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Captain Scarlett's Log - September 2017
15 September 2017

Captain Scarlett’s Log

September 2017

Welcome to my September log.  This one’s a bit light hearted – looking more at the fun side of golf.

‘Golf is good for your soul! You get so mad at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.’  Will Rogers

A bit strong really – I don’t have any golfing enemies or none that I know of anyway! But anyone who plays golf in a competitive way knows that there’s plenty of times that you hope your opponent doesn’t hit a beautiful shot to within 3 foot but rather sticks it in the rubbish.  It’s when you do that yourself that apparently it’s good for your soul!

That quote came from a book of Golfing one liners that I’ve had for years. Here’s one that made me laugh -

‘I’m hitting the woods just great, but I’m having a terrible time getting out of them!’ Harry Tofcano

In amongst the constant challenge of  golf personally I like things that are a bit different and mix fun with good competition . As Captain of Hornsea Golf Club I get to go to 13 other clubs  in our area.You go to play golf and then stay for a meal afterwards – Captains and Vice Captains are invited to the golf.

Generally the Captains and Vice Captains  play in  separate 4 balls although it is entirely up to the host captain what happens. Generally it is 4 ball betterball off yellow tees with sometimes nearest the pin and occasionally the longest drive. At Hornsea I did nearest the pin on 7, longest drive on 18 and nearest the pin on 17 (Captain’s only). This year there is a nucleus of very good golfers in the Vice Captain’s ranks and more often than not one of their teams has won the bottles of wine.

So last Friday we went to Hainsworth – the Captain Steve did things a bit differently!! We played Pairs Matchplay – Captains v Vice Captains …Finish all 18 holes. Add up how many holes you won by , so if you won 5 and 4 you’d carry on giving the ‘losers’ a chance to get some points back.

He did nearest the pin in 2 on the 3rd  / Closest to the pond and on the fairway on the 15th / and the longest putt holed on the 18th ….all a bit different.  But not only that – you could buy a Mulligan and a Grenade between each pair for £1 each to use once during your round. Probably most of you know that a Mulligan is when you can choose to take a shot again if you have really mucked up but how many of you have heard of a Grenade? I certainly hadn’t!  It’s when you go in a bunker you can throw the ball out instead of hitting it! Bizarre!

In our match it was all very tactical – we used the Mulligan on the 16th but saved the Grenade for the 17th and 18th not remembering that there aren’t any bunkers on 18! We didn’t go in a bunker on 17 so like nearly everyone else we didn’t even use it. As far as I know the Captain of Beverley was the only one to actually use it and he threw the ball straight into the hole on the 13th from a greenside bunker for a birdie!!!  Brilliant!!!

The day was great fun – a fantastic combination of tense, competitive golf where you don’t want to let your team down and every shot counts, sprinkled with all the different extra challenges to keep you interested and chatting away and laughing. Superb!

Plus the fact that the Captains won convincingly being victorious in 5 out of 6 matches, although the last Captains pair gave us a fright losing heavily by 6 holes. The atmosphere in the bar afterwards was top notch with everyone talking about the round. What more could you ask for? Of course golf is a very serious game where concentration is the key but fun definitely has its place IMO.

Captain Scarlett.

Next Log – October 2017

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