Boards Golf Society - Dooks Golf club 21st Sept 2pm

Well where do I start!
Friday, skipped the golf, was working in the AM and to be honest I just wanted to get down early and relax a bit, it's not often you can get away from the wife and kids for a few days! So a haircut, T-Bone Steak and Jacuzzi it was!! Few civilised beers later on but not enough sleep, was up early Sat morning and couldn't sleep. A quick dip before heading for the course, with plans to hit the Killarney range on the way out except I drove straight past it and was wondering for the next 5 miles where it was!!!

Probably the worst conditions I've ever played in, certainly the wettest. goretex though is amazing. kept me mostly dry. I do have to apologise to my playing partners though, Fix Double and later joined by Champ, because on the last few holes I knew I was going ok for the conditions so took a bit of time on a few shots trying to get the hands/gloves dry as they had been slipping a bit on the previous few holes and it cost me a scratch on 12.

I started ok with 2 decent shots on the first leaving me pin high but 3 putted it!! I airmailed the 4th hitting basically a perfect 8 iron to the 165 yard pin, but it flew about 185 into cabbage out the back and scratched the hole. It kind of summed up my game of late, good striking but not scoring. I held my nerve though and dug deep, played some good shots, some great shots and thankfully not to many bad ones. Myself and fix were doing alright with 13 on the front & we had a bit of a ding dong battle till he got unlucky on the 14th and ended up in gorse out the back of the green. My putter was reasonably hot but I still had a 4 3putts (3 of them on the back 9) which cost me in the end. On top of that I missed 4 pretty makeable putts also, some quite softly, they weren't tap in's but I just made feeble attempts at them. Having said that, I did drop quite a few nice putts that I you mightn't normally expect to make.

Have to thank my playing partners for great company during the round. Fix as usual brings great banter during the round, we know each other very well at this stage, so much so we even go to concerts and birthday parties together. I think it might have been the first time I played with Doublecross who just didn't get it going till it was to late. A class golfer. the champ joined us for the last few holes and was doing really well, even if he did steal the long drive off my by the width of a golfball as I was about 60 yards ahead of him but finished a half a roll off the fairway!

Captain Benny, thanks for everything this year. You were a "little dinger" right from the bedroom in Scotland through to the bedroom in Killarney...… ooops that might sound worse than it was for anyone who wasn't there haha well done throughout the year for keeping everything in order, picking great courses and keeping the spirits high. A legend.

Killarney, great town, good banter, hotel was spot on, we could have played a par 72 crazy golf course though from the lobby to the bedrooms which were so far that they were nearly out in Muckross!!

Delighted I made the jug on merit having only played 4 games and making an absolute mess of 2 of them! that's every year i'll be in the team since I joined back in 2013, so far record is played 6, won 3, drew 2 and lost 1. hoping to improve this year. so for the rest of the team, i'll see you in tulfarris and for the rest of yiz, i'll catch you all next year.

Over to you now Space, you have a hard act to follow, but will make a great captain.

When I arrived at Dooks after a pleasant drive down from Limerick, it was breezy & mild but still no rain. I decided to put on the shorts and even put sunscreen on the nose & cheeks..:rolleyes:

I had seen the forecast so in spite of Benny's optimism I brought the rain gear and waterproof carry bag to put on the trolly. It just always works out better if you remember to bring the battery for the trolley and an umbrella...not the best start...oh well. I now have a new golf umbrella covered in toads and the tray for the battery resembled a bird bath by the 3 hole.
The rain arrived for the first tee time and as we all have a chat around the first tee, there is a steady flow of golfers crossing the first fairway heading for the clubhouse having given in to the conditions.
The starter tells us that whatever weather is in the valley to our left is what's coming our way....we couldn't see the valley due to the amount of rain.

To the golf...I probably hit 4 fairways all day (the misses were big!) and my iron play wasn't much better. My short game saved me from shooting below 20 pts.
My body just wasn't co-operating with my brain. I cleared the 18th fairway off the first and second tee's and had to play to play a full 4 iron over the 18th green into the first (made a bogey).
The highlights were a 2 putt birdie on the first par 5, birdie on 16 after having to hit provisional off the tee, 8 pts for the last 3 holes to save the card some bit and in spite of my brutal play I only lost 1 golf ball.

AlanM and princess poppy were great company. While myself and poppy didn't have a great day, congrats to AlanM on the win and a fantastic round of golf with a serious back nine, hitting plenty of fairways and greens.
It was made even more impressive by his ability to block out the utter rubbish I was playing.

Despite the monsoon, we finished in warm sunshine for the last few holes, it was a great day out.

This was my first year playing in the society and I'm delighted I finally joined. I played some good stuff and some bad but always enjoyed the day. It's great to play golf with people who love to play golf.

Congrats to AlanM on the golfer of the year and well done slave1 for making it such a close contest. To Benny, Seve OB and everyone behind the scenes, thanks a million.

Best of luck to Space next year....looking forward to the jug!!

Finally getting around to posting after a great weekend. It was a long one, but as always, very worthwhile

Starting on Friday, 8 of us made the trip over to Dromoland to play the open. The sun was shining, and a few of us even were putting on the sunscreen before we went out. As always, when the Tiger is involved, there has to be more to play for than just an open, so we all settled on 2, 2 & 2.

