Stableford

Caught practising!

Not the biggest of fields, but the right day to play if you wanted to improve your standing in the consistency stakes - a score of 34 get's you fifth place, that doesn't happen very often. 

Definitely going to have fun today

A warm one, and the breeze didn't come in until the 17th hole.

 But a pleasant day and the groups moved along pretty quickly. 

Must get those new glasses

Welcome to guests Max and Jake. 

Just going to teach Phil a thing or two

Someone was mentioning that the girls have been letting us down fashion-wise recently. Here's a bit of guidance for you:

Recommended wardrobe for spring and autumn golf

If Audrey Hepburn can look this good on the range, so can you.

Doesn't have to be complicated, something quite simple and tasteful like this usually goes down well

And here's an interesting rule you may not be aware of. 

Are you only allowed to putt using a putter? Or, when your ball is on the putting green, can you use any club you want to play the stroke?

The Rules of Golf allow the use of any golf club to play any golf shot. If you want, you can tee off using a putter and putt using a driver. Wouldn't be very smart! But it's perfectly permissible under the rules.

In fact, sometimes you have no choice but to use a club other than the putter when on the putting green.

For example, if your putter breaks during a round and you are unable to replace it, you'll have to putt using something other than putter. In that situation, many pros prefer to "putt" with a wedge, striking the golf ball at its equator with the leading edge of the wedge (blading it, in other words).

Another scenario you occasionally (rarely) see on the pro tours: a green with severe slopes and an odd shape, where the break on a long putt is so great that the golfer would have to putt off the green in order to play the proper break. Some pros, in that situation, will play a chip shot or pitch shot from the putting surface. 

However, you won't make yourself popular if you start taking divots out of the green. 

Planning to burn up the course today

Good to see Stan back after a few weeks lay off, trust you've got that roof on now before the cyclone cuts through. 

And a get well soon to Richard Osborne, who came down with something nasty yesterday and had to pull out. 

And thanks to Thomas for his sponsorship today. We gather you had to ping off to Denmark unexpectedly, so missed you too. (Not sure which Denmark, if it's the Scandinavian one stay away from the awful Surstromming - that fermented herring is disgusting)

Congratulations to Phil who managed to birdie the index 1, which wins him the coveted prize of two golf balls. Being a pretty classy club we general make sure they've been washed and cleaned up a bit before we give them back as prizes. 

No great competition on any of the novelties this week. Looks like if you just got your name on the card, you got the prize. 

	NOVELTY	HOLE	CONTENDERS	WINNER
	NTP	2		Ross
	NTP in 2	9		Glen
	LD	12		Max
	NTP in 2	15		Derek
	Golden Hole			Jackpots

So, given that most of us seem to be off on holiday or still hung over, here are the rather meagre results this week.  A very creditable 35 for Max, Jake seemed a bit coy about putting his card into the ring. As for the rest:

	PLAYER	SCORE	BIRDIES
	Richard Y	27
	John	28
	Bernie	29
	Ross	29
	Phil	31	5
	Frances	33	1
	Gim	33
	Peter	34
	Greg	34
	Stan	35
	Glen	35	17
	Ian	36
	Derek	36

The lollies are getting better and better

Not very often 36 is enough to win. Making the most of it

Next week - New Years Cup, a stroke competition. Hope to see more of you there. 

Christmas Cup

It now appears that Rudolf's famous red nose was as a result of a golfing injury:

Not a huge turnout for the Christmas Cup, but a fun day for all of those who did. Some good scores, and some unaccountably poor ones too. The hangovers start early in the season these days. 

Birthdays this week? Just the one for that little bloke in Bethlehem on the 25th. 

We're not entirely sure of who won what in the novelties, but I did witness a magnificent drive by Jan on the 17th, that I can't imagine anyone would have beaten. 

And a pretty close to the pin from the same golfer on the 9th. I'm not saying it wasn't a bit of a mishit that bashed hard into the bank before swinging wildly left and then rolling off the side of the green to sit a few inches from the hole, but that's just how golf works sometimes. 

There may have been, indeed there were other winners of the novelties, and I'll update the blog if anyone can supply details. (I had to scuttle off immediately after the game for a family event - another nine holes of golf!)

And talking of golf (yes, we were, pay attention), for those of us who are rule nazis, here follows a clarification of just what is meant by "nearest point of relief":

'NEAREST POINT OF RELIEF' DOES NOT MEAN 'CLOSEST PLACE I'LL HAVE A GOOD LIE'

Important: The "relief" in "nearest point of relief" is relief from the original condition interfering with your shot. It is NOT relief from interference or issues caused by any other condition.

What does that mean? Well, your nearest point of relief might be behind a big tree. Or in the middle of a bush. Those are the breaks.

If the NPR results in your ball winding up in a bad spot, you'll just have to deal with it as you would any other bad spot: punching out from behind trouble, declaring your ball unplayable (and going through the drop procedures for that, after the initial free relief), etc.

The nearest point of relief might also result in an improved situation: moving your ball out of rough into the fairway, for example. The NPR might result in your golf ball moving to a similar situation, a better situation or a worse (possibly much worse) situation. A little good luck never hurts!

Note that you are not required to take free relief for the situations described above except in the case of a wrong putting green (golf courses also have the option to implement a local rule requiring that you drop without penalty out of ground under repair).

You have the option to play the ball as it lies, except for a wrong putting green (and, typically, GUR). If your nearest point of relief is in a terrible spot, then you can choose to (sticking with our example) play the ball off the cart path rather than take the free relief.

So, there you have it. Interesting, huh?

Back to SOS - and the lollies for the day go to Gordon. The records don't indicate whether he shared them around or not. 

And the girls managed to form a bloc somewhat uncharacteristically towards the back of the field. Any thoughts as to what happened there?

So, the winner on the day?

	PLAYER	SCORE	BIRDIES
	Max	22
	Gordon	24
	Lynne	25	6,10
	Glen	26
	Bernie	28
	Jan	28	9
	Gim	29
	John	30
	Rob	31
	Colin	32
	Brett	33
	Ron	34
	Phil McK	35
	Derek	37
	Richard	37
	Peter	39
	Ian	39
	Greg	40

Congratulations to Greg for an excellent score. 

We gather the sponsor for the day was unaware of the fact, but so Greg didn't go empty handed, Brett offered to share his glass of coke in lieu. Very decent of you, Brett - a true gentleman. 

And apparently there also wasn't a trophy to pass on to the lucky winner. We gather Glen is to blame for the oversight. 

Well, in the best tradition of not being able to organise a piss-up in a brewery, a Happy Christmas to all. Hope at least some of us can manage to open a screw top bottle tomorrow. 

Incidentally, as I go through the pictures to go with the blog, I come across a number like this that are totally unsuitable, which is why I don't put them in. 

Many thanks to Lynne for providing scores and scuttlebutt for this weeks blog. See you for the last game of 2017 next week.