Today I didn’t really do myself justice in my last 16 match at Montrose. I eventually lost 6&5, but I made it very easy for my opponent. 7 bogeys, 5 pars and 1 birdie is not going to get anywhere against a +2 handicapper, who reached final qualifying for the Open Championship this year, and is a past runner up of the Montrose 5 Day Open. Of the 7 bogeys, 6 were avoidable, I just couldn’t do much right from the very start. Having halved the first, I then hit two poor 5 irons go to 2 down quickly. On the 6th, I was in the middle of the fairway whilst my opponent was in a fairway bunker, and I ended up losing the hole to a par 5. Another missed green, this time from 124 yards, saw me 4 down after 7. So 5 down at the turn, and although I managed a brief ray of sunshine with a birdie at the 10th, 3-putts at 11 and 13 saw the end of the match.
Although disappointed with my performance today, it is by no means the largest defeat handed out this week (there was a 9&7 today), and I’m cheered up by several facts; I would have had to be under par just to be level after 13 holes; I reached my target for the week; and I did better than 179 of the other competitors.
A break from golf is required tomorrow, before I get back into the swing of things with an early morning game at Monifieth on Saturday in preparation for their 18 Hole Open on Sunday.
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Montrose Matchplay Round 1 (Last 32)
The 32 successful souls who negotiated the 36 hole qualifying for the Montrose 5 Day Open made their first forays into the matchplay part of the competition today, including myself who, after a couple of withdrawals, ended up qualifying in 28th position.
I was up against the 5th best qualifier, one of 5 youth players over from Australia on a sponsored tour, all five of whom finished in the top 32. My opponent knocked together rounds of 74 and 70 in the qualifying so I knew what I was up against before we started.
A horrible thin / shank / push / I don’t know what with an 8 iron on the first was not the best nerve settler, but I got back level on the 2nd. I then went one down again on the third, but once again got it back on the par 5 6th, narrowly missing my eagle putt but settling for a birdie to square the game up.
The next 4 were halved, although I had good birdie chances at 8 and 10 that I couldn’t convert, but eventually on 11 I got my nose in front when my opponent had a visit to the gorse. 12 and 13 saw two halves; a good escape for par, followed by another short birdie miss, and on 14 I seized the moment, when another visit to the gorse for my opponent allowed me to play for a safe bogey and move 2 up.
15 is a long par 5, and with the wind turning, was totally out of range in 2 for me today. So I played a drive left to avoid the fairway bunkers, and a 6 iron lay up to leave me 103 yards to the hole. My opponent hit 2 big shots to lie about 5 yards from the green, so instead of playing for the heart of the green I decided I needed to take the flag on, despite it being only a few yards over a bunker. Fortunately, I caught it sweet as a nut and it landed, stopped dead, and left me with a 4 footer for birdie. My opponent got up and down for birdie as expected, and I held my nerve to sink my putt and stay 2 up with 3 to play.
The 16th saw my opponent hit a pull into the thick rough left, and when his recovery went towards the gorse, that was the end of the game and I had made it through to the last 16 with a 3&2 victory.
I am absolutely over the moon with this win, I’m as pleased as I have been with any round this year. It also means that, barring the Strathmore Open where I was joint 2nd, this is the first of my 7 Majors this year where I have hit the target I set myself at the start of the year. Today I had a game plan, stuck to it, and whilst I didn’t play spectacularly (I was 3 over par), I played good matchplay golf, hitting the right shots at the right time.
So I have a last 16 match tomorrow morning and who knows, maybe even a quarter final match in the afternoon, but let’s just take it one round at a time for the moment.
I was up against the 5th best qualifier, one of 5 youth players over from Australia on a sponsored tour, all five of whom finished in the top 32. My opponent knocked together rounds of 74 and 70 in the qualifying so I knew what I was up against before we started.
A horrible thin / shank / push / I don’t know what with an 8 iron on the first was not the best nerve settler, but I got back level on the 2nd. I then went one down again on the third, but once again got it back on the par 5 6th, narrowly missing my eagle putt but settling for a birdie to square the game up.
The next 4 were halved, although I had good birdie chances at 8 and 10 that I couldn’t convert, but eventually on 11 I got my nose in front when my opponent had a visit to the gorse. 12 and 13 saw two halves; a good escape for par, followed by another short birdie miss, and on 14 I seized the moment, when another visit to the gorse for my opponent allowed me to play for a safe bogey and move 2 up.
