Tell us about your game today...

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As one of the more popular threads on the dark side, a place to tell us about your latest game

Society day at Abridge. Greens had been hollow tined, but rolled fairly true. 9 holes in the morning, played ok barring a double on the SI1 due to a combination of unlucky tee shot, going through the fairway and from there getting a dodgy lie in a bunker thanks to a rake left just inside it. Then a sloppy bogey on the next, but parred the rest. Something in the lunch must have disagreed with me though, as I could only muster 4 points in the first 4 holes of the full 18 in the afternoon. 1 under for the next 2, then 3 more sloppy bogeys meant 13 points on the front. Determined to turn it around on the back 9, I played 10, 11, 12 well but 3 putted 12. Two blobs followed, then 1 under for the last four for 17 points home and 30 overall, off my society handicap of 7. I was absolutely knackered after lunch, so can't be too disappointed with the score, but I have to cut out the rubbish if I want to improve.

Strange game today. Estimated 35 pts (though we were playing 4BBB matchplay so there were some generous gimmes and pickups) - but on a day where I played very steadily and made very few mistakes without anything terribly spectacular the first par3 (our 4th) was a mystery indeed!

I was caught between a 6 and 7 iron and my parner decided to go with the "safe" 6 iron to the heart of the green when it was a short pin. I went with the 7 iron and despite the inner mantra of telling myself to still swing smoothly, even though I needed a decent hit, the red mist descended at the top of my backswing and I tried to murder it; not sure if it was a lucy locket, or if I just swung comepletely inside the ball but I spurted off at a 60 degree angle and disappeared into thick bushes. I chose to hit another off the tee and much more relaxed, and trying not to kill it this time, I did EXACTLY the same thing, disappearing into the bushes at almost the exact same point!

My mind was fried and I didn't bother with that hole any more - the next two holes I was only interested in getting anything like a solid contact on the ball no matter where it went! Fortunately pulled myself together and played pretty well although my partner had a not-so-good day and we only held out to the 17th green before losing 2&1. Played the last 3 holes pretty well though (all potential card wreckers) so was reasonably content a the end even though we had to pick up the bar tab at the end

Waterproofs back in the golf bags for those playing over the bank holiday weekend...Friday night and the rain has just started

So the Great British Summer is in full effect again. Best get the water wings for your trollies then.

We've got the pro-shop day tomorrow. Two shotgun starts (8:15 and 1:30) with lots of long drives and nearest the pins, plus a Calloway launch monitor on the 16th - the format is individual stableford but 9 holes are PowerPlay golf - not sure how they will work that out with a shotgun start! No idea yet which 9 are powerplay.

According to the forecast we are expecting some rain about now (though it's currently dry) and then more heavy rain in the afternoon tomorrow - I'm glad I picked the morning start!

So .. when I wrote that last post I wasn't sure how the PowerPlay thing would work with a shotgun start but it turned out it wasn't PowerPlay according to the proper rules, but it was still a good fun day!

What they did was a simplified version of PowerPlay where the even numbered hole were potential powerplay and basically we had to pick 3 of the even numbered holes, to play to the (allegedely) tougher pin positions for double points.

Being off 22 I had 4 holes where I was getting two shots, but 3 of those 4 holes were odd-numbered holes so the powerplay wasn't available and the 4th one was probably our toughest hole so I didn't dare take it there. Instead I took three par3s and I scored (gross) 2, 3 and 4 on them for 9 points, doubled up to 18 on the three!

Finished with 39 (regular) points plus with the bonus double holes a total of 48 points - though I may have an outside chance of a place but when I left the club there was someone in with 54 points!

I haven't seen the full results yet so don't know where I finished but was pretty damn happy with the score - the highlight being a 2 on our par3 4th which I had nominated as a powerplay hole so 4pts doubled up to 8 - and I was an inch away from doing the same thing on the 14th (though that one was a tad fortunate as it bounced over a bunker to give me the birdie chance which wouldn't quite drop)

Nice going Davie.

Decided not to nominate the round for the eclectic as the course had been aerated this week. What a mistake that was.

Was a bit tight to start but got away with my drive on one, made par after a nice lob onto the green. Played the next four in level with boring golf, greens in reg and two putting. Got nearest the pin on 3, knocking it to 7 feet. Missed the putt as the ball turned uphill thanks to one of the little aeration holes. Missed another birdie on 5 coming up short by an inch after the ball took two huge hops that killed momentum.

Failed to get up and down on 6 but i did on 7. Nearly drove the green on the 8th, little chip on that rolled out to about 4 feet. Horrid part of the green and a lumpy patch kicked the ball a mile right. Played nine well but had no chance of making the green in two as I rolled into a downhill, bare lie. Good two putt after a so so pitch onto the lower level of the green.

