So it was the day of my first competition, a monthly medal, and I set off with Pat, one of the ladies I had played with before. My round was a liberal mix of bogeys, doubles and triples but I finished with a respectable 107 for a net score of 73. We hold presentations in the evening after the competition and I was very surprised to hear my name announced as the winner, I also had my handicap reduced to 33, too say I was pleased would be an understatement.
The 2nd competition was a Stableford, this is where points are scored on each hole depending on how you score, it has the advantage over stroke play in that anything over a net bogey scores no points so a disastrous hole doesn’t ruin your card, it also have the advantage of speeding up rounds as you don’t have to finish the hole once you cannot score on it. I played with a lovely lady who sadly is not very good and finds partners hard to get as she does take a long time to play a round and so Stableford is ideal for her. I played very steadily despite a couple of bad holes, I pared two holes and finished with a birdie for 42 points, which I knew was a good score and so I wasn’t surprised when at the presentation it was announced that I had won again, I was very pleased, if not a little embarrassed at winning my first two competitions, I was also pleased to see my handicap reduced again, this time to 29.
The next competition was another medal round, and after a poor first nine, I had 3 pars the 2nd nine and scored under a 100 for the first time with a 99 for a net score of 70. At the presentation that evening I really was embarrassed when I found out that once again I was the winner . Happily the others seemed genuinely pleased for me, as was I when I found out that not only had my handicap been reduced again this time to 26, but due to having 2 good rounds in succession I was also given an extraordinary scoring reduction to drop my even lower to 24. The problem now was to try to play to it.
Following my wins and handicap cuts I was asked to pay in the clubs team of four for a Lancashire ladies qualifying event, my inclusion was also down to the fact that I didn’t mind turning up in East Manchester early in the morning, something that put a lot of members off.
The round was a bit of an eye-opener, it was played at Saddleworth GC near Oldham and the course is on a hillside. Some holes looked short on the scorecard but ended up being up steep hills, Holes that weren’t uphill saw your ball bouncing down the hill when they landed, It was a struggle to play there for the first time and the strong wind didn’t help either. I ended up with a net 82, joint best score of our 4 but not a great round. It was a fascinating course to play though and I would like to play there again.
The following Sunday was the first or the clubs “majors” where the winner gets their name on the honours board. I was hopeful of doing well in light of my earlier wins but I came down to earth with a bang playing badly and finishing with 14 strokes on the last hole after taking 10 to get out of a bunker.
After my early successes in club competitions I started to have more mixed results, finally hearing someone else’s name being announced as the winner was a pleasant change. I did win another medal with a net 71 which saw me reduced to 22.4 (playing handicap 22), but since then my game has gone off a bit.
I find I was getting very inconsistent and my driving and putting particularly suffered here. As a result I had a couple of 0.1 increase so at the time of typing I am up to 22.6 (playing handicap 23)
I am playing at least 4 times a week so getting great value from my membership, although I do wonder whether this is making me a bit stale. But the main this I am enjoying it despite several soaking in this awful weather we have had, including twice at events organised through websites. It is nice to play new courses though.
I have also played in a couple of mixed events at the club, the first one we came were only a couple shots behind the winners but sadly it was my putting that let us down.. I hope I can get myself a regular partner as these events are fun and quite different.
I played in our club’s open and out team came 3rd our team also came 2nd in the clubs day out, so not all has been doom and gloom.
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