I Am Now Past Captain

Well it does not seem like a year ago when I was writing my first post here for January 1st 2010. But it is and I now write my last one. I have also noticed that this is my 100th post so I have  lot to look back on during 2010. I also had my last game as Captain today and this my first in December, and Rob Croxford and I were well beaten by Brian and Jeff in the winter Foursomes today.

Well I have really enjoyed my year as Captain. It has been busy and I have played some fun golf with so many members so thanks to everyone who put up with me on the Golf course this year. Also everyone has been very supportive and made my "job" very easy. I am pleased that the golf side of the club seems to have continued to improve this year and all sections of the club appear to be getting stronger. Also thanks for all the support for the charity, I do not have the final figure yet but we raised well over £7,500 this year.

There were so many highlights of the year it is hard to pick out too many moments but here are some of my favourites below.

Captains Drive In - My first real event of the year and it went very smoothly on a crisp frosty day in March. And I even took £10.00 of Andy as I called my Drive at the trees on the left with a draw into the middle of fairway :-)
Mail On Sunday - We made it to the 4th round this year but I managed to get to play in my first play-off and won (that was a knee knocking experience)
PAV Scratch Team - I was lucky enough to involved in the team this year and earned my first 1/2 point against Selsey. And playing against West Sussex in the first round was great experience as out combined handicap for 8 players was 50 and West Sussex were 3. Please support the team next year.
Club Championships - We played this on July and it worked well on a couple of nice days. And after 23 holes I was told I was in the lead at 6 over, but went on to drop 13 shots on the last 13 holes and I think it was the Championship that nobody wanted to win.
Captains Day - A fantastic day in the Sunshine where we raised £2,800 for Charity.
Staff v Members - 36 holes and the members won and another £20.00 for charity from Andy
Men's Dinner - I can't remember too much so it must of been good. And yes I will be taking Tammy out in the New Year but after the Blog is finished so I will not be writing about it (unless it is for a lot of money - "Kiss And Tell" )

There was of course so many other great occasions but these are just some of the highlights. My Handicap did get to 7 but back to 8, will be down lower by the end of next year.

So I suppose it is just left for me to say a Big Thanks to all of you for having me as your Captain for 2010 and wish Richard Kindon the best of luck for 2011 and I hope he has as much fun as I did.

Happy New Year.

Captain Clive

Happy Christmas

Well its been a while since I have posted anything, but there is a not a lot to say really. I have not played golf in December as it has always been snowed off or one weekend I had the dreaded "Man Flu".
Christmas was great and I actually cooked the Christmas dinner this year, and the good news is everybody is still alive after eating it. I think I need a few trips to the gym now!!!!!!.But as it does not look like we will be playing golf the early part of next week I should have time to do that.

So my year as Captain is slowly coming to an end, it has been great fun and don't forget we are currently looking for volunteers for 2012. I will try to do a thoughtful round up of my year before it ends, and I hope I can get a last game in as captain on Friday 31st, it looks like there maybe a heatwave of up to 7 degrees on Wednesday.

OK Mens Dinner Report

So Saturday was the Men's dinner. I have spent a little while trying to best fit everything in for the night as there is a lot that goes on. I think we did it in the end and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I apparently did. To those I need to apologise to SORRY. Now that out the way lets move on.

So we started with the AGM at 6:30. Again we did not have as many as I hoped for turning up but there was about 20 people. I would like to see more next year so we can get some more ideas into the committee. 2 people are leaving the committee this year, Steve Rimmer and Terry Wills, and I would like to thank them for all the work they have done over the years. These places have now been taken by Paul Mchale who is Vice-Captain for 2011 and Peter Beck who is now a member of the committee. Brian Johnstone is now the Secretary and Richard Kindon was confirmed as Club Captain for 2011. Good luck to them all. I am still surprised that more people do not want to get involved in the committee and help out but again this year we had no other people wanting to be on the committee and only 20 at the AGM. We can only assume we do all the right things for the members at the moment.
On to the Dinner. We had a fantastic meal that was split up by a couple of games of Heads and Tails, the draw for the dinner cup and the giving of prizes to the winners from last year. We managed to fit this all in but it must have been well after 10:00 before the Comedian, Mark Rough got to do his slot. I had never seen Mark before but did a lot of research trying to find someone who would fit the bill for the night and I think he did a great job. Sorry to those he picked on for the night, but we all got some, even me as a little Dwarf apparently. This was then rounded off with the Charity Auction. John Jordan had managed to get me a signed Brighton shirt and a signed Chelsea shirt which went very well. We had some Jack Nicolas memorial Scottish £5.00 notes. And Tammy offered a night out with herself for dinner, and I agreed to pay the bill for the food and wine. This all went very well and we had a lot of bids for Tammy, that was until it slowed down a little at £525.00. I thought I would get the bidding going again by bidding £550.00 but that was when all the bidding stopped. But I am sure we will have good night out. I have not done the final count yet but I think we raised nearly £1400.00 on the night.
I for one felt very rough Sunday morning, I would like to thank all the bar staff and chefs that made this a wonderful evening and sorry if I kept them a little late when they tried to get me to leave. My memory is a little blurred from about 11:30 but I know it was a lot latter than that when I eventually made it back to Random Hall.

Sunday morning was the Dinner Cup. I made it back after about 5 hours sleep and went into the Steam Room for about 30 minutes to try and sweat it out. But it did not do too much good. I played with Alan Giddings in the Greensomes and we managed a respectable 33 points, but it was very cold and it rained light drizzle all day. The winners were the favorites from the previous night, Richard Clegg and Tim Plumtree with 38 Points.

Oh well thats that for another year, bring on next years Dinner. And if you did enjoy this years please click like to this post.

Men's dinner

Ouch my head hurts. More to follow.

Spooky goings on at Slinfold.

Saturday and it was our Mixed Halloween competition. I dressed up in a full mask but it was like nobody noticed as when I walked in Ryan just said “Hi Clive” as did a few others. Of course when I took it off then they all ran away. This comp is always a fun comp with extra points being added for Fancy Dress and for Pumpkins. Well some of the costumes this year were fantastic and I think a particular mention goes to Beckie, Matt and Richard. As usual the girls in F&B chose the winners of the costumes and pumpkins and the prize for costume went to Beckie, as she wore it all the way round the course, and to Matt for his Pumpkin, which maybe Beckie may have made too.

I had the pleasure of playing with Rosie and we had a great fun round but we did not quite play well enough to get in the prizes ending up fifth. The weather was a little off and on with some rain for us at the start of the first and the start of the second 9. What was strange was when we got in the other were complaining of Hail Stones, and in particular one group who were on the 13^th Green said these were lying on the green effecting the putts. We worked out that at the same time we were on the 11^th Green but we only had heavy rain, so from the 13^th to the 11^th we had different weather. SPOOKY.

 

On Sunday it was a Stableford competition and I was starting this one. Well the weather was not good and it rained all morning, but I did keep telling everyone it would stop as soon as we got on the course at 11:20, well as it happened just as we hit our first shots the rain stopped and it was dry all the way round for us. SPOOKY, but that just goes to show, don’t always ask for an early tee time, later might be better some times. I had a very steady front 9 with just 3 bogeys but a 7 on the 10^th from the middle of the fairway put a DAMPER on me getting down to 7 again by the end of the year so I think I will have to settle for 8 and concentrate on improving next year. Congratulations to Davie Robertson who scored a magnificent 44 points in difficult conditions and is now playing off 14.

 

DON’T FORGET THE MENS DINNER

Last Inter-Club Match of the Year

On Sunday we played our last Inter-Club match of the year. This was against Gatton and as these seem to be the club we have the most rivalry with it was always going to be fun. I was playing again with John Jordan who has served me well and today was no exception, we won the first 5 holes and were really comfortable from then on and we ended up winning the Match 6&5. John again played very well and I only had to come in when needed on a few holes. The rest of our pairings did well and we ended up winning 5-1. Our only loss was a match that we were 4 up in and ended up loosing, you know who you are, do better next time lol.

I just want to add my thanks to all the support we have had for the matches this year, these are fun events and we have previously had trouble getting enough players but this every match was well subscribed and I hope all that played had as much fun as I did. I hope it is the same next year for Richard K, and next year we MUST win the Cranleigh matches.

Winter On Its Way

So I spent last week in Sweden and Denmark and it may have been a little colder in the evenings than I was used to here, but not too bad. It was not until Sunday morning, when I went up the range at about 9:00, to warm up before the Rose Bowl that I realised winter was coming. The numbness in your fingers as you hi the first few balls can only be experienced with us mad English golfers. I met up with Mike Massie who has played almost all his golf abroad, he has a lot to learn about golf in the UK over winter.
On to the Rose Bowl and I had a great game with Carl Jones and Michael North. It was best 2 out of 3 Stableford and we got off to bad start with 1 pint between us on the 1st, but we recovered to 43 at the turn. The team continued to play well but a few missed putts and chips meant we ended up with a very good 82 and the weather was ood and sunny all the way round. The winners came with a magnificent 90. It was good to see the Green Keepers had set up the course with all the tees right at the back for this big comp.
Well if the forecast is right is only getting to get colder, so I have looked out all my winter clothes ready.

