A Small White Ball and Several Big Sticks: Tue 9 Apr 2013 Whiting Bay 18 Hilly Holes

With M and A caddy.

This was possibly one of the best days of golf of the tour or possibly ever. My quote was "Its golf Jim but not as we know it".

We called in at the local baker to get a breakfast. For a change there was someone manning the staters box. A very nice lady manning the post and she was ready for a good chat!

There was a group of 4 just before us. They offered to let us go but we wisely declined and said we would follow. This turned out to be a good idea because we were not in a rush and had no idea and also because at least a couple of holes were tricky to navigate. As it happened we never caught up with them and we saw no one behind us. How lucky for us.

We had been warned by a couple of people on the island not to be put off by the first hole. Apparently the locals call it "cardiac hill". So we teed off up the hill. With no warmup I needed a mulligan to get off the tee but managed to get to the green without too much fuss.

The first holes were generally in the up hill direction and I was managing to keep on the fairway and get to the green in good style (for me!). However I had a bit of a problem at the 8th. This required a long tee shot over a ditch then a good 2nd shot across some mountainous scrub land to a wide open area sloping down to the green. For me I went right and lost my first ball then I hit a ball into the top of the mountainous scrub and needed another penalty to get over. This hole would need some practice. I wold try to go more left on my first shot and probably try to lay up before the big dip then attempt to get near the green in 4.

The next hole giving problems was the 12th. This had a tee shot towards a mound that prevented a view of the green which was down a hill. My first shot was right into the heather I took a penalty then hit another right and needed another penalty. When I got over the mound I landed in the trees instead of the ample fairway where it would have rolled towards the hole. Next time I will try to get on the fairway short of the mound, the over the mound onto the large fairway. Should be at the hole a lot quicker.

The last hole was a classic, downhill all the way. This encouraged both of us to go for it and we both needed 2 attempts off the tee to avoid going out of bounds right. The next shot was onto the fairway and the final shot to the green just rolled a long way down the hill to the green.

The course was great fun to play and the views were spectacular. There were several memorable holes. I think it was the 14th where you have to get down a steep hill that falls away to the right. I played to the top of the hill then hit a nice long one to the right of the hole and managed to get on the green.

The 15th was downhill all the way.

The 16th was straight back up the hill but we made the mistake of aiming for the 1st green (which is a bit left of the tee). This would have been good as we both managed to get on the green. We dispatched A to retrieve the balls once we realised the mistake.

The 17th was a nice uphill par 3 where I managed to get on the green in 1.

At the end of the day I won 7 holes and M won 4. We were equal getting to the green but my putting saved the day.

my round M's round

result

After looking at the scores I would say we both did quite well especially if we could avoid the penalties.

Also forgot to mention that M got the only birdy of the tour on the 10th where he hit the fairway then managed to get the ball to stop on the edge of a raised green and 1 put! Yippee!

M had 7 penalties and I had 5. Thats golf!

My total= 26+7=33
M total= 17+4=21
Me +12