Surrey National take narrow win by 3 away @Woldingham

Or “Slow-dingham”…. if I was being funny.

Well, at least we didnt have the direct sun and heat of Saturday, but it was still very warm albeit it 4-5 degrees cooler.  A nice breeze to help things a tiny bit, just a great day for summer golf. A mild b8lls up over the tee time, as we were down to play at 10 but turned up for a 9.30 breakfast.  Wasn’t a problem at our end but we managed breakfast anyway, had few putts and the teams were lined up to go off around 10.15am.

Across the board the teams were pretty well matched.  Woldingham had suffered away at Surrey Downs earlier in the year, but had beaten Farleigh at home.  Always was going to be tough against our ‘sister’ club (is that right?) at their gaff, and so it proved.

You can see from the sheet at the bottom, only a few shots given either way – only a decent amount of 8 or so given in mine and Jay’s match (which – arguably – may have swung it on those matches).

After Tom “Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeef” Austin topped it off the first hole, well we thought, game on… let’s give it a good go whatever.  (Soz for mentioning that Gorilla).  But steady Al Savs and the ol’ sweary man himself ground out a great result going 4up by the end.

Most thought the round wouldn’t end!  The slowest I’ve ever seen Woldingham, and the members agreed.   The par4 6th tee saw 3 groups waiting on it… seriously not a good day for anyone.  We had taken 1hr 40mins to do 5holes!  This wasn’t us going out later than planned and messing timings up behind us, there just seemed to be a horrible pace due I assume to a mix of 4balls and 2 balls going out slowing everything down.  The standard of golf ahead didnt seem that great thus it knocked on to everyone behind.  Fortunately it picked up on the back 9, and we all got round in the end.

Jay turned up on time (just) and he and Andy were up against it against another of the Bocarro’s and steady Adam. They came in one down.

Jim and Woody were out next, both very solid and despite hearing that the game was close on the front nine (helped by meeting regularly on the tees due to the slow pace), the pairing kept to task and returned another fantastic 4hole win by the end.

Following them, Rob and I didnt play badly but were up against it from the start from Steady Jim (or “Extremely Super Steady” Jim) and Brendan playing off 15. I was 1 under by handicap at the end, Rob I’m sure about the same.  Jim’s a fixture for Woldingham and is always straight, always a solid putter… he could play off 5 or 4 easily round there. We had a great game in good spirits against these two, but they dovetailed well and I think Brendan’s shots just pushed it over to them in the end but we did find some resistance. Rob didnt have his putting pants on during the front9, and its no good having my putts and chips only go close. Cant win holes that way!

So we were 4 down at one point, but kept at it and started piling on the pressure on in the back 9. We got it back to only one down, helped by a fantastic birdie by Rob on the SI1, on the hole the only shot Jim got in the game. So one down coming to the end after some solid play from us both, but Brendan’s nett birdie on the 16th was too good after I missed a 5footer for the birdie half. We halved the par3 17th, and unfortunately I couldn’t sink a 5 footer on the last to take the hole so we returned a frustrating 2hole loss.

Behind us it was a similar story from Paul and ‘Radar’ Lamppost.  Solid golf played by all 4.  Paul told tales of halved holes in birdies and seemed to be another tough game against a determined Woldingham pairing of Chris Coates and their team captain Simon.  I’ve played against both before and were on paper (in my opinion) possibly the hardest pairing.  Our boys came in just 2down.

So overall we won the match by 3… 46.5 to their 43.5. A great result against a strong Woldingham team and they had turned over Farleigh here before. So it was good return all round, and some seriously great determined play from the whole team.  Well done all… lets take it into the final 3 games.

Additional thanks…

We had a strong team out, albeit it with a few last minute changes due to injury (muff strain’s eh Wayne?) and whatnot. So special thanks for Jay (also for turning up nearly on time!) and our Jim of course for both stepping up after being asked only a couple days before.

Though I find it hard getting the final pairings together when so many want to play, it is fantastic that we’ve a solid squad across the club willing to play. Its a great competition and great format.