I find it interesting that there seems to be a certain notoriety in being mentioned in these little streams of consciousness that I produce each week. Take for example, what happened on Wednesday, when I arrived to be accosted by an irate member, unhappy at being left out of the Results from last Saturday, when he had finished well. I can understand why he was upset, he had a top ten finish and should have had his name proudly displayed in this newsletter, and in the local newspapers so that he could be laude by his friends and family in awe of his obvious talent and ability. It is not after all, every week that you finish 7th in a tournament at the prestigious Levels Golf Course Now it turns out that there was a bit of a communication error to blame, as this erstwhile member had no intention of entering the year long Speights Shootout competition and so did not push the appropriate button to enter the medal competition, hence their results did not show up. Now in their defence, the Medal Competition was somewhat misnamed "Medal Speights Shootout" and so the confusion was understandable. Now I find myself in something of a quandary as the subject of this injustice has pleaded not to be named? On the one hand, the record does need to be corrected. On the other, is the anonymity of the person involved. We should also take into consideration the feelings of those other members who mistakenly believe that they performed one place better than they actually did. I am not going to suggest that many of our members are of an overly sensitive disposition, but there are several that I would not want to give too big a shock too, out of consideration of their superior age and any potential, subsequent frailties. In the end, I feel that the truth will out, and so I am pleased to confirm that Ronnie Hobbs, that's, Ronnie Hobbs, did indeed place in the top 10 last week, a highly creditable 7th place. An apology has been sent to the local papers for providing incorrect info in the first place, and a retraction of last weeks results and the correct results supplied. I trust that this is an end to the matter and would ask that we all just check that our scorecards have the correct competition noted on them. Another item of note this week, was the round I played with our patron, Nevis Jones, yesterday. It is always a pleasure to play with Nevis, and frankly, if I can keep playing golf at his level when (if) I get to his age, I will be very happy. There was, however, one moment that I feel needs to be shared with you. Now those of you who have not played a round with Nevis will not fully understand the process involved - typically, Nevis will arrive early at the tee in his cart, and then stride purposefully out to the tee before asking everyone to keep an eye on his ball. This is a frankly pointless exercise as it will inevitably be in the middle of the fairway. The next stage is to direct Nevis to his ball, generally through shouted directions and exhortations along the lines of "left/right a bit"; "straight on"; :stop"; "it's behind you" etcetera, etcetera. Given that Nevis' hearing is maybe, not quite what it was, errors inevitably occur, and one such error did indeed occur on Saturday. Approaching the 16th green, Nevis' approach shot was in the right hand rough just shot of the green, level with the bunker. Instructions given, Nevis presses onwards and overshoots the ball. Literally. I mean he drove straight over his ball and subsequently onto the green. Deciding that, Oh well, may as well carry on, was the simpler option, Nevis proceeded to continue across the green, stopping on the opposite side of the green about as far from his ball as he could possibly be. It was a sight to see, and did the green no damage whatsoever, although I would stress that this is not the sort of behaviour to be repeated please. I did think that it might be an idea thought to attach a roller to Nevis' cart in future just in case history were to repeat itself. Stay safe, and have fun out there Steve |