Autumn tour round 3 at Kings Lynn

Low Scoring Classic

For the third instalment of the Autumn Tour, eight players headed west to one of the county’s favourite courses, King’s Lynn. With Tim, winner of the last event at Royal Cromer and joint money-list leader, unavailable, this looked to be the perfect opportunity for Kevin to put some distance between himself and the chasing pack. A shortened season means every penny is worth …… well, about a penny …. in the chase for the title.

The day got off to an unexpected start when the pre-tournament press conference was cancelled due to this week’s press officer being unavoidably delayed. He did have the opportunity to interview Jill in the car on the journey to the course, but both were distracted by Pop-Master on Radio 2!

Under bright blue skies, and with the course in perfect condition, the first group of Robert, Vince, Chris and Jo set off. 

First group enthusiastically gather at start of rouns

Perhaps it was the calm weather that confused them, but the front 9 proved to be difficult. Jo was the most consistent, scoring on every hole for 15 points, mainly thanks to her only par (and 3 pointer) coming on the 9^th. Chris was similar, only parring the 8^th hole but, due to a blob on short par-3 5^th, scored 13.

Jo prepares to hit another straight drive

Robert, meanwhile, was doing his best to avoid the dangerous sunshine and remained in the trees for much of the round. He did venture out on the 1^st and 9^th holes, helping him to 11 points. 

Robert about to visit the woods again

Vince, on the other hand, saw no reason to come out into the sunshine unless it was really worth it, scoring 3 points on the 4^th and 8^th; for 6 of the other 7 holes, he felt it best to remain under cover and made the turn with just 7 points.

Vince looks on in despair as another ball misses the fairway and rough 

The second group of Andrew, Kevin, Bob and Jill all avoided the first fairway, but good recoveries from Jill and Andrew saw them make a 5 and 4 respectively. Bob, who has been having some more lessons, found it difficult to put all what has been taught into practice, failing to score on the first 3 holes. Some improvement was found for the rest of the front 9, but he struggled to just 8 points; he was excited at the end when he realised it wasn’t the lowest score of the day at that stage. 

Jill prepares to tee off whilst Bobs provisional nestles by the side of the ladies tee (and it was one of his longest drives over the opening holes)

Jill, maybe suffering from the lengthy walk to some of the ladies’ tees, was also finding it difficult to locate her swing and reached just 12 at the turn.

Kevin, who’s driving had recently been the strength of his game, seemed to have reverted to the old motto of “hit it hard and play it where you find it”! Unfortunately, some of the places he found it where not very playable and, on some holes, the lovely green colour of the ball made it impossible to find it in the …. well, green countryside! He did, however, manage to score 13 despite the 3 blobs in a row on 3, 4 and 5. 

This is the last sighting of this ball as Kevin thins it into a nettle patch

Andrew was going for consistency, not a term usually associated with his golf. Some straight driving – always helpful at King’s Lynn – and six 4’s in the first 7 holes saw him reach the turn with 17 points and in first place.

Andrew misses his birdie putt but still got his 2nd of 6 4's in the opening 7 holes.

Having understood that the sun was supposed to shine, and that the light winds were okay for golf, the back nine was an improvement for most players. Robert obviously didn’t believe this and remained safely in the trees while scoring just 10 points for a total of 21. 

Robert demonstrates to Vince how to escape from the trees

Vince saw the light – quite literally – and scored a respectable 14 on the back 9 for an overall 21; however, his 8 blobs for the round did have the statisticians reaching for the record books but, fortunately for Vince, there have been worse.

Vince excitingly prepares to play his approach shot as it wasn't actually in the trees

Chris and Jo decided that it was time to show everyone how to play golf. In a remarkable display of consistency, Chris scored 2 points on every hole on the back 9 for a total of 31 and 3^rd place.

Chris on her way to another back 9 two pointer

Jo’s day just got better and better as she ensured a blob-free round. Four more 3 pointers on the back 9 helped her to a fabulous 21 and a clubhouse leading total of 36. In the post-round interview, she put much of her success down to the chipping lesson that she and Robert had attended; Robert was not convinced that he’d been at the same lesson!

Jo on her way to a commanding lead

The second group had mixed fortunes. Bob’s game seemed to have improved when he hit an excellent tee-shot into the par-3 12^th and scored his first 3 pointer of the day. However, this was a false dawn and only 6 other points meant that Bob’s total of 17 would be last on the day. 

Bob misses his birdie putt after an excellent shot to the 12th green

Jill’s game was still hiding from her but, as the round progressed, there were glimpses that it was returning. She found points hard to come by and another 12 gave her 24 overall; amazingly, as was announced at the prize ceremony afterwards, this gave her 5^th place and 50p! 

Kevin and Andrew were having their own back 9 battle, both keeping the ball in play and staying blob-free. Despite the improvement in direction, Kevin’s 15 points was only enough for a total of 28 and 4^th place. Andrew had glory in his sights and, after 14 holes was only 1 over handicap. But he visited 3 bunkers on 15 and 16 for a point on each, and the trees on 18. His 15 points left him on 32 overall. 

Andrew prepares to play first of the 3 players to all find the same greenside bunker

So, it was Jo’s day and the third different winner of the season. Her £7.00 first prize saw her leap to the top of the prize money table just ahead of Kevin but, with 3 events remaining, anyone can still win the coveted title. Woodbridge is the next venue and all players were excited by this, mainly due to there being less trees!

 As the players enjoyed drinks on the terrace, the benefit of golf lessons and the glorious weather were the main talking points during the after-round press conference. With the sun shining brightly down the 18^th hole, and with the fairways in such good condition, many were left wondering why they had spent so much time in the shade; perhaps avoiding the trees should be the subject of the next lesson!