Next Captain Pro Match

So on Sunday I had my next Captain Pro challenge. And with Lloyd being injured Andy McNiven kindly agreed to step in for this match. This time we were up against Ray Fisher (15) and Alec McHale (26) so there were a lot of shots floating around and they also agreed to take me up on my additional £50.00 bet for charity so I had a lot to play for.
We lost the second but went on to win 3 and 4 and get back to 1 up and I thought we were OK at this point. That was when the Alec McHale train came in and with Pars on the next three holes giving him birdie/eagle/birdie we were suddenly 2 down. We made the half on 8 and were looking good on 9 as I had made Par and Alec was off the green, behind the bunker in 2. But Alec went on to chip over the bunker to about 10 Feet and hole the put for another net birdie and at the turn that was it, 3 down at the turn.Shots on the next 3 holes 10,11 and 12 meant Andy and I felt like we had been hit by a train and were 6 down with 6 to play. Time to regroup, and luckily the McHale train had come off the track. So Pars on 13,14 and 15 were good enough to get us back to 3 down, but a half in 3's on 16 was good enough for the boys to win, 3&2.
So £50 down for me this time and now been beaten twice, both 3&2. I will have to work on how this should be decided.

Bletchingly Home Match

Today we played Bletchingly in our penultimate friendly of the season. For this match we play for the Friendship Cup and this is played over the 2 legs, home and away, but this year we were at a significant disadvantage as we lost the away leg 5-1. So after our breakfast and a little bit of confusion over the teams as one of the Bletchingly guys did not turn up a big rally call to the troops, only 6-0 will do.
So today I was playing with John Jordan again and we had a great match against the Bletchingly captain John and match organiser Tim. We played well together but somehow as we reached the 13th we 2 down with 5 to play. Of course I had to use Terry's line at this stage, 2 up five to play never wins, and they had this before too. Well we went on to win two of the next four holes and were on the 18th all square and with both John and I making Par we went on to win the match 1 up. As the rest of the team came in the results were looking good with win following win and as the last made it up the 18th we found out we had won 6-0. So the Friendship Cup stays at Slinfold.

Members V Staff

So on Saturday we decided to resurrect the old Members v Staff trophy. This is an old putter that is been played for on many occasions but I was surprised to see the last winners on the the shields were back in 2003. This was Andy's idea to get this going again and I hoped it would be a good day.
In the Build up I have had a lot of interesting mails from Andy explaining what a strong team they had, and also calling us, The Members, Clive's Clowns and Wright's Wronguns. Of course I was not going to rise to this and playing the Andies Pandies or or Maca's Slackers was just going to be another fun day.
So I arrived up the club bright and early at 7:15 and was glad to see all my team there by 7:30. Of course the staff didn't all turn up till a lot later :-). The format for the day was greensomes in the morning and singles in the afternoon, but as we had 9 a side we had 2 people playing as singles in the morning. so there was a total of 14 points up for grabs. (although it did take Andy a while to work out how 5 and 9 made 14 he did get there in the end). We also gave the four ladies who were playing 2 extra shots to balance the scores of the SSS for red being 73 and SSS for white 71. So we did the draw and amongst all the banter I managed to agree a £20.00 bet for charity with Andy on the outcome of the match. Now there was a little more to play for.
So in the morning I played Greensomes with Sally-Ann as we took on Josh and the one member who had infiltrated the Staff team Tim Plumtree. It was a very close match but the Tim and Josh just managed to edge us 7&5. After 9 holes they were 1 over and 4 up after lost 7, 8 and 9 in  row and we never really recovered but Josh and Tim played great golf. As we ate our ham egg and chips for lunch the news was not all bad for the members but the staff had taken a lead at the half way stage of 3-2. But there was all to play for in the afternoon with 9 singles matches. I could already see this was going to be a close contest so I had to pick the right order for the afternoon and we may just be able to edge it.
In the afternoon we went out as fourballs but played singles in our respective matches. I was playing against Donna and also in my fourball was Beckie playing Josh. I had a great match with Donna, and eased ahead and was 1 up at the turn, but on the 11th a great 3 from Donna made it all square again. But I then had a run of 4 holes and ended up winning 4 & 3 in a match that was much closer than the score line suggests. Beckie also won her match 3&2 so it was good to know we were back ahead after our 2 matches, all now depended on how the others had played.
When I arrived back in the clubhouse I collected all the scores and it was not until the last one was in that I realised the significance of the afternoon singles matches. The Members had managed a complete White Wash of the staff beating them 9-0 in the afternoon :-) so the final score 11-3 to the Members (that is 14 Andy). We all sat down and had a great meal afterwards and the biggest piece of Banoffee pie ever (I think there must have been 3000 calories per slice so more gym work needed). All that was left was the the prize giving and I think And really enjoyed presenting me with the trophy and of course £20.00 for Charity.
I would like to thanks my team, Andre, Sally-Ann, Beckie, Paul, Richard, Frank, John and Matt for all the great play and I know I had a great day and I hope they did too.

On Sunday I was back up the club bright and early for a 8:12 start in the Mens Stableford. I played with Steve Hill and Neil Turner and we had a great game and I managed to shoot a 6 over 78 for a total of 38 points (no 4 putt on the last this time). That was enough for second place in division one but not enough to get a cut as the CSS went up to 70.
It was also the last day for the Eclectics and Order or Merit. As I was tied with Paul McHale in the Scratch Eclectic my 2 on the 2nd meant a lot more than the few Pounds in the 2's comp as it took my Scratch Eclectic down to 59. However when Paul came in he had also managed an extra birdie on the 9th to also get to 59, and with a better back 9 he beats me on countback. Through gritted teeth, well done Paul.

Mixed Club Champs

So like buses, not a post for ages and now they all come along at the same time.

So today was the mixed club champs and I made it up the club about 8:30 for a bit of breckie and some preparation of the cards etc with Melissa. Today I was playing at 9:45 with Sally-Ann Cusition along side Jerry and Sandra Stobbs. We played well with Sally-Ann getting a birdie for net eagle on the 4th and after 12 we got to 4 under. However after this my short game deserted me and 3 x 3 putts plus a couple of bad chips meant we ended up back at level, but we played well and another day it would have been ours to win.(i often wonder how many others have the same story after golf)
After some controversy the format for the day was fourball betterball and I think this proved to be the best format for the day. It kept  everybody in the game all the way round and there was a very small range of scores and in all circumstances both partners had major contributions.
At the end of the day Sue Beaumont and Mick Clark played very well for a magnificent 5 under 67. At the turn they were 8 under and Sue would have had 28 points off her own handicap so Congratulations and well played to everyone.
I would just like to thank Melissa who persuaded me that this was a good event to add to an already busy diary and has also donated the trophy for the Championship and organised the day. I can't wait till next year and I hope we can all agree to keep the same format and we can increase the entries for next year.

Cranleigh away match

So on Saturday we played Cranleigh away. As always this is a great fixture with some fun banter as this our sister course and we now also have the same the head greenkeeper too. The banter began at breakfast when Kelvin, the Cranleigh captain, reminded us in his opening welcome that we play for the border cup although it only seems to have Cranleigh on it as the winners. He did also note that we had arrived with a team of lower handicapers and maybe this was the year we wanted to win in back.
So I was playing with Richard Clegg and we had to give the shots, 8 to Kelvin, 3 to his partner Derek and Richard got 1 shot. we started well with 4 pars but because of the shots found ourselves 2 down after 4. The good news is by now I have played enough match play to know we should just be patient and this was rewarded as we continued to play well and with 2 pars and 2 birdies from Richard in the next four holes we bought it back to 1 up after 8. The ninth was a very interesting hole for me, as after a good tee shot I went on to loose 3 balls on my second shot and still ended up with a par. This was because three times in a row I hit the electricity wires or posts and had to free drop everytime. On the back 9 the game did not get any easier, they won the 10th and 12th to go back to 1 up but we knew we had a good chance as for the next 5 holes there are no shots. This worked to our advantage as I birdied 13 and then Richard hit a great drive on 15 (295 yards to the edge of the green) and made a 2 putt birdie to get us back to 1 up. We held on with 3 pars to finish and ended up winning 2up. when we counted up our scores we had shot a gross 2 under par 66 and still only just won, but it was good to know it was Kelvin's first loss of the year.
As the rest of the groups came in it was not such good news. All of the next four groups had lost some close battles but we did manage a half from the last group. This was of course not good enough for us and the Border Cup remains in the possession of Cranleigh. we need to try harder next year and get a good win at home to take a lead to Cranleigh.

