Having qualified for both the Pairs and the
Singles regional finals at the Macdonald Donnington Grove, Max and I organised
to stay for two nights and have a practise round on the Sunday in preparation.
We arrived too early to check in and just cracked on with our practice round.
We played from the competition tee boxes as the two Jasons had mentioned that
the League to Dubai tees wouldn’t be too far forward from them.
What a beast of a course! 7100-odd yards is
a new experience for me!
Max and I had a great practice round. We
managed to score 42 points off ¾ handicaps (both of us shot rounds of
34points!) and we were feeling very confident about our chances the following
day in the pairs South Regional final. I did mention that it was a practice
round.
We had a couple of strong lemonades after
our practice and hit the hay before midnight in preparation for our big day,
the last chance to get to Dubai as a pair.
Not 100% sure what went wrong. Was it the
fact that we wore shorts in anticipation of the promised sunshine? Was it just
the pressure of our expectations? Was it the nerves from playing with such a
prize on offer? We will not likely ever know the answer, but the end result was
laughable! Our chances to get to Dubai together were dashed by the dreaded
countback! The fact that we were in equal last place on 30 points and the
countback was for the final place is irrelevant!
I really feel quite bad about how poorly I
played in that pairs game with Max. I couldn’t hit my driver straight (a little
bit crucial on that course), my approach shots were poor which led to very poor
chips! I have managed to blank most of that round from my memory although there
were a couple of memorable moments.
I hit the ball absolutely incredibly on the
driving range. Max said he did the same. Sadly, I left that form on the range.
The first tee was a little bit daunting especially as Max and I had spent the
better part of an hour watching all the other groups teeing off. I was a little
bit nervy and my first ‘necky’ drive was the result. Max leaked a little right
and our accompanying pairing of James and Nick smashed their golf balls with their
shiny Nike Covert drivers into oblivion. James put on a clinic for Max and I,
especially his driving. It was awesome! Nick got almost as frustrated as I did
through most of the round, possibly more so. He and James would have been in
with a shout of winning on a normal day, something just didn’t click for them
around the greens.
The par4 5th hole is almost
driveable with bunkers most of the way down the left and water just short of
the green on the slicers side. James smashed his drive to the fringe of the
green and Max and I both faded to the right. Max came out of the tree short of
the pond and I was smack-bang in the middle of the tree. Rummaging around in
the tree I found that I could chip out to the fairway and chose to do that
instead of drop in the rough. Amazingly it worked! And I managed to escape with
a bogey and a solitary point.
The 7th hole is not too long. It’s
a dogleg left with a large group of large trees on the right. I found those
trees and found someone else’s ball but never found mine. I ran back to the tee
(should have hit a provisional, but the ground was clear and open under the
trees) and swiped a drive to within a yard of Max’s ball. The delay and rushing
around may have scrambled our heads. Max managed to hit my ball instead of his
and we both ended up with zero points from that hole.
The highlight of the round for me was a fantastic
3 hole par stretch for 8 points by Max over the tough 15th to 17th
holes. Nick and James were a delight to go around the course with and they
finished with a much more respectable score of 37 points which was quite a way
short of the winning mark.
The pairs competition was won on 45 points
by Colin Ledwith (2) and Alan Smith (8) and the runners up also on the plane
were Joe Sach (5) and Dan Smith (7) with fantastic golf on a pretty testing
course.
Max and I found ourselves in the bar again
after the debacle that was our spectacular failure of attempting to qualify for
the finals in Dubai. We had a great time having a pint or two with Bob and
Narinder and just managed to get to the room before my coach turned back into a
pumpkin.
Max and Narinder were both saying that Bob
and I would be sans caddy for the singles as they were going to have a round of
golf together. Their minds were changed in the morning as their stomachs were a
touch seedy and their brains were trying to escape through their eye sockets.
They looked a picture! The other factor that probably helped to change their
minds was the fact that you could not see more than 50 yards away due to some
pretty thick fog, so the chances of escaping before the first group were slim
to none.
Speaking of the first group, it was me in a
two-ball with Roger Gonsalves and I was first to tee off. Eeeek!
I just didn’t want to finish last for the
second day in a row.
I had a break through on the range before
teeing off and realised that I had lost the spine tilt at address with my
driver the day before leading to my righty-rights. I love the feeling of a well
struck drive. I love knowing almost without looking that it will be where you
were aiming. I love being able to pick up your tee from where it was placed
(minus the ball!). I love the feeling of ‘nothing’ in your hands on and through
impact. I had all of that on the first tee, plus the fact that I wouldn’t have
seen it land even if I had looked, it was still quite foggy!
I had the touch and the feel on the front
nine! I parred the first three holes and only bogeyed 2 from 9 holes leaving me
with a 2-over score of 21 points! I didn’t have many easy birdie opportunities,
but I didn’t really expect to. I was just happy to be playing well again. My
long putts were going close enough and I was confident over the 2 to 4 foot
putts I was left with. Most of the chips I was left with were the putt with a 6
or 7iron type and were going close too! It was feeling like my day.
