Match Report Preston Golf Club 2017
The tenth (already) outing of the Parrot's Golf Society 2017 took place at Preston last Wednesday. After the success of his mountaineering holiday in Lincolnshire last year Glenn had taken his wife off fell-walking in Cambridgeshire or some such place, and consequently you have me as your humble reporter.
14 players made the short trip to Preston, a lovely but demanding golf course, and, as we set off on our morning 9 holes, we were greeted by something almost unique on Parrot's golf days.... drizzle. The lightest rain imaginable was falling, but one of our number was overjoyed. Paul Greenaway. Paul is chairman and chief executive of our main rival golf society...The Thornton Golf Society. Even their motto (some societies try and avoid bad weather, others just deliver it !), is derived from ours, and Paul has been providing his members with heavy rain and high winds for years. He was so pleased that our society members were getting the slighest taste of the weather he can produce for his members so effortlessly.
Anyway, on with the golf. The morning 9 produced a number of 15 pointers with Geoffrey Moyle on 16, and Phil on 17. I'd scored 23 points last year winning by 5, and, despite 3 putting three times (which I don't think I mentioned on the day), I thought I was sitting pretty on 19 points with only one group left to come in. However in that last group was morning specialist T.J., and I think we can guess what happened... Tony produced a 4 point birdie on the 9th to pip me by one point. Excellent golf....a good score on a demanding 9 holes.
By the afternoon normal service had been resumed, and the course was bathed in glorious sunshine. Early pacesetter was Moyley, who started off like a house on fire, and had 17 points going out. Geoffrey, being a former firefighter, knows what you do with a house on fire.....you extinguish the flame, and Geoffrey's flame was well and truly extinguished by the tough uphill finishing holes. He scored one point in the last 4 holes! Myself and Glenn are regular playing partners of Geoffrey, and keep imploring him to buy an electric trolley to avoid these occurences, but, unfortunately, Geoffrey is slightly keener on earning money than he is on spending it.
If Geoffrey's lovely wife, Ronnie, is reading this.....you know what to buy him for Christmas Ronnie!!
To be honest, there isn't much to report about most of the rest of the scores, and despite the fact I tried to make my last report interesting by covering such subjects as Medieval Art, Politics, World war 2, Geography, History and Travel, it turns out no-one read it!!!
Preston is a tough course and probably too tough for most of the old journeymen golfers who inhabit the Parrot's. I think it's the sort of course where the cream floats to the top. Fourth on 28 was old warhorse Jimmy Clayton. Third on 29, and new overall leader, was Frankie Healey. Second, playing off about 7 shots more than in the aforementioned Thornton Golf Society, was Warren Murphy with a commendable 31 points. That only leaves the winner to be announced.....but as we all know it's not just about winning, it's about taking part, and so I would just like to thank the rest of you for turning up.
The 32 points I scored moved me up to fifth in the overall standings, and The Race To Morecambe is hotting up with just 7 points separating the top 6 players, and with the scoring being so poor in general this year that anyone of those or the half dozen players below posting a near handicap score would leap up the table.
We reconvene at Bentham on 16th August. Bentham is generally a good scoring course, so hope to see you all there.
Regards,
Mike
