On behalf of the winning team – The Captain, The Professor, The Juice and The Boyce
For the second year, the society returned to Royal Widney Manor to contest the Mindtwist – again, either by fortune or design, 8 members lined up for the team event. The sponsor wandered into the ‘clubhouse’ later than most, looking very very sorry for himself and his poorly back. He opted for a buggy as his crippling pain was alleviated by sitting down. I don’t like to compare the pain tolerance of the product of a strong Northern house to one from a lesser Midland based house, but I have been experiencing similar back/disc issues for nearly 2 years now and have still managed to compete using a combination of drugs and willpower – I am sure his injury will be much worse than mine when the details are in.
The teams were determined via ball toss – only Donk and PK from the winning team last year were present. PK didn’t have to do and shake his money maker at Leamington Pride midway through the round this time, but he wasn’t able to make the afternoon round. He was paired with our sicknote sponsor, tour leader Noz and new member of WMGC/RWMGC, Mr C Gregory. The Captain was teamed up with the current holder of the Green Jacket, steady away Steve and Glory or Bust juice.
Miller explained the ‘pay on the day’ bounties for gross birdies, eagles and hitting the greens with drives on Par 4’s, and we were away. We saw the first team celebrate a birdie on the first, then let a pair of older female members through on the first, before loading up – Juice melted a three wood to the edge of the green…
And from there it continued – Boyce was a machine on the less than perfect putting surfaces of the front nine – we were six under at the turn. For a while, we were worried about getting all of four of the Prof’s drives away, but that turned out not to be too troubling. The card of the round is shown below, compared to the 2016 winning round. Opening with an Eagle helps, but eight under is still pretty good shooting on a wet and wild day.
Back in the shed, the sponsors team were soundly beaten by four shots, but took both of the ‘Nearest the Pin’ prizes, despite a bit of a cock up on the actual holes being contended – i.e. the sponsors team forgot to mark on the first Mindtwist Shark hole, and then on the mental arithmetic used to work out the prize money, but we all enjoyed our pies. The winning team were all presented with a commemorative Arnold Palmer badge to be worn at the Jarra de Plata.
I was wearing DonkCam for the round, which provides some random fun shots
