Round Norfolk summer golf round 18 at Swaffham

Mid Norfolk Hackers Trophy

After the final major last week, won by Andrew, the Tour returned to it's regular programme and headed to mid-Norfolk and very near to the scene of an unsolved mystery. Back in 1974, police were (and still are) baffled by the discovery of a headless corpse in a remote field at Cockley Cley, just a few hundred yards from where the Swaffham clubhouse is now located. Was it just coincidence that some 45 years later, six were expected to play in the RNSG Tour but only five arrived? Has anyone seen Greg, or at least part of him?

With a reduced field of five, the playing order was decided by Kevin's balls-in-the-air trick, resulting in Andrew (last week's British Open champion) and Vince heading off first. Immediately they decided not to talk to one another by hitting their tee shots right and left respectively; fortunately, their paths crossed again on the green and several more times thereafter. 

Andrew gets proceedings underway

Vince got off to the better start, scoring 13 points over the first 7 holes. This was despite him losing his ball on the 3rd tee, only to find it a few moments later cunningly hidden in his right hand! Andrew had lost a ball (properly) on the 2nd and struggled to only 10 points but disaster struck both of them on the 8th. A sudden squall caused them both to hit errant shots and blob the hole. Vince decided losing one ball into the gorse wasn't enough, so he hit his provisional further in to make sure. The following group had similar problems sending 5 balls from the tee with only two of them ever seen again. 1 point was scored across the 2 groups.

Vince showing his chipping from the rough skills (which he practices a lot) on the 4th

Vince made up for the disappointing 8th with a brilliant par (4 points) on the 9th to end the outward half with 17 points, leaving Andrew in his wake with just 11.

Meantime, Chris, Kevin and Bob were making the game of golf look easy. Pars on the first from Mr & Mrs F were ordinary when compared to Bob's opening birdie (4 points). To be fair, Chris and Bob had peaked at this point and despite some valiant efforts to recover to the giddy heights of the first, they ended the front nine on 15 and 13 respectively. 

Chris in trouble in the pit on the second

Kevin, on the other hand, was on a mission. With his brand new, laser-guided, state-of-the-art putter in his hand, he tore up the course for an opening 21 points, leading to him obviously thinking about how this immediately improved his position in the best front and back nines competition.

 

Kevin hits a good approach to the 5th

The back nine saw Andrew find some of the consistent play that won him the British Open last week but it was not enough to keep pace with an in-form Vince. Despite losing a ball on the 10th, he birdied the par-5 13th (5 points) and made brilliant pars on the par-5 15th (4 points) and par-3 16th (3 points) At this point, Vince remarked how much he liked the ball he was playing so, obviously, it came as no surprise that he hit his tee-shot from the 17th tee into the gorse, never to see said ball again. Andrew blobbed the last to complete his fall from grace and end the day on 25 points, but would Vince's total be enough?

 

Vince's second attempt at teeshot on the !0th

Kevin was still on fire, with a par at the 10th, but a blob on the 11th cooled him down and the next few holes were a little more frustrating. Chris found form and brilliant approach shots at 13 and 15 saw her add to her points tally. 

Chris chips on to the 11th from a precarious position

Bob, meanwhile, was playing his own version of this historic game. He scored 5 points between the 12th and 15th, but 4 of those came from a birdie on the 14th. Lost balls are one thing, but Andrew and Vince were concerned that Kevin and Chris had lost Bob as they approached the 15th green. Only a careful look through Andrew's viewfinder clarified that he was 127 yards behind having spent some time - in vain - in the bushes looking for his game.

 

Bob sinks his birdie putt on the 14th

The short par-3 16th was the location of this week's nearest-the-pin competition. As had been the case during his British Open win last week, Andrew had set the challenge from the first group but, once again, he was to be thwarted. Kevin's finely struck tee-shot pitch on the front of the green and rolled far enough to snatch the prize, However, this pleasure was dampened by his new putter letting him down and a 3-putt resulted. The fact that Chris and Bob went on to make pars just made the situation even less tolerable for Kevin.

Kevin sticking with his no driver strategy

In the end, Bob's up and down round resulted in a total of 27, whilst Chris' excellent 17 points on the back half saw her reach 32 points and 3rd place. Kevin's back-nine 15 left him in 2nd place on 36 points, so it was a resurgent Vince who, despite 2 blobs on the back nine, scored 21 points and 38 overall. The group returned to the clubhouse for tea and cake but, alas, there was still no sign of Greg. The empty chair at the head of the table seemed Stephen King-esque in it's resemblance to that poor young lady's misfortune all those years ago! Sleep well, everyone!