Day 199 - Vardon, Interlock or Baseball?

First day of our Autumn Meeting today: two opportunities to get your name up in gold available - either today for the best gross score in the Marler Bowl, or else the best nett result tomorrow with your Foursomes partner in the Lewis Kent Cup.

I had been paired with Duncan, the Club Champion and previous winner of today's competition, and Andrew, who also has his name on the Marler Bowl Honours Board. Exalted company, therefore.  And not a little daunting either...

Everything started off well for me with two good solid pars on holes 1 and 2. Then an inexplicable 70y pitch onto the green went short and right into the greenside bunker and that was that. Managed to hang on for a while but then had another couple of "blob" holes and before long it was clear that it was not going to be my day.  I enjoyed the round though, watching the two better players spark off each other and seeing how easy the game can be if you could only drive long and straight (and a few other things as well!).

On the 15th fairway, Duncan posed an innocent question about my grip: did I use the Vardon grip, or interlocking or the baseball version? Wow... I answered immediately that I had always been a Vardon man. And then on the next shot, I paused and looked down: there was no finger overlapping - it was a baseball grip! 

This really threw me and, for the rest of the round, I was mildly spooked.  Back to the range time required...

Homeward bound for a difficult afternoon: whether to watch England/Ireland Rugby, England/Australia cricket, F1, European Golf or the England/San Marino football?  Not watching the last one was the easy choice. In the end I went with the Rugby...