15 is a long par 5, and with the wind turning, was totally out of range in 2 for me today. So I played a drive left to avoid the fairway bunkers, and a 6 iron lay up to leave me 103 yards to the hole. My opponent hit 2 big shots to lie about 5 yards from the green, so instead of playing for the heart of the green I decided I needed to take the flag on, despite it being only a few yards over a bunker. Fortunately, I caught it sweet as a nut and it landed, stopped dead, and left me with a 4 footer for birdie. My opponent got up and down for birdie as expected, and I held my nerve to sink my putt and stay 2 up with 3 to play.
The 16th saw my opponent hit a pull into the thick rough left, and when his recovery went towards the gorse, that was the end of the game and I had made it through to the last 16 with a 3&2 victory.
I am absolutely over the moon with this win, I’m as pleased as I have been with any round this year. It also means that, barring the Strathmore Open where I was joint 2nd, this is the first of my 7 Majors this year where I have hit the target I set myself at the start of the year. Today I had a game plan, stuck to it, and whilst I didn’t play spectacularly (I was 3 over par), I played good matchplay golf, hitting the right shots at the right time.
So I have a last 16 match tomorrow morning and who knows, maybe even a quarter final match in the afternoon, but let’s just take it one round at a time for the moment.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Montrose Round 2
Another interesting round today, resulting in a 79 to give me a 36 hole total of 157. Starting with a double bogey, having driven into a fairway bunker I thought was out of range, I then had 9 pars in a row, including yet another case of hitting a par 5 in two before 3 putting. I bogied 11, which was fair enough as it was out of range for me, but then proceeded to lose the plot going bogey, double bogey, bogey, bogey. I knew I probably needed 3 pars to finish in order to qualify, so I ended up getting 3 of the scrambliest pars in the last 450 years of golf across Montrose links. The end result is that I have just qualified, albeit in 30th position, and now face one of the top qualifiers in the first round of matchplay tomorrow, who qualified a full 15 shots better than me.
All I can do is give it my best shot, I can break par on that course so just have to hope for a bit of rain and wind and it's anyone's game.
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.
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.
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Hitting Form At The Right Time?
UK Handicap; 3.2-3.4? USGA Handicap; 2.4
I finally managed to put together a couple of half decent rounds on my home course on Friday and Saturday, a 72 on Friday getting me cut back to 3, and a 73 on Saturday cementing that position. Because the results won’t be published until Monday, I can’t tell exactly what my handicap is, as the CSS may come down due to the easier conditions, however I’ll definitely be somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4.
As usual, in those rounds of 72 and 73 there were multiple instances of stupid dropped shots. On both days I hit the par 5 11th hole in 2 shots, and took 3 to get down, there were various other cases of small birdie putts being missed. Take a couple of the daft ones off each round and it makes quite a difference, I’d be somewhere between 2.8 and 3.0 and closer to playing off 2, rather than clinging on to 3 as I currently am.
The greens had been cored and sanded during the week (there was no expenses spared on the sand, it was absolutely everywhere), so they were quite difficult to putt on, and although I put together a couple of decent scores on them, I’m glad that I came up to Scotland again yesterday afternoon to play in competitions this week on uncored greens.
Today I have managed to get a late entry in to the Murrayshall 18 Hole Open. I haven’t played Murrayshall in over 15 years, and can’t remember anything about it, but I know the greenstaff quite well so thought I would give it a go. It is a par 73 course, with 6 par 5s, 7 par 4s, and 5 par 3s, and it has a Standard Scratch Score of 72, with a US Course Rating of 71.8 and a Slope Rating of 131.
I am going to fall into the fatal trap of judging a course by looking at the scorecard, but in terms of scoring, the first 12 look like a good opportunity to get a few under par. In that time there are 4 par 5s, all of which are under 500 yards, 6 par 4s, all of 400 yards or less, and a couple of par 3s under 200 yards. The last 6 look a little more tricky in terms of yardages, but this is all irrelevant as the length is only one aspect of the difficulty of a course. Every course looks easy on a scorecard. My track record on playing courses blind is quite good, so I’ll be looking to keep this up and be around in somewhere around level par, if not better.