Tied my best score on the front with 37 and one of my partners tried mind games with was that 2 over Al?

Played 10 well and holed a nice birdie putt from about 15 feet. Got excitable on 11 and played poorly. Ended with double

Next hole was nearest the pin again but at 210 uphill and into the wind no one came near. Came up half a roll short and it turned uphill again at the last second. Got up and down on 13 and 14. Dropped a shot on 15 and thought I holed a bomb on 16 only for it to burn the edge and stay out. Regulation par on 17.

Stood on 18 knowing I was on a good score, held on for dear life on the tee shot and it was hooking left. Took a great bounce off something and kicked back towards the fairway and down the hole. Spun the ball just off the green and knocked it up to a foot and tapped in for a 76.

1 birdie, 11 pars , 5 bogies and a double.

Pretty happy with that considering I was partnered with the guy that doesn't shut up about his game. We lost out by 1 in the end. Not bad when you take into account the 11 he took on 7, including an air shot after he was admiring it before he hit it or rather missed it

Good rounds guys

Grumps isn't that the second time you have shot 76 recently?, nice going

Doubles semi-final for me tomorrow. Opponents are off 3 and 5, I'm 5 and my partner is 8 so really looking forward to it. Just hope that the weather is not cack...

Thanks Blue, almost. Had a 75 about 6 weeks ago which was not as consistent as today. Had more birdies but a few more doubles.

Good luck tomorrow, hit 'em straight and long Blue.

Had a net 68 on the alternate day medal on Friday, nobody bettered it yesterday but the CSS was two shots harder yesterday, so might slip back to tied 3rd. I was one of the last to finish on Friday and it had been glorious until the last 4 holes, when it started to bucket down and I finished bogey, double, triple and bogey. 2 x 3 putts in the last 4 holes too.

Cheers Grumps, just heading for the golf course and 40 minutes on the range before battle commences.

Nice and dry and the moment with the odd bit of sunshine through the clouds so looking forward to it

Tied 2nd... As sore as losing a countback... Pity about that lousy finish.

Unlucky Red. Must have got a cut though?

Cheers, Grumpy. Cut .8... First cut this year, so pleased about the turnaround. Dunno how the CSS was so low on the alt day, only 7 of 25 players were under par.

Probably would be down to how many were in their buffer zone, Red. What you down to now?

Success! Started well, I birdied the 1st, partner birdied the 3rd and then we had a nett birdie on the first stroke hole the 5th to go 3 up.

Nip and tuck after that but we managed to squeeze them out on the 16th to win 3 & 2. Got a 36 hole final to look forward to now, to be played at the end of September.

That is probably it. I am down to 23.9 Grumps, it is the long game which holds me back. Very inconsistent tee to green, it never improves for any length of time but in one good round I have recovered all the points I have gone up over the last 2 seasons. I look a bit of a bandit when I keep the ball in play, I pepper 90 quite regularly in bounce games but when the pressure is on it is the tee ball that kills me.

redrage you sound very similar to me. I'm currently 22.1 and have had a few bounce games and NQs recently where I've been shooting lower than that - but can't get a REALLY decent round in a qualifier. Having said that I've had two places in C medals in the last couple of months - one got me down .8 and the other was level with the CSS so no cut yet if it wasn't for the vagaries of the CSS system I may have gone down more

I understand the way the CSS system works yet it still feels odd to finish 2nd in a medal and still not get cut

Got a call from the competitions organizer today to tell me I'd got a late entry into the comp tomorrow - a bank holiday comp in memory of one of our early memners who succumbed to Cystic Fibrosis at an early age, but earned massive respect (plus an MBE) for her charity work before she passed away. Mixed 4BBB and a 10:38 tee time which is just about perfect for me- not too early and not too late

I never met Katy Plater MBE but have read much about her and I have no doubt that tomorrow she will be warmly remembered

BlueCoverman wrote:Success! Nip and tuck after that but we managed to squeeze them out on the 16th to win 3 & 2.

Nice work Blue. Well done to you and your partner. Good luck in the final, make sure you remind us before it happens. Enjoy your extra day off tomorrow.

yeah Davie, we do sound alike. I have come to realise that my swing just isn't well grooved and repeatable. I am going to hit the practive range for a couple of hours on Thursday and work on a few things that are bugging me... like grip and club position at address.

