Boards Golf Society (Final) Mount Juliet Estate (24th Sep 1120 -1240 hrs)

spacecoyote

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119645115#Comment_119645115

Another one of Fix's once off events, pretty sure I have it figured out in terms of what it is, won't post my speculation and spoil the potential surprise though

blue note

Oh. Actually, I think I might know too. Sounds fun!

Golfgraffix

That’s been there for all events

gps to front, middle back of each green when on the course

RoadRunner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119644507#Comment_119644507

That's a whopper of a post seve! 😀

bakerbhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119641890#Comment_119641890

Well ,given your legendary scene of direction, a bounce off one of those trees and you may just get the opportunity 😁😁

FixdePitchmark

Golfer of the year odds

Space 4/7

Slave evens

Charlie 9/5

Roadrunner 2/1

Fix 1,000,000 / 1

Info

Space savage cut from boards and his own cuts

Slave has recovered some cut from Tullamore

Charlie and Roadrunner savage cuts in WHS and boards

Space may find odds harsh , but a good lead imo and I made up odds off the top of my head

FixdePitchmark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119645139#Comment_119645139

No everyone is taking part . Important you get to range prior to event to take part . Smash factor too so not just a Long Drive aspect...

RoadRunner

• [Frank and his gang are standing in front of Timmy McBain, after killing the other family members] 
• Frank's lieutenant : What are we going to do with this one, Frank?
• Frank : Now that you've called me by name?

Also 2/1 odds ridiculous. - I have to win and have space finish worse than middle of the pack

Seve OB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119646238#Comment_119646238

Yea I guess I went off on one alright 😆

FixdePitchmark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649570#Comment_119649570

You think they built Vegas on good odds...I'm the bookie...

Seve OB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119651059#Comment_119651059

So you’re taking bets then?

slave1

My money's on Road Runner!

FixdePitchmark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119651899#Comment_119651899

Says the most cunning of them all.

spacecoyote

https://youtu.be/9jK-NcRmVcw

Almost there

FixdePitchmark

Already there ...

BohToffee

All set, it's like the night before Christmas. See yis tomorrow in a few hours.

bobster453

Won these earlier in the year and kept them for today

No intention of losing one but if you find one be nice and give it back😂😂

Macker1

Enjoy the day guys...... I hope great golf happens for everyone. Looking forward to reading the stories later.

kev_s88

Nice pic of the 18th green

spacecoyote

Quick photo, will follow up with a proper post later

Seve OB

results for Captains day

Snackbox20

What an epic weekend and day of golf. When get some inspiration, I will put some musings together later.

Seve OB

MJ pheasant

charlieIRL

Yet again another epic weekend and fantastic finish to the year (apart from the Jug).

I’ll do a proper write up later after I do the depressing autopsy on my disaster of a round yesterday, such a disappointing way to finish the year but the crack last night made up for it and lifted the spirits. I had intended on going home early as I needed to be on the road at 8am but there was no way I was leaving when the crack was so good. To be continued…!!!!

FixdePitchmark

Almost there

Well what can I say………well, I probably said everything already in that unending speech (lol).

No – looked back at the stuff we planned for the day and weekend – and we somehow pulled it all off. It was an epic few day. I even got to sing my song in the Hole in The Wall.

I seriously want to thank all the members yesterday and over the course of the year – the positivity, support and genuine thanks from people was very heart warming. People said things to me privately, publicly and even hand written that will stay with me for a long time.

The job of captain is a very tough one, but with the strong past captains behind you and with the support of others, it can be a very rewarding experience.

On Friday and the start of Saturday – there was way too much nervous energy. Silly things really, but still can get on top of you at times. Do I have all the prizes, the cards, the plan – what am I going to say and where is “random username” going to stay.

But in reality – it is just a round of Golf. Relax…….

The build up was fun – world class facilities and our Long Drive from the past was different – some very impressive striking from the lads – and great tips from Bobster who seemed to know about the past. It was fairly cool that one of the youngest players had the best strike. It was an amazing reminder of what technology has done to the game.

Mount Juliet is a resort course ultimately – with long walks and a big scale, so it was going to be a long day. Kick back and relax, I stared birdie , birdie – then The Big Easy somehow reminded me I was 2 under after 7 the last time I played the course – from that point on it was over (lol) – thanks Big ( and I never care about score talk).

Rather unusually and refreshingly – I wasn’t really there for my own golf. I was there to try make it the best day for the members, myself and people who are, or hopefully will be my friends in the future.

I was playing with SeveOB, BohToffee and The Big Easy – who was taking it very easy at the start.