Should it be red or yellow on the 4th

There is a lot of discussion about the 4th hole at the moment. at our liason meeting we had a very close vote and decided that is should be lateral or red. The difference is that on a hazard (yellow) you can only drop back on a line from point of entry directly in line with the flag. With a lateral hazard (red) there is an additional option that allows to drop 2 club lengths from Point of entry or equi-distant on the other side of the hazard.
There are 2 arguments here:
1. It should be yellow, because you are going over the hazard and that is the line of play. it is also said that the reason it should be yellow is because people drop in the wrong place.
2. It should be red as the direction of the hazard in relation to the hole is lateral. Also it is impossible to drop correctly if it is only yellow as people cannot see the flag. Therefore if you make it lateral, and ensure people follow the rules of golf, then there is always a drop available 2 club lengths from point of entry.

Below is an passage from the rules. I would be interested in peoples opinions on this so please post below if it should be red or yellow.

The official definition of "lateral water hazard" is "a water hazard or that part of a water hazard so situated that it is not possible, or is deemed by the Committee to be impracticable, to drop a ball behind the water hazard in accordance with Rule 26-1b.

Been a while. Did you miss me?.

Ok been a while since I posted here, been a little busy at work, and also had a bit of Man Flu. But feeling better now. So this is a bit of a catch up.

So lets start with car. Well at last Mercedes have fixed it to my satisfaction. Just sad that it has taken a month of arguments, them saying it was OK be saying its not etc. So I had a drive down to the office in Forest of Dean on Wednesday  after picking it up in the morning and it was again a pleasure to drive. So it looks like I will have to stick with it.

Golf, well last weekend was again very busy. This started on Friday evening when we had the final of TGI. Maybe we need to play a little earlier next year as my fourball finished in the DARK. OH NO that means winter is just around the corner, I can feel my SAD starting already. Anyway we had  another great turn out on Friday and congratulations to Neal Marroitt who won this years comp with 66 points (best 3 scores over 9 holes)
Saturday morning was a stableford and it is about time I got my handicap back to 7. The last 4 comps I had managed 0.1 to get back to 8(7.6) so a 76 was required. My three ball with John Reeves and Peter West all played well and we had great fun, and I made it to the 18th and was on the green for 3 and that left me with an 8 foot putt for my 76 and a guaranteed cut, I was a little bold and it was 3 feet past, then missed that and to top off I went to tap it in and missed that too. So I ended up walking off with a 79 after 4 putting the last. If the air looks a little blue over the 18th green you can understand why.
On to Sunday and it was time for our annual match against the Ladies where the looser win the wooden spoon. Last year the ladies beat the men with a format that was fourball better ball, off full handicap with 2 extra shots for the ladies. So this year I got to choose the format :-) So I decided we would play fourball better ball but all playing off the ladies tees. To even it up a little we would give the ladies 4 additional shots on their handicaps. I thought this would be a close format but it turned out the Mens side played well and we ended up 8-0 ooops. But it was pleasure to present the ladies with the wooden spoon. It was of course a fun day and played in great spirit and I am sure the ladies will come up with a format next year that will make it more difficult again. 2 of the highlights for me were one of the Men (no names of course) hitting a drive which he thought was great down the 12th, only to be out driven by one of the ladies he was playing with a then being asked "how does that feel" Another highlight as i waited to walk over the bridge on the 10th I here a splash front the tee, and then the immortal words from one of the guys "I have not done that for year".

This weekend we have our match against Cranleigh (a must win), the mixed club champs on Sunday, and then Monday I play at Singing Hills with Andy in a Captain/Secretary event.

Slinfold Plate (even tougher matchplay) and Coker Shield

On Sunday Rob Croxford and I took on Brian Cairns and Steve English in the Slinfold Plate Semi Finals. So I was giving the shots and at 3/4 Handicap that was 8 to Rob, 5 to Brian and 3 to Steve. Rob and I played well on the front 9 and we were 1 up at the turn. But of course that is not always enough. on the back 9 Brian and Steve played well and with a net birdie on the 10th, a birdie on the 13th and a win on 15 with a par they were back at all square again. We halved the 16th and then Brian made a great net birdie making use of his final 5th shot on 17 to get the 1 up. So all down to the 18th again and both Brian and I were level with the green just up on the right. Brian put his chip about 20 feet past where as I was about 7 feet away with a straight up hill putt. So the 19th was looking good, until Brian sunk his straight in the middle for birdie and the Match. So well played boys and they move onto the final.
On Bank Holiday Monday we had the Coker shield. This was great day and again it was 4BBB format. I played with Barbara Wilson, Ladies Vice Captain, and although we played well only managed 34 points. This ended up being 10 points behind the eventual winners, Karen and John who scored a magnificent 44 points with a gross 72 between them. Well played.....

Oh and the car, still arguing, got to let them try again to fix it so new injectors again.

The Weekend Starts Here

So the last Bank Holiday Weekend of the year. It has all gone much too quickly again but 3 and half days of golf and lets hope the rain stays away at least while I am playing.

So first a car update. Got it back last Friday and as soon as I got it I heard a sort of rattle, or pinking noise if it was petrol. Send it back in on Monday and was told they were working on it, then on Tuesday they called to say they had tested and no problem found. I got it back noise still there. A few calls later and on Friday I took out another C250 and this did sound different and drove better. Finally got Mercedes technician to agree there is a rattle associated with the new injectors as they have had to change them to have a larger inlet hole (if anyone want to know why I am now an expert, thanks google). As far as driving differently they "reset" the adaptive gear box and now it seems better. But enough is enough, today I asked for my back and I will return the car, lets see what the reaction is from the mangers on Tuesdsay. Test drove a BMW this afternoon, oh the dark side is calling.

Golf wise I have been really suffering with my putting, sometimes you just can't get something right and I know it is a mental problem with me (not that I am mental although others may argue). Today I played with Colin Dow and James Claydon in the Stableford, and we had good fun but again I managed 39 Putts in my 86 so if only I could take that back to 30 I would be hitting my 77's and see the handicap come down but at the moment it is a lot of 0.1 and I am now fixed back at 8. I think I need a night in with Mr Bob Rottella.
On Friday we had the penultimate TGI Friday for the year. This has been very well supported this year and the finals night is on Friday 10th Sept. I hope as many people as possible can get play that day and the table is very tight with the top 5 all having their lowest points at 19 or above for the 9 holes. We will be getting a new shield for the competition this year as the last one went missing and I hope next year it can grow even more.
So tomorrow I have the Semi Finals of the Slinfold Plate and on Monday Coker Sheild. I am sure I will see you at the club over the weekend.

A Quick Golfing Catch Up - Men V Juniors and Captain Pro at Royal Ascot

I suppose first the question you all want to know, is the car better. Not yet but I am told is is getting better. Apparently the Injectors failed, a problem the MB had but I was assured was fixed before I purchased my car. Lets see how it goes from here.
On the golfing front the Annual Mens v Juniors match was played on Sunday. This year went for a 36 hole format with Greensomes in the morning and singles int he afternoon. In the morning Chris Miles and I took on George Colven and Alex Thompson. As I had given Alex a call on the Friday to persuade him to play it was quite good that he would be drawn against me. When I asked why he wasn't going to be available he said his Dad had arranged a trip but it was OK because they could do it another time now, the trip was to Barbados. Now that's dedication. Alex and George played very well as a team and ended up trouncing Chris and I 4&2 so thanks boys. In the afternoon singles I was up against Steve Beckett. we had a great match and I shot 2 under my handicap to escape with a half on the 18th (oh the trees Steve). Also in our group Nick Baker took on Amber, a new lady junior who has joined from Horsham Golf and fitness and I must say how impressed I was to find out she has only be playing a year and in that year her handicap has gone from 36 to 14. Unfortunately she was up against Nick who played very well but watch out in t he future as Amber will be a very good golfer. In the end the Juniors all played well and took the trophy winning 9.5 - 5.5 and took the trophy for the first time. I would like to congratulate James Gilham for getting his team together and leading them to victory. Also I would like to thanks both James and Richard for all the hard work they put into organising the day and making it a great success.
So after 54 holes on Saturday and Sunday I was up again bright and early to pick up Ryan and play in the south region captain pro event at Royal Ascot. The winners would win a trip to compete in Turkey in the finals. As always it a was a pleasure to play with Ryan. and on a windy day at Ascot we managed a fourball betterball total of 4 under. This was however not good enough to secure us in the prizes as we ended up joint 6th but out of 52 teams not too bad. Full results can be seen here http://hq.ocs-europe1.com/tic/tmtic.cgi?2010~class=GLF  and if you look at our card you will see the bogeys at 11 and 17 cost us getting the extra 2 shots we needed. But thanks again to Ryan who gave up his day to play in this, I may even consider being Captain again just for another shot at this title (Only if I was ever wanted again of course).

And lastly a quick mention for John Jordan and Karen Ashcroft who won the the regional qualifiers of the Bader Cup and a trip to Portugal to play in the finals. I hope they get separate rooms.....

