Mail On Sunday - Round 3, and More............

So in reverse order, just in case you all go to sleep later.....
Today the Men played the 3rd round of the Mail On Sunday comp. 5 x Singles matches. And team was, in order of play, Richard Kindon, Rob England, Nick Baker, Paul McHale and myself (always get a place in team if your captain). We were playing Worthing and of the 5 players they had 2 x 5 Handicappers and 3 x 6 Handicappers, and of course in true gamesmanship they told me "our last match was better because we had 5 x 6 handicappers", but I didn't tell the rest of the team this. So I will start with my match, and I was playing Steve Godley and we were out last. So for me the good news was I had a lesson with Ryan on Saturday, and he explained that I should hit the ball at 60%. For me that meant, as of course I knew once he told me, I was trying to hit it too hard, and I had to try 80%, so I tried to commit and still hit it less hard.
So in my match we halved the first in par, and I lost the second to a par and the fourth to birdie. So as I walked  up the to fifth Tee I was 2 down. As we stood on the tee Steve got out a 6 iron to lay up, and I had to think this was my chance to get one back. He hit his iron down the fairway and then I took out out my 3 wood. He said "Oh can you go for this?" I replied, "It depends if your 2 down or 2 up" I then hit my tee shot in to 12 foot and won the hole with a birdie. I think that was the moment I won the game and I went on to shoot 38 front 9  to be 1 up. As we stood on the 12h Steve reminded me this was my last hole with a shot, which I went on to win, and I closed the match out on the 15th with a par to win 5&3.

Of course now, and not before, I started to think how the rest of the boys were doing, I did not fancy a playoff. I was following Paul M and it was interesting to see the draw had turned out the 2 big hitters together. I knew Paul was 1 up after 15, with the honor, but when I saw his opponent Mike teeing off on the 18th first,  I feared the worst. I also had heard Nick was 2 down with 3 to play, so it was going to be tough. Both Paul and Mike hit great drives up 18, it was interesting to see them both up near the gap, but unfortunately Paul ended up loosing this hole (its tough when you have to give a shot to a 5 H/Caper). As I walked off I also confirmed that Nick had lost a tough match.... so it was down to Richard and Rob. It was interesting as both my playing partner and myself thought the same thing, " the other team had won". But it turned out that both the Slinfold boys had won, 1 up and 2 up, so we move on to next round. It may not sound too much but the comp started with over 3000 clubs, and now we are down to the last 256. Only 5 more rounds and we make to the quarter finals.

On a more somber note I met  up with Carol, Duncan Smith's widow, on Saturday. Richard's Clegg and Gearing, who were his playing partners on the day, walked Carol to the place where Duncan passed away on the 14th. There is a plan for a memorial with the money collected in the competition that week, and that may be a tree near the point where Duncan passed away.

Lastly, and as I said in reverse order, we played our second practice round with the scratch team on
Saturday. This time we played Par/Bogey against the course, meaning match play against par (Par half, Birdie Win, Bogey Loss). The course won for me, but a very interesting format. The first match in the PAV this year is West Sussex Away, It will be tough but there is always a chance. We are always looking for people who may want to caddy for the day, so if you are interested please contact me and I will put you in contact with the organizers.

And lastly lastly. I know there were a lot of comments last week if the course should have been open or not. Andy explained to me that if it was January it would have been closed, but it was April, and although it may seem bad, the course will recover very quickly. For anyone who has played this week, it seems the correct decision.