(This week’s photograph comes courtesy of Saturday morning’s hapless trio; Richard Hampson, Grant Smith and his brother, Roger. They took the snap with some degree of pride initially, recording the creditable resting place of their respective tee shots to the 15th green. You’d assume, given the proximity of their golf balls to the hole, that they subsequently walked off the green a collective two or three under par, but not a bit of it. In the event, Grant tapped in for birdie, Richard muffed his opportunity to do likewise and Roger executed a grotesque three stab leaving them to shuffle toward the next tee having played the hole in a combined even par. Scandalous golf.)
Saturday presented perfect golfing conditions for the field of 92 competitors. The sun shone, the rain stayed off and there wasn’t a breath of wind. If ever the course was to be found in a benign state and offering the chance of a low score, this was the day.
I set off in the company of Gary Taylor & Paul McMillan, each of us licking our lips at the prospect of a good round given the conditions, but the first three holes soon burst our bubble. I carved my opening tee shot out of bounds, Gary sclaffed one down the cliff on the second and Paul compiled an unsightly triple bogey on the third. Golf has a way of tempering one’s excitement. Other lowlights were Gary lipping out on half a dozen occasions including a couple of full-on horseshoes and me managing to leave my ball further away from the hole than it started when attempting to chip onto the 17th green. Nevertheless, each of us recovered to compile creditable scores despite our faux pa’s and unforced errors so we’ll be back for more next week.
Here’s a breakdown of the final scores. I like to record the number of No Returns (N/R’s) too because I feel such individuals should be outed in no uncertain terms. To my mind, a no-return is inexcusable. If you’re having a shocker and your scorecard looks like a trainwreck, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles and you should be brave enough to record the calamity in all of its gory detail. It isn’t acceptable to bail out with a lily livered N/R to disguise your litany of disaster. So there. If the same culprits keep repeating I may be forced to out them.
Division 1 (48 competitors)
Duncan Livingstone 61 (11)
Chris Nicholl 64 (11)
Liam Smith 64 (8)
No Returns 2
Division 2 (28 competitors)
Leon De Jager 64 (17)
Paul McMillan 67 (12)
Ross Walker 67 (16)
No Returns 4
Division 3 (16 competitors)
Jacek Nowak 62 (18)
Steve Crawford 64 (18)
Steve Birss 65 (20)
No returns 3