I like the way ladies play!

 

Golf that is!
Last week the weather was kind for Canterbury Golfers and I got out to play three times.
On Monday I played in a 9 hole tournament at the Coringa Country Club out at McLeans Is.
It was the first time I had been to an official tournament at another club.
But it is already October and I have a fair few course to play yet to reach my goal of    50.
So I figured it was a good opportunity to go play another club and cheaper than it normally would be with the added extra of prizes!

I didn't win any prizes but it was an interesting experience and what an impressive sight seeing all those golf carts lined up and ready to go. Over 60 'ladies' attended.

Ready when you are!

 I realize I have become so much more confident from all the different courses I have played and actually playing with three ladies I had never met before did not phase me as once it would have. After all we were all out to enjoy the day and do something we all love to do - no matter how bad the scores may have been.

A Phalanx of Lady Golfers set off to do 'battle'.

Golf truly is a very civilized game and those points of etiquette that the uninitiated think are picky and antiquated really do help things flow along.


Well at least with the ladies!


Which brings me to Friday.
A few of us 9 Hole 'ladies' usually go out on a Friday afternoon for a friendly match at Avondale.

Mind you Fridays are always a little hair-raising as the men are also out playing.So the air is filled with the cry of "Fore"(if you are lucky) and the 'Thunk' and 'Thwack' of numerous golf balls ricocheting off trees and coming at you from all directions.
Men, in general, seem to just get up there on the Tee box and whack the hell out of the little white things with blatant disregard for the concept of direction or control. 
Well they certainly get some distance but often end up two Fairways over from the Green they are headed too. Add a few beers into the mix and it all gets pretty wild and woolly out there, and you often find yourself flinching as yet another ball plops down beside you from who would know what direction.

But last Friday when three of us turned up at our club we found it was closed! Shock,horror not that we are addicts or anything but... , feeling in need of a little stress release( yep! EQC had something to do with that for at least one of us) we fumed for a minute or two then decided to go for a game at Rawhiti just up the road.

And most welcoming they were too, with discounts all round.

But it was Friday!

The Fairways are narrow at Rawhiti!

There were lots of men out playing and drinking the beers!

We were putting our lives on the line.

We let some guys play through whilst we orientated ourselves. Two of us had brilliant starts with balls out of bounds, and in my case missing in action.

The Easterly was blowing in off the sea and playing havoc with our high flying balls, but after playing a 'practice ' hole on the ninth we settled in to the back nine.(ie. we played holes 10 through to 18)

But we had a trigger happy , beer drinking bunch of chaps playing up behind us. And they seemed to be totally ignorant of the etiquette of appropriateness of play.
At first we gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking perhaps they were having lucky shots that were going further than they imagined they would. But after about the fourth time a ball landed right beside us putting us off our own approach shots to the Green we realized they were just plain ignorant.

Remember we had a foursome playing in front of us so we could not go any faster than we were playing or else we would have been hitting up on them. Something by and large ladies do not do. It is standard practice in the Royal and Ancient game of Scotland to wait for the players in front of you to hole out before you hit your own shots up to the green and you certainly don't continually hit up behind players in front of you on the Fairway.

Angry words were muttered, withering glances were thrown but finally clubs had to brandished in their direction and assorted abuse hurtled before they finally got the message.

Ah well! It was still a good game . But it did cause me to utter"I do like the way Ladies play".
Although we do not have the strength to hit as far, more often than not our shots tend to be more accurate . Strategic thinking rather than rip shit and bust? 

Sadly, I can't count Rawhiti as another course played as I had  already played the front nine back in February. It was interesting finally getting to play the back nine though as I have spent quite a bit of time walking over the area with my wee dog friend and have played the holes in my mind on many a late Thursday or Friday evening coming back from the beach.
Last Friday, playing the course I felt a little sad as my dog friend has now moved away and our regular rambles gathering pine cones on the golf course of an evening are a thing of the past.
Cheers little man hanging out with  you was about as much fun as playing golf and that is saying something! 

We go side on!

 




Actually, I really like the way I played today!

We had our club tournament today with about 45 players attending.
I scored 20 Stablefords to take second place in my division.

And despite the dangers of Friday golf I will no doubt be out there again tomorrow.