Playing today gives me a fairly unique opportunity to play for my handicap on 5 consecutive days, Friday and Saturday at home, Sunday at Murrayshall, and Monday and Tuesday at Montrose. If I don’t qualify for any of the matchplay stages at Montrose then it could even be 7 consecutive days if I play in consolation events on Wednesday and Thursday. I’ve then also got a competition at Monifieth next Sunday as well. These are the times where, one way or another, I need to play myself into a bit of form, as there are few enough chances to get my handicap adjusted, and I’m well behind target for this year, so I need a bit of turbo charged progress over the next week. We shall see if I can put this into action this afternoon in Perthshire.
I finally managed to put together a couple of half decent rounds on my home course on Friday and Saturday, a 72 on Friday getting me cut back to 3, and a 73 on Saturday cementing that position. Because the results won’t be published until Monday, I can’t tell exactly what my handicap is, as the CSS may come down due to the easier conditions, however I’ll definitely be somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4.
As usual, in those rounds of 72 and 73 there were multiple instances of stupid dropped shots. On both days I hit the par 5 11th hole in 2 shots, and took 3 to get down, there were various other cases of small birdie putts being missed. Take a couple of the daft ones off each round and it makes quite a difference, I’d be somewhere between 2.8 and 3.0 and closer to playing off 2, rather than clinging on to 3 as I currently am.
The greens had been cored and sanded during the week (there was no expenses spared on the sand, it was absolutely everywhere), so they were quite difficult to putt on, and although I put together a couple of decent scores on them, I’m glad that I came up to Scotland again yesterday afternoon to play in competitions this week on uncored greens.
Today I have managed to get a late entry in to the Murrayshall 18 Hole Open. I haven’t played Murrayshall in over 15 years, and can’t remember anything about it, but I know the greenstaff quite well so thought I would give it a go. It is a par 73 course, with 6 par 5s, 7 par 4s, and 5 par 3s, and it has a Standard Scratch Score of 72, with a US Course Rating of 71.8 and a Slope Rating of 131.
I am going to fall into the fatal trap of judging a course by looking at the scorecard, but in terms of scoring, the first 12 look like a good opportunity to get a few under par. In that time there are 4 par 5s, all of which are under 500 yards, 6 par 4s, all of 400 yards or less, and a couple of par 3s under 200 yards. The last 6 look a little more tricky in terms of yardages, but this is all irrelevant as the length is only one aspect of the difficulty of a course. Every course looks easy on a scorecard. My track record on playing courses blind is quite good, so I’ll be looking to keep this up and be around in somewhere around level par, if not better.
Playing today gives me a fairly unique opportunity to play for my handicap on 5 consecutive days, Friday and Saturday at home, Sunday at Murrayshall, and Monday and Tuesday at Montrose. If I don’t qualify for any of the matchplay stages at Montrose then it could even be 7 consecutive days if I play in consolation events on Wednesday and Thursday. I’ve then also got a competition at Monifieth next Sunday as well. These are the times where, one way or another, I need to play myself into a bit of form, as there are few enough chances to get my handicap adjusted, and I’m well behind target for this year, so I need a bit of turbo charged progress over the next week. We shall see if I can put this into action this afternoon in Perthshire.
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Consistency & The Anti-Handicap
Back in London for a few days, and my parkland home course is more burnt than any of the links courses I played in Scotland London
I went out tonight and played 18 holes in 2 hours 1 minute, narrowly avoiding thunderstorms and playing through some of the first rain showers in a very long time. All I need now is some snow and I will have completed the entire spectrum of weather during July.
My swing feels like I’m chopping up dead bodies. Okay, maybe a bit of a drastic and macabre simile, but it doesn’t feel like my swing at all. Because I’ve been playing very short courses over the last week, I’ve barely hit a full iron shot in that time. Tonight I actually scored alright, 15 pars, 2 bogeys and a double bogey for a 4 over par 75, with various stupid dropped shots. This is a theme that I’ve touched on before, the only shots I dropped tonight were because of a bad wedge shot and two bad drives. How much longer can I call them silly dropped shots before I have to come to recognise them just as bad shots?
Although it’s yet another 75, I’m actually quite encouraged by it, as I didn’t play anywhere near as well as I can. I have competitions tomorrow and Saturday morning before getting the train back up to Scotland
For all the talk and the theory that has gone into this season, there is absolutely no getting away from the fact that my handicap is higher now than when I started this blog. The goal of being a scratch golfer by the end of September 2011 is slipping away, unless I can turn all of this talk and theory into results, and that means breaking par on a regular basis. I got over the mental block of breaking par last week when I had a 2 under par round, I’m praying and hoping that now I’ve reminded myself how easy it is, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th under par rounds will come a lot easier than the first one did.
