The first event of the new season was extremely well attended, with 15 runners, three players attended their first event as fathers and Spike made his first appearance in over a year having missed all of last season due to back problems and an ongoing obsession with arranging clashing football matches. The excellent breakfast served by Henley golf club was widely acclaimed as the “best yet” and set everyone up for what would be most’s first round of the season.
Baxter arrived wearing the Orange Jersey and Green jacket following his storming victory in the Claret Jug at the end of last season. A new colour shirt was also unveiled this season, the red shirt, worn by Nozzer following his unexpected but thoroughly deserved victories in both the pool and punching tournaments at the society Xmas bash.
A small hailstorm signalled that it was time to tee off, I can’t comment on most players first shot due to a last minute comfort break, from what i saw though most people managed to successfully drive beyond the ladies tee.
Unfortunately after a harsh winter the course was not in the best of conditions, some areas of fairway seemed more like light rough at times, the credit crunch has clearly hit Henley hard. The greens were of a better standard although somewhat irregular in pace at times.
The round of Golf itself was relatively uneventful, only interrupted by a near cataclysmic hailstorm around the 10th-12th holes, this was also the time that Greggers recently upgraded clubs proved worth the money as he hit an enormous drive on the tenth to take the longest drive, with Showelly unavailable due to Delhi belly, none of the other big hitters, such as Harrison, Hall and Brown could match him.
Nearest the pin was taken by no-one, poor planning from the TD meant that the hardest par 3 in golf was chosen despite warnings from Aust, I believe the money carries over to the Spittle Shield on April 19th.
The scoring was varied with low postings from Spike, Baxter and Pedro who will all see handicap increases for the Spittle Shield, the pressu re of the Orange jersey was clearly too much for Baxter who struggled to score a point on the first 9, Spike will surely improve if he maintains his recent enthusiasm for golf.
Despite harsh conditions some reasonable scores were posted by some the leading lights of this years tour, Harrison, consistent as ever took third and I expect to see him playing off a far more realistic handicap by the end of the season. Pre-season favourite Milmore justified the money bet on him with a creditable second. I managed a Stapleforth score of 39 points, my best for a long time to take the title and the Gibbon Invitational baseball cap and a three shot adjustment to my handicap.
Magnamous in defeat, for once, second placed Millers stated, “a tough test today with difficult and changing conditions, anything around about par you would expect to have a more than even change of winning. Anything around about 40 points then divine inspiration, cheating, or anther ‘victory’ for WHV twilight zone handicapping regime must have also been factors. I am very pleased to have scooped £7.50 less than the winner and £7.50 more than longest drive. That seems just about fair to me. Really.”
