BORED?

 CHAIRMAN OF THE BORED

OK, that was fun but if you want to be bored you can:

• Go over to Richard's Bass Bag and read about banjo strings and how he's been practising  for an upcoming hootenanny.

• Read A Catholic's View to become confused as Robert tries to explain free will. (Be warned, you will give up the will to live if you dally there).

• Or, you can continue reading here to learn about my latest golfing exploits.

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Oh, you're still here. Let's carry on.

Yesterday afternoon I went to play a few holes of golf. I checked in on the automatic machine to register being on the course (Covid requirement) and to get a card. I entered the back nine instead of the front nine but no matter, no one is likely to check my scores.

I teed off on the first hole with what seemed like a pretty good wood shot but ..... it disappeared. I thought that it should have been just to the left of the green but ..... nothing. The ball was gone. Bugger! I moved on to the next hole.

On hole two I teed off with a long drive that went to the left side of the fairway. When I walked down, through the soft and muddy grass I found that the ball ..... was exactly where I thought it would be. I used a fairway wood and hit a really nice shot that ended up just to the left of the green. A chip and a putt gave me a par 4.

On the third hole I hit a cracker of a tee shot that unfortunately was just a bit to the left and the ball clipped a branch of a massive tree. "That's OK" I thought "it'll have dropped down on to the fairway. When I walked to where I thought the ball would be .....it wasn't there! I searched and searched. Nothing. Bugger! I dropped another ball and hit another really good fairway wood shot which, to me, seemed to have landed on the green. When I reached the green there was no ball. I searched around the green in ever increasing circles but .... nothing. No ball. Bugger!

Three balls lost in three holes!

I teed off on the 4th, hitting a really nice shot down the fairway and walked down and parked my golf trolley next to the ball. I quickly headed right, to the creek and went down the bank (carefully as it was slippery - don't tell The Old Girl). Obviously earlier golfers hadn't risked getting wet and muddy so I found 8 golf balls. Good ones. This made me 5-up. Beauty!

I hit a beautiful 3-iron shot to the back of the green. Pitch and putt and another par 4.

I then walked down to the end of the 10th hole as I wanted to play the interesting 11th. A reasonable tee shot to the right of the fairway was followed by a nice fairway wood shot to the green that, unluckily, just fell short and splashed into the pond. Bugger! I wasn't able to retrieve the ball as it was out of reach of my extendable ball retriever but I did find another ball. Still 5 up. Beauty. I didn't finish the hole but wandered into the grove of mangroves with a swamp below and found another ball. 6 up.

I then played the 17th hole and the fairway was very boggy after the tremendous rainfalls we've had recently. My second shot using a 5-iron should have been near the green but when I got there it was nowhere around. I checked in the cup just in case, as it was on this hole a few months ago I scored an eagle 2 with a fairway wood shot to the green (I can provide a link to a post I wrote about this if you want. No problem just ask). The ball was lost though and I figured that as the ground was boggy it may have 'suckered' and due to the boggy fairway the greenkeepers hadn't mown the grass as much as the normally do so it was hard to see where the ball 'suckered'. This is probably what happened to those other balls that 'disappeared' on the other fairways - I'm sure that you wondered about that. Now 5 up.

I abandoned this hole and played the 18th. This is a par 3 hole with a narrow fairway with bloody big trees on each side. The green is elevated and on two levels so, if you are lucky (or good enough) to miss the trees you still have to have enough 'carry' to land up on the green. I normally hit a tree or end up just below and to the right of the green. This time I teed off at the extreme right edge of the tee area and hit a beautiful shot using the fairway wood. The ball just missed the trees on the left, arced up to the green, landed and rolled right and hit the flagpole. Beauty. Almost a hole in one. When I got to the green the ball was only about 18 inches away for an easy putt and a birdie 2.

The result -  some very nice and satisfying shots, 5 balls lost but ten found.

If you want to read more about my golfing exploits feel free to ask and I can provide links for you, or, you can just enter 'golf' in the search panel on the blog home page.  No problem.