2018 Hart Common Match Report
The fourth outing for 2018 saw the Parrots head to a new course, Hart Common. Having played it the year before, Mike and Jim decided to recommend it for a society day out this year. But with the prolonged spell of dry weather still raging, what condition would the course be in? Well it was very dry, but an extremely pleasant layout, with some long holes and some short risk/reward Par 4’s, meant the feedback from the players that went was generally good.
13 players made it for the morning (two of whom had already squeezed in a quick nine holes on the academy course, having arrived a whole hour early! For the record Frank beat me by one hole in a matchplay contest!)
One of the 13 morning players was a new member to the society , Tom Rowles, who normally plays his golf at Royal Poulton. Poor Tom was to be the subject of rules controversy in his debut! There were some decent scores in the morning and with myself managing 19pts I thought I was in with a shout. However, new boy Tom came in with an excellent 20pts ......... or did he?! The ninth hole at Hart Common has that scourge of all golf rules in force, the dreaded internal out of bounds left off the tee. Tom was unaware of this until lunchtime casual conversation brought it to his attention as he had gone left off the tee and scored 2 pts on the hole. To get the outcome right, a buggy was despatched to ascertain where Tom’s ball had landed, and to his credit, Tom declared that his drive was indeed Out Of Bounds, so you know what’s coming next don’t you?! Mike loves to revel in rules controversy’s favouring me, however, despite his incredulity at the circumstances even though I was an innocent bystander, it seems I had won the morning after all. Bad luck Tom, but welcome to the Parrots!!
Two players joined the group at lunchtime (Mark and Warren) making 15 for the afternoon. Great, thought Franky, only one threeball to worry about getting drawn into. So off set Frank, Tom and Gareth to lead off the afternoon!! The man of the moment, Franky, put in yet another good score with his 34pts, but was beaten for leader in the clubhouse by Gareth with an even better 35pts. Newcomer Tom could not repeat his form of the morning, finishing with just 26pts.
Next out were myself, Simon, Warren and Trevor. Could I continue my scintillating form from the morning? Well, two birdies in the first three holes helped a lot! But depite notching four birdies in the round in total, I returned only a respectable 32 pts, tied with Trevor for last in the group. Matching Gareth on 35pts was Warren , who let a phenomenal round slip. In the middle of his round, Warren had a run of EIGHT three pointers in the space of nine holes, but finished with just five points from the last five holes. That allowed Simon to pip him with a birdie of his own on the 17th hole and finish on 36pts. A new leader.
Mike and Pete Whiteside were ‘out with the washing’ in the third group, with just 26pts apiece, whilst JP scored a respectable 32pts. However, declaring himself shoulder pain free for the first time in a long time was Mark Thomas, and it showed. A magnificent 39pts from Mark saw another change to the leader in the clubhouse. Mark went out very strongly with a front nine of 22 pts and held it together coming in.
But there were more 30+ pointers in the last group. Putting aside poor old Bill, who fell from his lofty perch at Nelson with a bump, Andy Smith also had a respectable 32pts, just being beaten by Jimmy who finished with 33 pts. But there was one better. On another day TJ’s 37pts may well have won, but sadly for him, today it was only good enough for second place (his second of the season). But for two blobs in the last four holes, it could have been very different.
So congratulations to Marky T, who was today’s winner, with the handicap committee having taken the appropriate action!
Talking of handicap changes here they are :–
Mark Thomas 19 to 17
Warren Murphy 22 to 21
Tony Johnson 20 to 18
Simon Gledhill 18 to 17
Tom Rowles 19 to 20
Mike Barnes 11 to 12
The updated leaderboard has already been posted to the website by Phil, with TJ now leading the way.
Next up on the tour is the weekend away at Hawkstone Park, with both rounds counting towards the Championship, for those that are going. The next day out following that will be at Accrington on FRIDAY 22nd June.
Glenn
