Bird Hills Golf Club Sunday 20 August 2023

by Tim Houghton

At the start of the year I didn’t think I would be writing a winners report in 2023.  Unable to swing a golf club and having to walk off the post Christmas outing with excruciating hip pain I had to miss the February outing.

So the morning started with a 30 min hip / back exercise and stretch at home before picking up Alan on a sunny morning. Our group made a good start on the first with 4 good drives. My second was a tad long but a delicate chip back gave me a tap in par. Nett par on the second followed by a long birdie putt on the 3 got me off to a great start. Two more pars before the really annoying blob on the NTP par 3. Only gripe of the day was the state of the bunkers and the unrepaired pitch marks. Well done to Richard for his 14 foot NTP.

Finished the front 9 strongly and was pleased with 19 points and then found out I was joint last in our group with Graham on 20 and Colin leading the way on 21.

The back 9 started poorly having hooked a ball into the rough after it fell off the tee twice! Scrambled a point along with the rest of the team (our worst team hole).

Marking Phil’s card I knew he was going well and Graham nudged me as we left the 17th saying (Colin’s got this he, is on 39 points!). I wasn’t really aware of my own score as I was tracking the Concatenation team score. I knew we must have a chance on that one. And so we went to the potential card wrecker of the 18th. The back right pin meant for once I didn’t pull it in to the lake but a fluffed chip left me putting downhill from off the green. Once again the putter came to the rescue with a pleasing par finish.

Adding up the scores we realised all four of us had 40 points which has to be some form of Cavaliers Record so challenge is on for a four ball to beat a 160!

Thanks to Graham, Colin and Phil for great company and shame it had to come down to a 4 way countback.

RESULTS

Winner                              Tim Houghton            40 pts

Runner up                        Philip Faulkner            40 pts

Third                                  Graham Pearce          40 pts

Nearest the pin              Richard Faulkner        14’ 0”

2 Score Concatenation

Tim Houghton, Philip Faulkner, Graham Pearce and Colin Staunton-Lambert               423 pts