Round Norfolk Golf Tour summer comp 2018. Round 2 at The Suffolk

Senior Moments Open at The Suffolk

Round Norfolk Golf Tour summer comp 2018 round 2 took place at The Suffolk on Tuesday. Although there was no rain the course was fairly water logged and played very long as shots got little or no run.

After balls in the air groupings were selected Greg went to the first tee to get things underway. However Bob called a halt as he couldn't find his drink. He insisted on returning to his car to fetch it so he didn't die of thirst on the course. After some time Bob eventually returned drinkless. He then insisted he needed to go to the bar to buy a drink (in a single use plastic bottle!, what would Sir David Attenborough say). Greg was about to try to tee off again when Bob's original drink was spotted in the drink bottle holder on his bag, who'd have thought of putting it there. 

Bobs missing water bottle that never leaves his side

Not surprisingly Greg went on to blob the hole and followed up with only 3 points over the next 3. He eventually put the missing drink incident behind him with 3 pars and a birdie before another blob left him on 14 at half way.

Greg tees off on the first on 3rd time of asking

Bobs disrupting tactics were from over for the day as on the first hole Greg left the flag behind the hole (although several feet away). Greg had clearly not played with Bob very often as he would know how upset Bob gets if the flag is anywhere in his eye line. With the flag now 'distracting him' he hit his putt so hard it shot past the hole and clattered into the flag some distance away. Very generously he was let off the penalty to secure a point (although it made no difference to the overall result). He did manage a point on every front 9 hole to end on 15. But this was not the end of Bob's incidents for the day.

Bob showing how wet the course was

Chris, the final member of the group, was struggling to reach the greens in regulation and made only 1 par on the front 9 to end with 11.

Chris teeing off on the first which ended with a blob

Meanwhile in the group behind things started badly as Kevin and Ian failed to reach the river (less than 100 yards away) with their drives, whilst Vince stuffed his drive under a tree. Tracey did hit a couple of good shots down the fairway before carting her next into another tree. At the end of the hole Ian, Vince and Tracey had failed to score and things were not looking good for any high scoring rounds today, but how wrong we were.

Like Chris, Tracey was also struggling with the extra disatnce that the wet conditions had added to the course and also ended the 9 on 11.

Tracey tees off on the par 3 2nd

Despite his enormous handicap of 27 (thats 3 times as big as Gregs!!) Vince was also bemused by the conditions hitting his special trick shot (that goes higher in the air than forward) on several occasions. Back to back pars on 6 and 7 accounted for nearly half his 13 front 9 points.

Vince under a tree on the first

His back 9 followed a similar pattern as he finish on 27 pts and out the prizes

Vince putting with the flag nicely out of his eyeline

Kevin was having a solid front 9 but again his putter was not his friend as 3 front 9 3 putts restricted him to 17 pts.

Thanks to his Neon Orange Ball Kevin was able to find it in the nettles

Ian had also started poorly and had just 3 points after 3 holes. But then, as if by magic, everything changed as he played solidly tee to green before sinking every putt to record 6 pars in a row and the half way lead on 19.

Ian's game started to improve after his second shot on the 3rd hole

Bob's tomfoolery was far from over as he searched for his drive on the 11th. Eventually Bob rules were instigated and he was allowed to drop for a penalty. However if he dropped it where he was about to he would have hit a 270 yard drive. Quite correctly he was sent back 100 yards for another go. This time he sent his ball straight down the fairway and crashing into Greg's bag 150 yards from him. (Note this is the short version of the story, Bob insisted on recounting the long version in the bar afterwards, I strongly advise against asking him about it). He completed the back 9 with another 13 pts but his total of 28 was well out the prizes.

Photo taken from where Bob was going to drop his lost drive ball.
In the background you can just see where Gregs findable drive had ended.

Chris's back 9 was much like her front struggling to score well and finishing on 21 pts.

Chris making a putt for rare points

Greg was now getting into the swing of things scoring very well and lifting his total to 31 and leader in the club house.

Now in the zone Greg marches purposefully onto the 17th green

Kevin needed some good scrambling on the back 9 as he lost two balls in the water but managed to rescue a point each time. It was not only his balls he lost as when he reached for his trusty pitching wedge on the 14th he realised he had left it by the side of the 11th green. Due to a current achilles injury Tracey kindly 'volunteered' to run back and get it for him. Which she did at a lightning pace. As he stood on the 18th tee Kevin just needed a point to take second place but his first drive was OOB on the right and second one in the river on the left so he also ended on 31 points for a second place tie.

Kevin tees off on 12th not realising he had left his wedge on the green behind

Tracey's little jog had obviously done her some good as she went on to par the hardest hole on the course which was a 400 yard par 4 for the ladies. Unfortunately this was her only scoring highlight as she also finished on 21 points and a share of last place with Chris.

Tracey plays her next shot after losing her ball in the pond behind

Ian's rich vein of form continued on the back 9 and another 4 pars left him on 38 points, which also equalled the RNSG course record, and a clear winner on the day.

Ian making progress down the very soggy 11th

Due to discussions about Bob's flag incident and the slowness of the round then Golf Dinosaur monster decided that the RNSG summer tour would be introducing the new 'putting with the flag in' rule a bit earlier than the rest of golf and it would be allowed for the rest of this years tour.

Hopefully the Valley course at Barnham Broom will have dried out abit in time for RNSG summer tour round 3 next Wednesday.

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