Another good walk not spoiled

Not unusually for a Friday, I played golf again today; this time on a ‘proper’ course, which is to say a full length course where you have to use virtually all the clubs in the bag.

Today’s venue was the Woodlands Golf and Country Club at Bradley Stoke and in particular the Masters course. Only 14 holes are in play on this course so in order to complete a full round you play four of the holes twice and sadly two of them are amongst the toughest.

I went with my new friend Campbell who is a decent player and a even more decent bloke.

There are two courses at Woodlands, the Masters one and the Signature which was pretty rammed. The added attraction for the Masters is that it is cheap. A mere tenner. At most courses you can’t hire a buggy for that but it’s a nice course, in good shape.

My round today was probably not good enough to get me in this year’s Ryder Cup team. 102 is 32 over par so probably not even good enough for a handicap but for all that I didn’t play too badly.

I know this doesn’t sound much to brag about but there were only three holes where I shot more than six. Unfortunately, one of them, the 11th, saw me lose two balls off the tee and finish with a card-wrecking 10. Given that my eighth shot was some 150 yards from the flag, 10 represents a decent recovery! If – and golf is a big game of ‘ifs’ – that 10 had been six, I’d have shot a slightly more respectable 98. But I didn’t.

My problem with golf is that I am not entirely sure where each shot will end up. For me, it is not a matter of hitting the ball to a specific point, it’s more a specific area. I do aim for a particular spot but that is not an indicator of where the ball will end up.

I’d not played a proper course in a good while so my levels of fitness are not quite at Olympic level and by the time I got out of the car at home, putting one foot in front of the other required some serious thought. I should surely not ache like this after a brisk eight mile walk with occasional swings with a golf club? Perhaps it was the two weeks I’ve just had where the most exercise I had was to get up from the sun bed to buy another ice cream?

It was unexpectedly sunny and warm, too, which took it out of me. We ended up playing beneath a clear blue sky and a sun which is still high enough – well, it is August – to belt out some heat.

One thing is for sure: I shall sleep well tonight. In all likelihood, I shall probably sleep well this evening too when I am supposed to be watching something on TV that I have insisted on watching.

I feel a bit like I used to feel when I’d just played football which is another miserable sign of old age. Golf would have been something I’d have done as a warm down for football. Now it’s the main exercise itself!