My New Car is towed away from Golf Club

I am sure if you have not heard already (not sure if Tammy can keep it very quiet) the New Mercedes broke down after just 700 miles. Last night I was driving back with Ryan from Royal Ascot after a great day out playing in the south region Captain Pro event strangely sponsored by BMW!! (a post will follow soon on that day out) when the engine warning light came on and we could not get over 40 mph. In the end it slowed to 20mph when we finally managed to limp into Slinfold. I rang the emergency number and within the hour someone had come out. So for all those looking out and laughing (I saw you all hanging out the windows) as it was carried off on the back of a truck, its OK I have paid the bill, no real scandal unfortunately. It took a bit of time and wasted about 4 hours of my evening but Mercedes did manage to get me a replacement hire car by 10:00 pm at night so at least I have tested the break down and recovery service and it seems to work well. We will now find out how good the service at Mercedes can be. I will keep you all posted.

Wednesday, another Captain-Pro Challenge....

And Matchplay is still tough.

On Wednesday Ryan and I took on Chris Neate and Richard Paley in the next challenge. On this occasion the shots Ryan had to give were 16 and 14 and I recieved 5. The boys agreed to have the optional £50.00 bet as well as the normal £50.00 so my money at risk too. So off went and the first three holes were good halved with Net pars. The boys then won 4 and 5 with net birdies but we won 6 and 7 with a net par and an outrageous on 7 when I holed from about 40 feet off the green. But they came back with another net birdie on 8 to get to 1 up. There were then a lot of halves until the 13th where again a Net birdie beat us, and we were then standing on the 15th 2 down with 5 to play. Ryan birdied 15 for a half, then I birdied 16 for a win and we won 17 with a net par. So back to all square and just the last to play. Well to Richard went in the trees on the left with his second but somehow managed to get to within 6 feet for 4 net 3. Chris went in the trees with his second shot but got through and was just at the back of the green for 3 net 2. And I was out of it needing to hole a chip for a 4. So my £50 was left in Ryans hands, but he was in the bunker for 2 and it had been wet so he had a lie just outside a puddle and would have to stand in the water to play a bunker shot out of wet sand. I reminded him that it was my £50.00 and I think the reply was something like "glad its not mine". But of course he came through and put it to about 6 feet, and after Richard holed his par net 4 putt for an outrageous net birdie from the trees Ryan holed his to save my £50.00 and a halved match.

Was a great match and we both scored net 67's off 3/4 handicap. So my last 2 fourball better ball matches I had played 2 x 18 hole and they were all square. Just shows the handicap system does work.

New Car and New Handicap (again)

Saturday afternoon I finally picked up my new car. Nowadays it is more like a computer with wheels and I spent most of the night trying to figure out how to get the phone working with adress book and getting music onto the 6 Gig hard drive. I think I may have figured it all out in about a months time, but trying to find a PCMCIA card to work for the memory slot is proving to be difficult, so if anyone has any ideas of how to do this for the Merc Command system please let me know :-). Must say I don't think I have ever spent so much time reading a manual for car before, what happened to the days of just getting in and driving it.

So after a little sleep I was up again early for the medal on Sunday. I was out at 8:04 with the 2 Nick's (Baker and Lord). We had a great round and it is always nice to play with these 2 as they are very calm players and it seems to help keep me calm when I play with them. So thanks Guys and I managed to shoot a 4 over 76, (39 and 37) which means I am now at my lowest ever handicap of 7.1. Nick Lord played very well and shot a 75 with with 7 on the 10th. The rest of the holes were 14 pars, 1 bogey and 1 birdie, so Nick is now down to 6. I was just beaten into second place for the John Lewis Memorial we were playing for that day by brian Cairns  who shot a net 63 compared to my net 68. the only good news is we have to play Brian in the next round of the Slinfold Plate and he lost 3 shots off his handicap.

Matchplay Is Tough Sometimes

Today we played the second round of the Slinfold Plate Fourball BetterBall and it was Rob Croxford and myself playing John Reeves and Tim Plumtree. Today I had to give the shots and it was 4 to Tim, 6 to John and 8 to Rob. There was always going to some banter in this match and it did not disappoint.

I have been trying to avoid hole by hole golf games but this match is a bit of an exception. So:

It started well with a half on the first.
On the second rob had made his 3 so I had a chip off the green for a 2, which I holed and we were 1 up.
Third we won with a Net par from Rob 2 up
Fourth John Net birdie and then I got another birdie on 5 to keep us 2 up.
The sixth Tim got a net birdie to win and our first half on 7 so we were 1up.
On the 8th I managed another birdie for a win and then John won the 9th with a par.
So after all that work we were 1 up after the front 9 and I had shot a gross 36.HARD GAME

The Back 9 was not much different.
John won the 10th with Net Birdie, and Tim the 11th with Par so we were 1 down, then won the 12th. so All Square.
We managed to half 13 and 14 and then we won 15 when I birdied only to lose 16 so back to All Square.
The last shots of the match came on 17 and John made another Net Birdie to win it, so typically after all the hard work we were finally down in the match for the first time on the last Tee.
I guessed a birdie was what we needed and I managed to hit the green in 2 with Driver and 5 wood over the trees. I made my 2 putt for my fifth birdie of the round and my best ever round around Slinfold of 74. And all for a half. VERY HARD GAME.

So off to the 1st for the 19th hole and sudden death play off. Rob made a 5 and that was good enough for us to win the hole and take the match.

Well played John and Tim just unlucky that we all played well on the same day.

MY CAPTAINS DAY

Please remember if you click on any photos they will show bigger. And at the bottom of the post you can leave comments and I would be interested in how you felt the day went, good or bad let me know.

So Saturday was the the big day. Captains Day 2010. And a chance for a fun golf day and to raise some money for charity. On Friday evening Richard and I were due to put all the prizes out and get everything at the club and on my way I realised I had nothing to sound the shotgun start. So I got Richard to do a Google search and he found a Fireworks shop in Handcross. So postcode in Sat-Nav and I find it takes me to a Spar shop in the High Street. I thought I would go and ask if they knew where the Fireworks may be, only to find that the Spar shop was also the Firework Shop. They gave me a catalog and it was difficult for me to only walk out with a pack of big rockets, I can see me going back there in November and spending a fortune. So we had everything and Richard wrote the board out while I set up the prizes and got everything ready for the morning, but of course we needed to test the starting rockets and I did have 8, so we went down the first and set one off. WOW yes they are loud enough. So ready to go and back home for some sleep before the big day Saturday.


OK well maybe I did not sleep too well, and was awake at 5:30 Saturday morning, I had one drop out so down to 139, will everyone turn up? Will I get everyone around the course? Will I get away with the Speech? Will I remember to thank everyone? Oh well lets just go and enjoy it. I was at the club at 7:00 along with all the various people available from the committees, Ladies - registration, Seniors - 2's comp Men's - number of balls lost and Raffle and Ray Fisher - Photos. Good news was that one person had turned up on the off chance of a game so I filled that spare slot, and Carl Jones who had to pull out earlier in the week had also turned up on the off chance, and as 1 person did not turn up in the day (I will not name and shame) Carl got a game and we had 140 people, 35 teams. Everyone who entered got a traditional Captains day gift as we gently extracted money from them for the various charity events. And we auctioned the first and 10th tees so by the time we went out to play we already had over £1000.00 for the Charity, Dreams Come True.

I think I should also make a special mention for the Yellow Peril team who stood out on the course. Maybe next year we should persuade people to dress in team colours for fun.

So as it was my Captains Day I had bagged the first off the first with my team of this years Captains, Phil Eggitt, Melissa Hauffe and James Gillham. All I had to do was get to the Tee on time and set off the starting Firework. I thought I better take 2 just in case the first one did not go off. Luckily Vernon was on the first tee too and if anything went wrong he would sort it being an ex-fireman. I then had a great idea, I only had one tube to set off the Fireworks so if I wanted set off 2 together I could put one in the tube on my bag that is designed to hold the putter. So one in the my bag and one in the tube, light and stand back. Well the one on the bag went OK but as it was at a low angle and it seemed to go into the house to the left off the first and explode in their garden. The one in the tube got to the bit where it fizzies and goes in the air, but just stayed there, all 12 of us realised it was about to explode and we ran in all directions just as it went off. OOPS, glad we had a practice the night before, but everyone heard and we were off. There was a great atmosphere all around the course and we all knew it would be a little slow, but there was a lot of friendly banter from all parts.  In order to extract a little more money we offered the opportunity to double you money for a £5.00 bet on the 11th, all you had to do was get on the green. Shoina and Michelle from the charity were there to collect the money and we raised over £500 there alone. My Team played well and we had a great fun day and ended up with 81 points.
 

So back in the club house and the ladies Sue, Donna, Anne and Barbara collected all the cards, checked them and put all the information on the board. We started with a few thanks and this had to include the Greenkeepers, the F&B team, The Pros, The Management team all the people who helped organise the day and of course all of the 140 members who had come to support the event. And then it was on to the presentations:

The first presentation was for the number of balls lost, with 140 people in the comp how many would it be. It turned out to be a staggering 262, so I can only imagine that many balls are lost every day on the course. Two people had guessed correctly so £50.00 each, and Matt Hambleton kindly donated his £50 back into the charity. I also had a small gift for the people who had lost the most balls (and were still at the club) so please see the picture to the left of the presentation of some very nice Pink Ladies Balls to the boys

Next we had the Auction and there were some great items, this included some painting painted by our own Donna Davies, a Fitness Massage, a video golf and fitness session with Ryan and Kier, a Ladies Yonex Driver donated by Melissa and a Callaway Golf bag and Odyssey putter donated by Gareth Taylor. My thanks to all who donated these items and also to Richard Kindon who walked around in a Model Stylie showing off the paintings.

