Two More pictures from Cirencester

A great day out lets hope we can get the seniors back on track

 As you will hopefully have seen we are trying to get the seniors going again Tuesdays and Thursdays.

If we can is it useful to restart the blog, I'll be asking you all soon.

In the meantime we had a great day out at Cirencester Wednesday 1st Sept (2021).

Kevin

Words and pictures thanks to John Alexander.

Seniors Day Out 

September 1st 2021 will go down in the golfing annuls of the Witney Lakes Seniors. After two years of doldrums golf, last Wednesday made up for the missing events and fragmentation at our home club.

For the old guard meeting up again was like the reunion of geriatrics trying to remember and share the memories of good times past and for the new guard a warm welcome to the banter and bawdiness (or is that baldiness) as we all munched away at our bacon rolls in what for some of us,  was still the early morning.

No app’s, no IG, no photos of cards just a plain old fashioned enjoyable golfing day out at a lovely golf course with excellent morning rolls and coffee and a delicious meal after all the huffing and puffing of the exploration of the undulating acres of Cirencester golf club.

Thirty odd of our oldies in 8 four balls took to the task of overcoming a new course for some and a rerun for others, stopping at the halfway house for topping up as necessary.

Standing on the first preparing to whack the ball uphill towards the green the slope did not look too intimidating but I guess there were some of us whose knees were wobbling in the hope of a god shot before the eyes of our mates. But when you got to the green, eventually, and looked down it would be easy to imagine the slope covered in snow and resembling an alpine ski jump.

There were some lovely holes with all sorts of blind tee shots, different lies and not so subtle cross slopes, tricky greens and bunkers the course presented a challenge to any one of our group.

However, some mastered the challenge and after dinner prizes were distributed and speeches given. Four players tied on 37pts but ironically the day’s winner with 41pts was the event organiser Malcolm Saunders who as usual did a super job which gave us all a good day out and excellent value.

Now that we have sampled what reality is like playing in the seniors group let us all hope that we can look forward to more of the same and that in the future at Witney we can enjoy being and playing together again.

JA

September 2nd 2021.

Tough Day at the Lakes

 So

The first Roll Up of the new era and it was blistering hot. I think the scores speak for themselves. Mark my playing partner and myself gave each other a sly look on the 10th Tee and agreed we had had enough.

By the time I was supposed to finish I had gotten home had a sandwich and a shower and fallen asleep. Great Decision.

I wil change the next roll up to stableford if I can a bit more forgiving.

Dont forget from tomorrow you can sign up for the Inagural Bill Woodbridge Memorial Trophy

 Dear Golfers

We are trying to get going again in something like the style we had before Lock Down but its not going to be the same and most of us wouldn't feel safe if it was.

We tried a couiple of competitions in July and they seemed to go OK, we have more in August and lets hope they go as well. In addition we have tried to start the Roll Up again for weeks where there are no competitions. 

We cant block out Tee times at the moment and I'm not sure we will ever be able to do again but what we can do is get in a day early before any members or visitors can book Tee times and tie up the slots we want.

So for the next Tuesday (18th not 11th) we can book tomorrow before anyone else. If you book a Tee time from 8 till 10 anyone else who wants to join in the comp can see the slots available and who is playing them and book up to join them. We think thats the way forward and means you can play with different people who you may not have seen otherwise.

From the IG app you can sign yourself and any other members in but as far as I know you cant pay on their behalf. This is not an issue for August as these roll ups are free but it will matter in September when we start to charge a £1fee. I suppose those with a Pay Pal account can settle up on their behalf and sort out a cash repayment later.

Anyone has any suggestions about how this could be made easier please let a committee member know.

Hopefully I'll be keeping up the blog from now on any feed back would be good

Kevin

So a small turnout today for the Hot Toddy trophy. I managed 18 holes but not in the competition. The white tees were miles back well done to everyone who got round.

I don't really understand about why you couldn't enter on Intelligent Golf the competition was loaded but there must have been something amiss with the entry  rules.

13 played so we have allowed for just one division.

Prizes £15, £10, and £5

Winner Barry James 76
Second Mike Twyman on 76 (after countback)
Third Brian Floyd on 77

Clearly a lot going on with the Carona Virus and us over 70's being sent into lockdown, I had a quick word with Charlie Stockford and I think he will make our options clearer in the next few days.
In the meantime we carry on as best we can and wait further developments


Kevin

I managed to get round 18 holes yesterday my first Medal since 2018, AND I came third in Div2 AND I marked the card of the winner. What a day!

So congratulations to Bob Kirkwood he played very straight and didn't make any big mistakes, very difficult in that wind yesterday.

I know there were questions about why handicaps hadn't changed after the game and my understanding is that on advice from the Handicap Secretary the course as played had been too short and so the game was changed to Non Qualifying

So after all that fun on the course we had a committee meeting and I am very pleased to say (among lots of other stuff of course) we agreed to rename the Invotec Trophy  The Bill Woodbridge Memorial Trophy in memory of Bill Woodbridge (rather obvious really)

More information on Bill was posted here a couple of weeks ago but we will make that more visible soon.

Kevin

Kevin

So a cold day but except for a small amount of rain a nice enough day

21 played so enough for prize money for 2 divisions but only first and second places
First £5, Second £3

So in division 1 both with 36 points

And in division 2  first with 36 points second with  a very unlucky 34

There was also a Uboat match played out today I cant remember who played but Mike Twyman had a big smile on his face when I saw him