A Farewell Round

On Wednesday I played my final round of golf as a full member of the club.

Next year I will have social membership only, this means that I will have to pay to play, although it will only be £20.50 per round and I will be able to play anytime I'm available.

We arrived early for a little practice beforehand.Unfortunately whilst we were whacking balls all over the place on the range, in a good imitation of my actual game, many people arrived and started queueing by the first tee. We tried a bit of putting practice and than waited our turn. While we stood by the first tee, a solitary golfist cam along and we invited him to join us. This is a little difficult for me as I get slightly intimidated when playing with people I don't know; it manifested itself as my tee shot only ran 20 yards along the ground. Ignoring this, I took another whack and placed my ball slap bang in the middle of the fairway near the top of the hill. The second shot was pretty good, followed by a couple of duffers but my fifth left the ball a couple of inches from the hole leaving an easy putt for a creditable 1 over par 6. So far so good.

I doubled my score on the second; no, not a total of 12 shots, but 12 shots for the hole! Oh dear intimidation city here we come. The par 3 third is best left unmentioned, but on the fourth I played a blinder. The tee shot went straight and further than I had before on this hole. The green on this hole is off to the right of the fairway down a hill. It is possible for a big hitter to drive the green, but most mortals stick to the fairway. I pitched towards the flag but left the ball just on the fringe, however a further chip put me next to the hole. So my first par of the day.

Normal service resumed on the fifth but the sixth was a good hole, only 2 over on the hardest hole on the course, well according to the SI, actually the twelfth is harder.

The seventh; although well over 500 yards, has been a good hole for me. Not on this day, a 14 was not really going to get me below a sub 100 round. The eighth was not much better but I made par on the ninth, followed by a couple of decentish holes. The twelfth is usually my nemesis and this was no exception. The short par 3 thirteenth was another par.What was going on? My game was going up and down more often than a disreputable lady's under garments!

And so to the fourteenth. The tee shot did a rawhide after bouncing off the ladies' tee box. The second flew long and hard into a staked tree, making a very loud bang as the protective cover took a bashing. The ball was unplayable so, after  free drop, I lined up my third shot. It started low and was just starting rise when about 15 yards into its flight it hit a very very narrow tree trunk slap bang in the middle. The ball rocketed back finishing about 10 yards further back from where it had started. How could I have hit a tree that narrow? I usually can't hit a fairway 80 yards wide! I did get onto the green 2 shots later and 2 putted to finish off.

Two further disaster holes saw me on the seventeenth tee. I decided to use the driver, and bugger me it flew straight and further than I normally achieve on this hole. I managed a very creditable 2 over par 7.

We proceed to the eighteenth, my last hole for 2011, and my last at the club for who knows how long.
I hit a beautiful long tee shot with my driver which flew skywards and again, further than I have hit before on this hole. The only problem was it had landed over the trees on the first fairway! Undaunted, I hit a magnificent shot back over the trees to finish 20 yards short of the green. I was flying, at last. Unfortunately, not for the first time, my short game let me down. I took a further 4 shots to finish 2 over for the hole.

All in all it was a typical round for me shots, mixed with some bloody awful ones. This actually summed up the past year for us, some really good times, mixed with some truly awful ones. If ever golf was a metaphor for life, then my final round of the year was magnificently appropriate!

Today is New Year's Eve, so all that remains is for me to wish a Happy New Year to all of you who take time to read my ramblings. I look forward to blogging again in 2012.

So Happy New Year, and don't lose too many balls!