An early August blog

Starter’s Blog (Tales from where the hut used to be)

Yes, it’s August, two thirds of the golfing season done and dusted, not long to wait for wind, rain and all the other weather related stuff we look forward to.  So, what’s been happening?  We’ve had the Club Championships, where Bernard Schoolar won the nett and someone else won the gross;  there is an excellent report from the Club Captain on this website here, so I have no need to duplicate the information.  We also had Charity Day, when I was allowed to use a microphone again (complete with feedback from the speakers and a silly hat).  It was an excellent day, excellent weather and a good turn out as usual and at this point I must thank everyone who kindly hit their tee shots into the Captain’s bunker, thereby increasing the contents of the charity bucket quite considerably.  I actually played in the event, a member of the last team out and our team managed a very creditable second place, pipped at the post by Richard Hone and crew.  Additionally, I managed personally to get two nearest the pins, on the 11th and the 17th.  The first, on the eleventh, was a thing of beauty, soaring majestically from a crisply hit tee shot to finish adjacent to the pin.  The seventeenth, however, was not exactly sort of good, topping my tee shot and turning away in disgust, only to see it trundling up the fairway, limping its way up the hill to topple onto the green and finishing somewhat close to the pin.  Nice.  I won 24 balls for these efforts, but in the interests of fairness, and a share and share alike frame of mind, I shall be depositing these in the rough at various locations around the course in the next few weeks so that everyone may share in my good fortune, so anyone finding a Titleist Truesoft ball can truly feel to have been a part of things.

Unfortunately, no-one won the £5,000 hole in one prize on the sixth, in fact, not too many actually hit the green (I didn’t), and the two seniors, Keith Hepworth and David Costin who monitored the proceedings, will next year be issued with hard hats, but I give thanks for their help  There was also the IAC cup, sponsored by Chris Jukes, which unfortunately suffered from a slight administrative cock-up, which I won’t comment on, but was won by Greg Cawthorne and Craig Churchill with an excellent 46 points.

What’s to look forward to?  Committee Day on the 5th, with refreshments at halfway, prizes galore and a barbie – all for the ridiculously low price of £5, I expect to see a good turnout, weather forecast is good so there should be some excellent scoring opportunities.  So far, I have heard no reports from The Captain’s away weekend, so I can only assume everyone has a hangover, but I’m sure a few tales will make their way onto these pages soon.  Club Pairs on the 11th, another one to watch with interest and the Foursomes Bowl on the 25th.

There appears to be sand making it’s way into the bunkers, which I’m sure the rabbits will enjoy immensely, they seem to have been taking advantage of the good weather and breeding like, well, rabbits.  Fairways are hard and bouncy, but the greens are excellent and receive good reports from visitors and members alike.  Just give us some rain, but overnight, please not during the day.

More to follow………..