Day 329 - The Eagle Has Landed

A busy day for the Lawrences States-side: Kathryn had a meeting of the Board of the University Women's Club, where she is responsible for the monthly newsletter, in the morning and then had her first meeting of the Richmond Park (i.e. the community in which we live) Book Club. The book they discussed was Fates and Furies, which has some pretty good reviews but I am not sue that it is my cup of tea...  And Martin had his usual Wednesday golf game which pretty much takes care of the whole day...

The weather here has taken a turn for the worse: it was definitely chillier last night and this carried over to this morning.  No shorts and short sleeves this morning... but rather long trousers and a fleece top, at least until the sun came out later in the day.

I was again put out in the first group: good because we can set our own pace, less so as a result of the fact that it meant we were again first in the bar afterwards and had to wait an age and a day until the rest of the gang came in.

The format we played today was a more difficult one: in groups of four, we were to record the three best nett scores on the Par 4s and 5s, whilst on the Par 3s it was the best two gross and one nett scores.  Our team played pretty well to start with but then we had a couple of disaster hole.

We had a pretty good finish though which helped, as did our performance on the Par 5 Hole 14 where your truly managed a gross eagle (poor drive, excellent 5W and a 9i from 118 yards into the hole...).  A thing of beauty.

All of which meant that I ended up on the right side of line money-wise today: our team came 4th and I managed 2 skins and 2 closest to the pins all added up to $28... I'm rich!

Day 328 - British Golf

I had been invited by a friend here, Brad, to join him for a four-ball at around lunchtime.  He had a couple of other guys lined up, Bob and Don, and we met up on the practice ground before proceeding to the first tee.  The request was made: could we play a "British" game?  I explained how golf was played at Burhill, but I am not sure the concept of meeting up in the morning for the Roll-up translated terribly well: the general reaction seemed to be that if you met up at 8 o'clock in the bar, why wouldn't you still be there at midday?

No such problems here: the bar is certainly not open at that time of the morning!  We did though agree that we would play a 4BBB game, with bits on the side.  We replaced the £1-£1-£2 with $3-$3-$6 and settled on 50c per bit.  Balls were thrown in the air (another unheard of custom here!) and I was paired up with Don, against Brad and Bob.  It was at this point that my new partner shared that he had hardly played a game in many months...

I managed a decent birdie on the first to get us one ahead and was, briefly, worried that I might find myself in that embarrassing position of having proposed a game and then winning easily (never a nice place to be). I needn't have worried though... After a few very scrappy holes (including an incident where one of our opposition picked up and pocketed not one but two balls that were not his...) things tightened up and we ended up the first half all square.  We again got ourselves into an early lead on the back nine but this soon evaporated and two excellent pars by Brad meant that we moved to the 17th tee dormie two down.

This was going to be tough as I was giving shots all around on both holes. A regulation par on the difficult 17th won a hole back and then my all my partner had to do was two-putt from 12 ft on the last to win the hole, half the back nine and the match....

Ah well, maybe next time?

Day 327 - "I am just going outside and may be some time."

Monday morning and lots of stories about cold and snow back home in the UK. Burhill courses also struggling with the weather meaning that access is restricted: all good reasons to validate our decision to spend a few weeks here in Florida at this time of year!

That being said, it was chilly here last night too and, shock, horror, I opted to put long trousers on when leaving the house for my Monday morning round - and I wore a sweater too.  The sun was shining though and it was only the cold northerly wind that was the problem. That being said, my playing partners were dressed as if they were anticipating a round with Captains Scott and Oates: polo necks, beanies and fleeces in abundance: blood must thin as you stay out here for longer...

We had a fun game today; I was partnered with three great guys (David, John and Doug) and we not only had a great conversation on the way around (Donald Trump...) but we also played some decent golf. We were playing in teams of 4 with 3 scores to count on each hole so that there was room for one to have a disaster but no more... which is pretty much what we delivered.  My round was up and down:four double bogeys killed my total score but the rest was pretty good. There were 4 par-3 closest to the pin prizes, of which I picked up 2, which when combined with the fact that our team also won AND I managed a skin with a birdie meant that I walked away with $20 in my pocket - that will finance the next two days' golf!

After golf, we made our first pilgrimage to the local CostCo store. Amusingly, the place looks exactly the same as its equivalent in Sunbury - even down to the layout and many of the products on offer (though the prices are cheaper here!). A great opportunity to stock up on reasonably priced essentials and we now have enough toilet paper, silver foil and tinned tomatoes to last until the next millennium....

Day 326 - O Canada!

We had enrolled today to play in the Club's "Couple Club Championships", which is a great way to meet people. The format, we had been advised, was a "Modified Chapman"... ???

So after lunch, we got in our golf cart and drove across to the Clubhouse. In the parking area here, they have an area designated for shotgun starts: every space is marked with a hole number and the people who are due to start there, back their carts into the double slot until everyone can see at a glance if all have turned up. Once it is time, you then head off in order to your designated starting hole and the competition gets going.