Part of the ‘problem’ I’ve had this season is that I’m fairly consistent, not necessarily within a round but in terms of my final score. As mentioned when looking at the UK
The Forfar 36 Hole Open, which was postponed in May, has been rescheduled for this Saturday. The only way I could play in it would be to get the London – Dundee sleeper train on Friday night, but the cost and prospect of 8 hours on a sleeper train before playing 36 holes straight afterwards was enough to make me not go through with it. So I’m going to settle on the 2 rounds on my home course, then hopefully an Open competition somewhere in Perthshire on Sunday, before heading up to Montrose for their 5 Day Open starting on Monday.
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Open All Hours
UK Handicap; 3.6 USGA Handicap; 2.5
Apologies for the lack of updates, the reason for this will become clear later in this post.
As mentioned in my last post, I’ve had time to review the 5 courses I played last weekend, and as they are all given more thorough reviews in the individual posts, I’ll just give a summary here;
Nairn Dunbar 9/10. Fantastic course, fantastic clubhouse, fantastic value for money.
Aboyne 8/10. Course in great condition, interesting to play, could do with cutting back some of the rough though.
Boat of Garten 8/10. Great views, good service in the clubhouse.
Montrose Medal 7/10. True links golf, very difficult, spoiled by the wind a little.
Stonehaven 4/10. Spectacular scenery, but the course needs a bit of attention, and other than a couple of signature holes it was not the most inspiring to play.
Since I returned from my trip, I’ve played 3 times, all on the same course; Monifieth Ashludie. It is a short 5,100 yard course with a par of 68 and an SSS of 65. It is the course I played twice daily when I was around 11 years old and started playing golf properly, and it has changed quite a bit since then. Several hundred trees have been removed, and every green has been remodelled to make it easier. This mainly involves removing, or vastly reducing the depth of, the greenside bunkers, and also flattening the greenside areas. It is still a very enjoyable course to play, good for sharpening up the short game, but the greens are quite a bit slower than I am used to. This is for the reason that it is now aimed at the less able golfer, whereas it’s big brother Monifieth Medal is a much harder test, and is used for Final Open Qualifying when the Open Championship is at Carnoustie.
The first of the 3 times I played this week saw me break par for the first time this season, with a 2 under par 66, including a couple of daft dropped shots. The second time was less successful, with a score of around 74. Tonight I was round in 70 shots, including 4 throwaway shots caused by either 3-putting or missing tiny birdie putts. It’s hard to gauge where my game is at the moment, I think I’m playing alright, but I could do with sharpening up my short game a little bit.
Wednesday to Sunday this week saw me working at the Open Championship at St Andrews. I was working as a fairway mic walker, on different holes each day.
Wednesday was an absolute disaster, the weather was appalling, and I was a bit pensive about the rest of the week having been completely drenched despite having only been out on the course for about half an hour.
Thursday was a good day on 15 and 16. I saw lots of players go through those holes. It was interesting to note that Sandy Lyle was the only player who blatantly looked into a playing partners bag to see what club he was hitting. This is perfectly within the rules, you can’t ask the player directly, but most people, if they do want to know what a playing partner hits, will look subtley. Sandy was extremely blatant about it and it got me thinking about the grey line between the rules and etiquette.
Friday I was on 17 and 18, the 17th was hard work but very interesting, the 18th was good atmosphere but there was nothing to do as the players were driving within 50 yards of the green so there was no fairway mic requirements. In 2 hours I only recorded one shot. I was on 17 when play was suspended which was great as a lot of the players came back to the adjacent Old Course Hotel. I was walking up the path beside the hotel towards the 17th tee, got to the corner of the hotel, and out came Tiger with Steve Williams a few yards behind, and walked straight by me. I also got some really good audio with Louis Oosthuizen and his caddie on 17, I don't know if it was broadcast though. Because of the suspension, I didn’t get home until about 11pm, having left home at 7am.
On Saturday I was on the 3rd and 4th. Both were interesting, the 4th was the best as I was on when all the leading players came through, and as well as getting next to the players I also had to spot quite a few balls and tell the players where their ball was. On the 3rd I also had a chat with Ian Poulter whilst we waited to get to his ball whilst Tom Pernice drove down 16 on his own. I also recorded Colin Montgomerie and a rules official in an interesting conversation when Monty wanted line of sight relief from a tv tower and the rules official said no. Monty was very polite about it, I'm not sure if that bit was broadcast.
