Our playing partners for the day, Simon and Steve got off to a slow start before breaking into a scoring frenzy. Having amassed 9pts for the first 6 holes they racked up 40pts total, with 22 on the back nine. They were a real pleasure to play with. Simon tried his hardest to get me to keep my head up. I just seemed to grow more and more despondent as I believed I was massively letting Ian down. What I have learned is that it didn;t make me play any better and just compounded the issue. I have vowed to take it as a learning experience and be less apologetic. Next week's scramble is a timely opportunity to make amends. So to the ugly side of golf. As we are sitting in the bar some rather disparaging remarks were made at Simon. Accusations of banditry are unwarranted, unnecessary and unfair. The lads played quality golf today in challenging conditions but because they won the first round with a score of 47 they were tarnished with the Zorro brush. What makes it even harsher is that we all know that the last qualifying competition was at the beginning of November. They want to be cut, are playing well enough to be cut but have had no opportunity to get cut. Greensomes format and some players green with envy, not an attractive character trait. I had my twopenneth and told Si not to worry. Lovely chap, works hard at his game and is reaping the rewards. It clicked for him recently. Here's hoping it clicks for me soon.
Shot of the day for me came on our 4th. We took Ian's tee shot but into a strong headwind I couldn't make the green. Stuck him about 80 yards out and his approach left me a 20 footer for. Read the break really well and got the weight spot on. It snaked its way to the hole and was such a great feeling when it dropped centre cup.
