Round Norfolk summer golf tour round 3 at Bungay

The South Norfolk North Suffolk Classic at Bungay

Tuesday saw round 3 of this years RNSG summer tour take place at Bungay with one of the closest competitions in tour history. Sadly the field had been decimated by the withdrawal of all the lady tour members who had had a better offer. This made for a very different atmosphere as talk of kittens and knitting was replaced by football and cars with the golf being more highly charged, in your face and pumped up than normal.

The field was therefore down to 6 and with Vince and Greg also unavailable there was no clear favourite as the groups were selected for the off. As it turned out no one wanted to win it as 4 players threw away a winning position and in the end only 4 points separated the 6 players.

However let's start with the two players who were never in the running.

John was in celebratory mood having been called up to the over 75's England Hockey team for a match against Wale's finest old blokes on Thursday. However in the excitement of the call up he had obviously forgotten to have any weetabix for breakfast as he left virtually every chip and putt short of the hole. Despite a very straight game this restricted his scoring until a par/par finish for 29 points and last place.

A rare chip good chip from John leading to an opening par.
(Incredibly all 6 players opened up with a par today)

Tim was also having a solid if not spectacular round and with 16 points at half way was still in the hunt. But an erratic back 9 featuring a birdie and 3 blobs made sure he was never in the running finishing with 30 points.

Robert was the first player to throw it away as he set off in style with 20 front 9 points including a birdie on the 9th (the same hole as he birdied last year which everyone was 'sad' to hear). However after hitting a bad drive down the 10th he announced his game had gone to pieces which as it turned out it had with only 7  points over the first 7 back 9 holes and 31 points to finish shy of the prizes.

Robert, Bob and Tim all making par on the first

Bob's front 9 had been a sloppy affair with 2 pars and 14 points. However after finding a gorse bush on the 10th his round took off with 10 points over the next 3 holes including a 20 foot putt for birdie. This meant that after 16 holes he had a two point lead. However after blobbing the 17th he dumped his approach shot in the bunker in front of the 18th for another blob and a 32 point total. The drama didn't stop there as without the ladies calming influence Bob nearly got into a fight as post round bunker controversy came out in the bar. Fortunately golf dinosaur monster (GDM) was there to make a final ruling on the following.

There were a number of bunkers on the course that had new turf , a white line round them and had not been raked. When Ian went in one (and failed to get out) his group said it looked like GUR so allowed him to take a drop and ignore his earlier effort as it didn't seem fair to play from such a position. As it turned out the bunker at front of 18th was in a similar state but Bob's group had not taken the same approach and he had played from it and failed to get out. GDM used his diplomatic skills telling Bob it was tough and to get over it.

Meanwhile Kevin and Ian were having a ding dong battle. Kevin took the early advantage with a solid front 9 of 19 pts with no blobs or single pointers. 

Kevin preparing to tee off sometime in the next 5 minutes

Ian also had a blob free front 9 but a couple of scrambled points kept him to 16 pts (including bunker gate).

Ina drives off down the second

Ian then took the initiative on the back 9 with a number of pars meaning he had a 1 point lead after 17 holes.

Ian chips on to 12th for 2 points

Meanwhile Kevin had slipped away from a very strong position with a run of 4 single pointers over holes 14 to 17 (although it did include winning nearest the pin). So it was all to play for down the 18th.

The first of 3 putts for the first of a run of 4 one pointers

After good drives Kevin found the right level of the green leaving a 12 foot putt for birdie while Ian chunked it into what is now known as Bobs Bunker. However once again the GUR rule was applied for Ian although maybe the golfing gods looked badly on this as he thinned off the back of the green and 3 putted for a single point.

However it was now Kevin's turn to snatch defeat as a very tame first putt left him a missable two footer which he did indeed miss to tie on 33 pts.

It had been a day of high drama and much controversy so lets hope things are calmer as the tour goes on tour with 13 tour members heading off for two rounds at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire.