Following my last post I visited Hayling Island Golf Club, I had heard very good things about the course and it didn't disappoint, but the wind was brutal. I was watching from the clubhouse everyone taking drivers and 3 woods off the par 3 start which I had at only 172 yards, but once I got down to the tee I understood why as I took out my 12 degree mini-driver and gave it a good full swing, as the spin stopped my ball caught the left to right wind and started to sail towards the gorse, luckily it sat between 2 very large bright yellow gorse bushes, I chipped on, 2-putts for bogey and so the round began and pretty much followed suit all the way around, I really struggled with the wind but I loved the course, although I saw a little more of it than I would have liked!
A return trip in better conditions is a must, especially with so many blind drives and approach shots, I now know a little bit more about the course so it's not so much a case of where you'd ideally want to be, it's more a case of where you definitely don't want to be!
The weather then changed for the worse and my course was closed again for a week but then last Saturday (20th) I popped down to get some practice in prior to 2-days golf down on the Kent coast playing Royal Cinque Ports & Royal St George's which I will write about next seperately, but, once I arrived at my club I found we were having a 3-Club Challenge and our 5 new greens were now open, so no temps.
I quickly selected my 4 wood, 8 iron & putter as my chosen 3 clubs, I thought this would be best as I can get a decent length off the tee and off the fairway with my 4w, I could bump & run with my 8i when needed, I also thought I could end up with quite a few 130-150yd approach shots after a decent drive, so I was pretty happy with my overall selection.
A spare place became available in a 2-ball with my Club Captain which I quickly slotted in with to make up a 3-ball and off we went...
Not a great start returning no score on the first 2 holes but then I started to get some nice par's and a decent score started to form, I was getting off the tee really well with the 4w and with using the 8 iron all the time I was starting to get the measure of it for some stronger shots and then some 3/4 shots into the greens, so much so I only went and won the first competition of the year and after looking at the results, I was the only person to record an under nett par score winning by a clear 4 points :-)
The #YOTF is well underway and I'm heading to the Kent coast for some links golf at 2 very prestigious courses, being Royal Cinque Ports & Royal St George's, so stay tuned ;-)
