Chorley 2019 Match Report
It seems that the old Parrots adage ‘Some societies promise good weather.....(you know the rest)’ is falling a bit flat at the moment, as the forecast for Chorley last Wednesday was not a good one. A blanket rain forecast across the day, again decimated the expected field numbers. However, ten people did turn up, although only eight played in the morning and nine in the afternoon, work that out!
It was raining steadily at tee off time for the morning nine holes, so myself and Mel sat it out, letting the others play as two four-balls. For myself, I had prepared for such an eventuality by bringing a book to read, however Mel hadn’t and so I actually spent the two hours listening to Mel reminisce about old times at British Aerospace! When the lads came back in, they professed that it hadn’t been that bad despite the fact that every time I looked out of the window, it was still raining! However, some decent scores were made, three 14 pointers from Gareth, Tony and Tom, but winning the morning with a good 16pts was Stuart. So well done Stuart for taking the meagre morning prize.
After a hearty lunch (too hearty for some, it later proved!), it was time for the afternoon round. I joined the eight in the morning, making three three-balls, whereas Mel decided it was still too wet to play, and so harpered off home. As it turned out, it really wasn’t that bad in the afternoon, any rain in the air was just that sort of occasional spotty rain, so it turned out very playable in the end.
Anyhow, enough of the weather, what about the golf? Well, lets talk first about Mr Consistency himself, Jim Clayton, and winner last time out. It seems eating the monster burger meal he had at lunchtime took it’s toll on Jim, as he claims his digestive system diverted all his energy from the rest of his body and the resultant lacklustreness (is that a word?) led to an 8pt back nine and 22pts overall. Sadly for Andy, that wasn’t the lowest overall score, as he also took the dubious honour of the shortest drive of the day, managing just six inches! After scoring as many points as Jim's whole round on the first nine, Tom looked to be heading for the win, but a slump on the back led to a total of 34pts, still a very good score, but was it good enough to win?
Nothing doing for the boys in the middle group, TJ, Pete and Bill, had mediocre scores, although I notice Bill finished in style with the only par of the day on the tough Par 3 last.
The final group out were myself, Stuart and Gareth. After a ropey start for all, scoring was good in this group, Gareth managed 31pts, with myself just ahead with 32pts. Which just left Stuart. Now we all know about Stuart’s big booming drives, but today, his boomers were misfiring from time to time, putting him in trouble, but like a Houdini of the golf course, he seemed to be able to extract himself from any trouble, and end up firing an iron with pinpoint accuracy into the greens. No better example of this can be found than on the long downhill 11th, where a wayward drive, led to an iron way left of the green, but one mishit downhill chip later and the ball was in the hole for a birdie!! How can you play against that?!
I’m being a little unfair here, Stuart played very well, especially when in sight of the greens, and managed to amass a magnificent 38pts and therefore pinched the win off Tom who took second place. So well done to Stuart, another inductee to the morning and afternoon winners club!
So, on to handicap changes :-
Stuart Weston 13 to 12
Jim Clayton 6 to 7
Bill Pye 26 to 27
The updated leaderboard has already been posted to the website, and shows a new early leader of Tom Rowles.
Next up is Wigan on THURSDAY 23rd May, where we hope for more convivial weather!
See you there.
Glenn
