The nail in the coffin...

I had high hopes for Sunday's medal, despite the hard pan fairways. However the negative signs were ominous when I teed it up on the first and creamed my five iron straight at the pin. Cue a nasty bounce off the fairway and rather than rolling up just past the fringe, the ball was deposited in a bunker. I then managed to pick my bunker shot clean, cleared the green and took four more shots to get it in the hole. That opening 5 iron was the best shot I hit all day as I struggled in all aspects of the game. My tee shots were rapidly degenerated to the point when I hit my shot off the 5th and nearly killed the club captain as it took off at right angles, not to mention the swipe on the 13th while the ball remained somewhat bemused on the tee.

It didn't get much better on the fairways, with the better shots being a mixture of Sally Gunnells and mishits that wound up short of trouble. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was only able to identify one hole where I felt I played well and that was our stroke index 18, par 3 11th. A solid par was picked up there but the rest of the card made for dismal reading. I clocked up an unwanted record with three penalties at the 5th, which included one for the stroke that nearly decapitated the Club Captain.

A total of 11 penalties, a total so high that it confused Scoresaver 2 into thinking I had actually bettered the target of 2.8. 38 putts included a woeful four putt with two misses from 3 feet. Two fairways hit and a solitary GIR. I wanted to weep, I tried to think only about the next shot, clear my mind and go through my pre shot routine. It didn't work. My second worst round ever, it surely has to get better from here on...

120 (71)

6(3), 9(5), 7(3), 5(4), 12(5), 6(3), 7(5), 6(4), 6(4), 5(4), 3(3), 7(5), 8(4), 9(4), 7(4), 5(4), 7(4), 5(3)