The weather looked a bit uncertain at the start – but it eventually turned out to be a stunning day.  The 4 of us played some great golf over the start of the round – and Seve looked like he was going to run away with it. BohToffee is a savage ball striker and is going to get to a low handicap over the next few years. Seve is SeveOB – can do everything on a course, but he lost a bit of focus near the turn and couldn’t snap out of it.

Myself and The Big Easy go back a long way at this stage. He has had other priorities over that last few years and we have seen very little of each other. Dan was getting around the course so easy – no real drama , and he was somewhat in the background scoring wise as Seve was on fire. But it was a real case of slow and steady wins the race. The live scoring was an interesting idea – it definitely changes the dynamics if you are watching it. But I know some people do not want to know their score. The psychology was fascinating.

Things were getting a bit slow around the turn – but Seve injected a bit of pace into the group and we pushed on well from there.

As I wasn’t really in the comp mentally or physically – I enjoyed watching what was going on. Conditions were good, the ground was soft and scoring was fantastic.  

Towards the end I got a bit excited about who was going to win the event and GOTY – I had a sense the group behind us (the leaders), had almost burnt each other out in a chess match. This probably meant Space had GOTY.

At 17 and 18 , you could see the effort by society members around the final holes – holes I’ve watched major tournaments on – I got a few flashbacks of the past. And flashbacks of people who had passed the ancient mature trees there.

A quick change of shirt and super fast results from Seve despite wifi issues – and we were on the final run. A couple of errors had to be corrected and we had our results.

I definitely banged on too long – but I wanted to put some sort of shape on what was a big year for me. I had so many people to thank – and I hope I got it all in.

What I was trying to say was – I was a sort of outsider to golf in the past, but boards brought me to the inside. It brought together people from very different backgrounds and attitudes and experiences. They are long days and silly travelling. But there is just something special in that shared experience. Golf was known in the past as a stuffy old gentlemans club, but by the use of technology , and new thinking – we were able to go back to the basics of our beautiful sport. Friendship , nature and exploring.

I was absolutely delighted to present trophies to people who were complete strangers to me 10 years ago– but are now friends.

Yesterday – on the 4th hole, I was with the 3 guys. A wind picked up and you could hear that sound that is so special on an isolated course. The movement of the trees – no other sounds – no other golfers. It was perfect. I said it to Big Easy – and he 100 % knew and got what I was talking about.

I’ll post a bit about the Jug when results are up – but I wanted youth and experience on the team and I think we have managed to get that.

I handed over to our new Captain Roadrunner – and told how I had asked him not to say no , but reflect on what I was going to ask him. I asked Roadrunner to be captain, because he is an amazing golfer , a great character, you can trust him and I also know what the guy is capable of.

He declared his first act - with a brilliant first speech - meaning there will be way less talking next year (lol - brilliant).

Then that was it. As we hit the ancient walls of Kilkenny – I was just elated, we were all in a great mood. It was hard to put your finger on it. Not just me – but we all felt we had great fun all year – had some great golf – on great courses – with great company.   

When Break80 asked me to be captain, I felt I had made a mistake taking on the job. But 1 year later , I want to thank him for what will be a memorable year for me.

I don’t think this is my last word – but as I said yesterday – The Drama Queen is dead.

Thanks again to all the members – ye were absolutely class with a wonderful attitude all year.

I hope to catch ye again – and even if I don’t , we will always have that wind in the trees.

The Big Easy

Epic day yesterday, so absolutely shattered today. Was writing an overly long post for before the outing but never got round to finishing or posting, as things have been a bit hectic.

Will post a more detailed write up tomorrow when I've recovered a bit more. For now, just want to say thanks to everyone for creating such a special day yesterday. I'm so delighted defend my best legs title, sorry excuse me, I mean Captain's Prize at Mount Juliet! 🤭

RoadRunner

Superb weekend from start to finish. Loads of new memories created. Laughed the whole weekend through and found a number of times in Kilkenny I actually got physically sore from laughing.

For such a good golf trip my actual golf performance couldn't have been worse! I played castlecomer with a good number of other society members the day prior to Mt Juliet. I logged both rounds on the golf ireland round while having our first pint after all the golf was finished at the residents bar. After logging my rounds, ex-captain break80 got a glimpse over my shoulder of my golfireland dashboard. He commented on how the graph looks like a heart rate graph with regular peaks and troughs. We agreed, but with him then adding -I'm lucky it wasn't the case, with what I had just entered means "I'd be f****d" 😆

Delighted for the nice words and vote of confidence from the current captain, Fix. Thanks for nominating me for next year. I'm looking forward to the year. Fix's boots are going to be hard to fill. Realistically they can't be filled. Fix as done a great many things for the society this year. Not least among them is that I notice the pace of play is improving. I'm not certain how next year will pan out, but the one thing I can guarantee for next year is the pace of prize giving presentations is going to dramatically improve now too. I'll get you all home to your families at a reasonable hour 🤣

blue note

Well that was a fun day. I must say you guys bring out the best in me. I haven't even hit 36 points in a competitive round on my home course since January 20. Whereas 2 of my 4 rounds over 40 points in my 25 years playing the game were at boards outings!

