Sat 30 Nov 2013 18 Holes at Ferndown Forest

By myself today as A has musical things to do and all my friends were busy.

The weather is amazing. Warm and sunny, the sun is a bit low but no real problem. 18 quid today, a pound a hole. Man in Pro shop said its quiet get out as soon as you can. I rushed to change and got out quick. No one at tee but a 4 ball on the 1st green.

I hit a decent 4i of tee and made a good start. I had to wait for the 4 on the green but I was in no rush as I did not know the course and the weather was amazing for late November.

The golf course is very pleasant. Its flat with some nice challenges but short enough to be fun for me. If I lived closer this would probably become my favourite as it only costs 10.50 per week to play 7 days.

In the end the round was very slow as the 3 ball in front of the 4 ball was very slow. It gave me time to take a few pics and think about golf which is nice.

I played a couple of holes well enough to get a par and I only messed up holes 4 and 18. The 4th was a poor tee shot and the 18th was a pity as I was ready to chip onto the green after 3 good shots. At the point I did my sack swing there was loud laughter from a family eating and drinking at the pub. I know they were not laughing at me (or were they?) but it put me off enough to duff it into the ditch.

My score looks ok (for me) but mainly due to good putting. I have a lot of holes where I am short of the green. My score is here. 

On the 1st Fairway

Nice flat course!

Waiting to hit my ball from behind a tree

Autumn colours!

Ok so I had time to spare!

Easy tiger!

Plenty space to aim at!

Hanging around at the 13th.

Artistic shot from 13th tee. 

Click happy.

I liked those 2 trees.

Looking down the 18th.

Tue 19 Nov 2013 9 Holes at Meon Valley

Another quick dash at lunchtime. This time it seemed a bit calmer. R paid as I had paid last week but forgotten. We had no one in front or behind so we made good progress.

The weather was cold but sunny walking to the first tee was chilly. On the first we had the wind against but my tee was ok just a bit short of the fairway. I was steady to the right of the green and then 3 put. not a great start but not terrible either.

For the first time every I got onto the fairway on the 2nd. I also got over the water to the right of the green on the 3rd (using 4r) so things are improving! (On the 3rd I had taken a preliminary mulligan as I worried that my ball was lost, and hit a pw, then duffed one into the lake. Luckily my first was fine!)

The 6th I got onto the green in 3, nice! On the 7th I hit a decent tee shot to just short of the fairway and then followed the fairway to the hole. At the end of the day I just messed up a bit on the 1st and 9th ending with a 9. Its still my best score here and I beat R for a change. My score is here.

The thing I had forgotten was that with a short back swing and a short stick I need to put some effort in. I can't just expect the ball to go far by its self. Half way round I remembered this and hit some better tee shots that I had done for a few weeks. (Its all about confidence!) This is especially true now that the ground is not dry so my chip and run's don't run very far.

A Sunny Leafy Green

Nice Tree

Wed 13 Nov 2013 9 Quick holes at Meon Valley

It was a lunchtime rush with R.

Weather great, car park full, 18 hole looked packed. Where do all the people come from at Meon Valley?

Set off well with good tee shot and got on green in 3. Then 3 putt because the flag was at the top and I was at the bottom. Hey ho.

On 2nd I have never done a good tee shot yet (this was my 5th attempt). Fail! Hit a tree and rolled back to wrong side of path. Still with a great chip and 1 putt I did a good scramble.

On the 3rd I hit a nice tee shot and it didn't go in the pond, no, it went in the smelly ditch. One lost. (Must remember to take a pw next time).

On the 4th I took my mulligan but played the hole well. On the 5th I played it like a par 4 (its way too long for me).

On the 6th I was in trouble off the tee but recovered ok(ish).  On the 7th I hit a good one but it went right and right is very rough and lost ball number 2. (Must remember to take an iron next time). On the approach to the green we were had 3 lawnmowers to contend with (any excuse).

I played the 8th well. The 9th started with a duff but recovered ok. We had been in a bit of a rush but made good progress until the 9th where a couple popped up from nowhere and struggled to he green. I have lots of sympathy but I felt agitated.. no good for golf.

R won easily but I beat my previous score and there is a better one in there when I iron out a few mistakes. I think this is a tough course.... My score is here.

From the 5th tee (long par 3)

Toadstools or Mushrooms?

Looks like golf balls on tees!

Sacrry!

Attack of the Lawnmowers!

Sun 10 Nov 2013 18 Sunny Holes at Dummer

Only 1 game this week, still better than None!

Meet with M at 11 for 12:24 round. Only 15 quid after 12 and we were told that we might be able to get off early. With sunset at about 16:24 we knew that there was a possibility that it could go dark before the end.