The four nearest the pin awards were very interesting this year, along with Graham (4inches) Boyd and Paul Tickner we had a hole in one on the 16th by Neil Osbourne. Now I know last week I said that the Hole In One may start a trend but I did not expect to have three in a week, as Rob Croxford also had one on the 11th in our Wednesday competition too. Of course we could not expect Neil to buy all 140 people a drink, but he very kindly offered to give £150.00 to the charity for his great achievement, which was his first one. So thanks Neil although it does seem strange that this is the only sport that when you play a good shot you have to pay out lots of money too.  Maybe we should get the England strikers to buy the whole crowd a beer when they score a goal.

And lastly on the final prizes. I was originally going to have 3 prizes but when I came in I thought I would go to fourth and arranged for a box of Pro V's from the shop. It was only after all the count up was complete that I discovered that it was MY team that had come fourth with 81 Points.

In Third place were Ron M Andrews, John Currie, Gary Galman & Paul Mewettwith 82 Points.

In second it was the team of Robert Croxford, Paul Dolan, Mike Lowery & Ian Massbery 85 Points.

And the winners with a magnificent score of 89 Points were Stephen Elliott, Jonathan Elliott, Josh Hemsley & Jason Gooding.

So it only remained for the final count up of the money, which Terry Wills been had  looking after all day (thanks Terry) and we had raised a magnificent:  

£2,840

I am now a substitute teacher

Yesterday I was asked to be a teacher for a day (maybe I will have to improve my spelling) as the Weald had their annual Teachers v Students golf competition. (or as it was titled masters and mistresses against the Boys). As the teachers were one short Dave Sainsbury asked if as Club Captain I could help out, and I was honoured to do this. It was good to see that a number of the staff and students were members of Slinfold including Karen Ashcroft and Anne Ditchfield.
I was paired with Ian who is a Music Teacher who teaches woodwind at a few different schools. Of course we should never judge just on job titles was in the Royal Marines Band for 22 years and some great stories to tell. And also a very good golfer playing off 9. And were paired to play against Slinfolds very own Will Currie and Lewis Sparrow. The format was Greensomes so we had to give them one shot, and without wanting to embarass the boys too much I will just say we were 4 up after 9 and ended up winning on the 14th 6&4. we did play well as a pair with 10 pars in those 14 holes. It was a very close match and with 6 of the groups in the score was 3-3 and it was all down to the last match. And of course to add to the drama it was the Head Master in the last group. As they came in we could see they were still taking it seriously as they both duffed there second shots in. In the end the hole was halved as was the game and therefore the match.
It was good to see some of the fun banter between students and teachers as the results of the matches were announced and I am sure there was some more fun at school today.

Morvic gets a Hole In One

During Saturdays competition Micael Morvik got a hole in one on the seventh. It has been a while since we have had one in a comp at Slinfold so maybe this will start the trend again.
Has anyone seen hm since? Of course I was looking forward to a nice cool drink but he was gone by the time I got in. I am sure he will get me one on Saturday:-)

Seniors Championship

On Thursday it wad the seniors Championship. I managed to get up the club to see the last few groups coming in, but for me I am lucky enough to manage some of the facilities of Intelligent Golf so I could see the scores coming in and I could also see the scores were not very low. Well it was a very windy day and this made the course very difficult to play, in the end the Standard Scratch score was 74 RO, but it was good to see all the guys had battled it through and got the end.
Congratulations to the winners Ian Frater (Scratch) and David Goldhawk (Handicap)

Captain Pro number 6

Well I have had the week off but still seem to be up the club a lot. One of the main reasons for my week off was to look for a new car as my old hairdressers model has to go back in a weeks time. I ended being a little more sensible and went for a diesel Merc C250 sport. The people in the garage will miss me, going from about 18 to the gallon to 46 will mean I will not know the first names of all the cashiers any more.
On Wednesday I was back up the club for our next Captain Pro challenge. Again this was with Ryan and again he arrives in a buggy. Oh no what's up this time, it is his back. I think it is still a bit of suffering from his Iron-Man challenge, lets hope he is better next week for his championship. So again I thought I would need to carry him.
Our challengers on this occasion were Jeremy Woodley and Kurt Lyall who were off 21 and 25 so we were giving 19 and 16 shots, plus 5 for me. I thought we were in trouble when they both hit good tee shots on the first and we went on to loose the first to 5 net 4. But with Ryan birdies on 2, 4 and 5, then an outrageous chip in form the valley of death on 7 we managed to get to 3 up after 7. We then lost 8 and 9 to net birdies and back to 1 at the turn. So of course my idea of carrying Ryan on the front 9 had not been needed as his four birdies showed. Ryan then made another 2 birdies on 12 and 14 and we ended up closing the match out on the 16th 3&2. Again we managed to raise another £100 for the charity so thanks guys.

A Couple of Photos from Club Champs

Below are 2 photos, one of James and one of Andre, receiving the trophies.

For future reference if you do not supply me a box to stand on you will not be presented with a cup at Slinfold in 2010 if you are over 6 feet tall.

Day 2 of the Club Champs

So for me it was nice to have a bit of a lay in on Sunday. 12:04 tee time, second to last group out. I got up the club at 10:00 and had a bit of breakfast and the atmosphere was great. There were of course lots of players coming in and out to register and there was great buzz all around the club. Just after 11:00 I went and hit a few balls then some putting and before long it was 12:04 and we were ready to go. So at 6 over for the first day I thought if I can do the same again I may get in the prizes, but my round started with 2 bogeys so I had some work to do. On the 3rd it was into the wind and was a lot stronger than I  thought as my tee shot ended up just level with the pond on the left, and I was too close, so all I could do was chip out. So I was left with 100 yards but as my chip had run though the other side I had to go over the trees again. I hit a full gap wedge and it felt good so I ran out to the left to watch it land, which it did just past the pin, then started to come back down the hill and yes it went in. Another birdie on the 4th got me back to level on the day. When we got the 6th we relised that the others behind were having a bit of a bad start and at that point myself and Paul were both 6 over and just one off the lead. I put my second shot into the bunker right of the green and was about to play when I realised Nick Lord, who I was playing with, was on the other side of the green and I said "Nick be careful just in case I thin it".Of course with that thought in my head I thinned it Out of Bounds, and went on to take an 8. So that was the first rule of golf I broke, you must not have negative thoughts, I did and I paid the price. From then on I struggled to get back mentally and ended up dropping another 4 shots on the front 9 and 8 on the back 9 to end up 16 over for the day. (oh well there is always next year for me).
It seems that everybody struggled on the Sunday, with the wind, hard bounces and of course a little more pressure than we are used to playing under. We normally have no real idea of where we are in a competition in relation the rest of the players but for one day of the year we do. The group behind us were dropping shots and both the Paul and Nick who I was playing with managed a quadruple bogey at some point. As the last group came down the last we still did not know the actual situation. When they came in we added up the cards and both James Davies and Andre Willemse had shot +14 for the Sunday and with James having a one shot lead from Saturday he won the Club Championship with four players just behind on +17. It was not all lost for Andre as his score was good enough for him to be crowned Handicap Club Champion. I think it was fantastic day and I everybody enjoyed it as much as I did.
So below I would just like to repeat my thanks to people below who helped make it a great success
So thanks to:
The Mens Committee and my VC Richard Kindon who put a lot of work in to make this happen.
To the Ladies and Partners who come out and help starting, ball spotting and generally helping make the event happen.
To Donna for refereeing the last few groups.
The Greenkeepers, the course was in great condition.
The F&B team as the look after us all day and the ploughmans was great.
Our Profesional Golfers, Ryan, Lloyd and Harry, for the support and training throughout the year.
The Management team, they have been a great help tp be on organising the day and supporting all our decisions.
And of course all the players who turned and battled it out for 2 days, this year we had 81, can we break 90 next year?

Club Champs Day 1

So day 1 of the club Champs.

I got up to the club at 7:00 this morning to make sure everything was OK. It was great to have the help again this year from the Ladies section, it is invaluable otherwise a few of us on the committee would not be able to play.


10 minutes on the range and quick putt and I off, playing with Nick Baker and Dave Donaldson. I won't bore you with the whole round but a couple of pars to start and then a birdie with a long Putt off the green on three meant I had a good start and I ended up with 6 over 78. Now if you had asked me four years ago I would have said that was impossible for me, but today I was disappointed and thought I should have scored better. Maybe I need to get a real perspective.
Some great scores for Steve B. 73, James D. 74, and Andre W. 75 means I am out in the second to last group tomorrow.
I ended up working until 8:00 tonight with Richard K to get things ready for tomorrow so a bit of lay in for the morning now. Good luck to all and lets not forget the presentation at 17:00 Sunday.

