MINUTES OF THE LAST HOORAH GOLF SOCIETY
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DATE: 13 FEBRUARY 2007
TOUR EVENT: #1 of 2007
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Hindhead Visited - at last!
Attendees:
The Eagle of Dale Hill, E1,RJ 06 and BOTM (Jan)
The Eagle of Ashdown Forest, E2, Asbo
The Eagle of Pyecombe, the thong with a song
The Eagle of Kingsbarns, RJ 05, Go4
The Dragonslayer of Royal St Georges, aka Valise le
bagman
“With a fine view and an open course in front of him,
the golfer should have no difficulty in dismissing all worries from his mind
and regarding golf, even if it be very indifferent, as the true and adequate
end to a man’s existence.”
Rt. Hon. Arthur Balfour
You can tell that Balfour was as smitten by the game
as we Hoorahvians and to a man we all agree with him as fair Hindhead hove into
view. After a snow-delayed start to the season which saw the writer pick up the
Pink Beret, the morning got off to a strange start at the Aspey household when
the jolly bagman and Go4 turned up all broad smiles and schoolboy giggles only
to be blanked by Mrs A on the doorstep; the boys were so excited they forgot my
e-mail telling them of revised staring times. Ah, boys, boys boys…but such has
been our feverish anticipation of the season’s start. They can be forgiven
these foolish things but NOT teeing
it up at the aptly named “Osier’s Farm” Petworth pitch’n’putt ! Some
people…still it certainly helped them to a bright start particularly Bagman who
striped his drive down the first to an impressive murmur of appreciation from
some useful looking juniors (must be the patented anti-fade aspey big bertha
methinks.)
It was decided that Red Jackets past and present
should pair off and bring up the rear. It was a tad annoying that after
enjoying a leisurely and huge breakfast that we were then given the “hurry-up”
from the pro who had some junior comp. to get out. The Go4 unsheathed his cobra
on the 1st and spanked it down the middle whilst RJ 06 topped his 3 wood into
the nearest clump of heather ARGGGH! The juniors were less than impressed.
Unfortunately, Go4 overdid his approach and failed to scramble a par. That
indiscretion apart he helped himself to an awesome 21 pts on the front 9
including a birdie on the 4th, (a near eagle) and nearly aceing the 3rd with a
wee low one; even on the archetypal parkland course and no wind the Linksman
cannae stop his natural game.
Meanwhile in the vanguard group, Prince charming was
continuing his spell of good form from Rye and was burning up a far from soggy
Hindhead. When the modest, camera shy Snakecharmer was asked about his round
later he replied, “ I was brilliant!” Ah well, class will out, they say. It
looked like Asbo was on top form smashing monster drives (one on the 17th
nearly made the green) thrashing out of an unplayable lie under the trees on
11th to make a remarkable par and a “Jewel in the crown” flop shot on the 16th
from a hard bony lie to save par mysteriously provoking nothing more than muted
praise from the ever-present juniors (damn these callow youths).
Before on the short 14th, Hoorah history was made by
all 3 players making birdie and what a long, lusty shout of Hoorah there was
heard echoing amongst those high Scot’s pines. Some of the juniors were clearly
shaken by this stag-like rutting call as the red jackets saw them visibly
blanche.
Other notable events included the jolly bagman on the
long 8th getting to the top of his backswing only for the groundsmen on the
previous hole to crank up their digger. Parmigiano! ( or hard cheese for the
uninitiated ).
And so it was with the Thong whose boyish smile turned
into a grimace over those last long uphill holes. As the Bagman said “he may
look like a mountain goat with those enormous clubs to carry but he lacks the
goat’s stamina.”
With the evening sun slipping quickly behind those
pines it was time to adjourn to the clubhouse pausing to look back at the
course both beautiful and benign especially those valley fairways which
shepherd the wayward drive down onto the cut stuff.
As for the writer, well it was another mysterious case
for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to solve entitled “The Curse of the Organiser”.
Worse was to come as the hapless Doctor attempted to impress the Hoorahvians by
taking them to his favourite pub ever namely the Lickfold Arms but it was shut!
Drat drat and double drat. When it’s not your day, it’s simply not your day.
Still we had a pleasant enough beer at the Selsey Arms even turfing out a regular
from his fireside chair, followed by a gi-normous curry at the Cowfold Cottage
Tandoori where our eyes were certainly bigger than our collective bellies.
Despite a valiant effort by Go4, his 16 pts on the
back 9 were not good enough to take the first win of the season from the
Snake-charmer, E1, Asbo, and thrice winner of the opening seasonal foray (Nick,
this is getting predictable!). With a gross 78, 8 over par, and a staggering 46
pts, congratulations – let the axeman take an overdue chop at your handicap.
All Hail, he who humbled Hindhead HOORAH !!
Over to you, GO4 aka Stato.
Hindhead – 13 February 2007
|
|
HO |
PB |
DA |
NM |
PE |
|
Front Nine
(stableford) |
21 |
16 |
16 |
21 |
16 |
|
Back Nine
(stableford) |
16 |
22 |
16 |
25 |
14 |
|
Overall
(stableford) |
37 |
38 |
32 |
46 |
30 |
|
Gross score (par
70) |
81 |
84 |
86 |
78 |
87 |
|
Meddle score |
+11 |
+14 |
+16 |
+8 |
+17 |
|
Gross score on
par 3’s (3) |
+2 |
+5 |
+6 |
+4 |
+4 |
|
Eagles !!! |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Birdies |
2 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
|
FIR (13) |
7 |
6 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
|
GIR |
7 |
4 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
|
Putts |
32 |
30 |
36 |
33 |
34 |
The winners for
the meeting were therefore as follows:
|
Front Nine |
HO |
21
pts |
|
Back Nine |
NM |
25
pts |
|
Overall |
NM |
46
pts |
|
Par 3’s |
HO |
+2 |
|
Eagles |
- |
|
|
Birdies |
HO/PB/NM/PE |
2/1/2/1 |
|
Putts |
PB |
30 |
The event winnings were as follows:
HO £12
PB £6
DA £0
NM £12
PE £1
Player
|
Exact H/C
before
event |
Meddle
Score Today
|
Adj To H/C
|
New Exact H/C
|
New Playing H/C
|
HOOM Before Game
|
HOOM Points Today
|
HOOM
After Game
|
|
HO |
11.7 |
+11 |
- 0.2 |
11.5 |
12 |
- |
3 |
3 |
|
PB |
16.2 |
+14 |
- 0.6 |
15.6 |
16 |
- |
4 |
4 |
|
DA |
11.3 |
+16 |
+1.0 |
12.3 |
12 |
- |
2 |
2 |
|
NM |
17.7 |
+8 |
-3.0 |
14.7 |
15 |
- |
5 |
5 |
|
PE |
11.0 |
+17 |
+1.4 |
12.2 |
12 |
- |
1 |
1 |