Sunday 9th
June saw myself and Max travel to the beautiful Glamorganshire Golf Club in
Penarth to play our betterball Stableford game against Jeff and Duncan. The
weather was outstanding and the course was in fantastic condition.
Max and I had good intentions
leading into this competition with the aim of practicing together once a week
and getting to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses a bit. The 9th
of June was really the first time we had played together apart from the
individual Stableford competition at the Coed the day previous. We were both
quite nervous I think and the pint of Strongbow I had before the game
didn’t help me at ALL! (lesson learned!)
First tee. Reasonable
strike with the driver, little bit of fade and one bounce into a bush, never to
be seen again. Max's shot was a carbon copy and his provisional ball ended up just safe
near the bush. My provisional shot was lucky to make it passed the ladies tee and
parked itself behind a tree, which I hit my next shot directly into and was beginning to feel a bit ‘doom and gloomy’. I was out of that hole and Max ended up
missing a long range effort for a point to leave us in catch up mode.
The nerves were still
in evidence (or was that the Strongbow?) on the second hole which was a very
steep, short, uphill par three with a treacherous green. 115 yards of
knee-trembling terror. No points to add to our tally of zero to be nil after
two holes while Jeff and Duncan were off to a great start with at least five
points after two holes.
Hole three continues
uphill for the first shot to the par5 fairway. It is blind as it crests the
hill and veers left and runs left into trouble. Jeff explained the hole really
well and I had a really good picture in my mind of what I wanted to achieve. I
was teeing off 4th and had just seen Max pull-hook left over the
previous green after Jeff said “left is bad” and also saw both our opponents
leak right into the trees for “a guaranteed chip out, but you should find it”.
I smashed my drive over the hill with a tiny little bit of draw on it and left
myself a 212 yard downhill approach shot to the green. I was feeling
substantially better after that shot. I pulled my 6iron (normally 170 yards)
out of the bag, aimed at the right side of the fairway and connected
beautifully for the shot to land short on the right and run down the fairway to
the left side of the green! On in two with a chance at an eagle for 5 points!!
Chuffed! I cosied the putt up to a few feet and knocked it in for 4 points! Pretty
pleased with myself after that hole and I’m sure Jeff and Gordon were relieved
that they might actually have a game on their hands now.
Hole five is a short
dogleg left par4 protected by some massive trees on the left. Max popped his
shot onto the fairway and I had a lash at the green. I hit it the right
direction, just not high enough and it went into the trees. I then lost my
provisional ball to the right so the pressure was on Max. His second shot left
him with an easy chip and putt for par. After nearly giving up searching for my
first ball, I almost stood on it just short of the green after it proved that
trees ARE 90% air! Duffed chip and two putts for par too!
I had some serious
luck on my side in this round!
Standing in front of
the 8th tee I measured 176 yards to the stream running across the
fairway so I grabbed my Hybrid (200 yards) and walked to the tee (15 to 20
yards behind me). I hit a stunning shot, it felt amazing! I nearly wet myself
laughing when it landed on the bridge crossing the stream on the left side of
the fairway and kicked on 20 yards!!! The looks of dismay directed at me from
Gordon and Jeff were pretty priceless too. I still ended with only one point from that hole as I found the bunker, then thinned it to the rough, then
chipped up and down.
Hole ten was a very
tricky par3 with a very, very steep area of doom to the left of the green. Even
chips from the right of the green would be knee-knockers! I went left. Gordon
went left (twice). Max was also left and Jeff was right. Gordon’s flop shot
with his provisional ball was incredible. The green was at least 10 feet above
us and it landed perfectly on the edge of the green and rolled to about four
feet. If there was a crowd, there would have been a hell of a cheer! I knew
exactly what I needed to do as I was about 3 feet closer on pretty-much the
same line. I love flop shots … I popped mine onto the edge of the green and it trickled to
within one foot! The crowd in my mind went ballistic!
Max was keeping score
and I didn’t really have any idea of the score. I have a
feeling Max and I were starting to get a bit of a lead as Gordon and Max were
talking to us a little bit less.
I had been chipping
really well. It is the one aspect of my game that often saves me and I quite
like my 60deg wedge. Absent-mindedly, I managed to leave it next to the 11th green. I spoke to the group behind us and they told me that they placed it safe on the 15th tee box for me to
grab on my way through. When we got to the 15th we found that the group behind them had picked it up and I hoped that I could get it back from them at the clubhouse! I did get it back, phew! But I had to play the rest of the round without it, bummer!
Jeff and Gordon had a
bit of a role-reversal over the last five or six holes. Gordon started really
playing to his potential and his handicap with some amazingly solid golf really
piling the pressure on Max and I. Jeff was starting to fade a little after
being the packhorse for their team over the front of the course.
Holes 16 and 17 are
two very tough holes. Blind drive on 16 to the top of the hill with an approach
shot to a very small green tucked away in a corner with pine trees beside it.
My approach was a bit shanky after a great drive and left a tricky pitch/chip
of about 30 yards. That shot was made harder by the fact that Gordon had
stiffed his 3rd shot to within a foot of the hole. I managed to
pitch it close and knock the putt in to keep our lead heading to the next hole.
The 17th feels like your shot will feed right. You can’t see the
fairway as you tee off from far enough back on the plateau that all you can see
is sky and trees. Gordon and I both aimed left and thought our shots would be
relatively simple to find. Max went right a little and had a pretty simple shot
into the green. The fairway does NOT feed right! We found my ball after an
extensive search and I had a reasonable shot from the rough to the green too.
Max and I both missed left and it looked like we had relatively easy up and
down attempts for par. Gordon hit a great shot from the rough to the green
which caught the slope (I didn’t know there was a slope) and rolled into the
bunker. What a horrible green! The members must walk to that green filled with
confidence in matchplay and dread in their medals! I walked off with 2 points after
a reasonable chip and two good putts and we went to the final tee 1 point in
the lead after both Gordon and Jeff could only manage to get 2 points.
I don’t really
remember the last hole. I do remember thinking ‘please don’t pull it left’ as
it would have clattered into the clubhouse and the group of people having some
sort of presentation. I did go a little left but was short as well so I had a
reasonable shot at getting up and down for par. Max went just right and also
had a good shot at par. Jeff ended up having a putt to get one more point than
us on the hole to tie the game. It was a 15-20 footer which he ran passed a
little leaving Max and I to count our lucky stars that we had won our away
match 38 – 37 points!!
Massive thanks to Jeff
and Duncan for being great sports and fantastic hosts! Glamorganshire is definitely
worth a visit, great course and clubhouse. Thanks to Max for playing
brilliantly when I played poorly. Sorry I didn’t write about Max’s great play
much, but I didn’t really notice it as I had my head on my chest trying to
figure out what I had done wrong.
Next game is against a
pair from Neath. We have home advantage for that one so we’ll see how it goes!
Thanks for reading
Clayt
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