A belated start to our new season following the postponement of the Spalding event due to poor weather. With heavy rain and strong winds, things were looking a little tricky in the days before Thorney but the weather gods smiled and 18 of us were greeted by a bright warmish day.

Les welcomed two new players, Steve Walker and soon to be infamous Alan Wensak.

Unfortunately, our new season didn’t start too well. Thorney has a little par 3 course. So as part of our pre-round warm up a few of us practised chipping onto the final green of the mini course. Belatedly, Paul B also decided he would give it a go. Unfortunately, Paul failed to notice two locals teeing off 75yards to his blind left hidden in the trees. Thus balls were flying into the green from all angles. One the two locals, a heavily muscled, heavily tattooed cage fighting lookalike was not impressed and duly gave Paul a “death stare”. Wisely, Paul rushed to grab his balls from the green and scampered off to the first tee before the “hulk” could get too near. Strike 1 in upsetting the locals!

New season, first tee, par 5, out of bounds to the right … What could go wrong?

Well, observing the initial groups driving off…. Let’s start with Martin Z. Tee shot didn’t get too far. Approaching the lake before the adjacent 18th green to the left a group of 4 locals were strolling to the end of their round. So Martin launches his second off at a 45 degree angle quickly followed a very loud “fore”. 50 yards away the locals dived for cover. Sheepishly walking to his ball Martin gave his usual beaming smile. Strike 2!

Now Les is Mr Reliable off the tee. Sporting his new Bucket hat, his first shot approached the out of bounds so Les took a provisional for which there was no doubt it went well out of bounds. I was concerned that the new hat was destined for the lake on the left but to his credit Les kept his usual cool and poise.

So for my group which included Darren P and Jim D ended the first hole in tatters and probably having broken the course record for a 3 ball having scored a combined 27. We did however make the same contribution with 9 each!

Unbeknown to us, Les’s group also scored 27 for the first hole but it was an uneven contribution. At the post match presentation Les made sure Alan was made well known to the group by announcing he had scored 13 on the first hole! For his effort Alan was awarded with the wooden table (upgrade on spoon) by Les presenting to him the table stand number for table 13. Welcome Alan.

After our dismal start, Darren in my group hit a great shot onto the 2nd green on the short par 3 lake hole. Achieving a great par 3 and flushed with success he somehow thought this entitled him to try to tee off from the ladies red tee on the following hole 3. Having explained it doesn’t work like that he duly moved back to the yellows.

Wonder putt – so hole 12, index 2: Jim tees off into the trees, great 2nd to the front fringe of the green narrowly missing the lake to the right. The flag being at the other end of the long narrow green. Flag still in he hits his putt. Running over all the undulations and without hesitation goes straight into the hole. The longest live putt I have ever seen. Darren and I watched in amazement as it seemed to take at least 10 seconds to go in. We estimated it was about 60 foot but having discussed it further over the next hole it went to 70 and then 80 feet. The fisherman syndrome prevailed!

Jon K also had an eventful 12th hole. Searching for his ball in the rough he found 4 others before his own and still went onto to score 2 points. A lesson in perseverance and great outcome.

Our winner of nearest the pin was Sean Melia. 17th hole, 160 yards, index 18. On paper not too tough to get on the green? Not so, faced with a strong headwind and most having to use woods to get anywhere near the hole. Sean hit a great shot to get within 10 feet of the pin. The only other person to hit the green was Graham T from the same group.
Geoff made the rather dubious claim of getting nearest the pin in 2! So congratulations Sean – great effort.

To the points competition:

3rd was Trevor Chapman on 31 on countback

2nd Sean Melia with 31 points

1st and aided by a few fortunate 1 putts on the home stretch me, Paul Flanders, with 33 points.

Not a high scoring round points wise compared with last year when 6 players scored more than 33 points. This year probably reflected the fairly tough conditions of heavy rough, a strong wind and very fast greens (credit to the course for the greens being in such good condition). All a bit much for our first outing maybe. Although enjoyable, I think most of us felt it had been a long and tiring round.

This is all except Geoff D (and Dave W who cadged a lift), who due to a dodgy knee had to take a golf cart round. Geoff being in the last group had the cart way past his allotted time! Upon returning the cart Geoff was met by a rather grumpy club employee who was concerned the cart had gone missing but more importantly was now late for his tea!! Strike 3.

Let’s hope it’s not 3 strikes and out for next year.

Next outing is Oundle on Friday 19th May

Regards Paul Flanders.