Well, who would have thought that the Christmas fixture would even have taken place after 5 inches of snow fell during the early hours of Wednesday morning,
On Thursday lunch time I had a call from Brampton Heath, expecting the worst news that Friday's round would be off. To my surprise, it was a call confirming that it was still on and, although there was some snow on the fairways, they were doing all they could to keep the course open and playable even to the extent that there were players on the course at time of the call. The pro-shop allowed buggies out, despite the snow and ice on the hillier areas and the muddy, wet conditions down near the railway line.
Hip flasks at the ready, 12 Players arrived for the 10am Tee it was cold and had started to rain when the 1st group went off, but it didn’t last long, there was some snow on the 1st 3 holes and a couple of greens were a bit hard but overall considering the amount of snow we had the course was in fine fettle and played really well. Pete Mann brought two guests with him, playing with Adam while I enjoyed the company of Brian in group one along with Martin and Rob, narrow boater Phil joined cut resident Drew in group 3.
Various parts of the course bore evidence of upgrades/changes to the layout, the most noticeable of which was the par 3 7th, it looks as though a pond will be added in front of the two tiered green, an object that nobody in group one managed to find from the tee.
After a number of attempts to unseat Martin from our buggy, the poor thing decided it had had enough and started lurching badly (anyone would think it had been abused by stunt Nelly) and then died on the 15th, the good people duly brought out a replacement before Martin had to push more than 50 or 60 yards.
The inaugural Christmas Cup was won by Paul Collins with 33pts
2nd Martin Fawcett 30pts
Dennis England 30pts
Paul Fitzell 29pts
Tony Brock 28pts
Rob Pouncey 26pts
Phil Spencer (Guest) 25pts
Dave Crocker 23pts
Peter Mann 22pts
Adam Butcher (Guest) 19pts
Brian Lander (Guest) 18pts
Drew Chamberlain 18pts
Not a very high scoring round but very enjoyable to be out playing golf again and I’m looking forward to the 1st fixture of 2018 season Sunday 4th March at Brampton Heath
Regards to all
Paul and George