Before leaving we discovered exactly what a Modified Chapman competition is: play was open to (married/cohabiting) couples only and both of them was then to tee off on every hole, after which each partner would then take their second shot with the other's ball.  At that point, the team were to choose one ball and it would then be hit into the hole in alternating shot format: a kind of 2-shot Greensomes competition.

Clearly this is an easier format than either Foursomes or Greensomes and the scores certainly reflected that with the winners recording a nett 58 (or 14 better than their allocated handicap).  We were nowhere near there, with a nett 70 with which we were briefly not disappointed: until we got back to the Clubhouse and saw the scores that is! Our partners for the day were Len and Rita, from Toronto, for whom this was still their first week of membership - making us seem like old lags!

The winners of the gross competition managed a very creditable 81. In fact there were two such couples and it took a 2-hole playoff to generate a winner - and we were delighted for our next door neighbours, Betty and John, who were the ones who emerged victorious.  And they're from Canada too...

After the golf, we had a very pleasant meal, cooked by Chef Andy (who is from Essex originally!) who will be moving to a new role at the end of the month and who will be sorely missed.  Now where have I heard that before...?

Day 325 - The Big Short

When we had played bridge the other day, we had had recommended to us a recently opened Farmers' Market store run by the Amish, just down the road from here. So, we went to have a look. 

And we have a new Go To destination: lots of fresh vegetables at very reasonable prices and what looks like a good selection of meat and fresh meat too. Sorry, Publix - you have just lost some business...

We had planned to play 9 holes after lunch but once we got onto the course and found ourselves fixed up with a very chatty couple from Toronto, and playing in glorious sunshine, we decided to play through hole 13. This gave us an easy cut-through to drive the cart home and our decision turned out to be an excellent one; by the time we were home having a cup of tea, the heavens had opened..

And it was still raining hard by the time we got to the cinema too. We were there to see the new film "The Big Short", due out into the UK later in the month. Very entertaining it was too. A very dry subject (the mortgage market collapse in the US in 2007) was made quirkily interesting. Particularly for anyone who enjoyed Enron the Musical, this is a must see!

Day 324 - Crocs Away

Awoke to rain dripping early this morning: not good as was supposed to be playing golf at 11 o'clock.... Needn't have worried though, by mid morning there were hints of blue sky up there and the only downside was that the course was deemed "Cart Path Only".  This is always a bit of a pain as it slows things down and always penalises the errant shot, right or left, that ends up right the other side of the hole from the path itself. Cart Path Golf, i.e. aiming to end up on the correct side of the fairway is an extra challenge...

I was put into the final group today, playing alongside two regulars and Tony whom I had not met before.  Everyone started off a bit scrappily, though the first half wasn't bad. I managed a knock-in birdie on the narrow 4th (nobody saw my approach shot as they were all in their carts: I waited for the plaudits that never came!). I did though follow it up by putting a ball into the water on the following hole... 

By now the sun had come out and the temperature on the cart was showing 81degF - not bad for early January!  the sun however wasn't the only thing that had come out.... the course marshal dropped by to warn us that a group of ladies in front had been concerned at a rather-too-close alligator by the edge of the 9th green. When we got there, he was indeed quite proximate but looking anything but active as he soaked in the warm sun's rays.  We too gave him a wide berth as he looked over 10 ft long....

After that the golf petered out into bogie-land. Despite my 40 on the outward half, I hit bunker after bunker and/or still couldn't get the hang of the fast greens, 3-putting far too often. At this rate, I shall have them mastered just in time to return to winter golf in the UK in ten days time...

Day 323 - Hot stuff

Thursday is Kathryn's golfing day here, so she was out bright and early... though it was actually anything but bright this morning: as the sun came up (around 07:20 here at this time of the year) we were greeted by dense fog - so much so that we even wondered whether or not the course would be open.  It was.  So she was able to get off on time and I had the morning to myself.

I had a long list of minor errands to carry out: returning s faulty wireless doorbell, buying a photo frame and booking myself in for a club-fitting session... the joys of retirement!

After lunch, I met Kathryn at the Clubhouse for our bi-weekly dose of couples bridge. As we get to know better some of the people playing this has become quite a fun event. Because we are only occasional players, we always get put East/West, which means that we have to do the walking between the tables - but no complaints as this means that we get to play against some friendly pairs.

We started off reasonably disastrously, and also seemed to have none of the cards. Nevertheless, things picked up as we got our brains into gear and I was quietly confidently that we had scored OK (as it turned put, we had only managed a 60% game but this was enough to put us in first place - winning us the princely sum of $8 for our efforts!).

On previous occasions, we had either not been available or not keen to stay on for a meal after the cards was finished. This time though we decided to give it a go - partly because we need to start making a dent on our annual levy spend at the Club here ($900 is our target....).  We ended up having a very pleasant meal in the restaurant - Kathryn was delighted with her salmon dish and I enjoyed my chipotle pasta - even though I wasn't quote sure what I had ordered... I had to look it up when I got home and now know that a chipotle is a smoke-dried jalapeño pepper...