Today I was on the 10th for 3 hours, it was fairly straightforward, only notable incident was Bo Van Pelt and Jeff Overton going mental at a Rules Official who I think was trying to put them on the clock (which was ridiculous as they were 1 hole behind, and the group behind them was 2.5 holes behind).
All in all it was a great week, made even better by getting paid for it and getting inside the ropes. Having a BBC pass gets you loads of places that the paying punter, and also the guest passes, can't get.
The bottom line of why I haven’t written any blogs this week is that I have been absolutely shattered each night when arriving home. Although the work itself is normally fairly straightforward, the number of hours involved, and the amount of walking, has left me virtually asleep by the time I get home and sit down for 10 minutes. This is coupled with the fact the mobile phones are not allowed on the course, so I’ve not been able to take any photographs or post whilst I have been at the course.
Normal service should be resumed this week, I travel back London on Monday evening, so aim to practice a couple of evenings this week, before handicap competitions on Friday and Saturday, follwed by another 6 hour train journey back up to Scotland in time for the Montrose 5 Day Open starting the following Monday.
Apologies for the lack of updates, the reason for this will become clear later in this post.
As mentioned in my last post, I’ve had time to review the 5 courses I played last weekend, and as they are all given more thorough reviews in the individual posts, I’ll just give a summary here;
Nairn Dunbar 9/10. Fantastic course, fantastic clubhouse, fantastic value for money.
Aboyne 8/10. Course in great condition, interesting to play, could do with cutting back some of the rough though.
Boat of Garten 8/10. Great views, good service in the clubhouse.
Montrose Medal 7/10. True links golf, very difficult, spoiled by the wind a little.
Stonehaven 4/10. Spectacular scenery, but the course needs a bit of attention, and other than a couple of signature holes it was not the most inspiring to play.
Since I returned from my trip, I’ve played 3 times, all on the same course; Monifieth Ashludie. It is a short 5,100 yard course with a par of 68 and an SSS of 65. It is the course I played twice daily when I was around 11 years old and started playing golf properly, and it has changed quite a bit since then. Several hundred trees have been removed, and every green has been remodelled to make it easier. This mainly involves removing, or vastly reducing the depth of, the greenside bunkers, and also flattening the greenside areas. It is still a very enjoyable course to play, good for sharpening up the short game, but the greens are quite a bit slower than I am used to. This is for the reason that it is now aimed at the less able golfer, whereas it’s big brother Monifieth Medal is a much harder test, and is used for Final Open Qualifying when the Open Championship is at Carnoustie.
The first of the 3 times I played this week saw me break par for the first time this season, with a 2 under par 66, including a couple of daft dropped shots. The second time was less successful, with a score of around 74. Tonight I was round in 70 shots, including 4 throwaway shots caused by either 3-putting or missing tiny birdie putts. It’s hard to gauge where my game is at the moment, I think I’m playing alright, but I could do with sharpening up my short game a little bit.
Wednesday to Sunday this week saw me working at the Open Championship at St Andrews. I was working as a fairway mic walker, on different holes each day.
Wednesday was an absolute disaster, the weather was appalling, and I was a bit pensive about the rest of the week having been completely drenched despite having only been out on the course for about half an hour.
Thursday was a good day on 15 and 16. I saw lots of players go through those holes. It was interesting to note that Sandy Lyle was the only player who blatantly looked into a playing partners bag to see what club he was hitting. This is perfectly within the rules, you can’t ask the player directly, but most people, if they do want to know what a playing partner hits, will look subtley. Sandy was extremely blatant about it and it got me thinking about the grey line between the rules and etiquette.
Friday I was on 17 and 18, the 17th was hard work but very interesting, the 18th was good atmosphere but there was nothing to do as the players were driving within 50 yards of the green so there was no fairway mic requirements. In 2 hours I only recorded one shot. I was on 17 when play was suspended which was great as a lot of the players came back to the adjacent Old Course Hotel. I was walking up the path beside the hotel towards the 17th tee, got to the corner of the hotel, and out came Tiger with Steve Williams a few yards behind, and walked straight by me. I also got some really good audio with Louis Oosthuizen and his caddie on 17, I don't know if it was broadcast though. Because of the suspension, I didn’t get home until about 11pm, having left home at 7am.
