Deanwood Park Away Day - 30th July 2019

Trophy Winner - Brian White - 48 points !!

Keeping his 2019 weather record unblemished, Mark somehow managed to organise yet another rainy and windy golfing experience for the now battle hardened TOFs (well, 11 of them!)

To combat the bad weather, Mark made sure there was a covered driving range at the course. Little did he know that the driving range was closed (for an external lesson) but you couldn’t even use woods.. so, I guess it was a pitching range! Weather aside, the course was set in lovely countryside and although shared with a few sheep, was quite inviting! The greens were exceptional.

Bacon rolls were served with the tea/coffee (the best bacon rolls to date) and the standard briefing followed. As this was a 9-hole course, we decided to play the front 9 off the white tees and the back 9 from the yellow tees and this also gave each player 2 chances to get nearest the pin (on the 7^th and 16^th)

Graham Plested kindly provided the first tee tipple but due to some ‘faffing’ around, our tee time fast approached so we decided to play away (a rollover to Oxford City for the tipple)

Now for a few ‘tales about those that couldn’t… and from those that did…

Thank you to Peter Saunders for being honest in pulling out due to the predicted bad weather (not a bad call sir), Paul Ferrito couldn’t attend due to his business (drainage)… given the poor weather that was a good business decision Paul!. David Leak who I’m sure mentioned something about the Deanwood course wasn’t long enough for his aggressive playing style… nothing to do with the predicted weather and then there’s Terry Snr, who apparently had something wrong with his Akilis, Ackillies, Achilis, Achilles (‘hurty heel’) Hmm…

During play: Graham and I hit our tee shots on the first tee and with a combined distance of around 60 yds it wasn’t looking too good for the rest of the round. Graham added another 60 yds with his next 2 shots  so I felt a little better. Graham managed to birdie the same hole twice (and with only one putt!) and I contributed to the driving range ball count…twice 

I do think the early starters (Graham and I) had the worst of the weather because as soon as we were in the club house the sky seemed to clear! I was going to say that my score reflected the challenging weather conditions but looking at the number of 40+ points scored, It did make me feel rather inadequate.

Ham, Egg and Chips awaited us (very nice indeed given the price!) and then prize giving.

The full results list can be found in the normal place but the winners on this outing were:

Overall winner: Brian White with an obscene 48 points Trophy, Embossed Golf Balls and £8.00

Runner-up: Phil Edwards/Terry Rapple (a mere 43 points) The obligatory round of applause

Putting competition: Graham Plested 28 putts (a stat worthy of the PGA!) £8.00

Nearest the pin: Brian Monnery (lucky bounce) £8.00, Embossed Golf Balls

Special Prize: Mark Wright (poor, very, very, poor) A nice bottle supplied by David L

Golf quote for the month:

“Personally, I’d like to see narrower fairways,

that way everyone would have to play from the rough, not just me”