BlueCoverman wrote:Waterproofs back in the golf bags for those playing over the bank holiday weekend...Friday night and the rain has just started

played on Sunday in glorious sunshine from start to finish , warm but not hot and a gentle breeze: perfect weather for golf. Course pretty soft following almost non stop rain from Friday night to Saturday night, i hit two approaches which actually spun back, which is unheard of at this time of year

Not striking it great but well enough to keep it down the middle. Missed SIX putts from 6 feet, not like me at all, but still managed 37 points which was the best in the clubhouse so will be collecting some golf balls. (another reason i never have to buy balls !)

raycastleunited wrote:
Not striking it great but well enough to keep it down the middle. Missed SIX putts from 6 feet, not like me at all, but still managed 37 points which was the best in the clubhouse so will be collecting some golf balls. (another reason i never have to buy balls !)

Show off

What a great day today in the Katy Plater trophy

I was paired with a charming lady who was playing off 13 and said she'd only played about 4 competetive games this year due to work and family commitments - yet if she played more she could be REALLY good

We scored 40 pts (4BBB stableford off 3/4 handicap) and really dovetailed well together - I started well and my partner seemed a bit rusty; I had a few bad holes in the middle of the round and she found her form - we both ended well. We knew 40 wouldn't win it but both thought it was a respectable perfomance. The top 3 places were 44, 45 and 46 points so I didn't feel quite so bad about missing a 4 footer on the last that would have given us 41.

Thoroughly enjoyable day though and nearly £600 pounds raised for the Cystic Fibrosis foundation

Spent a very pleasant afternoon yesterday in the company of LJ at his gaff. Little bit of rain, but not enough to stop us for long.

Watched him try unsuccessfully to remove a ball legally from a bunker that had just had a load of new sand put in it. His ball was plugged so deep, we nearly couldn't find it!! Actually, even though I am a believer that bunkers should be penal and difficult to get out of, this was so far into the unfair scale, that I feel a little bad not telling him to have a free drop!

Were you tempted to chuck him a hamlet and start playing your OS?

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:Were you tempted to chuck him a hamlet and start playing your OS?

No!!

Bit disappointing today if I'm honest

It was a team event (Texas Scramble, 3 men and a lady) and I've always loved this weekend in the past. A Scramble is a great event to play in and lots of fun and although it sounds like a "fun" comp, this is actually a board comp at our place and taken quite seriously despite the format

In past years I'm sure the draw has only been "semi-random" - i.e. you don't enter as a team, but the draw was at least rigged to the extent there was usually a good spread of handicaps (usually one low, one medium and one higher, then pot luck with the lady in the team)

This year however was completely random draw (I actually played with the competition organizer who swore it was the hardest comp to organize) - and as such, we had a lady playing off 16 but of the 3 men I was actually the low handicap (off 22! We also had a 26 and a 28 on the team).

Handicapping was 1/10th of combined handicap with the lady getting two equalization shots) so we had a total of 94 between us or 9.4 off the gross score

I actually thought that was a generous allocation of shots and thought we had a bit of a shot at it but TBH we just didn't have someone who could hit the ball far enough!

There were so many tee shots where us shorter hitters, even taking the best tee shot, couldn't reach the green in two so we were forever having to get up and down just for a par. We all needed 4 tee shots each and I couldn't hit the ball off the tee to save my life today (though my short game was OK)

In the first three holes we had to take the lady's shot on all of them! (Two of the first three reall favour the lady but even so, we should have got at least one decent drive in between us

At the end of the day we were just killed for length and ended up over par gross which really shouldn't happen in a scramble. The winning team were something like 9-under gross

An interesting side effect was watching the comp organizer collecting cards in afterward. Believe it or not, if competition rules were strictly observed, he could actually have disqualified EVERY single team for a badly filled in scorecare (I don't think there was a single card handed in that had the date on the card). Some cards only even had one name on and/or didn't declare all the handicaps of the players

Great company - the team I played in were all really nice people and we really had fun out there but as a contest, with such high handicappers, it was a non-starter I'm afraid (compare with one of the other teams who had a COMBINED handicap of only 23 - less than two of my team on their own!)

Shame that Davie, scrambles can be great when you balance it out but very non competitive if you allow teams to load up together. Not much fun either if you are struggling to get the ball in play and having to try and get up and down too.

Yes it was a shame Grumps - though as I said the draw was apparently completely random - no one deliberately loaded up a team of "players"

I should have added the two high points of the day. Nailing a drive up the 18th when I'd been driving the ball really badly all day, and picking up a prize for last weekend's pro-shop day comp where I finished tied 2nd

oldshanker wrote:

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:Were you tempted to chuck him a hamlet and start playing your OS?

No!!

I don't smoke GG... But I did at least move it so that the next one was at least playable. Not that I managed to hit the green even then.

