Day 267 - Bridge of Spies

Another Wednesday, another Bondur Golf Day: this time Andrew also came along and we had a much bigger group playing. There must have been 7 groups of 4 so that was a big field: a lot of familiar faces and a few new ones to the group too.

The game was a complicated one today: the stake was $11/man and there would be four competitions running at the same time. First there was a team game, where each group was to record their best three nett scores on each hole.  Then here was also to be a putting competition, with every individual player being asked to count up all their putts but only on the par 4 holes.  Third, on each of the par 3s and par 5s there was to be a nearest the pin competition (the first group out would distribute the markers and the final four's job was to collect them. And finally there would be a skins competition: to win this you had to have the best score, gross or nett, on any hole - beating the rest of the field which, with 28 playing was never going to be easy.  And then, super finally, a big skin ball would be taken out of the hat and if that matched a hole where somebody had scored a skin, they would take the pot, currently running at around $50.  Wow....

Actually, it does sound complex, but once you get going, it's fine: just play your own ball and let the scores be what they are!  I was playing with Jay, Joe and Mike and we got off to a steady start with Mike and I having particularly good first nines (40 and 38 respectively).  I was playing well, parring everything except for some daft reason the par 5s, on which I recorded bogey every time. By the time I had birdied the par 3 16th (would that win a skin?), I was on for a great score but then messed up the last two, including 3-putting the last (why?).  All of this meant that my 17 putts missed out on a prize on countbakc, my skis did not hold and I had not won any of the closest to the pin flags...  Fortunatley our team score of nett 17 under par was good enough for second place, winning us $8/man so just about break-even.  Great fun though!

We had to rush home afterwards as we were all heading off tot he flics again: tonight we saw Bridge of Spies, a new Cold War thriller based on a true story (when do you see a film nowadays that isn't?). This will hit the UK shortly but was most enjoyable with Tom Hanks playing Tom Hanks but as entertainingly as ever!