The next day...............

after the long day spent manning the first tee for captains day, I was invited to play in an AM/AM at Crewe Golf Club.


I actually live within a 5 minute walk of Crewe Golf Club and despite what my wife thinks, I did not know that the course was there when we joined.

So when I made the discovery, I decided to enquire about membership.

I had been a member and handicap sec at my previous club, was playing off 10, so thought I'd get a chance of at least a 5 day membership, but when I was abruptly told I'd have to join a waiting list, probably for about 8 years and pay to stay on it, I was a little dismayed.

After being a member of a club and playing regularly, reducing my playing activity to 4 or 5 times a year, I quickly fell out of love with the game. It was 12 years later that Wychwood opened and I started again.

Perhaps I should thank Crewe Golf Club for not allowing me in as I would probably not have discovered Wychwood! (Author wipes a crocodile from my eye!!!)

So, I pitched up at 10:30 to take up the challenge and joined up with Geoff Boyd, who had invited me to play with his son-in-law, Glyn Leech and his mate Dave, from Sandbach.

I had played in invitations at Crewe with Geoff in the past and reciprocated by taking him to play at Wychwood, in a Texas Scramble.

He was one of those golfers who had heard of the reputation of Wychwood Park being tough and let it affect his game! A kind of self fulfilling prophecy! He hated it. So much that he says he never wants to go back again! I'll get him back one day.

Anyway, we teed off down the first, a fairly gentle start of a par 4 and I hit a reasonable drive into the fairway, which left me a 9 iron down the hill to the green. Pond left, but didn't need to worry about that as it was way left of where I needed to be. Over the top, "doooshh!", pulled it into the water. Lost a ball already!!!!

Take my drop and a good up and down for bogie.

Jon Farmer had told me that the tip he had given me may make me pull shots to the left if I over did it, so with this thought fresh in my mind I pulled my next drive left and under the trees. Tried to drill one low back to the fairway, but proceeded to finish blocked by trees on the left again! Another low punch, then a wedge on, chance of only dropping one, but two putts for a double!

The greens looked really goo, nice colour and hardly a blemish, maybe a bit slow.

Next hole, longish Par 4 down hill, tug drive left again, on the next fairway, blocked out by trees. Nice, low shot out, looks like I've perfected that shot, but don't want to have to prove it again! Line up to take my next shot when Geoff informs me that we are playing to the "winter green" which is about 70 yards to the right of where I am aiming! Good job he told me. Manage a 5 and head to the next tee, another shot up the hill, Ok drive, but great second and a solid par.

Par 3 down the hill, I'm on front edge and Dave is about 12 foot away. Glyn thins a chip across the green onto the back edge, I lag for a 3, but no shot, so it's just a par. Glyn then slams his putt from off the green for a 3 nett 2 and dave, just misses his birdie putt.

The next hole is a tough drive up a steep hill to the flat fairway. Always dread this hole as it should be easy to get to the top of the hill, but thos is not a hole to duff a tee shot on!

Just get to the top! Great second shot just short and a chip and 2 putts for a 5.

Next hole is a short par 4.....never play this well. So 3 wood lay up, but just in the rough short of the gully! Just left of green, but chip and putt for par!!

Next is a great par 3, across the gully to a plateau green with no chance if left and trees and bunker if loft, hit a great shot to 10 feet, but just miss birdie putt.

Striking the ball well, but poor second and bad chip leave me with a bogie. Still a good front nine and as a team we are 7 under par!!!

We've dove tailed well.

Long 10th and a bogie and the then half way house for bacon roll and coffee.

The 11th is a noce gentle hole and a good drive over the trees and I'm in a good position, but block the 2nd and do well to get a 5. Short Par 3 next and a good drive leaves me with a short pitch which I overcook and leave myself a tricky 15 footer down the hill, which I run past, but make Par.

Next comes the SI 1, a Par 5 which I have always found quite easy. Reasonable drive, a bit left, but a good second gets me in a reasonable position. Block right again and lucky not to be in hazard. Messy double on the par 5.

The others play the hole pretty badly as well! We're letting it slip a bit.

