Murrayshall & Montrose Round 1

UK Handicap; 3.5 USGA Handicap; 2.4

Both the Murrayshall Open on Sunday, and the first qualifying round of the Montrose 5 Day Open on Monday, were similar rounds, in that they could have been something special but ended up being mediocre.

Murrayshall was in very good condition, the greens by all accounts were significantly better than a year ago. The layout of the course is still baffling, several holes have massive, mature trees, right in the middle of the fairway. They are the only thing that helps keep the course protected. The yardages on most holes are way out as well, which is something I’ve not really come across much. The course is not the 6,489 it says on the card, it is actually 6,201, and that is based on the values I have measured in their own course planner. Measuring from the very back of the tee to the very back of the green, and in some cases still adding a few yards on to the total, is not an accurate way of measuring the course. The point should be from a couple of yards forward from the back of the tee, to the absolute middle of the green. If I was Murrayshall, I would remeasure the course, maybe move a couple of tees forward a bit, and make it a difficult par 71 instead of a joke par 73.

As for the golf itself, I horseshoed for birdie on the 1st, 90 degree lipped out on the 2nd for birdie, and 3 putted from 15 feet for par on the 3rd. So instead of being anywhere up to 4 under par after 3 holes, I was level. A few disasters later and I was out in 4 over par. I played a little bit better on the back 9, fittingly I finished with another lip out for birdie on 18th (my 5th of the day), overall I could only scrape to a 6 over par 79. This was a bit disappointing considering I had hit the ball well, but the curse of the daft shot loomed large again.

Monday was the start of the Montrose 5 Day Open, which has a field of about 190 players and involves 36 holes of strokeplay qualifying, before the top 32 go into scratch matchplay over the Wednesday – Friday. There are also handicap matchplay sections, but I’m really aiming for the scratch tournament.

I was standing on the 9th tee at level par, which on face value seems alright, but is tempered by the fact that in the first 8 holes I had missed three putts of 4ft or less. I was hitting everything beautifully, I hadn’t missed a green in those first 8 holes and had stuck several approach shots very close, I just could not sink the putts. This was purely my fault, the greens, and indeed the whole course, are in fantastic condition, and my putting stroke seems to be alright, I’m just having difficulty reading the greens. I’m putting too much break on some putts, and not enough on others.

With the prevailing wind at Montrose, you need to have a few shots to spare standing on the 9th tee, as it gets monumentally more difficult from then on, particularly 9-11 and 16-17. I didn’t help myself by having a shank on 9, and taking 2 shots to get out of a fairway bunker on 11, but I steadied the ship from then on and, apart from missing yet another short birdie putt on 14, played fairly solid stuff. The end result was a 7 over par 78, which if repeated this afternoon should be enough to get me into the scratch matchplay section.

With around 155 of the 190 players having completed their round I was sitting in tied 22nd position, I would expect my position at the end of round 1 to be roughly tied 26th. Like Murrayshall, I’m able to count up the chucked-shots-away-ometer and it comes to 6 for Monday – 4 putts within 4ft, a shank, and a shot that didn’t get out of a bunker. These 6 are the difference between yo-yoing between 3 and 4 for the rest of my days, and actually making progress with my handicap.

I’ll give it another go this afternoon, and hopefully I’ll be able to report my success at getting into knockout matchplay from Wednesday.