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19/03/09 |
 
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The 'TOGS' /
'TOGS' & Chat /
The 'WAGS'
I thought this may be of interest to my fellow
golfers The average distance (yards) a male golfer can hit an iron compared to Tiger Woods (based on tour stats) and not forgetting the ladies.
Wednesday 29th December With only six of us playing today we split into two three balls, once Vic had arrived. He played with Eddy Stothert and Duncan McCree ahead of Archbold, Potts and yours truly. There was not a cigarette paper between 5 of us but Eddy must have played good golf as he returned an excellent score of 41 points. This was10 points ahead of the field. Make that adjective above outstanding! Eddy is waggled 2 shots for his score of 40+ and 1 shot for the win. He is now off 8. Fortunately for Tynemouth Golf Club (TGC) there was a visiting party playing. Unfortunately they were playing ahead of us. To take four hours and 5 minutes for a round of golf in the winter is ridiculous and should be unacceptable. I realise that TGC needs income and visiting parties are obviously welcome but if they are going to take that amount of time to play golf someone from the club should meet and greet them on arrival with a few do's and don'ts
Happy New Year everyone We are meeting at 9.15am prompt on Monday 3rd Jan for a 9.30am start. Monday 27th December Today was much warmer than yesterday, warmer of course being a relative term, and I enjoyed my round of golf. I had the pleasure of playing in the company of two ex detectives of note, namely Archbold and Potts. We had a little chat about last night's TV as we went round and the Sherlock Holmes episode 'The Silk Stocking' was part of our brief. Being an engineer by trade I watched it from a lay point of view, however my two golfing partners were analysing it with a professional pride. Neither had come across a policemen in their time in blue who could have solved this case as Holmes had done. Anyway back to the golf, Mike and I were delighted to relieve Archy of some of his stash as a result of his inability (today) to hole a putt from three feet on at least three occasions.
Boxing Day - 26th December I entered and played (in a fashion) and lost my ball on t last hole and had to put in a non return. This saved the abacus having to be wheeled out to count my score. I played with Archie against Duncan and Le French homme and we came back from three down to win by three, including two birdies. Ho! Ho! Ho! It was a bitter cold day and showers of rain making it the worst golfing day of the winter so far. We stuck it till the end...just, thanks chaps. As a matter of interest I used my driver, 6 iron, pitching wedge and putter. It's an interesting way to play golf and on another day it would have been very pleasant. Still, we all got to wear our new golf tops, gloves and pom pom hats, thanks girls! Wednesday 22nd December The 'WAGS' are assembling at 11.15am prompt for an 11.30 start - we did, and were joined by Mike Potts who officially became a member of the 'WAGS' at the end of the round. Mike won with a relatively low score of 31 points, but as he started at 6 shots below his club handicap and hole #7 was closed, it is in fact an excellent score. In my three ball was the inevitable Duncan McCree and Pottsy. We had a very amicable game with no disputes or arguments on any subject. This apparently was not the case in the fourball of Vic Hillier, Dave Archbold, Brian Liddle and Le French person playing behind us. I learn from a source who shall remain nameless that there were words exchanged as to what is and what is not a 'gimme'. One player was forced to putt from about three feet (uphill) and missed, while another was given a putt from a similar distance (downhill) and obviously secured a point or two. When playing in a group of four players I think at least two of the opponents should agree the 'gimme'. It is no good one player arbitrarily handing out freebies when it is not reciprocated on other holes. Howzat for a judgement? Next Wednesday we have agreed to meet at 10.45am for an 11am start. If you turn up last at 10.55am I reckon you should have no problem going off last! Saturday 18th December To say that my game is inconsistent is rather like saying 'The Pope is a catholic'. After my woeful effort last time out, I played my best game of the winter to win round 12 of the 'TOGS' season with 35 points. I was looking everywhere for Duncan McCree thinking there must have been a mistake, but it turned out that my partners today were Daz Ridley, Willy Smith and the cultured Caledonian David Bavaird. Daz and I managed to extricate money from the Scot and Oor Willie as we triumphed on front nine, back nine and the match. Thursday 16th December As they used to say on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In (remember ?) 