Friday Before the Men's Club Champs

So..Richard (VC) Kindon and Myself played golf with Green Keeper Mark and General Manager Andy.
Main aim was to set PIN positions for Club Champs (And yes Tim not too difficult on the third). We have added a few tough ones and will interesting to see what people think. It was harder than I thought to decide good positions taking into account various patches on the greens and of course trying to avoid where they are now. We also agreed some GUR and to rope off an area in 11th Bunker as GUR.
So I think everything else is now ready:
Start Sheets Done
Cards Done
Helpers Organised
Board Written
PC connected to Tele
Trophies At the Club
PIN Sheet Done
Meal Organised
Weather Ordered.

So I think we are good to go. back the club at 7:00 in the morning and we should have the first day finished and finalised by 6:30 int he evening.

I hope everybody plays well and lets have some fun.

Ladies Club Championship

Last weekend was the Ladies Club Championship, which was battled out over 36 holes on Saturday and Sunday. This year the weather was great for both days even if it did get a little windy on the back 9 on the Sunday. Congratulations to Karen Ashcroft who won the scratch and to Anne Ditchfield who won the Handicap. Full results can be seen here http://slinfold.intelligentgolf.co.uk/competition.php?compid=1226

Golf Iron Man Ryan comes good in Pro-Captain Challenge

For those of you who don't know Ryan played 6 rounds of golf in 13 Hours 15 Minutes at Pyecombe on Friday 2nd July. This mad challenge was set up to raise money for the Sussex Juniors. So when on Sunday morning he turned up struggling to walk as he "hurt all over" I thought I would have to have my "A" game if we were to beat Mike Lowery and Don Peacock in this Captain-Pro challenge. Ryan even had a buggy as he could not walk al 18 holes.
So off we go down the first and both Ryan and I made a 5 but Don made a 5 net 4 and we were 1 down. We halved the second but by the third Ryan had started to warm up. He managed birdies at 3,4 and 9 and by the end of the first 9 holes we were 3 up. We lost the 10th and halved the 11th and then we made 4 birdies in row with Ryan Birdies on 12, 14 and 15 and I made one of 13. That was enough to win at the 15th 4&3 and at this point Ryan was 6 under par. I think he only missed one green in regulation and that was the 11th where he was at least a foot off the green. A great performance and not really possible to beat, Don and Mike played very well getting the best "better ball" score of anyone who has played us this year. I also felt I was not in the game but afterward I checked and was only 2 over my handicap. And another £70.00 to charity.
Still got to fill the date on August 7th if anyone is brave enough.

Another long week over and back to golf

Well it has been a long week, but the good news is England made it through to the next round. And now it is like the 1940's. "France are back home, the USA coming in late and England face the old enemy Germany.
And I hope not many of you as bad a head on Thursday morning as I managed to wake up with.
Back to golf and don't forget to enter the Club Championships (Ladies, Mens and Seniors) and also Captains day coming soon.
Today the men were away at Hill Barn. and I always find it strange to play at a course where there is no real obstacles and no rough so you can just hit it where you like, I think it is better to have a course set up a little tighter so you have to think your way around, although I understand this does course concern for some
Today I was playing with John Jordan and we had a great match. On the 2nd as i was just about to make my 4 foot par putt the Red Arrows flew over very low. Of course after watching them i then missed the Putt and we lost the hole. And that was the story of our round where we missed far too many putts and they holed them. I still shot 8 over but we lost 5&4. The story of the overall match seemed to be lots of players hitting under there handicap on the day. I think every team that lost complained about someone shooting way under their Handicap on the opposition. In the end we pushed them very hard on their own course and narrowly lost 3.5 to 2.5. Lets see how well they play at our place in September.
One interesting story was that John lost a ball on the 2nd. When we came in the opposition told us it was OK as Les Zselyi had found it, however it turned out Les decided to use Johns ball on the 7th and then lost it again on the 8th. So 2 people lost the same ball in the same comp.
Tomorrow it is golf an football. Bring it on. It was really 20 years ago on the 4th July when we lost in the semi's on penalties in Turin this time it must be ours.

The Long Weekend

OK its late, I am tired, so only a quick summary tonight.
On Friday afternoon Harry and I took on Julian Hance and Terry Wills in a Captain/Pro Challenge. It was a great game and we ended up just sneaking it 3&2.
On Saturday I played in the Stableford and I did not play great, so only 28 points. So its is back up to 8 for me.
On Sunday I started the first of my 36 holes of matchplay with a tee time at 8:00 with Richard's Clegg and Kindon. against Harry and I in our next Captain/Pro Challenge. The two Richards :-) played very well together and came out as eventual winners 3&2. Well played guys.
Then I was out again in the afternoon where I partnered Rob Croxford in the Slinfold Plate against Peter Beck and Steve Hill. This was a tough match as I had to give 8 and 11 shots and they both played very well. We were 2 down after 6 on the front nine but kept fighting and pulling it back to even on 2 occasions before they would just get one ahead again. We eventually got in front for the first time in the match on the 18th which Rob won with a six and to see us through after a very tough game. I just worked out we would have scored a net 66 of 3/4 handicap so a tough game.

Thats all folks, and we raised another £130.00 for charity this weekend. See you next weekend zzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

RMC trophy, Sunday

So not the best result last night in the "soccer". Green fingers were Butter fingers, or is Obama getting his own back and put oil on his gloves.
OK Sunday morning and I was little tired after 36 holes Saturday, but today we play for RMC Trophy. We play a par/bogey competition for this which is matchplay against the course using handicap, so net par is half, net birdie or better a win or by bogey or worse a loss. I was playing with Don Peacock and Gary Laker and I was looking forward to it. I bogeyed the first for loss, but the pin was in very difficult place. But I managed to recover from this and made birdies at 5 and 8 to get to 2 up and with a back 9 to handicap I shot a 77 to stay at 2 up. Don played very well and shot his best score around Slinfold of 81 to go 4 up. There were however a couple of better scores with Nick Lord 5up and a 75 and Paul Williams 7up. As the standard scratch went stayed at 71 my score was good enough to take me to 7 again, will I Hood onto it this time?
Next weekend is a busy one for me. On Friday afternoon I have captain/pro, Saturday I am starting and playing in the stableford, then Sunday I have captain/pro in morning and slinfold plate knockout in afternoon. So if you see me looking a little tired at any time please feel free to feed and water me to keep me going. This is one occasion you can feed the animals.

Scratch Team at Selsey

So a quick review just before the Match starts. England V USA. COME ON ENGLAND.

So today Slinfold Scratch team played against Selsey in the PAV Trophy first round. I again was lucky enough to be picked for this great competition and Matchplay off scratch is such great fun. So there are 12 points available and everyone plays 36 holes, with 4 x foursomes and 8 x singles.
Selsey is a nine hole course although it used to be 18, until someone bought it and decided to put holiday homes on 9 holes and call it a golf and country club in the 60's. (so no more complaints about Slinfold please). We played a practice round there on Tuesday and you play the 9 holes twice from very slightly different Tee's, which is a little confusing sometimes, nut all the Tee posts have numbers on them so you cannot make a mistake (can you?). On our first trip we did not think much of the course but was told it is somewhere that would grow on you, and they were right. The more I played it the more I enjoyed the challenge and it has small greens and a lot of undulations in the fairways and with 2 x 440 Yard par 4's back to back that are normally into the wind plays quite hard for a par 68.
So in the morning I played with Richard Clegg in the foursomes. We started of a little poorly and were 2 down after 2. However we pulled that back with a couple of birdies and we both putted and chipped very well. As we came to the 17th we all Square and we just missed a 12 foot put to win this hole, but they returned the favour missing a shorter putt on 18 and we made a half , shooting 4 over. Al the other foursomes went to the 18th too with 1 more half but we lost the others 1 down each. So 3-1 down at half time. In the afternoon I was out 5th against one of the guys had played in the morning (luck of the draw and Richard was playing the other guy too). We managed to half the first three holes in par (which were the tougher ones into the wind) and then I lost both 4 and 5, which were the long par 4's. I managed to win one back on the 6th but lost 9 and 10 to go three down. I battled back to 1 down after 15 but a loss on 16 and half on 17 means I lost 2&1. However if I had putted like I had in the morning I think I would have one, just could not get the pace of the greens in the afternoon. The rest of the team battled well but we only managed 2 x halves in the afternoon so we were beaten 10-2. I am sure home advantage gives them a couple of shots but overall the whole team played very well, and again we all learn so much having the opportunity to play in these. If we can keep our side together for next year, and maybe add a couple of new players, I think we will have a great chance in years to come. And again a BIG THANKS to Nick Baker who organised all of the matches, put the team together and bought us all together as a team for these matches.

OK 7:15 no more writing, Beer and COME ON ENGLAND

Someone Handed it in.

