Robin Hood Golf Club looked after us very well on our Captains Away Day last Friday. We were met off the coach, shown to the locker rooms and directed to the tees very helpfully and they had closed the entire course for us for the day. At the same time they were arriving at Brocton by coach and I'd like to thank my staff, Isobel and Katie, who performed the same courtesy to such a degree that the visiting professional rang back to Robin Hood to make sure his Pro Shop assistants were looking after us as he had "received exceptional customer service".
My article last week about the speed of greens, known as 'stimp readings' attracted a lot of attention and everyone who spoke to me agreed that a reading of 10 on the stimpmeter (which is what they were on Captain's Day) was just about as quick as we can play them at Brocton because of the slopes. (If you didn't see the article - it's here on my website.
Robin Hood were about 12 on the stimp on Friday and they'd reportedly been 14 (!!) the week before for the Club Championship. Apart from about 4 holes the greens are very flat so they could handle quick surfaces but the downside with such quick greens is they have the potential to get worse quickly during the day, every little spike mark or seed head affects the roll of the ball. I spoke to some members in the bar afterwards and they were saying they wished they were slower. Of course green speed is subjective and maybe it's like bunkers in that poor technique bunker players like lots of sand and good bunker players are happy with as little as possible, but I'd like to play greens at 10 whenever possible.
The winners of the day were:
- Morning Round Rowland Plate - Mark Wheatley
- Afternoon Round Tixall Bowl - Richard Jefferies
- Overall 36 hole winner Springfield Cup - John Hall
- 18 hole winner: Phil Jackson
Luke Howe shot the best scores of the day with two level par rounds for 36 points morning and afternoon but as we're not club members, John Hall deservedly won the trophy. He'd only entered the event 4 days earlier so it was a Cinderella Story.
Another such story was Ian Gwinnell who was playing in his first club event as he'd only been a member for 3 days and he scored the only 2 in the morning winning £41. Actually that's not quite true, David Moodie also scored a 2, but off the white tees instead of the yellow so it didn't count - you made it too difficult Dave! There were only 5 two's in the afternoon which shows how difficult it was to get the ball in the hole as two of the par threes were short ones.
Mind you, it would have been harder to get the ball in the hole on the 4th at Brocton on Saturday morning as this photo shows following yet another deluge:
Happily the drainage worked and next day 154 golfers played in the medal. I guess it was because of the sport on offer on TV in the afternoon with Wimbledon, the Grand Prix and the Euro finals that caused us to have 90 golfers turn up to play in 90 minutes. Thank you to Graham Hagan and Andrew Tarplee who split up to turn 3 x 2balls into 2 x 3balls and everything was going well with minimum wait given the onslaught of numbers.
In competitions the committee allow the 10th tee to be used from 8am until 9:30am with the idea being to minimise the queue on the 1st and avoid interfering golfers teeing off earlier (it used to be allowed all day but causes so much aggravation when cutting in on someone's current round).
On this occasion the first groups played round so quickly (commendably) that the last group scheduled off the 10th at 9:20 were delayed and the golf version of Road Rage soon ensued. I think 'Road Rage' is a good description because we can all get a little put out when we think we've been pushed back or delayed but, as in vehicular road rage, the reality is that it's really not a big issue and a little bit of 'Give & Take' is called for. Please bear this in mind if something happens on the golf course - it may be the reason for my livelihood but remember IT'S STILL ONLY JUST GOLF!
You may have noticed Lewis was working on Sunday this week instead of Saturday - that'll be because he had his Prom night on the Friday.
Unfortunately I missed it as I was on the Captain's Away Day but here's a picture of him arriving in style in a Mercedes SLS which everyone cheered at when the doors raised in unison.
Huge thanks to the member who offered to chauffeur him there - he'll certainly never forget the experience and leapt a few rungs up the 'cool ladder' amongst his peers.
The course as Brocton has been deserted this week, here's a picture of one of my lesson where we took the Flightscope launch monitor out onto the course to record some shots to help with course management. For example - the same quality of tee shot off the 5th tee, downhill off the whites, went 23 yards longer than on the 2nd tee shot on a level surface.
What a great job Sky seem to be doing with their first year reporting of The Open at Royal Troon. The 'SkyZone' marquee set up on the practice area is a great idea and builds the event into a week long spectacle. This can only be good for the image of the game. I played there 4 years ago and the back 6 holes get longer and tighter and are usually into the wind. It's possible to play half the round into the wind and turn back for home and have the other half into the wind as well if you're unlucky. After previously viewing on TV I thought the famous short par three 8th hole called the 'Postage Stamp' was nestled in a bowl but it's actually perched on top of a ride with a bank sloping down towards it off the left and a huge drop off on the right meaning it's open to all the elements. Similar to our 3rd hole at Brocton - hit the green and its a relatively easy par but miss the green and a bogey 4 is not even guaranteed.
My bets this week would be Branden Grace, Jimmy Walker and Andy Sullivan. The forecast isn't for much wind but these players are all winners in windy conditions and the links at Troon is so incredibly flat that even the slightest breeze feels strong.