Bird Hills Golf Club Sunday 4 July 2021

by Barrie Smith

This is how I saw the day;

I arrived at Bird Hills at about 09:45 and met a few players in the car park.  All the talk was of just how wet we would be getting, however I tried to suggest that there was no chance of rain and we'd have a lovely dry day.  We did until the second hole at least!  The other topic of discussion was why the course was being played backwards, the back nine being the front nine and vice versa.  I do recall many years ago playing the course in this format and somebody later said that was how it was set out when it was Hawthorne Hill Golf Club.  I must have played it early after the change of name.

We had a good number turn out, as always for the Father & Son Competition.  I was in the fifth group, playing with Colin and the father and son pairing of Phil & Richard Faulkner.  Being handed the groups cards by Tim's son Nick, I noticed that my handicap had risen to 19.  Various comments like, "how the heck do you get two shots on a hole" and "bandit" were among the general banter dealt out by my fellow hackers.

We played the 1st in the dry and I think I managed to scrape a point or two.  Phil and Richard already had their sights firmly set on propping up the field of father & son pairings and they started strongly with a single point between them I recall!  The approach to the 2nd saw the umbrella come out, just to put it away again by the 4th tee.  It came back heavy on the 6th hole and then disappeared for the rest of the day, for some of us at least.  I managed to settle into a groove and steadily scored throughout the nine holes.  One blob saw me card a 15 through nine and I thought that's not going to be anywhere near good enough.  Meanwhile, Richard and Phil were maintaining their excellent poor record for scoring in the father and son competition.

The rain seemed to have gone completely now, as we set off down the 10th.  I continued to strike the ball well and just seemed to be doing enough to score well on most holes.  The nearest the pin came up on the 14th.  Richard was the only one in the group to challenge the green, however his 35 feet left to the pin didn't really challenge Tim's earlier shot of just over 18".  I then came to my only 2-shot hole on the 15th.  A reasonable drive down the right was followed by a fairly poor second close to the left hand bridleway.  I managed to recover and again take good points.  It was strange, as none of the holes seemed to really stand out but walking onto the 18th I felt that a good finish could put me in contention.  My tee shot at the 18th wasn't great and I found it tight to the left ditch, level with the middle of the green.  We could now see the clouds looming so it was a case of getting the ball in the hole quickly and rushing to the car park to pack away in the dry.

I finished with 23 points on the back nine to give me a total of 38 points, just beating Tim with 37 I found out later.  The real win turned out to be getting the clubs in the car before the heaviest rain of the day arrived.  Sorry you weren't all as lucky.

Thank you to my playing partners throughout the day.  Well done to Tim & Nick for winning the Father & Son with 74 points, narrowly beating Steve and Thomas on 72.  Also to Tim for his excellent NTP.

I no longer have 2 shots on any hole, as I have been cut to 17!!!

RESULTS

Winner:          Barrie Smith              38 pts

Runner-up:   Tim Houghton          37 pts

Third:              Steve Nower             34 pts

Nearest the pin          Tim Houghton      1’ 7”

Father and Son       Tim and Nick Houghton    74 points