I tee'd off with Roadrunner, Poppy & Doublecross. There was a strong wind blowing, which became very apparent standing on the first green. Roadrunner & Doublecross are big hitters & when one they are hitting a 3w & 2i into the par 3 3rd, you know you're in for a tough day.

I had a solid start myself & played steady golf all day including highlights of an eagle on the short par 5 4th & a birdie on the short par 4 15th.

Had 15 points out & 16 back for 31 which turned out to be the best score on the day. It wasn't enough to take all the money though. As would be expected, Tiger snuck in with the best front 9 to take one set of 2s.

My playing partners generally struggled overall on the day, but all added their contributions to the round. Shot of the round being an epic 2i off the tee on the par 5 11th by Roadrunner. Its a long hole, with a big carry. The line taken was more than I could likely carry with a perfect drive, and he left himself with a 6i in.

I phoned Dromoland this morning & with a CSS of 75, my 31 will scrape me a buffer!

When we got off the course, the clubhouse bar was full so a few of us headed for a quick stop off & some dinner in Adare on the way down to Killarney.

It was a long day. Left the house around 11ish in the morning, and eventually got to Killarney at around 11ish that night.

Woke up to a dull, but not terrible morning. We headed for the course hopeful that Benny's rain-dance might save us once again, but we our hopes were well & truly dashed. I've never played in such prolonged heavy wind & rain. I have decent rain gear, but was still soaked through by the end of it.

It really is a credit to the type of society that we have here that practically all of the golfers finished the 18 holes out. Many an other society would have given up after 5-6 holes & decided to drown their sorrows in the bar.

I was out with Tiger & Charlie, two long-time members, who I haven't had the pleasure of playing with for quite a while, so was looking forward to the round.

The two lads struggled on the front 9 (as did basically everyone else on the course really), but I ticked along nicely. After 8 holes, I was only 1 down on level 2s, so was pretty happy. Arrived at the 9th thinking it was a great scoring chance. A par 5 which I had a stroke on. Unfortunately it was the first hole where I hit a bad tee shot. Myself & Tiger both pushed the ball right off the tee. We found his ball, but never any sign of mine, so a scratch, but 15 points on the front 9, so pretty happy.

The back 9 starts with another scorable par 5 which I had a stroke on. I hit an OK drive, decent 2nd, but then, when hitting my approach to the green, I pulled the shot Out Of Bounds (about the only OOB spot I can remember on the course). Ended up scratching that hole too.

Picked myself back up & got back on track making a couple of good pars & holing out to save points a few times.

Made a really good up & down for par on the 18th hole too, which put a nice shine on the round & let me finish with 15 back, for 30 points overall. My distance putting was pretty poor all day, but I holed out really well from short/mid range. Found it really difficult to get the pace on the greens.

Was leader in the clubhouse for quite a while, as I was out early in the day. Thought I might be the first member to retain the Captain's Prize. Alas, Alanm came in with a great 32 points to beat me to the big prize & leave me rueing the 2 scratches on the par 5s at the turn.

Tiger & Charlie starting to find come form on the back 9. Charlie had pretty much given up so started hitting drives towards the end & hit some cracking perfect draws up the middle. Tiger, pulled himself together in the end & had a good back 9. I guess the chance to take fiver from a few of the lads is always enough to motivate him. His battling to the end paid dividends & he finished the day a few quid richer & with a smile on his face!

A couple of photos from when the rain finally stopped (when we are on the 18th hole )







That night we got the balance right I think. Enough time early in the evening for good chat & catch up with everyone, before taking the party on & having a dance & some craic. I feel like we're in a different generation. A gang of lads having a laugh & actually interacting with each other, surrounded by 20-something year olds more interested in getting the right Instagram filter on the photos their taking of themselves.

To finish, just a special thank you to Captain Benny. He is completely mental, but is a gentleman underneath it all. He has done a great job of making everyone feel welcome, both new members & old. You've had a great year, and thanks for the honour of being asked to step in & take up the mantle.

I hope I can keep up the traditions of the society & make 2020 a great year. I'm looking forward to it already & hope to put together a list of courses that can keep everyone happy.

Well somebody has to ask if anyone came in with dry (or even dryish) feet last Saturday?????

princess poppy wrote: »

Well somebody has to ask if anyone came in with dry (or even dryish) feet last Saturday?????

Damp, but relatively comfortable.

If you have a good jacket it will repel the water down and test the pants. If you have good pants then it will run down to your shoes.



(Keeping the scorecard dry with wet weather gloves is the toughest)

Just ordered a new umbrella (mine didn't complete the round) :pac:

RoadRunner wrote: »

Just ordered a new umbrella (mine didn't complete the round) :pac:

I think I saw it languishing lifelessly by the side of the 14th tee box, a silver one? I remember cos it looked exactly as I felt !!!!

RoadRunner wrote: »

If you have a good jacket it will repel the water down and test the pants. If you have good pants then it will run down to your shoes.

My rain jacket was garbage, which eventually lead to my pants and finally my shoes becoming soaked. So I purchased a new Galvin Green Gortex jacket last night, I hope this rights the ship next time.

Good playing with ballyk, Kingswood Rover, both good company. My game was just far enough off to leave a bunch of points out there, though I hit a fair number of good shots I couldn't seem to get in a scoring groove. I think I had 1 point on the first 5 holes of the back 9, just enough off to score a little but not really ever be in contention.