I popped to the Coed for an hour before I went to the match at Dinas Powis Golf Club and managed to sort out my issues in my swing and was feeling much better about my game by the time I got to the course. I met Leigh on the putting green and we got cracking after a few putts.
I was really quite nervous having to play a bloke with a smaller handicap than mine (Leigh plays off 13 and I am off 16) on a course that I have never seen before. Standing on the 1st tee didn’t calm my nerves particularly much either. There were three bunkers lining the fairway where I saw my drive landing and it looked quite tight so I took out my 4 iron and hit a nerve-settling shot to find the fairway. Leigh was pretty nervy too and he managed to leak his drive right and into the trees. I had a blinding start to my round managing to par the first two holes to jump to a 2up advantage and was feeling really good about my ball striking.
I won’t bore you through a hole by hole write up today. There were a few memorable holes though and I had a few lucky breaks along the way. The 8th hole is a severely downhill dogleg left par 4 of 313 yards from the whites. I was playing second after losing the 6th and the honour and Leigh went through the dogleg into the trees on the right. I pulled my drive slightly left and it flew over the trees to be safe just short of the fairway about 40 yards short of the green. My chips and pitches were quite good all day and that one left me with a good shout for a birdie. Leigh ended up not finding his first drive so three off the tee didn’t help him much and we were back to 3up.
I gave the shot straight back on the tenth when I put my second shot into the farmers field at the top of the world. There was some altitude gained and lost on this golf course. Check out the view from 10/15!
Another stroke of luck was on the 11th. I hit a nice drive that leaked a bit right and planted itself behind a tree next to some very nonplussed sheep. I had 110 yards left steeply uphill to the green and had to stay under some overhanging branches. My brain came up with a ‘simple’ plan: Hit a punched draw with the pitching wedge, that’ll keep it low enough and you can go around the lowest branch. I gave it a shot and it clattered into a very solid branch. I had no idea which way it headed ….. until it plopped down in the middle of the fairway about 50 yards away! Phew! Up and down from 60 yards and a par and a win! Leigh had a 3 foot putt to halve that hole and we had been conceding most of them to that point, that one however would have scared the pooh out of me so I asked Leigh to putt it. Some might say it was a bit harsh, but I figured a concession should only be for putts you think are a waste of time putting.
We managed to get to dormie on the 15th (our 13th because 7 and 9 were out of play) with a halved hole after my only duffed shot of the match and I then managed to have my only sliced drive of the match on the 16th so went three off the tee with my hybrid after Leighs fantastic drive put him in position A. My fourth shot went just through the green and we were back to 4up with 4 to go. The 17th hole at Dinas Powis Golf club definitely deserves its stroke index of 1, what a BRUTE! 460 yards of dogleg right, sloping left bogeyville!! I went driver, 4 iron to hole high and had a downhill pitch to the green and managed to get my first putt close enough for a concession to close out the match with a confidence boosting 5&3 win!! Massive thanks to Leigh for a great game and I am now eagerly awaiting news of my next opponent. How many more rounds until we have only 16 competitors left?!?! Who knows.
One match at a time………next please!!
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