The Late Eight - Round 5 + Am-Am

UK Handicap; 3.3 USGA Handicap; 1.9

There was just the one handicap qualifying round this week, but two rounds in total on Saturday, as I was called up to play in an Am-Am on Saturday afternoon. An Am-Am is where 3 players are grouped with a top amateur, there is a team event but the amateurs also play between themselves for separate prizes.

First of all the morning round, and with the course set up for the Am-Am later in the day it meant the tees were just about as far back as they could go, and some of the flags were in particularly difficult positions. When playing 36 holes in one day, it is generally a good idea to wake up more than 35 minutes before the first tee time, however I didn’t do that today so meant that it was a bit of a rushed start, which may explain why I found myself 3 over par after 6 holes.

I managed to steady the ship a bit after that, 4 pars then a birdie, before dumping an approach shot into the water on the 12^th. Not for the first time this season, I took the plunge and played the ball out of the water, making it to just off the back of the green, and then proceeded to waste the recovery by taking three more to get down. So 4 over par after 12 wasn’t exactly a great position, but I managed to par the last 6 holes for a respectable 75, meaning my handicap goes neither go up or down.

For the Am-Am, I was one of the ‘top amateurs’, so knew I needed to perform to justify my selection. It was also a chance to compete against some of the top amateurs in the county, and see where I am in relation to them.

I started quite well by sinking a monstrous putt for birdie on my first hole, and followed it up with 5 pars before an unusually volatile stretch of birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey, bogey to get me back to level par, before 7 pars in a row saw me finish with a 71.

For the second Saturday in a row, my first round of the day counts for my handicap and I don’t get cut, and my second round of the day doesn’t count for my handicap, and I would have been cut if it had. It’s very frustrating, I am showing that I can shoot the scores, I’m just doing it in the wrong competitions as far as my handicap is concerned.

When I got into the clubhouse I was delighted to see that the lowest score was 71, with 4 people including me having shot that number. With there being 4 prizes it was decided to pool the prize money and split it equally, rather than doing a countback of the best last 9, 6, 3 and 1 hole. So I was a joint winner out of the 17 amateurs, and picked up a bit of cash for it too.

This is a great confidence boost, I now know that I can mix it with the real top amateurs. Okay, I had local advantage, and it’s only a one-off, but the bottom line is that I shot the joint lowest score, and shared the prize with people who have won 4 County Championships between them in the last 7 years, as well as beating some really good players by several shots.

Next week is potentially a big week, with competitions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I need to try and retain this good form and make sure I can replicate it when it matters for getting my handicap reduced.