It was a nice afternoon though. Always a pleasure to go round with mr Shanker.

Friendly swindle this morning off the yellows. Playing the 16th a 155 yard par 3. Me to play first, I hit a decent shot but a fraction long and it finishes just on the back fringe. Next two players both hit lovely tee shots into the heart of the green.

Last up is Bernie. A single figure handicapper in his day but now 63 years old and playing off 15 after a hip replacement earlier this year. "Come on Bernie", someone calls,"that's three decent shots, let's have a fourth"

Bernie selects his 6 iron and steps on to the tee. With that same easy swing he has always had, he strikes a lovely shot just right of the flag with a touch of draw. One bounce on the green and it dives straight in the cup. His first ever hole in one in all the years he has played, and it was a privilege to be there to share the moment with him.

His son is the professional at the Ridge Golf Club in Kent and Bernie had been down and spent a few days with him last week and received a bit of coaching. "I must remember to thank him", said Bernie as he settled a rather large bar bill, "when I send this invoice to him for repayment"!

Great stuff Blue. Must have been great to see and share that moment.

Played nine holes with the missus this afternoon. Was hitting the ball pretty well and putting pretty good, silly three putt on 5 excepted. Dropped three shots in all so pretty happy with that. The missus hit some good shots too before she got tired.

Playing again tomorrow morning so hopefully the good form continues.

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:
Played nine holes with the missus this afternoon.

Is that what you call it? Show off!

I'm lucky if I get one hole these days...

If that's true Ray, then it's not a very good start to married life!

Walked into work this morning with a big satisfied smile on my face. I played 9-holes last night and probably had the best golf of my life. The new swing seems to be soild at the moment, and felt very confident with every shot. I played to my handicap last Saturday, and knew I should have scored much better if putts had dropped. Last night I missed the first fairway which caused me to bogey, but the other 8-holes I was on in regulation and going for birdie. No I didn't drop a single putt, but tapped in for par on each. 37 on the card and feeling great walking off and would have been a massive 26 points.

Easy game this golf isn't it now waiting for the embarrasing collapse next time out

Great stuff Doc but, you've just tempted the golfing gods. Be prepared for the next round....

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:Great stuff Doc but, you've just tempted the golfing gods. Be prepared for the next round....

Well last night I squeezed in another 9-holes and I started off exactly where I finished by carding 3 straight pars, which made 11 on the bounce. The 4th was also a nailed on par as I hit the green in regulation, but had a soft bounce leaving me some 35 feet from the hole. I managed to 4-putt for a double bogey. The 5th was parred and a scuffed hybrid on the 6th meant a bogey, and then followed up with 2 more pars and a 3-putt bogey.

It seems i may have turned the corner, because I was confident on every shot and the garbage 4-putt and 3-putt I had never bothered me. I'll start to worry about that if I can carry on playing like this, because I'll then be moaning about not getting birdies. So for 18-holes spread over 2 sessions, I managed to card a 77 which is 13-strokes under my handicap. 14 pars, 3 bogeys and a double bogey and a very healthy 49-ponts.

Kin hell I'm a happy bunny at the moment, and suspect the difference between how I feel and a Cat1 player would feel with my card, is they would probably be gutted at not getting one birdie from all those chances.

Playing over in Yorkshire this weekend and hoping I can carry on

13 under handicap?!! well done, perhaps your handicap may not be all that accurate! I've a friend who started this season off 24, but who regularly shoots in the high 40's stableford on his 2nd course. trouble is - he never puts a card in there and struggles a bit more at our shared home course. he's been cut to 20 this season - but frankly would be dangerous and capable of going under a 16 handicap - which is just ridiculous when you consider he basically had about 8 shots to play with at the start of the year.

scarpa wrote:13 under handicap?!! well done, perhaps your handicap may not be all that accurate! I've a friend who started this season off 24, but who regularly shoots in the high 40's stableford on his 2nd course. trouble is - he never puts a card in there and struggles a bit more at our shared home course. he's been cut to 20 this season - but frankly would be dangerous and capable of going under a 16 handicap - which is just ridiculous when you consider he basically had about 8 shots to play with at the start of the year.

