all round was the best result.

In the end Alan and I finished with 29 points (although it would have been 31 for me off full handicap). Not great but in the scheme of things it was good enough to see me finish twelfth overall and only seven points off first place. Bearing in mind I failed to score on four holes in the afternoon it showed that for the most part I was playing quite well.

Surprisingly out of a field of 44 players including a PGA professional and a few single figure players only myself and one other managed to hit and hold the 15th green. Happy days and there was a big smile on my face as I collected my prize. A huge thanks to everyone who organised the day, to the club for presenting the course at it best and toughest and to all the forum members I met old and new for making it a brilliantt day.

I have to say the Golf Monthly Forum http://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk is the place to go for a lively discussion on anything golf related. It doesn't discriminate between ability, kit or where you play and offers you the chance to talk to like minded people. It also hosts some cracking days out at great courses so get involved. You never know, you may be lucky(?) enough to get drawn with me.