On Saturday I was on the 3rd and 4th. Both were interesting, the 4th was the best as I was on when all the leading players came through, and as well as getting next to the players I also had to spot quite a few balls and tell the players where their ball was. On the 3rd I also had a chat with Ian Poulter whilst we waited to get to his ball whilst Tom Pernice drove down 16 on his own. I also recorded Colin Montgomerie and a rules official in an interesting conversation when Monty wanted line of sight relief from a tv tower and the rules official said no. Monty was very polite about it, I'm not sure if that bit was broadcast.
Today I was on the 10th for 3 hours, it was fairly straightforward, only notable incident was Bo Van Pelt and Jeff Overton going mental at a Rules Official who I think was trying to put them on the clock (which was ridiculous as they were 1 hole behind, and the group behind them was 2.5 holes behind).
All in all it was a great week, made even better by getting paid for it and getting inside the ropes. Having a BBC pass gets you loads of places that the paying punter, and also the guest passes, can't get.
The bottom line of why I haven’t written any blogs this week is that I have been absolutely shattered each night when arriving home. Although the work itself is normally fairly straightforward, the number of hours involved, and the amount of walking, has left me virtually asleep by the time I get home and sit down for 10 minutes. This is coupled with the fact the mobile phones are not allowed on the course, so I’ve not been able to take any photographs or post whilst I have been at the course.
Normal service should be resumed this week, I travel back London on Monday evening, so aim to practice a couple of evenings this week, before handicap competitions on Friday and Saturday, follwed by another 6 hour train journey back up to Scotland in time for the Montrose 5 Day Open starting the following Monday.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Roadtrip; Montrose Medal
If Stonehaven was windy, Montrose was like being stuck in a wind tunnel for 4.5 hours. I can't put into words just how windy it was, particularly on the front 9. The course was in good condition, as was to be expected, the greens rolled well, and it was set up to be very difficult.
I started with a par, then frittered 2 shots away on the 2nd. The rest of the front 9 was fairly solid, there were a few dropped shots but in the conditions that was to be expected. To give indication of the strength of the wind, I drove the ball 320 yards on the 4th hole, but drove it 204 yards on the tenth, which was followed by a well struck 3 iron travelling 175 yards. That 3 iron followed a misguided decision to hit a 3 wood, which was pulled left into the gorse, instantly lost. I stood on the 12th tee at 9 over par, with some tough holes into the wind left. I then played the last 7 in one under par, 6 really good pars, and a birdie on the 235 yard par 3 16th (driver to 25 feet and a holed putt, my first 2 of the weekend arriving on the 88th of the 90 holes).
So I carded a 79, and on checking the scores in the clubhouse, was the 12th best of the day, and the only person to break 80 in the last 3 hours, covering 54 players.
I absolutely chucked 4 shots away, so it could have been even better, but I can't really complain with breaking 80 in those conditions, and it was a good practice round for the 5 day open at Montrose in a couple of weeks.
The photo is the view from the 2nd tee, with the North Sea on the right.
So that is the end of the trip, 5 rounds in 3 days, I'm now very tired and even a bit tanned, once the dust has settled I'll maybe review the 5 rounds before I move on to St Andrews next week for the Open Championship.
Roadtrip; Stonehaven
Hmmm, difficult to know what to say about Stonehaven. The wind was much stronger than yesterday, in fact it was blowing a gale. As I had expected, some of the views were absolutely spectacular, the course was a bit of a let down in places though, lots of blind shots, crossing other fairways, and sideslopes.
I just couldn't get into the swing of things on the front 9, out in 9 over 41, but I played a bit better on the back 9 and came back in 1 over 35, which was mostly into the wind. To give an indication of how windy it was, on the 14th and 15th, both par 3s of 169 and 161 yards respectively, I hit two 4 irons, absolutely out of the bolts, onto the green. The last, a 211 yard par 3, was a full blooded, well hit driver, to get just past the hole.
The greens were the smallest we have played on this week, and they hadn't been cut (today, and by looking at some of them maybe yesterday as well) so were very hairy and didn't roll well at all.
All in all, I'm glad I played the course, but I won't be in a rush to go back.
The photos are the view from the first tee, the view from the second tee looking at the town, and the view from the 15th tee looking down the cliffs.
