Winter Grand Prix - 14th March, 2010

At last the course was open again - the rapid thaw over the last 48 hours meant it was, with the exception of a smattering on the 2nd green, completely free of snow. In fact, the conditions were surprisingly good - there was no hint of any frozen ground at all.

We played in a five-ball - there was hardly anyone else in sight. We had originally planned to have two groups of three but there was a bit of a mix-up with times and Dave didn't quite make it in time for his first appearance for a while.

At the 5th hole (summer 6th), I carved my drive towards the gardens and thought it probably had gone out of bounds, but when I got up there, it was suspended in a bush a few feet off the ground. I used my driver but never made contact although I did at least succeed in moving the ball to the ground - to no avail in the end as I blobbed the hole:

At the 7th (summer 8th) - the big tree has finally met its maker - all that was left was a fairly healthy looking stump - with four old limbs apparently growing out of it:

We also now have the return of the moles in several locations - here's Malcolm playing his approach to the 12th (summer 13th) after retrieving his ball from the burn - note large mole hills behind him on the other side of the burn:

Anyway, it was all very enjoyable, as was the Lulach afterwards. Scoring was pretty good with 3 of us on 38 points - Peter and Jas had inward halves of 20 points but I managed to pip them with 21 points to take the money. In Syd's absence, I've tried to update the scores and handicaps in his preferred style:

Results Sunday 14/03/2010

                          Points           Old Hdcp    New Hdcp

1st Ian Stewart     38                    10                  8

2= Peter Street     38                    18                16

2= Jas Bhagrath    38                    18                16

4th Jack Simpson   32                   12                13
5th Malcolm Grigor 29                   9                 10

Overall Positions


                           Total              Played
Jack Simpson       325                   9

Ian Stewart           261                   8

Syd Freeman        232                   7

Peter Street          230                   7

Jas Bhagrath         197                   6

Malcolm Grigor     133                  4
Harry Salter            94                   3

Bill Miller                35                   1

Ian Sharp                35                   1

The overall result of the Winter Grand Prix is already a foregone conclusion - with only 2 weeks' play left (neither of which I'm around for), Jack can't be caught.