It was, however, a very long walk between the outward
nine and the start of the inward nine. I was trying SO hard not to get carried
away with my thoughts, but 21 points on the front 9 had the little gears
spinning. I managed to scramble bogeys with shots over the next 4 holes for 8
more points. My drives were starting to leak and my approaches were a bit
wayward but my chipping and putting were keeping the finish line in sight.
Jason and Jason caught up to us on the par3
14th hole. I hit a pretty nice 3iron to the rough adjacent to the
front left of the hole while they were watching and was pretty pleased with
myself. I then hit a chip about 6 inches from where I wanted it to land so that
it stayed on the top of the little bank, tried to putt down the bank and the
ball developed brakes and a ‘chute. I putted twice more for a 5 and my first
and only blob of the round. I was a little bit steamy at myself after that.
I then managed to slice on the difficult
par5 15th hole requiring a provisional. The provisional ball allowed
me to remember my loss of spine tilt with the big stick and the slice was gone
again. I did manage to find my first ball. Max found a very ambitious line from
the deep, juicy rough over a steep embankment, over the lake to the next hole's
teeing area. I couldn’t see it working so I chose to punch out under some
branches back to the fairway. I hit the branches and had to play from the rough
again, but I still think I would have ended up in the water the other way. More
scrambling led to a 7 for 1point and a deep thankful sigh that I got a point. I
had been in a few bunkers throughout the round so far and was very pleased with
how I was playing from them.
Par3 16th saw me in yet another
bunker, this time I was on the downslope needing to climb over a substantial
bank. I had been using my 56 degree wedge from the bunkers all day but this
shot called for the 60 degree. I kept my knees bent and hit with confidence and
bingo! It came out and landed on the green. The putt left wasn’t fantastic, but
it was better than another bunker shot or a pitch from the rough! I just missed
the putt for par and settled for another bogey and 1 more point.
I now had 2
points from a three hole stretch and should have been feeling a bit ‘tight’.
The fact that I had managed to scramble points from the two previous holes
instead of blobs had me feeling a bit buoyed!
I smashed my drive straight down the left
centre of the 17th fairway leaving myself a short iron down the
massively steep hill to the green. It came up short but another chip with a
long MP32 iron had the ball perched on the same level as the hole about 8 feet
away, just begging to be holed, so I did. 3 points and a massive smile and sigh
of relief!
Another extraordinarily long hike to the 18th
hole and it was all to play for. I had 34 points so far and didn’t have a shot
on the last hole. A drive over the left fairway bunker was the order of the
moment and I mishit it so badly left that it was heading into the Booneys! The
ball hit the base of a tree before the bush, ricocheted up the hill above the
fairway bunker and perched in a small, pruned shrub about 2 inches off the
deck. Lady Luck was smiling on me!
Roger saw me grab my pitching wedge, told
me to put it back and grab my 5iron instead and to punch out to the front of
the green and two-putt for a par4. I saw exactly what he meant, did exactly
what he said and got it to the front of the final green. Thanks Roger!
Two
putts from there were going to be a bit challenging. It was the only hole that
I had to disagree with Max’s read on and I managed to get it close and pop it
in for par and 2 more points to finish with 36points! I was feeling pretty good
about that score even though I had left quite a few shot on the course.
Roger and I had pulled out a substantial
gap over the rest of the groups so we enjoyed the sun and chatted to Jason and
Jason for an hour or so while the next two groups came in. In one of those
groups was Paul Johnson with 34points. I got a bit nervous after that, how
easily had he got those points? How many others had the rub of the green today?
Was I going to get through??? AAaargh!
Back to the bar to wait and watch the rest
of the groups come in and enter their scores onto the system. Rob Flanagan came
in with a 35 and freaked me out by saying he thought a 40 point haul was
capable.
I hoped he was joking, nodded and smiled.
We sat together and hoped,
getting more nervous and excited each time 3 more cards came in. Paul Johnson
was eventually joined on 34 points by Tim Clayton and John Taylor with John
taking the third place on a countback after no more scores better
than their 34’s came in. That left the three of us booking our places to
Dubai! I still can’t quite believe it, I am so excited about this once in a
lifetime experience I am about to have. There might be more than one blog post about the Dubai experience!
Max’s help was invaluable throughout the
day, he kept my wits about me very well and his support and encouragement were
comforting and timely. I hope he or I win the lotto so that he can come to
Dubai and be my caddy! Massive thankyou to Jason Swann and Jason Tabor who are
the faces, hearts and souls of the League to Dubai. It is a fantastic
competition and a great format, I have had a phenomenally excellent time.
Final huge ‘Thanks’ has to go to my League
competitors, especially Paul Culliford. Without him beating Neil in the last
singles game, I wouldn’t be going. Next time I am anywhere near the Vale
Resort, beers will be forthcoming!
There will be some pictures on The League to Dubai's facebook page at www.facebook.com/leaguetodubai .