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Roadtrip; Aboyne
Yesterday was the 6 month anniversary since I last drank any alcohol, so to celebrate I went out last night and drank lots of alcohol. 3 hours sleep and a stinking hangover wasn't the best preparation for an 18 hole Open.
First of all, the condition of the course at Aboyne was absolutely fantastic. The greens were in great shape, the fairways lush, and the tees well prepared.
The first 9 holes were fairly straightforward, I had one birdie and one bogey and was out in level par. The second 9 holes are just unbelievably difficult. I was level par on the twelfth tee, a par 3 of 170 yards. My tee shot was about 15ft right of my target, one bounce, disappeared into a bush. I didn't help myself by shanking my provisional ball miles right, and my 2nd provisional found the green. Despite being so close to safety, I could not find my first ball, so I eventually holed out for a 7.
The next 3 were all parred, but the sixteenth was where I waved a white flag are surrundered to Aboyne. One tee shot went right, the provisional went left, both lost and that was that. I actually managed to still get 34 stableford points so my handicap will probably not go up.
As good as the course was, the rough was unbelievably thick. We're talking Carnoustie 1999 thickness. Hit a ball offline and it was likely to be lost. Someone managed to shoot 66 in this competition, which is an unbelievable score considering the difficulty of the second 9 holes.
Another 36 holes planned for tomorrow, so it's an early night tonight to recharge the batteries.
The photo is from the 11th tee looking back down the 10th.
Friday, 9 July 2010
Roadtrip; Nairn Dunbar
Wow, that course was something special. It was manicured really well, the little details like run off areas were perfect, and the greens were absolutely fantastic, both in terms of condition and design. Every hole presented a different challenge, and aesthetically the view from every tee was appealing. Having been dead calm in Boat of Garten, it was blowing a gale in Nairn, just 30 miles up the road. The course off the back tees would be one of the hardest I had played, with it being midweek we played it off the yellow tees, although the SSS is still 72 from the yellows, as opposed to 74 from the backs. There was a bit of a rain shower around the turn, but it remained dry otherwise.
As for the golf, 38 out, 38 back, for a very, very respectable 76. This was at least as good as the 70 from this morning, all things considered.
The clubhouse was a fantastic piece of work too, set up on a hill like a beacon of hope to golfers on the last tee, giving excellent views back down the course from the lounge. In general the whole setup looks as if it is run very professionally.
Tomorrow we'll be playing in an Open competition, so hopefully the little bit of form can continue.
The two photos are the view of the tenth green from the ninth tee, and the view of the 16th, with the town of Nairn in the background.
Roadtrip; Boat of Garten
First of the 5 rounds this weekend was at Boat of Garten. The weather held fair for the first 5 holes, then showers for the next 4, very heavy rain for 7 holes, before easing off on the final 2 holes. The course was in pretty good condition, the greens were quite firm, only to be expected at this time of year, but they putted fairly well. The attached photos are of the view into the 6th green, and also the view from the 17th tee.
As for the golf itself, I dropped a shot on the first hole and another from absolutely nowhere on the 8th. But I came back with birdies on 10 and 13 and parred my way in, missing a few short birdie putts on the way, for a level par 70. Really happy with that, my target is to play all 5 courses in under 360 shots, so I've built a little bit of leeway. Hopefully I can continue in the same vein at Nairn Dunbar this afternoon.
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Roadtrip; The Schedule
Before I go to St Andrews to work at the Open Championship next week, myself and a friend have decided and planned to go on a little trip, playing 5 courses in three days in the north east of Scotland
We finally narrowed it down to five, and fortunately we have managed to plan it so that two of them are having 18 hole Open competitions on the day we are playing them, giving us a couple of chances to reduce our handicap, as well as reducing the amount spent on green fees.
Most readers outside of this corner of Scotland will probably never have heard of any of these courses, but I think they are all absolute gems, you don’t have to play a Carnoustie or St Andrews when in Scotland (as good as they are) in order to play real top quality golf courses. I would happily recommend any of the following five courses to anyone. For those on a budget, this shouldn’t be a problem. We are playing 5 top quality golf courses, with 2 overnight hotel stays, and the total cost is £190 ($280) each (of which the golf is £140 ($206) and the hotels are £50 ($74)).
I will post from my BlackBerry, including some spectacular photos, as we work our way around the country over the weekend.