We went for the 14 balls each warmup where M hit a few PW's miles. With plenty time before 12 we hit a few 9i's on the practice hole. No one arrived until just before 12 they (2 ball) set off straight away. At 12 no-one else was there so we set off at 12:01. I think we were both a bit worried that we were taking someone else's slot as we both hit a duff off the tee. We need not have worried as we were on the second before the next group started. We managed to keep up with the 2 ball in front and were never caught by anyone behind. We must be getting a bit better as we would have been left behind and would have been caught!

Anyway perhaps we should always allow a free mulligan from tee number 1? I set off with a terrible score including my first 5 putt for ages. The greens seemed very fast? So M won the first and the second. I had a nice chip in from the rough on the 3rd and my game picked up a bit. I messed up the 7th after getting to the green ok the 4 putting. (Another rare event!). At the end of the front 9 M was 2 up.

I messed the 13th up with a duff off the tee and a 3 putt. I also messed up the 15th up by going well right into a bunch of trees and had to take a penalty although I found the ball.

The bunkers were not very sandy and we play our own particular winter bunker rules (a free drop out where the ball entered the bunker not closer to the hole). I had a couple of these in the last 3 holes.

At the end of the day it was a poor score for me and M just managed to beat me (for the second time in a row) so gets the reward of another handicap point off. My score is here. The handicap is not far off as it went down to the last 3 holes where I could have drawn if I had played a bit better Or M had played worse on the 17th.

If I had avoided the 5 and 4 putt and avoided an off duff I could easily have scored less than 110 which I have done recently with no trouble. Still it was a better score than the week before and still great fun!

On the other hand M played more holes like a proper golfer with more real bogeys than me but also had more bad ones than I did. M's score could easily be a lot less without 5 penalties, several duffs and not too many fairways. (Sorry M!)

The weather was amazing for the time of year and we played without coats until the last hole where we had to wait for the 2 in front as they had caught the group in front of them. It went cold as soon as the sun dropped below the trees. We finished just after 15:30 so no problem with sunset!

On the practice hole

On the tee at #4

On the tee at #4

Into the sun from the tee at #4

The pond at #4 shining in the sun
Photo does not do it justice.

Not sure where these nice trees were 

Looking towards the white house

Blue and red berries together on 13th

Attempt to combine sun with blue and red berries.

The pond on the 16th

The trees on the 16th

Sun 3 Nov 2013 18 Holes at Dummer

A Sunday treat! When I booked I was warned that it might be slow as there was a golf society in front. At the end of the day we had a 2 ball in front and the golf society in front of them.

On the way there the weather was awful but on arrival it cleared up. On the way round we had sunshine so bright we lost a ball. We had rain that was icy cold. We had wind. Overall though it was fine.

Today M brought along 9 mini mars bars so that we could (if we wanted) eat one on every other hole or 1 on each of the last 9 holes etc. In the end this was way to many for either of us! Was this a ploy to defeat me? ;-)

We did our usual 14 balls each as a warmup. Then we were still early so we hit a few 9i on the practice hole. Once the 2 ball had departed the first green we set off slowly as there was no one behind. I set off ok but M won the first hole easily. We caught the 2 ball on the 2nd hole and we waited for them on almost every hole. I would say they were a similar standard to us as they had occasional trouble off the tee, but played some holes like experts. Sadly for me I seemed to follow suit, when one of the 2 in front did a duff so did I. Anyway after 9 I was 1 hole up. I did not play terrible I just kept getting 1 over my planned score and did not get any better than plan.

On the 2nd 9 it was a different story, M played much better than on the front 9 and I played worse. In the end M won easily by 3 holes and beat me on all possible scoring methods (including net score) and the trophy was returned. For me it was my worst score for some time on a familiar course.  My score is here.

I messed up 4 holes (so did M). The 9th starting with a duff off the tee and a 3 putt. The 10th with a duff off the tee then another duff on the way. The 16th where I made good progress and then ended up in the bunker and finally the 18th where I went in the pond (ball unplayable but not lost). So its just golf where the ball lands on the edge or a long way from he flag and a few unnecessary duffs off the tee.

M's score shows that with out the lost balls and penalties and bunkers he would have beaten me by many more! (Although 1 FIR tells a story!).

Some of the problems were caused by the slow pace but at the end of the day when all said and done... its just golf, fun as always!

At the putting green

Looking back to first green 

Waiting on 2nd tee

2nd shot on the 3rd

Looking back at the 5th green

Nice trees on 6th Fairway

Rainbow on 8th tee

Might be the 11th?

Sat 2 Nov 2013 Practice 80+ Balls

This one was a Saturday afternoon practice and it was light so I could tell how far the balls went.

I picked less balls than usual with an idea to do quality not quantity.

There were a few other golfers practicing and I got my usual slot with a good view of the car about 100 yds away. There were 2 lads a couple of bays down and they never stopped talking the whole time. (How can you practice while talking non stop?)

Anyway for me I could see how far my balls were going and to be honest it was disappointing. At night they always look like they go a decent distance.

The guy next to me was whacking 9 irons at least 40 yards longer then my 5w.

Never mind most of my shots were straight.