Back to winning ways
That's a nice heading but it has been several weeks since I had a return on my investment in the buggy. The intervening time I have paid for a lot of my opponents beers. Not a happy place. The picture of the mountain was taken on Wednesday as we headed out on another round, full of confidence, only to have those hopes dashed by the cold southerly and frozen fingers. It was the two Nigel's for the day, Weir and Miles against Al and Chris. These are regular playing members of our four. Nigel is on the left in pink, Al in middle. Chris was to the left of Nigel, hiding from the camera.
It was a forgettable day, I ended up with only 31 points good enough for 29th place. My partners all got into the top 10 with Al getting a good return for 5th in Oscars and 1st in the Duck hook part of the day. My fault we lost the beer.
Onto Friday, the Monthly Tournament. Held every first Friday of the month. I have to make a choice, play on the Friday, or on the Saturday Club day. There was not much happening on the Saturday, the final of the Manganaeia Trophy that Chris and I had been knocked out of two weeks ago. So Friday it was.
None of the normal boys were available, so I joined my Pennant Team Captain, my Pennant Team partner and a local Fireman. We were hot to trot. It was Captain Alan Eichstaedt and I in one team and Team mate Chuck DeMeyer and Fireman David trying to rain on our parade.
We did not start well and were two down after two holes. We spent the rest of the front nine trying to get back into the match. I felt like my game was a bit ordinary and it only came alive from hole 6 where I had a good par, to bring us back to one down only to lose the next hole as I put my ball into the hazard on the right. Must have annoyed me as I got par on the next two holes with my partner Alan scoring enough for us to win the holes and we ended the nine all square. I had shot a 41 for 18 points. Average score, with three double bogeys to keep me annoyed with my game.
Must have worked. Birdied the par 3 10th and won myself a golf ball for the '2'. Won the hole too. First time in the match we had been ahead. Went two up after the next hole with another good par from me. I was coming alive. Halved the next hole, Davids extra shot on the hole kept them in it. We managed to lose the next hole back to one up. Won the par 5 14th with another good par from me. Par on the 15th and we were three up with three to play. It was from now I almost wasted my good day. I had a triple bogey no point hole on the 16th. We lost the hole and the opposition was making noises about a 'comeback'. That lasted for another two minutes when I got par on the 17th and Alan got his bogey for a total of five points. Our competitors had four points, the beer was ours.
For my own score the triple bogey on sixteen followed by a double bogey on 18 took the shine out of what could have been a winning score. I feel I blew three points on those two holes so my 39 points could have gone to 42. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, my own fault. I was happy enough to end up second in my division. A much better result than I have had since January.
It was funny that I have played such rubbish lately that on Wednesday my handicap finally went out from 14 to 15. That lasted only a couple of days as my score on Friday has dropped me down to 14 again. No good game goes unpunished in golf.
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