Day 292 - A busy day

A nice gentle start to the morning allowed me to make a plate of porridge, with blueberries and raisins, to ensure that I was well fed before starting out for this morning's competition: it was going to be another blustery day and I would need fuelling. Is trolled upstairs to check my tee time... panic stations!!  I ALWAYS play at 0842.. but somehow this morning I was slated to tee tee off at the earlier time of 0824...

Shower...change....rush... and yes, I was on the tee at the allotted time but it was not the leisurely walk, plus time to swing a club and practise a few putts that I prefer.  my partners for the day were Rick and Dan and they were much more organised than I was.  They did though ask me to tee off first (Mr Captain, over to you...) and no, the first shot did not find the fairway.... It all went from bad to worse when on the 3rd, I missed what must have been the shortest putt ever, as my mind wandered... focus, boy!

Fortunately, I got my act together in the second half so that my score at the end of the day was vaguely respectable, helped by a stunning birdie on the treacherous par-3 12th: a great tee shot to within 3 feet!  I now started to regret the fact that  had not put my money into the 2s competition....

Throughout the day, we played into howling gales, making holes 2 and 13 a real slog, but allowing 15 to be a relatively simple hot onto the green. We were staggered to get back and find that someone had beaten their handicap by 7 shots... wow...!

After playing, I was invited to join some friends for lunch: Paul, a former playing member at the Club, was in town on a business trip and was reconnecting with the Burhill social scene. We had a very pleasant meal (thanks, Karel, for the recommendation: the cod with chorizo was delicious!) accompanied by a glass or two of Rioja, topped of with a "cleansing ale" (a new concept to me!).

Lizzie Prior was unavailable so Sarah stood in and collected lots of silverware!

Afterwards, I was on duty again: it was the AGM and Awards for the Club's Junior section. Despite being told that it was due to start at 4 pm, when I got there - I thought a few minutes early... - everyone was waiting...  Peter, the Juniors' organiser, did a fine job MCing proceedings and it was both inspiring to hear of all the teams' successes and humbling to hear quite how good some of these younsgters are!