I have always liked ice hockey. As a kid I used to watch the Stanley Cup games shown on World of Sport and thought they were brilliant. I even thought about learning to play but it took me all my time to get round an ice rink holding onto the rail. I was never going to be a Wayne Gretzky.
Many years later I was working in Finland and was taken to a game. We were in Turku, and the local team, TPS, won the Finnish Championship that year. I have followed them since then. Michelle and I try to get over to Finland every year, mainly to Helsinki in January or February. We try and time it with a home game for Jokerit and go and watch the match. It’s a very quick and exciting sport and is much better watching it live at the stadium than on the telly.
This probably explains why today on the seventh hole I was knocking the ball around the green like an ice hockey puck to finish on 12. This is a par 5 hole and my previous three scores here were 5, 6 and 5. It was a complete disaster; the tee shot was hit well but went off to the right ending up in the rough and on a slope. I hit a wonderful 9 iron shot to the fairway, but my next shot was hit on the heel of my 3 wood so the ball headed off left along the ground for 20 yards and into the rough. I hit it out and over to the other side of the fairway. Shots 5, 6 and 7 made forward progress but that’s all you can say. The eighth shot made it to the back of the green and that’s where my latent ice hockey gene took over.
The round hadn’t started like that; in fact I scored my lowest ever score on the first hole with a 7. Ok the second wasn’t too good but I made a great connection on the tee shot; it just finished close to some trees and I had to try and go round them, with hilarious consequences. The next hole was a 158 yard par 3 and the contrast couldn’t have been more marked. My tee shot finished 6 feet from the hole and I sunk the putt. A birdie, a genuine birdie the first I had ever scored! Unfortunately as the ball fell into the hole with that delicious ‘plock plock’ noise it was followed, un-noticed, by my golf game which decided to stay there and bask in the glory of my achievement. It did miraculously reappear for one hole only before retirement to a bungalow in Eastbourne, on the eighth.
The third was my best hole but it was only a par 3, and so it saw my best tee shot and best putt; there was no approach shot. The eighth saw my best second shot. The hole is over 400 yards long and is a par 4. The tee shot was hit well, over the tree in the middle of the fairway but curved over to the right. It was sat on the first cut of rough but was about 250 yards from the green. It is actually a good place to be as it gives a better approach to the hole. Unfortunately the green was blind, the fairway sloped upwards for some distance and then drops away to the green. Ross checked for me and said that, although the previous group were on the green, it was a long way to the hole and it shouldn’t be a problem. Whilst Ross was wandering off to have a peek at the green I was furiously practicing the shot, managing to get my stance right. Once the all clear was given I played the shot. I used a three wood, which sent the ball high into the air in a straight line towards where I was aiming and it disappeared over the brow of the hill. Ross was dumbstruck! I had never hit a ball as well as that before! Ross lined up his second shot and I went forward to check the green. The chaps in front were just finishing off so I told Ross to wait. As they cleared the green I saw a ball left on there, about 25 feet from the flag. It was mine! I had hit the ball over 250 yards over a hill from a first cut of rough with a three wood. This was nothing short of a miracle. My golf had returned. I then worried that I may have hit them. Catching up later they said it was ok, the ball had rolled across the green to them. Ross put his second just over the back of the green; another almighty hit but this time with a 4 iron. I missed the first putt but sank the second for a par, net eagle. Ross also had a par for the hole. That was the last time I saw my golf today; I reported it missing and put up posters in the clubhouse. We only played the next two holes and I was back to being a mere mortal.
Reflecting on the game in the clubhouse, I took heart from the third and eighth holes and that I only duffed up 2 out of 10 tee shots. I’m improving but as a golfist I’m a passable ice hockey player.
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