2012 sees the start of the Olympic year for Britain, during which I am sure we will all be encouraged to take up a sporting activity. It was therefore both gratifying and surprising to have a great turnout of 11 people vying for the first trophy of the year. Gratifying, as it is good to have more people joining in with this act of fellowship. Surprising, because golf is not an Olympic sport… It was also the weekend that Tiger Woods showed that he is possibly returning to form with a second place in the Abu Dhabi HSBC championship, which was played in slightly warmer conditions that our challenge. Who among the contenders at Darsham would be showing form after a two month layoff?
The first two groups to prepare to leave were; Nick (defending), Gary and John Pettit, followed by Phil, John Rogers and Keith. The second wave comprised of; Kevin, Clive and Richard, followed by Robin and Mick on his first appearance. As has become the norm with larger turnouts, information from the groups that did not contain the correspondent has been difficult to obtain…
It was nice to see that as people were leaving the first tee, most were travelling in the usual directions. Gary was in the trees left, John on the fairway and Nick managing to reach the safety of the trees to the right after his second shot. Keith broke the mode with a drive up the fairway, but not as far as Phil. John was to follow the well-trodden route of trees to the right. He was also to be the first to demonstrate what was possibly the most common shot of the day, with a ricochet off the nearest available tree when trying to get back onto the fairway. As the second group arrived a little late, they were in the queue to tee off at this point and would be playing some way behind.
It was to be a day of mixed fortunes. The ground was very hard due to the cold and the greens were difficult to judge for speed and line, which led to a number of frustrating 3 or 4 putt finishes, which contrasted greatly with the number of medium to long puts made by many of the players.
As the second group made their way around it was emerging that Keith was playing the steadier hand, with the first five holes being made in either 5 or 6 and he was the clear leader of this group as they made the turn at the short 6th. Phil’s tee shot was on line but short, John was short and off to the left, Keith managed to be just short of the green, but in the trees to the right. From there he had a choice of playing out sideways or being adventurous. Phil pitched up over the railway sleepers onto the green which rather put the pressure on to deliver, so adventurous it was.
This involved a little punch shot out of the trees through the narrow gap between the sleepers and the bunker to the right of the green. In theory, a walk in the park, in practice, Keith could not have got his ball to finish closer to the sleepers if he had placed it there by hand. Having taken a penalty drop away from the sleepers what was required now was a gentle chip onto the green, as opposed to a topped shot back into the sleepers, which promptly rebounded further back than where it had started from and dropped into the bunker. Two shots later and Keith made the green, just. John had also suffered with the sleepers on his approach. This was not proving to be a kind hole. Even Phil found it harsh in the end. However, this was more due to the convulsions of laughter racking his body, affecting both his vision and co-ordination. So as the second group approached the final three, it was nip and tuck.
It remained this way until the last. There Phil was suckered by the temporary tee, which being much further forwards, allowed him an easy tee shot, straight into the pond. John had to wait until he took his second shot before he found the water. Keith, whilst trying hard with his second to make it a hat trick of water babies failed and made the green in three. This was to be decisive within this group and Keith emerged as the group winner.
However, hopes of an outright win were soon to be dashed on getting back to the clubhouse. There the Nick, Gary and John had enjoyed mixed fortunes, with John putting in a steady round.  Nick’s had proved to be the opposite and he had equalled his worst ever score. Gary on the other hand had played an absolute blinder and came in with a gross 46, which equalled Keith’s score, after handicap! So it all now depended on the remaining players. As the penultimate group arrived it transpired that most people were going for high scores, with the number of people beating their previous highest score climbing dramatically.
That left the final pair of Robin and Mick out on the course. We are not quite sure what occurred there as they were out rather a while. There were a number of rumours. Mick had brought his electric golf trolley, which had taken 15 minutes to get started (On switches are notoriously hard to find), but then was frequently seen wandering off on its own being chased furiously. There was also some concern that the management had placed a boat by the pond on the 9th so they may have gone fishing, whether for golf balls or fish is anybody’s guess!
So, the congratulations go to Gary, with a solid start for the year.