Plus Points And Some Real Downers

It was day two of the club championship yesterday and having survived the halfway cull I was paired with a great guy called John Clark for the second day running and was joined by the club handicap secretary and guru to all things CONGU Terry Banham.

In the warm up I was actually hitting it much better than the previous day and the timing seemed so much better. I hit a better opening drive and found the green and for the second day running opened up with a par. And then for the second day running problems started. I struck my tee shot on the 2nd well but a little right. It looked to be staying in bounds until it caught a bough of one of the trees never to be seen again. Roll up a costly snowman (8) and I'm already a stroke worse off. The 3rd hole was really an indication though that it wasn't to be my day. A great tee shot took a wicked kick left and found a fairway bunker. I escaped well but only managed to find a greenside bunker. However I had no stance inside the bunker and had to stand way above the ball outside the trap and try and bend down to play the shot. I made contact and got it out but didn't find the green. That would be the story of my round. If there was a chance of finding a bare lie or grass, it would be the bare one every time. A inch shorter and playing from semi-rough or from longer stuff and the ball would go that extra few rolls. Maybe it was my penance for making my first club championship cut

The putter wasn't behaving either which didn't help and where all the six footers were going in on Saturday, they were just staying on the lip or brushing the edge yesterday. By the time I'd made a good par on the 9th thanks to a sweet four iron into the wind from 176 yards to the heart of the green I'd improved my score compared to the first round by two shots and was only just over handicap. That buffer lasted until the 10th where a catalogue of poor shots ensured a nice double bogey.

Apart from the 10th, the back nine was pretty steady all the way round with the odd par or bogey and the quality of the shots were much better than of late and shad I been able to make a putt or two could have had a half decent return. However all that was academic once I'd played the 17th. Again, it was a great five wood into the wind although the line was too far right guarding against the out of bounds left. It found the bunker but should have posed no problem. WRONG. I took no sand with the shot and the ball sailed merrily over the green and out of bounds. I eventually got it out long and right, chipped back and made an inglorious triple bogey seven. Even a good par down the last with a five iron from 158 yards over the pond couldn't lighten the simmering frustration inside.

In the end my score of 151 (74-77 nett +11) was good enough for 37th place. Not a great result but I was pleased to have made the cut and so anything after that was a bonus. The real downside was the fact that yet again I'd hit the ball really well and got little or no return. Add the fact that both rounds were outside the handicap buffer and so my handicap went up 0.1 both days and I'm now teetering on 13.4 and perilously close to 14. Bad times.

I have to mention John and Terry. John was great fun to play with (as was Tony our partner for Saturday who sadly didn't have a great day) and like me had a mixture of good holes and the odd nightmare. Terry had a decent opening round and started off like a train yesterday. After the first five holes he was two under par gross thanks to a couple of birdies and held it together pretty well for the first nine. Sadly it got away from him a little coming home but he played some really steady golf and his final score didn't do justice to the way he'd played.

All in all it was a great weekend. Congratulations to the captain and organisers, and a big well done to the greenkeepers. The course was well presented and the greens were just about perfect. The flag placements were testing without being penal or silly and good shots were rewarded and bad ones punished. Well down to Ian Forster for winning both the scratch and handicap prizes and Dave Andrews who pushed him hard and finished second.

Overall there was much to be happy about. I laid to bed the club championship hex of not playing well or missing the cut and in the second round hit the ball very nicely even if I couldn't make a score. I'm concerned that the handicap continues to go north and that the medal next Saturday could see me hitting the 14 handicap mark. Definitely not what Homer's Odyssey was all about. Its a bitter sweet pill as I've bleated long and often about not getting any breaks and believing in what you put in you get out. Sadly it seems that isn't always the case.

Anyway to finish on a positive note I'm off to sunny Chepstow on Monday for a few days R&R with the good lady wife. Oh and did I mention the small matter of a Golf Monthly Centenary event at St Pierre on Tuesday. I've never played there but heard great things about the course and it will be great to catch up with some of the familiar faces from the Golf Monthly forum and the magazine staff as well and hopefully my decent ball striking will survive the trip down the M4 intact for Tuesday morning. The weather looks reasonable (even for Wales) and I've got some brownie points from the wife for taking her away for a few days so everything is set fair. I'll be sure to regale you with deeds of derring-do, long drives, sublime putting and good fortune. Or as regular readers will know, maybe not!