The long drive was a great idea. I started with a wooden mcgregor 3 wood and used to borrow my brothers wooden ping eye 2 driver occasionally. So maybe muscle memory would kick in? Well maybe it did. I wasn't great with them and wasn't great with the old driver yesterday either! But boy was it different to hit. I think there's a lot of gimmicks in marketing golf equipment, but we've certainly had the game made easier for us over the last 30 years!

The course is beautiful. I think I was most impressed with the greens. Very fast, very tough but very fair. And driving there is very forgiving. My slice was creeping in all day, but even going offline it often didn't hamper me at all save for giving me a lie in the rough. The rough was just the length I think is perfect for an amateur course by the way. Short enough that you can find your ball, long enough that you're likely to be punished. In terms of enjoying a course I'd put this close to the top of my list of requests! The par 3s were all interesting, the last one probably my favourite of them. Par 5s all a good length - the one where the fairway splits the coolest of them. And the par 4s had a nice mix of holes where you can keep the driver in the bag and others where you can let fly. The 18th made me laugh a little just because of it's length. I'd only hit more than a wedge into a par 4 once at that point - a 9 iron on the second. And suddenly on his hole I'd hit a decent drive from the tee and nailed a 5w seconds shot and came up short. It was quite the contrast to the rest of the course!

I had the pleasure of playing with a post punk who was going very well for the overall prize and definitely the past captains for a long time (there's a lot of pressure at these events), manhatton who parred the index 1 which makes any round a success and linorichie who took on the most ambitious shot of the day. I'm pretty sure he tried to hit a wood out of the fairway bunker on 10 about 220m over the trees. It worked out okay. Obviously not over the trees etc, but it was probably a better layup than talking an 8 iron out of that bunker.

My highlight for us as a group was definitely the third. Our first 3 tee shots went into the water. Next 4 great shots onto the green. I feel the group behind must have been intimidated by the standard of our group seeing those 4 tee shots on the green.

And as for my round I certainly can't complain, I played well overall and got the luck at the right times. My driving was a bit wild, but you get away with it generally there. Having to chip out isn't a bad punishment. The wheels were in danger of coming off on 12 - the first hole I played like an absolute kn0b on. Pulled my tee shot way left. I actually had a reasonable 8 iron punch down available to me which could go close to the green. Instead I hit a tree and got lucky with a bounce out onto the fairway. I'd about 80m left to the green so hit a partial gap wedge. I advanced the ball about 10m and could have used a couple of divot bags to replace the soil I moved. Then way overhit a sandwedge over the back of the green. But then actual hit a really good chip to leave myself a short putt for a point. Not scratching a hole makes a big difference. Then on the next hole I put my second into the water. I was a bit unlucky with a tough lie and it actually bounced on the greenside of the water, so I won't be too critical of the shot. But I made the putt for bogey which was very fortunate. Because had it not gone in, I have had about 20 feet back for a point. Those 3 points on those two holes were the difference in me coming in with a score or not. That putt was repeated on 16 too. And on 17 I lucked out with my second shot. My drive was way right so I'd to go over the trees with my second. I just clipped the top of one of them and none of us saw it come out so I played a provisional. It must have only hit twigs and leaves because we found it middle of the fairway about 50m short of the green just behind my provisional.

So it was great to feature in the prizes on the day. And I got an exceptional scoring reduction of an extra shot I think, so 2.2 shot reduction on my handicap which I'm very happy about!

So thanks to all for the year - those i played with and those who make the society possible. I've only made 3 events but loved them all. Fingers crossed I'll make another couple next year. And if I could make the night out for captains I'd be a very happy man!

FixdePitchmark

blue note - your performances were absolutely incredible - in 3 events you had 500 points. You would have made Jug - and in fact won golfer of the year if that form was even partially maintained. Fair play, you certainly made an impact on the 3 outings you came to.

Your clearly a very long hitter and as we are typically forward - and this season I noticed rough and trouble is cut back in Ireland. When I was paying half decent golf - I enjoyed going to the boards outings as they were typically shorter courses with less trouble and you could certainly get a few birds around the place.

Anyway - some performance - you really should be a future Jug player - but this year we just didn't see enough of you, to work out your game yet.

Thanks for coming again - savage shooting.

Seve OB

I’ll write up later but I’ll just leave this heat for now.

Our Champ in action on the 14th Green