We had heard reports that ground works at the course had caused a lot of damage, but the works were largely finished and the only problem was the scars across the fairways. If you landed in one your ball would stop dead, but on the other hand you got free relief. Certainly it didn’t cause me any trouble and I didn’t hear anyone else complaining too much. Other than that the course was in pretty good condition. The greens had been scarified recently which gave them a certain corduroy quality, but they were fast enough and most putts ran true.
Twelve of us set off to do battle and there were mixed fortunes. Philip Pritchett made good use of the course features to bounce his tee shot across the little bridge on the 3rd which helped him on his way to a five. Martin Crooke played a lovely chip from 30 yards on the 4th to make a birdie, only one of many of his good shots on his way to another excellent score. Craig Fraser did his best to appease the God Of Lost Balls, leaving several offerings in the rough, the water and neighbouring fields. If anyone has any old balls going spare I’m sure he would appreciate the donations.
The brook (known just as The Brook) that runs through Feldon Valley took its usual toll on golf balls, claiming one of mine on the 9th and another on the 17th and I’m sure there were others that went the same way. The simpler holes were rewarding for the accurate golfer and there were a few scores over 30 points.
There were some comments about the apparently arbitrary nature of some of the stroke indexes, with some difficult holes, such as the 9th and 10th, having higher indexes than some of the more straightforward ones such as the 13th and 16th. The club pro advises that these will be adjusted before we visit next year (assuming we do).
Nearest the pin on the 6th went to Ian Willis and on the tricky 11th across the brook went to Martin Crooke, who also claimed the only 2 of the day with his putt. In second place on the day with a steady 36 points was Dave Williams while Martin Crooke continued to exploit his current purple patch to turn in another excellent 41 points to win the day. Patrick, you have your work cut out for the singles final.
The overall placings for the day were (Greenwood points in brackets):
1st Martin Crooke (21); 2nd Dave Williams (19); 3rd Bob Cubitt (17); 4th Ian Willis (15); 5th Dave Crocker (13); 6th Peter Simson (11); 7th Denis England (10); 8th Philip Pritchett (9); 9th (Paul Cummings (8); 10th Chris Ward (7); 11th John Simson (6) and 12th Craig Fraser (5).
NEXT FIXTURE – KIRTLINGTON
Our FINAL fixture of the regular season is at Kirtlington Golf Club on Sunday 5th October. First tee off is at 11.00 so please arrive by 10.00 for a prompt start. Cost is £31 including bits. If you wish to play then please pass your name to Tony Brock ASAP, if you haven’t already done so on tonybrock57@gmail.com