Setting off on Friday morning from the chequered flag near Dundee , we go up first of all to; (1) Boat of Garten. It is a James Braid designed course, set in amongst silver birches, heather, and with magnificent views of the Cairngorm mountains . It’s a par 70 with an SSS of 69, but don’t let this fool you, anyone playing to their handicap on this course is doing very well. An hour’s drive later we will play (2) Nairn Dunbar. I haven’t played this course before, but it’s reputation precedes it. Looking at pictures of it, it really looks like Carnoustie, with a bit more gorse waiting to catch errant tee shots. Off the back tees it is par 72, with an SSS of 74 indicating how difficult it is. Off the midweek tees it is the same par, but a gentler SSS of 71 and 500 yards shorter.
We stay in (A) Elgin
After a night in (B) Aberdeen North Sea has pounded for several thousand years. On Sunday afternoon we take a step closer to home to play (5) Montrose Medal in the Royal Montrose Bicentenary 18 Hole Open. Not many golf clubs can claim to be 200 years old, but Royal Montrose has reached that milestone this year. It is reputed to be the 9th oldest golf club in the world, whilst the medal course at Montrose is reputed to be the 5th oldest in the world. It is a traditional Scottish east cost links course, which hosts final qualifying when the Open Championship is held at Carnoustie. It is a tricky par 71, with an SSS of 72. This course wasn’t originally in the top 5 we chose, purely because it was out of scope due to being too close to home, not because of the quality of it. However it has fitted nicely into our plans as playing here on Sunday afternoon means that we can get home in time to watch the World Cup Final, and it will also be a practice round for me playing a 5 Day Open competition over the same course in a couple of weeks time.
By Sunday night there will be aching limbs, but it will be worth it to play 90 holes of truly traditional golf, mixing parkland, heathland and links courses, with views changing from mountain ranges to seaside cliffs, all in the space of a weekend.
Monday, 5 July 2010
Double Trouble
Five days without hitting a ball maybe wasn’t the best idea in the middle of the season, but I needed a break from things after the efforts in the second half of June. There is also the small matter of work getting in the way, and with being off for most of July I need to get my work up to date before I go off later this week.
I managed to play 3 times over the weekend just past, with a mixture of success.
A drawn Texas
Sunday involved a stableford competition in the morning, then a Tigers match in the afternoon. The stableford was a combination of some pretty good stuff (3 birdies in four holes, sticking a tee shot on a par 3 to about 1ft just past the hole) and some absolute rubbish (35 yards from the hole in 2 on a par 5, with no hazards between me and the hole, and I lost my ball – I shanked it into the rough and never saw it again).
I got to the last hole somehow needing a par for buffer zone (meaning my handicap wouldn’t go up or down). I could par this hole in my sleep, and in fact my last 11 competition rounds had seen 10 pars and 1 birdie on this hole. As you can probably guess, I contrived to make a complete hash of it on this occasion, hitting a bad tee shot, bad second shot, duffing a chip and missing a 30 foot putt for par.
The Tigers match in the afternoon was a fairly straightforward affair, I won my game 5&4 to finally bring my matchplay record for the year back to a 50% rate (4 wins, 1 tie, 4 losses).
Even in this win, I still managed to have 2 double bogeys, together with another 2 double bogeys in the stableford round in the morning. I sound like a broken record, but I have got to stop having these disaster holes, they are the difference between 34-36 points and 37-39 points in stableford competitions. 19 of my last 21 rounds have contained a double bogey or worse, in total I have had 32 double bogeys or worse in these 21 rounds. A little bit of data manipulation shows that if I could change even as little as every second double bogey down to a bogey over the last 21 rounds, my handicap would be 2.9 and my USGA handicap 2.3. Take them all down to a bogey and my handicap would be 2.5 and my USGA handicap 1.8. I’m aware that this is the equivalent of wishing my life away, I can only affect the future, not the past, but it’s a tangible demonstration of what these disaster holes are costing me.
Yesterday was my last experience of playing my home course for 3 weeks, and to be honest that’s maybe not a bad thing. I got home last night as tired as I have ever been after playing golf, it has been extremely warm for weeks, I cannot recall the last time it rained. I’ll be delighted to play some golf a few hundred miles further north, where it’s a bit cooler, and the rounds aren’t quite as tiring, especially for someone who carries their clubs. I’ll revise that opinion if I end up playing in the torrential rain for the next 3 weeks.
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