Next hole is a great hole, probably my favourite. Need a good drive in position to play this dog leg, woth a pond short of green. Hit the best drive of the day and left a wedge over the tree in front of the pond.

The other 3 are in the lake after 2, in fact Dave pays a visit twice.

I manage an ok shot, but a bit long and can only manage a bogie 5. The only other score is Glyn with a net 6!

Long par 5 now and Geoff proceeds to tell us how he hates this hole and always knocks it left, which he proceeds to do with ease!

I block a Drive into the trees on the right and manage to squirt my second onto the other fairway on the right.

Nobody covers themselves in Glory and we lose a couple more shots.

We're adjacent to the short 12th and I spot Steve Waddington, who has the same putt as I had, but he sinks it and I just know it's for a tee. Have a quick chat with him as we head for the 17th tee.......it was!!!

The 17th is a longish par 4 and by now the wind is getting up.

I hit a solid tee shot, but it goes "nowhere!" The others are back on the previous fairway and struggling.

I hit a good second and manage another bogie 5, but we drop another couple.

The 18th and I hit the best drive of the day, and the 2nd is just short, but a chip and a putt gives me a par to finish.

Unfortunatley, we end up 2 over with a score of 14 under already in.

Still we had a good laugh, pity the golf was not brilliant, but we enjoyed and as is the norm, discussed the round over a few scoops!!!

Joint Captains day!!!

The Longest day was famously D-Day the 6th of June 1944. Well this was close!


5th June 2010 was Joint Captains Day and it was certainly, for me, the longest day!

Just 12 months before, it was Trevor Brennand and Jeanie McKenna’s day and the conditions could not have been different. People were wrapped up in Winter gear and waterproofs, coming in after their round with a tingle of blue about them.

12 months later and it’s the hottest of the year (so far hopefully) and red was definitely the colour of the day.

As part of the tradition, my day was to be spent on the first tee, seeing everyone tee-off taking a photo and handing out some freebies, so it was an early start to get things set up and ready for the first group to tee off at 07:38!!!

The first group were Paul Siviter, Jeff Dean and Eric Wills and I welcomed on the tee, gave them their Joint Captains day pencil, and offered them the tees I had got made especially for the day, 1000 tees for about 100 players, so roughly about ten each.

I told them to take a handful of tees, but didn’t realise how many tees you can get in a hand, especially when you have hands the size of Jeff Dean! They are like shovels!

The second group came along and were a 2 ball, Dr Pughe had not turned up! Strange, he was a regular early starter and not usually one to drop out! Surely he knew it was Saturday and not Sunday!

The handful of tees was not working, so after group 3 it was time to ration. I might even have to wait in the 9th green to grab some back of Jeff!

By 9am it was time for the Ladies to tee off so I had a bit of a break to grab something to eat and get some water on board. It was starting to warm up.

As I was about to return to the first tee, I popped into the pro shop just as Dr Pughe had rung up to ask what time his tee time was on Sunday!!!!

It was now straight through to my tee off time at 2:30pm and it started to become a bit of a blur, but I did get to meet a lot of new members, as well as the old ones and I saw some great tee shots off the first. In fact there were not many bad ones!

With 20 minutes before my tee off time, I was cooked and considered not playing, but I grabbed my clubs and got myself ready and hooked up with Jon Farmer, Paul Wilson and Paul Ward and teed it up!

Having seen good drives all day, mine was, to be honest, pretty naff, but I got away with it, scuffed two more down the hill and then duffed it into the fairway bunker. Got it out ok, but ended up with a 7 and 1 point. Not the best of starts, but was not expecting too much.

There were a number of “Special prizes” set up for the day with nearest the pin on all par 3’s and longest drive on the 4th.

I missed the green, but got up and down for a 3 and having gone back to a 17 handicap scored 3 points!

3 putts and a double on 3 and a bogie on 4, I was not really hitting the ball well and Jon said he’s have a quick word with me and give me a tip. On the 5th I hit a weak tee shot and still no advice! I ended up on the edge of the hazard. I managed to hack the ball out and left me a downhill lie!

I creamed it on to the green, best shot I’d hit for ages! Jon came over and said the downhill lie had helped me to get my swing plane right (or something like that) and I should concentrate on that feeling!

