Round Norfolk Summer Golf Tour. Round 10 at Wensum Valley

The Outer Norwich Cup

First Time Winner Claims Wensum Valley Honours

A field of 9 met at Wensum and amongst threats of un-forecasted rain and some dodgy looking clouds. 3 people went for shorts, 3 trousers and 3 waterproofs. It was a day where most of the action seemed to surround the changing weather rather than the excitement of the golf. 

The traditional order of play and groupings were drawn. First up Greg, Mike and Tim, next Chris, Sandie and John, and then Bob, Vince, and Kevin. However controversy struck as the 3^rd group muscled their way onto the tee to go off first, relegated the original 1^st group to last place, and then to the irritation of others proceeded to slow the pace of play to 4 ¼ hours for 3 ball play.

 

Groups 2 and 3 or is it 1 can't believe a bunch of slow old blokes have nipped in front of them on the first tee 

There was no controversy on the standard scratch difference for ladies and men though. We’ve nailed that one now – only for it to be meaningless at todays evenly matched courses.

In that first group Vince put together a tidy first 9 with 17 points and no blobs, Kevin had 13 points and Bob 14 with no great dramas to report. 

Kevin hitting one of his shinny red balls (fortunately the whole box has not been lost)

The second grouping were far more consistent showing promising signs. Sandie was in equal second place at the halfway stage with her 17 points (no blobs) and Chris (no blobs) and John on 16. 

Chris misses the putt as John offers some advie

John abandoned the driver after blobbing 2 of the first 3 holes and played just one over handicap for the last 15 holes…. And that according to the players was the most exciting thing to happen. Chris kept her privates private today as far as we know, and Sandie’s approach of wearing a cap over a woolly hat in May seemed to work for her. Sandie nearly fell in the pond when balancing perilously near the edge to play a shot, but didn’t so that’s a far less exciting outcome than it could have been.

 

Much to everyone's disappointment Sandie didn't fall in

In the third group (which should have been first in case you’d missed that point earlier) Tim drained putts from all over the place, combining it with solid steady play to get to 19 points (no blobs). Mike had a mare including some shanks and heels to get 4 points after 5 holes…. at which point Greg tried to confuse Mike by relaying there were actually 12 causes of a shank. Fortunately for Mike the first of the 12 swing adjustments he tried seemed to work. Mike had 10 points in 4 holes to end on 14 for the 9 holes. Greg meantime had lost his driving reliability and frustratingly for him found himself in unplayable lies every time he made the trees but scrambled and putted well to get to 16 points.

At halfway it was all to play for: 1. Tim 19 points, 2. Sandie, Vince 17 points, 3. Greg, Chris, John 16 points. As we approached the tricky water holes on the back 9 the wind strengthened making it double trouble for those off their games.

At the front of the field  (should have been at the back) Bob snuck in a 2 for 4 points on the 10^th, and Vince had a 3 for 49 points (actually it was 3 for 3 but that’s not as amusing and after a barren run on the prizes for Vince it’s getting hard to keep up the barrage of high handicap abuse). Kevin’s wheels (wait for the shock of this)…began to come off. Who would have thought? Bob stormed away with 11 points in 3 holes before Kevin put the hoodoo on him talking of course records – Bob then blobbed and had 1 point to take away his momentum. That’s what mates are for hey Kevin?  Vince was well poised and ready to stake his claim.

 

Bob on his way to a Blob after Kevin had brought up the possibility of a course record (Tee Hee)

Sandie kept her form up with 9 solid points in 5 holes, Chris wobbled badly but got only the second birdie of the whole day with a 4 at the 14^th par 5. John meantime was filling his card with blobs, 1, 2 and 3 points to keep himself entertained. 

Group 2 starting to struggle on the water holes

Greg managed 1 point in the first 2 holes to ruin his chances, Tim had his only blob early on in the back 9 and Mike started a run of 9 successive 2 pointers on the back 9. Golf is all about consistency and Mike certainly found it. Watching it was a little dull though to be honest, and the debate about Brexit (or not) was well beyond quite depressing…. so Greg, Tim and Mike eventually got blankets and hampers out for a picnic whilst they waited for the slow moving course to clear.

As we came to the finishing straight Vince had his traditional blow up with 3 points in 6 holes. There was some debate whether nice-guy Vince only does this to make Kevin feel less bad, but the consensus was probably that is not the case. Bob played the back 9 well with a days best equalling 18 points and Kevin, hmmm,  better luck at Yarmouth and Caister where there are no trees and the gorse has been trimmed. Bob’s 32 points looked like it could be on the cusp of the money… but was it? The combined team score of 82 points was the low point of the day (you’ll note the editor has created a new imaginary team competition because they didn’t actually win a proper prize).

 

Vince surprises everyone by not duffing the ball into the pond (this time)

Sandie meantime alas, bottled it. With 1 point in the last 4 holes a winning position became an also rans spot as she petered out to end with just 10 points on the back 9. Chris with 11 points (4 on one hole) fared little better and John’s back-9 16 was the highlight of this group. John’s 31 points fell just 1 short of Bob. Their total team score of 85 points made them second best group of the day in the coveted, just made up, team comp. 

John scrambles a point after his tee shot on the nearest the pin hole

Coming in last home (should have been first home), with some better back 9 scores the final group had 97 team points – so in one way at least the last group were rightly first. Thank you Golfing Gods.  Greg fluffed a simple wedge on the last hole for 15 points and 31 points. That proved to be a costly mistake. It was not Greg’s day as he had a good 9 medium to long putts that seemed destined to drop but didn’t.  Mike’s 9 x 2 points (zzzzzzz) equalled the back 9 best with 18, and also equalled the most boring back 9 ever for people scoring that card. Tim just about held on to his slice control in the wind for 15 points too. When Tim found the bunker at 17 it was the only bunker the team had been in. Alas that can’t be said for water hazards where we had a team score of 6.

That all meant that Tim claimed his maiden tour win with 34 points. Well done Tim both for the win and battling through the rain. Tim was a model of consistency today, just a couple of mistakes on a difficult track so a worthy winner. It’s great to see different winners on the Tour to keep it fresh – what’s the record for different winners across a season statto?

Mike and Bob drew with 32 points for 2^nd place, and John (I’m off to my villa next week) and Greg (I’m back from my villa last week) missed out by 1 point – both clearly used to warmer climes and suffering from lack of Estrella.

Bob claimed the nearest the hole prize being about 15 foot away. Not quite as good as holing it when you have no idea where the flag is, but rewarding with a £4 take away prize.

The devilish stroke index 1, 11^th hole certainly caught us out today  - as a tour we must do better to ready ourselves for the day when 9 ball competitions are the norm.  Our 9 scores were 7,7,8,7,7,7,6,5,0. Such was our introduction to the water complex where the competition was decided… and we amassed on the day 17 lost balls between 9 of us.

That’s about the same number of swan poohs that we each accumulated on our trolley wheels. Yuk. Better than the dog poohs at Beccles though to be fair! We move on to Yarmouth and Caister where we are hoping race horse pooh won’t be on the cards. Get your bucket and spade ready, and be excited at the lack of water hazards ahead.