Preston Golf Club

As I was writing out the scorecards at Preston GC, having arrived early before the rabble descended, I was apprehensive about my game. I had played on the Friday at H&P GC and, to be honest, it didn’t look much like golf, it was that bad. However, once the hoard had arrived, delicious bacon butties had been devoured and usual instructions had been given and given again, it was off to the car to get kitted out and prepare for battle.

Standing by the first tee and putting green, I could hear the various utterings of elite golfers – “has anyone got any Ibuprofen”, ” F**k these greens are fast” and, my favourite ” have we played here before?” We have, in August 2020, June 2021 and April 2022. The weather wasn’t looking good. It got very dark as the Captain led off the first group at the first, a 125 yard par 3. We watched Steve S sink a birdie putt, with the other two getting a par and bogey – nice start, let battle commence! I was in the penultimate group and my partners were raring to go. I put my tee shot onto the green, Curly put his just over the bunker, Larry into the trees and Mo close to the practice chipping green, it was going to be a slog!

After parring the tough 2nd, I was feeling confident, but as we went to the 3rd, the rain started to fall. It was fairly persistent and heavy right up to the 11th, but I had managed to collect 20 points on the front nine and started the back nine in similar fashion. We had caught up with the group in front on the 14th tee. This was a long par 3 with a highly elevated tee. Josh H hit an iron through the green, Rab C shanked to the right and hit the corrugated shed in the greenkeepers compound and no one landed on the green. My group did not fare too well either, me to the left of the green, Curly and Larry 20 yards into the crap on the right and only Mo managed to land a great shot onto the front of the green. Thankfully it was not the Nearest the Pin hole!

As we walked up to the 18th green, I knew I had a good score, but I really thought that someone would come in with over 40 points. Not so, my 38 points was enough to win. So, having just gained a shot before playing at Preston, my next game at Penwortham will see me 3 shots worse off! C’est la vie!

Thanks and congrats to our winner, Steve Clarke

For full schedule see; Preston

Long Drive – Les Norton

NP – Mark Murray

NP2 – Martyn Wilson

2’s – Steve Stuart, Mark Murray

For current League and Helix standings see Current Season.

See you all at the next event