Monday 20th April
Ah well – last chance to get my game together before the trip to Alcaidesa next weekend. Made the most of it too. Not. Lost 4&3 to Ads over 9 holes at Boars Head with not a memorable shot in sight. Told him he peaked too early. We’ll see next week. B*ll*cks.
Monday, 6th April
After a week off (conference in Amsterdam) and a bit of pigging out on rich food, it was time to avenge Ads over 9 holes at Boars Head on a bright and sunny Monday morning. Oh dear. What a disaster.
Skip to the chase – I lost 2&1. While I could argue that Ads sinking a 20 footer on the 2nd last was the difference (I won the 9th), the truth of the matter was he played well and I played like a donkey. In fact, the 9th was the only hole I parred all morning and was 3 down after 4. An uphill battle from there. I won #6 and #7 to reduce the deficit – mainly thanks to Ads skimming a 30 yarder on the 7th over the green and into a ditch though, not because I played it well, and then that putt on the 8th. Grrr.
Only 3 weeks to go until we visit Alcaidesa for the long weekend, and the way I’m playing at the moment, “long” will be the operative word.
Well February was a washout. Not in the literal sense so much, more to do with the fact that those I know who play golf are clearly all too scared to play me. Now I’m not sure if that’s because of my golf, or other factors, but the number of “injury” and “stock take” excuses that were forthcoming made me suspicious.
Monday 23rd March, 2009
A black day! Another 9 holes at Boars Head as a “warm up” for the trip to Spain in late April, but this time Ads got the better of me, 2&1. Shocking. Short of a birdie and a par, there was nothing of note all round so arguably I deserved to lose. Ads even played the wrong ball on the 4th hole, which I fully intended to use against him if the match was tight at the end. That was, until I went and played his ball on the 7th! D’oh!
I should have known really – I played the wayward drive without checking which was just plain stupid as 9 times out of 10 it’s Ads who hits it so far out to the left you have to cross at least 2 fairways to reach it. Bu alas I didn’t check and thus my gameplan became flawed.
A nice bit of wind out there today but at least it didn’t rain. Good practice for the Links courses we are playing in Spain but fair to say I didn’t handle it particularly well. Next time Ads…!
Monday 9th March, 2009
But finally, Ads came through and decided he could fit 9 in at Boars Head today (Monday 9th) so we trotted out at 9:40am behind Read the rest of this entry »
2009 – a 100% record, and that despite being drawn in a pairing with Andy “Bad shoulder, not played for 4 months, bad back, 18 handicap, putter” Parsons. OK, so I’ve only played one game, on the Dale Hill old course today, but it was against Bod and Ads (off 11 and 16 respectively) so not going to complain, especially having been 3 down after 8 holes.
Ads had a problem – “something dodgy I ate last night” – yeah right, which ruled him out of the 9th and 10th, and proved the turning point. Read the rest of this entry »
Monday, October 6th: Wow…among the current trend of rain and wind, we actually found a decent sunny day! Went out to play with Ads at Boars Head today, a 9-holer near Crowborough in East Sussex. It’s decent little course, although it attracts a lot of beginners and casual players being cheap (£17 for 18) and easy to get on. Today, we were behind 30 “Seniors” so the first 9 was slow at 2 hours…thankfully they were on the back 9 so the second 9 was much more like it at 1 hr 20 mins.
As for the game, nothing to shout about, but at least it was consistent for a nice change. One double-bogey, 1 birdie and a mix of pars and bogeys the rest of the way lead to a just-below handicap round. Not a great day for Ads though – he didn’t win a hole until the 14th by which time he was 4 down, and despite also winning 15, it ended up 3&1. Pleased with my driving in general – mostly found the fairway, though putting was no better than average. Still…I rubbed in the win with my birdie on the 18th just for good measure 
Monday 20th October: Managed to get 9 in at Kent National this morning. They’ve just sold the clubhouse so it’s a portacabin doing the honours but the course is still in excellent nick. In fact I met the mother of the new owner walking her dog in the grounds on Saturday - she seemed very nice, although presumably with several months of DIY ahead, I don’t envy her! Anyway, they just spiked the greens but done in such a way as you don’t even notice. Played against Ads (so it was never going to be difficult) but for some reason today I just couldn’t get into it.
That said, I played OK – in fact the putting was the best for a long time while the driving was up and down. Cocked up the Par 5 first by hitting a bunker on my my 3rd but recovered from 1 down to go 3 up after 6 before losing the 7th to par and driving into a jungle on the 8th (lost ball). Took the 9th with par to win 2 up. Managed 1 birdie on the S.I.2 5th after pitching a 7 iron from 150 to within 5 feet – probably my shot of the day although another 7 iron from 165yds on the 9th was also pretty decent. Only managed pars on the 2nd, 3rd and 9th though. I offerred him more shots than the 2 he was due before we set off but stupidly he refused 
Just been watching the Ryder Cup – gripping stuff and you have to say the USA fully deserved their win. The only thing that bothers me now is that he press in the UK, being what they are, are going to jump all over Nick Faldo and try to turn public opinion against him. It’s a sad way of life, but that’s how the press operate.
The truth of the matter is, Faldo has never been that popular, so any chance to have a dig at him will no doubt be taken by the armchair journalists quick to see a opportunity to sell a few more rags. We all wondered whether the decision not to take Clarke and Monty might backfire, but IMO the decision was vindicated by Ian Poulter’s superb performance, and Casey wasn’t that bad taking Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday September 2nd: The first entry in my golf diary! I’m keeping this for my own benefit as much as anyone else’s just so I can track how my golf handicap is doing, and as a nice reminder to look back on when my mates start giving me grief over how rubbish I am.
Played golf with Andy P today. He’s off 18, bandit, so I gave him the usual 6 strokes on the Woosnam Course at Dale Hill (Flimwell, Kent, England). A really strange round. It’s been 2 or 3 rounds since I even lost one ball, yet alone 5 as i did today! But conversely, I equalled my all time “birdie best” with 3 of the critters and hit 6 pars on top of that, so in the end, much to Andy’s disgust, I won 1-up. It went down the 18th as we were all-square until I won the 17th, but thankfully the pressure didn’t get to me, and lunch was on him…again
Sunday September 7th: Played against “Bod” over at his course, Kings Hill in West Malling. Nice course all year round because of the excellent drainage. He said it was a “free” round, but the voucher ran out in May so £30 it was to be. Had some lunch first and whatever was in the all-day-breakfast got me off to a fantastic start – 1 under par after 6 holes including 3 birdies. Was 3 up. My main aim after that was to try and get one more birdie to beat my all-time best.
Bod plays off 10 at the moment, so he was giving me 2 strokes. Trouble is, after the first 6 it went a bit haywire – no pars in 5 holes and he parred them all, so I went 2 down. However a nice 12 foot putt at the 14th gave me the elusive 4th birdie, so despite going down 2 and 1, I went home happy. Actually we flew round, teeing off at 1.45 and getting in at 4.30 – very unusual for Kings Hill!
Friday September 19th: First day of the Ryder Cup so arranged to meet Ads at Dale Hill for 9 holes on the Old Course prior to watching the fourballs in the clubhouse. Awful start…duffed off the tee…and found myself 2 down after 3. Thankfully, Ads went a bit tits-up after that and I put in a few pars to win 3&1. We played the 10th on the way back to the clubhouse. “You can’t reach the water off the tee Ads”. Oops. Sorry. No shots worth remembering, apart from Ads’ tee shot on the 5th straight into a tree about 50 yards off the tee, but the chilli pizza in the clubhouse was very memorable and highly recommended (£5.50).