Gluttons for Punishment

It was Thursday evening once more, and time for another game of non-golf.

Yes, Ross and I went out for one of our last Thursday evening thrashes. It’s getting dark about 7.30 now, so we had to set off early to get a few holes in. We arrived at the club at 5.40 and did a little practice in the nets and on the putting green and then set out.

The first hole was ok, a reasonable tee shot, followed by a good second leaving me 150 yards to the green. Alas, I hit the ball to the right and finished in the rough at the side of the green; a good chip put me onto the green leaving a 20 foot putt for par. Last time I made par here but it was not to be on this occasion. I three putted for a 7 but a pleasing start never the less. Little did I know that a theme was starting on this hole. 

The tee shoot on the second was straight but short. I completely duffed up the second by hitting it 5 yards! At this point of the hole there is a large gap between 2 clumps of trees. Unfortunately the gap is split by a solitary tree just to the right of centre. I decided to aim for the left hand gap and keep the ball low. The ball indeed kept low, about 2 feet off the ground and pitched at the base of the lone tree on a root shooting straight up in the air, nearly braining a squirrel as it hit a branch and continued in a forward direction for about 30 yards. It took me 3 more shots to green; where I sank a 20 foot putt for a seven.

We had a choice at this point; continue to third hole, go to the seventeenth or play the seventh. We decided to go to the seventh as we wouldn’t get back to the club house if we continued and would be walking back in the dark. 

It took me 5 shots to the green on this long par 5 but 3 putts to finish on 8. A similar story happened on the par 4 eighth and on the par 3 ninth another disastrous 7. We moved onto the tenth but by now the light was fading badly. My tee shot went 60 yards to the left, so I decided to try using a 7 iron and just try and hit the ball to the hole in small stages. It took 3 more shots and I was on the apron of the green. Yet again it took 3 shots to finish, so the round went:  7,7,8,8,7,7. This was at least consistent but, like Sunday, bore no resemblance to golf, unless it is prefixed by word ‘fiasco’. 

It will be too dark to play next week, so we’ll head off for some range practice instead. I think we need it.