Unfortunately, another 3 putt and I came off with a point, but a good par on 6 and 7, I was back on track. My nemesis hole, number 8 and with a bit of a breeze against I smashed it down the middle and came off with an easy Par, ended the front 9 with a bogey and 19 points.

Paul Wilson was playing really well, if a bit “power” and “draw” crazy and Paul Ward was also playing well with 17 points.

Jon had, as usual, made the game look easy, I wish I could hit bad shots like him!

As we passed the club house we found out that 41 points was leading, so at least 23 points needed!

The back 9 started with a Bogey on 10 and then to the 11th, another nearest the pin. I hit the green but not particularly close. Suddenly remembered that there was a raffle for hitting the green on 11th and chance to win a brand new Driver. Good job I had forgotten about it before hitting my shot!

Good drive on 12 and solid 2 points, I got onto the 13th tee confident of hitting a decent drive. Wind assisted, I decided to lay up with a 3 wood, but struck the ball so well I ended up in the ditch! Got to the ditch and my ball was actually on the far bank and hit a great shot and made the green, just missed for birdie, but a bonus par and 3 points.

Laid up on 14, bailed out into the bunker and managed to get out and a good lag putt! Missed from 4 inches. Didn’t even touch the hole!

End of chance of winning!

We had moved the 15th tee up to the dropping zone, leaving a shot of 290 yards to the green and a prize for anyone hitting the green in 1.

Unfortunately the wind was in our faces, so it was not going to be easy. I was not even considering going for the green, but hit a good drive into the fairway.

Jon smashed it to within 10 yards and then chipped in for a 2!!!

I got an easy par and was close to birdie. 3 points.

Three pars for 41points!

Good drive on 16, but pulled 2nd into hazard by the green. Round over! Really the only bad shot I’ve hit! Dropped under penalty, chipped on and sank the putt for a 5.

A solid bogey on 17 and a good par to finish and I ended up on 20 points for the back 9 and 39 overall.

Paul Wilson ended on 40 points and Paul Ward with 37, it was a good group. Jon was probably close to level par!

Came off exhausted to see that 39 got me 12 place!

Ian Ellis won with 42, Gary Leese and Geoff Marchant on 41 points and over a 3rd of the field scored 36 points or more!

All in all a great day, with some good golf, everyone appears to have enjoyed the day and the only disappointment was that nobody stayed or came back for the planned presentation, but it is a long day for everyone and they had supported the day and the charity, so at the end of the day, everyone was a winner!

mEYE Walk - 5 days to go!

Not sure whether I've mentioned this before, but a great old friend of mine (that's doesn't mean he's old, I've know him a long time that's all), is into the last week of his epic journey in aid of a couple of "eye" charities.

Lee (Shayler) was a colleague of mine back in the 80's in Gloucester, moving to Denver in the 90's where he set up home with his wife Sandra. Lee has been suffering with a degenerative eye condition and after about 20 years has recently been registered as blind. To double the blow he also lost his job with IBM, but having time on his hands, as he put it, he decided to take up a challenge in aid of the charities and go on a sponsored walk.

Not any old sponsored walk. Oh know. Not Lee.................

He wanted to recreate a walk made famous in the late 19th Century by a man called Captain Barclay.

Barclay was a renowned "prize" walker and was challenged to walk 1000 miles for 1000 Guineas, which on the face of it seems easy.

However, the real challenge was that he had to walk one mile every hour! So it was 1000 miles for 1000 hours for 1000 guineas.

So Lee has been walking, albeit not non-stop, for the past 5 weeks, walk a mile, stop, rest, eat and whatever else he needs to do, and at the top of the hour, walk another mile and so on, continuously for 1000 hours.

He's up to 880 miles now and I've been following his progress via Facebook, through all of the problems with Shin Splints, Achilles tendon problems, blisters, weather............

It is a phenomenal feat, just think about it, say 10-15 minutes walking every hour for nearly 6 weeks!

Lee has invited all his friends to join him to walk the last mile.................if only we could!!!!

Pity he supports Leicester City!!!