On Sunday I went to play at Davyhulme, at part of our "Flat cap order of merit" The afternoon didn't start well as the minute I got into the car to drive to the course, the rain started and didn't really stop for the next 4 hours. I met up with the guys I was playing with and we set off on a pretty deserted course. I have play Davyhulme before and my memories of it were not good as in my mind I remembered it as a bit flat and boring. In fairness my memory was being a little unfair, it is flat but does have some interesting holes, as doglegs, water and trees add to the challenge.
Despite the weather I played pretty well and although I messed up a couple of holes on the back nine I finished with 36 points off full handicap, which was pleasing.
Monday saw a return to Blackley, this time for a Shield match, I got off to a great start and I was 3 up after 3 holes, however a couple of indifferent holes saw us back to all square after 7. I won the next 2, so went to the turn 2up but forgot to claim my shot on the 10th so went back to 1 up but 2 pars over the next few holes saw me 3 up with 4 play and when my partner went into the water on the 15th I won the hole to win the match 4 and 3. Ellesmere also won the match 4-3when we won the last game which went right down to the 18th green. So we have won two and drawn one of the three matches we have played so far.
During the round we had a rules query, the ground was wet in places and when opponents ball finished in an old divot hole, she press the ground near it causing water to rise. She then claimed she could have a free drop as the ball was in casual water. I had to point out that if the water wasn't visible when she took her stance then she was not entitled to a free drop, she did accept my ruling, but it is strange that people do not know some of the basic rules. Things like this tend to happen more frequently then they should, I don't know all the rules myself but I will ask when I am in doubt not just assume.
On Tuesday I managed t o get a practice round in and I hit the ball pretty well, except again with my irons, I have been more and more trying to improvise with long irons and I decided it wasn't the best way. After the round I was chatting to Steve, the guy I have played in mixed events with and he had a look at my swing and made a couple of suggestions. I decided to play a few more holes to try them out and I did see an improvement.
Thursday, and the club completion was a Foursomes qualifier, in Foursomes you take alternate shots and also drive at alternate holes. My partner and I did play some good holes but hade 2 many poor ones, even so we only finished 5 shots behind the winners. On one hole, where I was on the tee, my bad iron play came back, and I hit the ball almost sideways, to add insult to injury, the ball hit my bag, so a 2 shot penalty was added to an already terrible shot.
Finally this week, on Friday I played in a four ball better ball pairs open at Warrington, a course I had not played before, I was playing with a lady from Davyhulme who plays off 16 and although we played reasonably well between us we only managed to score 33 points, the winners having 40. In a 4BBB you only play off 3/4 of your handicap and its the best score of the pair on each hole that counts, unfortunately we seemed to have our bad holes together.
I did enjoy Warrington it is an interesting course which winds around a hill and had some very nice holes on it. The hole pictured at the top of the blog is the 7th where you drive from a elevated tee.
This coming week I have the regional medal final at Eaton on Thursday, fingers crossed I will play as well as when I went for practice a couple of weeks ago. A report next week.
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