Old Classics

After Brancepeth four of us travelled south to play two classic inland courses: Woodhall Spa and Moortown – using one of the benefits of being captain, free rounds at other courses (not at all courses, but most, and certainly those two: people say that the courtesy should apply in the year after being captain, because you don’t have the time to use it, but I’ll do my best to get good value).

Both courses also had extra bits of history: Woodhall Spa is the home of the English Golf Union, which owns the course: in effect we as golf club members own it; Moortown was where the first Ryder Cup match was played in the UK, in 1929.

Woodhall is a lovely heathland course which had a couple of advantages compared to Bamburgh: it's flat and it wasn’t windy. But it has exceedingly large bunkers. I’m pleased to say I had a birdie on the first hole, which set the scene for 18 points on the front nine and 15 on the back. Mike Robinson and I (southerners) played John Southern and Keith Whitfield (northerners). After a close start, we were three down with four to play but managed to halve on the 18th. I won’t go through each shot, but they were mostly very satisfying, as was the Chateau Musar in the evening. Continuing to focus on important issues, Woodhall also had a half-way house, something I think we should think about one day.

Moortown was tough; I only had a par on the first (Keith had a birdie) and then didn’t score for ages.. Mike and I were four down after seven holes. But then things turned as we won eight holes in a row. I had an inspirational – some might say outrageous – birdie to put us level; after mis-hitting my second onto the next fairway 150 yards from the green, I hit a lofted wood low (very low) over the rough, between the bunkers and into the pin so hard that it was loud to me 150 yards away. It dropped. Golf is a psychological game. Having got 11 points on the front nine, and two down, I thought the course was disappointing. After getting 11 points on the back nine, but with that birdie and a par, and finishing four and three, I thought it was great. And the Ryder Cup memorabilia was fascinating.
I’d recommend a stay at Woodhall Spa for the village, the course and the hotel. The title “Old classics”, by the way, refers to the courses not the players.

Brancepeth Friendly

I now understand how Fabio Capello felt.

You take a team of highly trained perfectly functioning athletes to an exotic destination (in our case, Co Durham), and what happens? They fall apart - admittedly with the opponents catching some luck, as when Derek and Tony watched a likely win on the 9th turn into a loss as Brancepeth chipped up and in for a birdie, akin to that goal that wasn’t. The tabloids have still to uncover the inner turmoils that must have been affecting our team – or perhaps the Brancepeth Castle team simply played better? That was certainly the case in my game as we lost 4 and 3; we played well but somehow didn’t seem to win holes. At least Phil Holmes and Shaun McFaul won and Mike Robinson and Derek Stout drew.

Brancepeth Castle is a good trip: the course is excellent with some fascinating holes across a gully, including the 9th and 10th being two almost 200 yard par threes through the remnants of the Castle’s park. The first time I played the course, I managed a 3 and a 4 and have looked on the course with affection ever since (although I’ve never managed to repeat the scores). They’ve now added a half way house (strictly, at the 9th tee): it obviously takes practice to play, eat and drink at the same time.

I was impressed that they have made their treasurer Vice Captain. This prompted me to tell in my thank you speech the only accounting joke I know:
“Why did the auditor cross the road?”
“Because he did it last year.”

You can see why it’s the only accounting joke I’d want to know – although there are in fact others.

Ponteland friendly

My first friendly (against Ponteland) was obviously going to be important as a pointer to the year ahead: as I had said the year before, weather and team selection were critical and I would now add luck to the mix..

Tony Tuckwood had remarked the week before that, after years of taking part in these matches he had never lost – but as Ponteland member as well, he was often criticised for this. From that moment he was earmarked as my partner: if he kept his record, I’d win; if I dragged him down to my level then at least he could hold his head high at Ponteland again.

We had a good team of people, with unusually two or three on the reserve list who could have played. The running order was basically semi-officials first and then the likely winners last, and that is how it proved to be. After a tight game (tight only in the sense that after Chris Forster’s par golf we were 5 down after 9; although we did manage to get back to 2 under, we lost on the 16th) we sat in the warm afternoon sun (what DID happen to the weather last Sunday?) and watched the teams come in. The first three matches lost, then we won a couple, then one each, so it all depended on the last match - which Chris Hall and Sean McFaul duly won.

A draw then, a good result for a friendly, especially as we retained the trophy because we had won last time. The weather was great and the team selection worked. The conversation in our group about the future of golf clubs was interesting: we can sometimes forget how lucky we are to have a waiting list at a time when golf club membership is falling (at a rate of about 7.5% a year in our area).

Worthy of note: Ponteland were hosting the 100th birthday party of one of their members, Norman Bains, still a regular visitor to the club. We passed on our congratulations.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Past Captains' Day: a chance for the great and good who have gone before to play and eat and reminisce. And as a courtesy, they invite the new Captain to join them (probably not expecting it to be written about).

As with every day since last Sunday, the weather was fine; the course was in great condition and even better the competition was off the yellow tees; there was also no pressure because as a guest I couldn't win. But I did come a notional second (equal) to Bill Robinson's 40 points.

There were 21 for dinner; I was at the end of the table next to the most recent (John Taylor) and most long serving (Lord Walton) past captains, with the others in chronological order. Hopefully the table will get bigger over time as I slowly migrate round. The lights went out at our end (an indication of the decaying electrics in the clubhouse and the need to renovate it) so we had candles. Very festive.

First job

The best part of being Captain so far is being able to sweep into a parking space on a busy day. Like on Wednesday which saw my first duty as Captain, to present the prizes at the annual Pro-Am tournament.
First however I had to play. Despite a very professional professional our team just didn't click; if one played one hole badly then we all did (although Jim Findlay in particular had some inspired pars which kept us in sight of a level score) with the team even running out of balls (in more ways than one) on the 11th tee. We managed to come a creditable last - someone has to, after all, and in a way it was my duty to do so.

Elsewhere on the course there were some good scores in unusually calm conditions, with the winning pro scoring 63 (helping his team, Dick Little's team, come into second place with -20 so winning the decanters rather than the chessboards). The winning team managed -26: the pro for that team works at Morpeth with the winning pro so there should be a post mortem.

The NE&NW PGA organise these events well, and we had 28 teams take part with about 8 pros bringing their own teams. Anything over 20 is good for this type of function so I'm sure we'll do it again next year.

Before prize giving I popped into Seahouses initially to support but then to commiserate with the ladies NNL team, who were in a first place play-off with Rothbury. Sadly they didn't quite win (it would have been their first ever first place, and in fact it was Rothbury's first ever first) but second is one better than the men's team managed. So congratulations...