I was so pleased when I got a text from James Davies saying he had found my swing. He was playing in the Mid Week roll-up and found it under the fourth tree. If you look at the results it also looks like he used for most of the round http://slinfold.intelligentgolf.co.uk/viewround.php?roundid=12855 but had to put it away for the 18th just in case he was caught using it. He left it at reception for me and I picked it up today and with a little help from Ryan, for about 5 minutes, we managed to get it back fitted again. I was hitting the ball great on the range again and now I look forward to tomorrow when I am playing 36 holes for the Scratch team at Selsey in the PAV Trophy.

We hope to finished early enough to get back to see England in the evening. COME ON. It is a shame it is only 4 weeks every 4 years.

A Medal, I found it, but it just wasn't good enough

So today we had a Medal and I was looking forward to playing first with Paul McHale and Jon Elliott, playing with 3 and 4 Handicap players was always going to be fun for me with my new 7 handicap. There was a threat of thunder showers but these held off so we had a good day.
So my swing had returned for most of the round and I managed to start with 3 Pars but a slice on the 4th and then hitting a tree and a double bogey was the final result. I played OK for the rest of the round but I ended up with a final score of 81, 9 over, and this was not enough to avoid my 0.1 so I am up to 7.5 and back to 8.
Paul however played great golf, but this was not the old Paul McHale who used to score well, sometimes, and also score very erratically. He was just very steady and managed to hit 15 GIR and with 15 Pars, 1 Bogey and 2 Birdies had a very good 71, 5 under his Handicap. It was great to see all the strong scores today and there are a number of people who will be playing off lower Handicaps tomorrow. Congratulations to all the winners
I do also have to add that it turned out I was the longest driver in our group today.  This came about as Jon had out driven Paul by about 6 Inches on the 10th, then on the 12th I did Jon by about 6 inches. So that makes me the longest.
Next Saturday we have our first match in the PAV trophy, and this will be at Selsey. If anyone is interested in coming to down to watch or maybe caddy for some of the players it would be great to see you. I am lucky enough to have been selected for this and I look forward to it, and we should be finished in time for the England match in the evening too:-)

Where has my Swing Gone?

I am sure we have all been here, but I have lost my swing. I am not sure where I lost it but I think it was on the 2nd during TGI on Friday. It is between the 1st green and the 2nd tee so if anyone picks it up please let me know, £50.00 reward.

I am sure we have all been there but for a while I think my mind and body just lost it. I think it may have started on Friday lunchtime, when at 12:00 I decided it would be a good idea to go for a run. It was 27 degrees and I for some reason thought this was a good idea as I had not made it to the gym for a few days. I did manage 5 miles in 42mins but it took its toll as I tweaked my knee a little (and as someone pointed out to me today "well its you own fault doing that at you age"). I did not think it had effected me too much but on Friday I played TGI with Paul, Julian and Beckie and ended up shooting 9 over for 12 points. Congrats to David Brown who managed 22 Pts. just to confirm how bad I was. But it was a fun evening.

So Today, Saturday, we had our match against Cranleigh and I thought I better hit the range before breakfast, but still it was not that good. We play for the Friendship Cup against Cranleigh and I must say out of all the matches this year, I would like to win this, as it seems they have held it for a long time. It is home and away so it would be good to get an advantage at our place. Today I played with John Jordan against their Captain Kelvin and his partner Paul and we were giving the shots with Kelvin getting 8 Paul 4 and JJ 2. We had a fantastic match and we got ahead early and were 2 up after 3. But I must confess this was mostly JJ. As I hit my tee shot on the first, which I hit fat and about 70 Yards, my generous opponents were heard to say, "so easy to tell the single handicapper". (Damn where is my swing) I then managed to pull me second OB and had to rely on JJ to win the hole. The Cranleigh boys did manage to get us back to all square after 8 but a great birdie from JJ on 9 meant we went into the back nine 1Up. But we ended up loosing 10 to a net birdie and 13 to a par and all of sudden we were 1 down. (Matchplay is great). But we then won the 14th and 16th only to loose the 16th and we were all of sudden at the 18th Tee AS. JJ and Paul pulled the shots left and Kelvin and myself were down the right. After our second shots I was in prime position, 80 yards from the green and all the others had hit wood. This was when JJ turned to me and said "Don't you dare F**K this up" (thanks partner). I dd however mess up my first chip but managed to put my second chip to about 12 feet below the pin for 4. We were now looking good as JJ and Paul had had 5  and Kelvin was about 50 Feet away off the green in four. So Kevin to go first and he takes out the putter from the second cut at the back of the green, and promptly holes it. So for me the hole went for looking like 6 inches wide to looking like the width of the ball. I saw a line and hit it and it went straight in the middle, so a half the result. So after a little thought and analysis after the game I realised that I had managed 34 points (9 over) so not too bad and JJ 6 over. Our 3/4 betterball score would have been 43 and we only halved so tough opponents. The match ended up 3-3 so we need to win at Cranleigh in September to bring the cup home. Bring on the dream team.

Just a final note, the ladies had a medal today and I see Beckie managed to shoot net 67 and get her handicap cut by 2. So has she picked up my swing? Maybe thats where it went. But it looks like she dropped it somewhere on the 17th so if you see it out there can i get it back please.. Also congrats to Anne who also got cut a shot.

An Expensive round of Golf

On Wednesday evening I had one of my more expensive rounds of golf. I played after work with a mate at Forest Hills in Cinderford. It was all OK until I got the second tee, I thought I would be clever and use all the Tee (just like the pros) and tee up close to the marker on the left. That way I could get the best shot at the cutting the corner to a green 280 away. I took out my Driver and swung. As I hit the the ball there was another loud crack and my driver head went 50 yards down the fairway. So that will teach me. So that was a £15 Green Fee and a £200 pound Driver. I could have played Wentworth. I did manage to make par on the hole as my ball had gone before I hit the marker, and I ended up shooting 8 over and beating my mate 3&2. See the new picture of my 2-piece driver below (shout out to Rob England).

Pitch Marks....I hate them

OK I feel like a quick rant. Do you Own a Pitch Mark repairer and if not why not. I have 5 that are in my bag at all times and it really P's me off when I go out and find loads of pitch marks on the green. A pitch mark repaired correctly within in 20 minutes will be OK again within hours, if left for an hour it will take weeks to recover. I often seem to have to repair 3-4 each time I am on a green and as most people don't hit the green this means about 80% of our members don't repair them, they are our greens so lets keep them nice. And it is members, as I have been out on a Saturday and Sunday morning and there are fresh ones. So if you have not got a pitch mark repairer go buy one now. Please see this video and it will explain how to repair a Pitch Mark correctly which is also important, an incorrect repair is also a waste of time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khz_F0AQnjw&feature=related

I feel better now.

Mixed Bader Cup

So today was the Bader Cup. This is a mixed charity event where the winners go through to a qualifier and then if they win that there is a tournament in Portugal. See this web site for more info http://www.thebadercup.co.uk/. It was a fantastic turnout with 14 pairs playing and it is great to see so many new lady members at Slinfold.
So today I had the pleasure of playing with Barbara Wilson (next years Lady Captain) and we were paired to play with Melissa (this years lady captain) and Don, so in such esteemed company I would have to behave myself. The format for the day was Greensomes off 1/2 combined handicap so we had 15 shots for the day, and I hoped we could use them well. On the front 9 we played very well and shot a 39, and that was with bogeys on both the par 3's. This gave us 22 points which is always a nice score. Barbara played very well and I was very impressed with her putting and chipping from just off the green that saved us many shots over the 18. On the back 9 we managed a 6 on the 10th after I pushed my 5 iron from Barbara's drive that was right in between the two 150 markers. We continued to play very well until the 16th where I pulled my Tee shot into the rough and Barbara just put hers in the water. We took mine out the rough but did not make a good effort at it and ended up with our only blob of the round. We did manage 19 points on the back 9 but our score on the Par 3's was only 5 points and as I have seen many times before the Par 3's can make a big difference to the round.
We had played well and 41 points turned out to be a good score. John Jordan and Karen Ashcroft had also managed 41 points, but on countback they beat us, so second place. I want to change the rules and make it the difference in letters between Christian and Surname that won it as I am sure JJ and KA gets beaten by BW and CW every time, but they would not let me change the rules and Karen and John go on to the qualifiers at Piltdown in August.
Good Luck and it would be great to get a Slinfold pair in the finals in Portugal.

