Ah. I wish I could claim the title to be totally true, i.e. that I had played a single round on one day without dropping a shot. That is in fact not quite the case. The reality is that at last, almost 11 months after starting to compile an eclectic scorecard for Chilworth, I finally eliminated the last remaining bogey score on it when playing yesterday with the seniors. The hole in question was the 516 yard 5th on which a par had remained frustratingly beyond my reach long after other holes had succumbed. It’s the second longest hole on the course, the fifth hardest according to the stroke index, and requires at least 150 yards off the yellow tee to clear the deep and impenetrable ditch that runs the full width of things at a suitably jaunty angle, plus another 30 or so yards to reach the mown fairway proper. If that’s not enough, a pair of trees obscure your view of things on the right hand side, and you don’t have to drift too far right to find yourself out of bounds or, indeed, on the 6th fairway. If, on the other hand, you hook your teeshot, there is trouble on the left in the form of tangly rough that may well choose not to give up your ball, should you put it there.
View from the 4th tee
Once across the ditch and hopefully in the middle of things, you are faced with a bit of an uphill slog which peaks somewhere around the 340 or 350 yard mark, after which finding the largish green is pretty straightforward as long as you don’t drift into rough grass on either side of the fairway. Once there, however, your troubles are not over, as the green slopes from back to front, making putts from most angles far from straightforward.
So I was quite pleased to tame this beast yesterday, courtesy of a steady but unspectacular 3 wood off the tee, followed by a decent-ish 4 hybrid over the hill, a pleasingly soaring 9 iron to the green and the regulation two putts. Almost a birdie, mind you. But I was happy enough to settle for the par and so remove the last bogey from my eclectic card. It’s taken long enough, after all. And I’m now on 4 under, in case you were wondering.
ordinary golf 