'The flying fickle finger of form', well nearly, hit me today. Following yesterday's fine display I was back to being nigh on next to hopeless. Fortunately my partner, Archy was in good nick and we were just keeping ahead of Raff and Le French person to the turn. I won the 11th and 12th and we went on to win comfortably at the 16th. In fairness, conditions were difficult. We enjoyed some good banter on our way round. We were being held up by a couple of elderly groups but were not overly fussed by it. Unfortunately I received a little bit of stick from an ex Tottenham Hotspur player for holding him up due to our slow play! Chance would be a fine thing. Next time I will. Wednesday 15th December A sticky bun and cup of tea always taste nicer when they are the product of an (in my case anyway) overdue victory. In winning for the first time in any game this winter, I bagged three birdies and played quite well. One sticky bun doesn't make a winter but it goes a long way towards it. It was nice to welcome back our much travelled mate Archy and his humour on the course has been sadly missed (I think!). For those of you who were wondering - yes he did bring me some socks back from the USA. Vic Hillier, who birdied the 18th today, is the first player to complete 5 rounds and has posted a leading score of 174. His lowest score being 29, we can expect him to go higher yet. The chase is on! Monday 12th December Different day and a different set of golfers but the result was the same. It seems it is just a matter of how much I lose by and who I buy the sticky bin for at the moment. My partner Brian Liddle and I lost on the last hole to Colin Stevenson (24 hcp) and Ken Oliver (26 hcp) by 2 holes. The round took 4 hours to play due to a bunch of plodders up ahead who showed no courtesy at all by way of inviting us through. It is just not good enough. There were 14 players at one point on or waiting to play the 8th hole. Yawn! I could name a couple of the players involved but as it is Christmas will remain silent on this occasion. I will not put up with this situation again if it re-occurs. If you care to click on my 'Topical Talk 10' page there are ways of dealing with these serial offenders. Saturday 11th December The course was devoid of Newcastle United supporters and hen pecked Christmas shoppers, so play flowed at a steady pace. There must be something funny to say about that, but I can't think of a one liner. Possibly, I would prefer the option of shopping than having to suffer 90 minutes of woeful defending from overpaid players who are not as good as they talk. Doug Walker, Le Frenchman and.............. yes you've guessed it, Duncan McCree were my playing partners in week 11 of the 'TOGS'. Without playing quickly we managed to play our game in exactly 3½ hours, and we let a couple of ladies play through being the gents that we are. That's how I like to play golf, no flapping about, no waiting for over fussy fourballs up ahead and searching for wayward balls virtually non existent. Anyway, a fat lot of good it did me as I posted a score of 29 points. My partner was Doug and he did not fare much better, in fact he was worse. Needless to say Duncan and the man whistling the Marsellaise took us to the cleaners and would like to play against us every week. Wednesday 7th December Week 4 of the 'WAGS' winter 'fun' league was the day that Vic Hillier found his form. Vic scored a brilliant 42 points and is therefore 'waggled' from his 13 club handicap down to 10. He automatically loses one shot for winning, but also loses another two shots for being in the 40+ zone. Welcome to the real world Victor! His score was so good that he was 9 points ahead of Le Frenchman who was second and 10 shots in front of yours truly. My game is slowly improving, let's face it it couldn't get any worse! John Raffle had a round that we all have to suffer occasionally and he remained good company, to his credit, throughout the struggle. He scored ( if that is the right word) 20 points. Once he has six score in he will definitely bin that one.
Monday 6th December Six of us played today and Gordon Smith playing off 25 hcp was today's winner. It's hard enough to win when I am playing OK but my game is stuck at between D+ and C- so making it very difficult to accumulate a few pennies. It was a very mild day and playing with Le Hunt and Colin Stevenson I enjoyed my exercise. There is a lot worse things to complain about apart from playing golf badly. Saturday 4th December Duncan McCree and I were separated without the need for anaesthetic and I played in the company of Eddy Stothert and Bill Fletcher. Eddy came second on countback with 35 points. Bill's 32 and my 30 points saw us creep up a couple of places in the league table. Nothing to write about really - but I just did! There was a club fourball competition (3/4 hcp) today and Rosco and Willy made a brave bid to defend the title they won last Christmas, coming in with 42 points. Daz and Le Frenchman scored 40, Alan Higginbottom and Doug Walker 38, Dave Rowntree (is he still here?) and Duncan McCree with 35 left Bill and I plodding along with 34 points to bring up the rear of the 'TOGS' who played. Wednesday 1st December Although unable to attend I am able to give the following account of play thanks to my on course reporter Duncan (can I ask you a few questions madam?) McCree. Duncan is obviously 'on fire' because for the second week in a row he has scored 40 points, despite being 'waggled' to 12 before start of play. He is now playing off a handicap of 9 thanks to his efforts today. A front nine of 21 plus 19 on the back made sure he was the victor. A little birdie also tells me that Vic (spare a penny guv'nor?) Hillier made Duncan hole out from 18 inches at the 15th to secure a 10p birdie. Quite right too Vic! Colin Stevenson prevented Duncan having a clean sweep by halving the back nine with 19 points. If you read this Colin, why don't you join the 'WAGS' as you will easily get the 5 rounds in that are needed? |
This site was last updated 03/19/09