Medal and Gatton Away

So Saturday started OK. I got up and it was dry, but the forecast was for rain from 10:00. Oh well the good news it is a medal and I am now out in the first group with my new handicap of 7.4 :-). I am not sure how many of you have noticed but I think it is a great sign of how well things are going is the time you get to play in the Medals, and I am out in the first group again next week too, so lets hope it continues. So up at the club at 7:00 for a quick few balls on the range as I have not played since Wednesday (a round after work at Forest Hills in Coleford, Forest of Dean, where I shot 6 over). I was out with Paul McHale and Nick Baker, so a chance to impress the Captain of the Scratch team is always good. All started well and I was 3 over after nine, but the predicted rain started on the back nine and I ended up putting my waterproofs on after my birdie on the 13th to keep me at 4 over. So 4 over, playing the 14th and it was all looking good, but maybe the waterproofs were the problem. I started with my tee shot in the water on the right, my third after the drop ended up in the deep rough on the left 200 yards from the green but I did manage to hit this out the greenside bunker. So in the bunker for 4 and my thoughts were I can either put this in or close and make a six. I then played my 5th shot from still in the bunker and my 6th just got out. My 7th was a chip that went a little long, my 8th a Putt that went 8 ft past? my 9th a putt that missed again and my 10th finally went in the hole. So 4 over after 13, 9 over after 14, I seem to think, I now officially hate the 14th hole. I ended up with an 83, net 76, and as my 10 only counted as and 8 for Handicap I managed to keep my 7.4 for at least one more comp.
I and Paul M (who shot a good 76) did manage a 2 each so at least I had won some money, but when I checked the results I noticed there was 5 of us who had got 2's and one of these was on the 13th. After some investigation I found out Neil Dann had and I quote "Hit his drive to about 30 Yards short of the pin - flopped a wedge onto the top of the green and it rolled slowly down to the pin - poetry" so congratulations on a great eagle.
On Sunday we had our match against Gatton Manor. It is great this year as last year I had to organise all the teams and this year Richard Kindon does it all and all I have to do is turn up, play, have a drink and something eat, say a few words, and go home. Today I played with Paul McHale and so we were giving away a few shots (8 and 13 plus 2 for me). We started well and over time we made it the 15th Tee, 2 up, with Paul 2 over gross and me 3 over gross. Then it went horribly wrong and we lost the next 3 holes and ended up standing on the 18th tee one down. Luckily our opposition hit both there shots left, but then Paul and I hit both of ours right. (they were both lefties and are both righties so all slices). We did end up winning this hole but only after our opposition managed to miss a four foot putt for a half to win the match. But I think that was a fair result and we all had times when we played well. Int he end we lost a very close match 2.5-3.5 but we can pull this around when they come to see us in October.
Tomorrow is the Bader Cup lets hope the weather continues as it was today.

Well Done David Court

Back in April David ran the Brighton Marathon and raised money for our Charity this year. I caught up with him today and he passed me some more money so he managed to raise over £350 for Dreams Come True.
So congratulation and thanks for the support for the charity. Anyone else fancy running 26 Miles?

Mad Dogs and English Men......

Go out in the mid-day Sun.
So with the hottest weekend of the year I had managed to arrange a Match on Saturday against Josh at 11:56 and my second Captain-Pro Challenge on Sunday at 13:40. I am sure that proves I am an English Man and not a Mad Dog...
So on Sunday I had my second captain-pro challenge and this time it was Jeff King and Brian Johnstone. There are still 2 more slots left (and I may be able to squeeze one more in) so if you are feeling brave enough let me know, see here http://slinfold.intelligentgolf.co.uk/Captainpro%202010 .
Well again Jeff and Brian decided to take me up on the side bet and we had another £50 on the match, and today I had Harry to rely on. However Jeff and Brian started like a train and they manged to half the first with a birdie, birdied the second and then birdied the fourth for a net eagle. So Harry was 2 under after 4 and 2 down. Brian went on to get a par net birdie on the 6th and after we won the 7th Jeff got a net birdie on the 8th to take us back to three down. Harry and Myself were playing well but were just being blown away by J&B.
I was glad when we managed win the 9th and get it back to just 2 down.  We went on to win 11,12 and 13 so we had managed to turn in around to 1 Up going up the 14th but again this was where J&B (I would not want to put there initials the other way round) had another shot each. At this time we also had a two ball that had caught us up, so we thought it best to let them through after we had driven off and all hit good drives. We continued to walk up to our balls letting the 2 ball play their shots ahead of us, and we were surprised when we could not find Jeff's ball. (we did however find a "scruffy old MaxFli"). After a lot of looking just in the semi where Jeff's ball should have been he suggested the guys in front may have hit it by mistake. Harry agreed to (as he was the youngest) run after them and ask them, and yes they had hit the wrong ball at least twice, his was that "scruffy old MaxFli". We managed to get Jeff back to the position we thought his ball should have been and we continued the hole. It was Jeff to play next, at last, and he decided with the good lie he now had he could make it over the gap. He took out his wood and then hit it, straight in the middle of the gorse on the right. So Harry running up and down the fairway may not have been needed. I am not sure if this was a ploy from J@B but it did not work as Harry proceeded to hit a 3 iron to 15 feet and a 2 putt birdie won the hole. We went on to win 15 and 16 so we had then won 6 in row and turned 2 down into a 4&2 win. So another £100 to the charity, thanks J&B, and again thanks to Harry who gave up his time today to make this happen.


So back to Saturday and I was playing Josh Hemsley in the Scratch knockout. I knew I may be in a little trouble as Josh proceeded to hit a 3 rescue from about 260 yards onto the green to make an easy birdie and go 1 up. He continued his strong play through the front 9 to get to 3 up after 7. I managed to win 8 and then Josh pulled his tee shot on 9 into a place where we were not sure what the rule was on the 9th. He had put it on the ramp to the tenth lake just under the tree and we could not decide if this was hazard or path. We finally found Donna Davies who said this was hazard and after a penalty drop I manged to win the 9th with a 4 to get back to 1 down. However this was not good enough as a couple of short putts missed on 14 and 15 meant I was back to 2 down and when I put my tee shot left into the rough on 16 a 4 meant I had lost 3&2. Josh played very well and I wish him luck in the next round.


Back to Friday and we had great evening of TGI. There were three winners all with 22 points and only countback separated Matt Hambelton, Beckie Mabbutt and Iain Montague. This is always a fun Friday evening and if you get a chance come and join us..

So next weekend is Bank Holiday and I have a Medal, Match away at Gatton and then Bader Cup. So lets get this week of work out of the way and back to the golf on Saturday.

We are what we eat.....

So Thursday I had my 6 week review of my program in the Gym with Jo. Always nice to see I have lost a little more weight, now I have lost 11KG since October last year. So the obvious question is how do we get rid of the last few Kilos and of course we got onto the discussion of diet.
Apparently drinking beer and eating curry is not the best for weight loss, but I think I know that, however my job means I do have to take customers out and it often ends up in a restaurant with a few drinks. Also that is what I enjoy. Interestingly since I have been doing the work in the Gym my hangovers have got much better so I may have an extra beer or 2 because I know it will not hurt as much the next day. Also my other bad habit is whenever I am out I tend to stop for a coffee at Costa or similar and who can resist their cakes. But of course all I need to do is stop some of this and I was given an interesting thought, eat well for 80% of the time and then you can eat worse for the 20%, so maybe I will try to work towards that.
What I also found interesting was when we discussed when you should eat. I never plan when I am going to eat around what I do, but as Jo pointed out if I spend up to 2 hours in the gym what fuel has my body got to keep me going, and I could be wasting all the work. So now I will try to eat something an hour before I go the the Gym and while in the Gym if I do over an hour. Also I will try to eat something as soon as I finish, and I am told that is "as soon" within 5 minutes, and that just needs to be some nuts and fruit or some other simple protein. And then try to eat a meal 1 hour after the workout. I also have some other simple changes to try. Lets see what happens.
So today I have my Scratch matchplay against Josh so I will not be able to try out my new handicap of 7 until Sunday when Harry and I take on Jeff and Brian in the second Captain-Pro Challenge. Oh maybe I did not mention that before (unless you have had the pleasure of seeing me over the last couple of days), yes on Wednesday I managed to shoot a 77 and that got me cut down to 7.4. Of course that was may aim at the beginning of the year, but just 0.1 will put me back to 8, so until I am secure in that 7 Handicap I will not consider I have reached my aim.

The Golfers Poem

Sent to me via Neil Osborne



In My Hand I Hold A Ball,
White And Dimpled, Rather Small.
Oh, How Bland It Does Appear,
This Harmless Looking Little Sphere.

By It's Size I Could Not Guess,
The Awesome Strength It Does Possess.
But Since I Fell Beneath Its Spell,
I've Wandered Through The Fires Of Hell.

My Life Has Not Been Quite The Same,
Since I Chose To Play This Stupid Game.
It Rules My Mind For Hours On End,
A Fortune It Has Made Me Spend.

It Has Made Me Yell, Curse And Cry,
I Hate Myself And Want To Die.
It Promises A Thing Called Par,
If I Can Hit It Straight And Far.

To Master Such A Tiny Ball,
Should Not Be Very Hard At All.
But My Desires The Ball Refuses,
And Does Exactly As It Chooses.

It Hooks And Slices, Dribbles And Dies,
And Even Disappears Before My Eyes.
Often It Will Have A Whim,
To Hit A Tree Or Take A Swim.

With Miles Of Grass On Which To Land,
It Finds A Tiny Patch Of Sand.
If Only It Would Find The Hole.
Then Has Me Offering Up My Soul,

It's Made Me Whimper Like A Pup,
And Swear That I Will Give It Up.
And Take To Drink To Ease My Sorrow,
But The Ball Knows ... I'll Be Back Tomorrow.