Scarpa I realise that my h/c is wrong, but can do little about it at my club, due to the championship tees we play off. I've moaned about it on here a few times before, but many just say it makes no difference, well I can say that it does. I only play 3 QC's each season because I'm sick of going backwards. I can play out of my skin and I just stay in the buffer zone, and only managed that 3 times. I joined this club in 2005, and was playing off 16.1, I now play of 17.7. We have a difference of over 600 yards between the blue's and the yellow tees (We used to play off the whites, but they decided to bypass these and go out to the blues)

The 2nd has a difference of 70 yards, which means that I need a 3 wood to reach the green with my approach, but impossible to make a 3 wood stick as its not deep enough. So I have to lay up and play it as a par 5. The 6th is really tough par 4 which is all uphill and ito the wind, but the tee is set 55 yards further back and need to carry a lake which is 200 yards off this tee. So another hole where I have to play it as a par 5. The SI 1 hole tees off in another county (literally) and a par on here from the yellow tees is a result at the best of times, so I'm already 3 strokes down before I tee off.

I can usually play to my handicap wherever I go, and can rip my own course up from the yellows or white tees. Shorter hitters are punished at our place and I can get it out to 250/60 yards with roll-out. I've made a huge effort this year and put in plenty of practice time, and re-engineering my swing and grip with my pro. Its now paying off, but not in medals here. I'll need to go elsewhere i think, but I like the course .. I have one more QC to get in and keep my h/c current, so we'll see how that goes.

why don't you enter a few open competitions doc - good way to play other courses cheaply and perhaps do some damage to your handicap.

First round of our club championships today on the easier of the two courses at my club, second round on the longer course tomorrow. Started well, birdied 1st and 4th to go to -2, but doubled 6 and 11 after missing the fairway off the tee. Finished with a 77 which leaves me 3rd at the halfway stage.

Leading is a +1 handicapper on 73, 2nd is a 3 handicapper on 74. No chance of catching the +1 guy and the 3 handicapper is a much better player than me, so hoping to do enough in the morning to hang on to 3rd place.

Good start Blue. Just keep it in play tomorrow and let the other guys press and bollox it up.

Had a funny sort of round today, didn't think I was playing that well and missed some short putts that I should have holed. Added it up to 82 which ain't bad round our course. Low light was 4 putt on the 15th for triple but finished 18 with a nice birdie.

Playing nine holes tomorrow with the missus, sorry Ray, could be a bit tired in the afternoon

Bit of a sorry tale for me today. Big Stableford comp and the conditions couldn't have been better apart from a bit of a breeze getting up as we reached the more exposed back nine - but really nothing to complain about too much. The course was in fantastic condition and there really should have been no excuse - hard running fairways but still enough grass to give a nice lush lie - greens now back to excellent condition after summer maintenance a month ago - but just couldn't do it justice

Front 9 was acceptable with 16 points (and i usually play the back 9 much better) and after 14 holes I was comfortably inside my buffer zone without ever really challenging, but all was going nicely for an "ok" day. Then on 15 I found fairway bunker, got out OK and had a simple pitch to the green - but just caught an ugly greenside bunker that ended up totally embedded right under the lip of a deep face. Took all my strength to blast it out sideways but didn't get up and down so scored my first "blob" of the day. Then after a fairly decent drive on 16 managed to play the rest of the hole like a complete beginner - semi-shank 2nd under a bush - only had a chip out sideways which I managed to blade into a ditch. Drop 4 and 5th into a greenside bunker which I thinned out to the back of the green. 2nd "blob" and when I hit my tee shot on par 3 17 into an area that I know from experience isn't nice but usually playable I didn't bother hitting a provisional. Couldn't find the ball so 3 "blobs" in a row. Scraped a point up the last for 1 pt on the last 4 holes and a total blowout

Only myself to blame though - I didn't play well enough to get anywhere near contention but the last 4 holes left me firmly at the foot of the leaderboard. Strange thing was I played with a guy off 9 who seemed to do EVERYTHING right - didn't get many breaks but seemed to play really nicely (better than a 9 h/c in my opinion) yet he somehow managed to contrive a total only the same as me! I suppose I should take some heart from that

I rolled up today for a game (been at least six months since i pkayed at the weekend) to find it was captains day. With a late entry open on the shotgun i ended up on the newly extended si 7 par 3 3rd hole looking up at upturned saucer some 220 yards away. One swipe witha five iron and ablock into the drink later i score a souble to start.

I then shot 6 over in total which i was pretty pleased with considering i've been away for a while.

Very happy with my ball striking and particularly the driver and putter.

I might go back for more at that rate.

Fairly steady in the second round of the club champs this morning...5 over with 4 to play, managed to drop another 5 to finish with a very ordinary 82. Good enough to just hang on to 3rd place, so I'm not too unhappy

Nae worries blue. The club champs are hard for the 80s shooter.

You're right LJ...standards aren't what they used to be

Oh well Blue, never mind. People will have forgotten how you hacked it up in a couple of weeks

How come my 82 is classed as 'hacking it up' and yours yesterday was 'ain't bad round our course'?

At least mine didn't include any 4 putts!