Mav281
Mr Inconsistent
It’s honestly difficult to know where to begin with this particular recap. The last couple of days seem to have been a bit of a blur for me (partly Sambuca induced), but in the best possible ways and I know that everyone who was involved in the event feels the same way.
Some 10 or 12 weeks ago the UK THP crew, which on this occasion grew to 13 members, arranged and confirmed their second outing of 2013 which was dubbed the Spring Cup. Different locations and costs were tentatively discussed but in the end we opted to frequent one of the UK’s most prestigious and time honored locations – The Belfry Golf club in Warwickshire.
The advanced deal that we secured gave us the opportunity to play the Derby and PGA National Courses, take in the Belfry’s on site facilities and enjoy some food and accommodation as part of the very reasonably priced “all in package”. There was some disappointment from various members of the group that we would not get the chance to play the premium course at The Belfry, the 2002 Ryder Cup course we all know and love the Brabazon – but it was decided that the cost of the upgrade was unfortunately to steep.
WELL – I am pleased to report that thanks to some groveling from myself and tactical humor/playful threats from El Bandito we managed to convince the staff in the pro shop at The Belfry to allow us to pay a nominal much more acceptable fee to upgrade to the Brabazon course – WOOT great start!
Sunday therefore got started with a slightly longer and more sociable welcome/introductions session than usual as we had to accept tee times that were some 3 hours later than the original ones I had booked. Many of the lads took the opportunity to tour the grounds, get some pictures of the courses and take in the general ambiance of the venue whilst others opted to hit the range and try and work out those last minute swing issues. I must admit, The Belfry does have a special feeling about it and it’s difficult not to get excited just standing out on the terrace watching groups of golfers arrive at the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] tee and all try to hit the green in one. For those of you who don’t know what the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] tee is all about on the Brabazon, try this clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEZMa1PNHg8
Eventually our tee times rolled round and we set out in our pre-selected groups which my lovely wife had randomly selected earlier in the week. The reason for these groupings was so we could play our Yellow Ball competition which basically entails each group playing a yellow ball between them across the 18 holes and the yellow ball stableford score being totted up at the end to give us a winning team. Each team was again given two yellow balls and told if they lost their first one they could “buy” the second ball for 10 Stableford points.
Now before I go any further I think I speak for all concerned when I say the Brabazon was perhaps not the easiest of courses to be playing a team game like this and this was heavily backed up by the fact that of the 8 balls I issued to the four teams I got ONE back! What’s funny is that the team that returned that yellow ball very honestly explained to everyone that this wasn’t even their yellow ball and they had found it two or three holes back! Suffice to say the Yellow Ball scores were on the lower side compared to the Winter Cup and were as follows,
-6 Points - Team Dicks: Sam Guest, David Liversedge, David Balbi (Crag Rat) and Tom Simonsen.
-3 Points – Team Seve: Stuart Lennon (El Bandito), Chris Bullock (Mav281) and Glenn Smith (The Doctor)
5 Points – Team Rose: Andy Bullock (Bully), Any Burgess (Burgrbudge) and Martin Newton.
12 Points – Team Faldo: Neville Smith, John Williams, Rob Newton
Congratulations therefore go to the members of Team Faldo who were able to hang on to their yellow balls for more holes than anyone else. Well done lads!
The second part of the golf on the first day is of course individual Stableford scores which would be added to the Stableford scores from the second days golf to give us an eventually Winner and Runner up. The overnight leader in the club house having played the Brabazon was Andy Burgess with an impressive 34 points, second was Rob Newton with 29 points and 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] was Martin Newton with 25 points.
Whilst I appreciate those scores do not sound particularly amazing (and the lads know I mean no disrespect saying that), anyone that has played the Brabazon at The Belfry will be able to tell you what a monster of a course it is, and man is it hard work. I have to say though it is beautifully maintained and well-kept and was an absolute joy to play – it’s certainly a course I am very keen to have another go at in the not too distant future. The link below will give you a look at the course guide which should give you some idea of what it’s like to play.
http://www.thebelfry.co.uk/golf/the_brabazon.php?h=1
And yes we all had a go at driving the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] green. We decided in the spirit of good fun to give everyone a single mulligan if they wanted it so they could have a go at hitting the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] green. Only one of us was able to achieve that and even managed to sink the putt for a birdie so well done Rob Newton for that one!
By the time we were done with golf on Sunday and everyone was back in the club house it was gone 8.30pm and our dinner reservation was rapidly approaching. We therefore retired to rooms for showers and a change of clothes before taking in dinner at the Atrium restaurant which was very enjoyable.
Once dinner was done with El Bandito graced our table with a rather expensive bottle of Sambuca and promptly started to “fine” people for losing yellow balls, scoring too may points, not scoring enough points etc etc. Suffice to say the £100 bottle of Sambuca lasted less than 10 minutes so we retired to the lounge to continue drinking and generally enjoying one another’s company. All in all a fantastic first day.
Monday morning started bright and early as we had pre-booked tee times from 9.30am onwards. Most people arrived reasonably early for breakfast, whilst some who didn’t go to bed until 3am (apparently the single malt was too good J) joined us a little later.
With check out done and dusted we ventured out onto the PGA National which is the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] of the official courses at The Belfry. The PGA National has played host to various European Seniors and Europro Tours. It’s also one of only 3 course courses in the British Isles that is PGA Branded. As such playing the PGA National isn’t exactly settling for second best especially when it’s only 100 yards or so shorted than the Brabazon.
With the above in mind I again think I speak for all concerned when I say the Monday was extremely hard work. The PGA is both mentally and physically challenging more so than the Brabazon in places and quite honestly I found the PGA National to be as much of a challenge as well.
The golf played on the PGA National today though produced some excellent scores from various members of the group and I think anyone that managed to score 30+ Stableford points today was again doing very well. Special shout outs for The Doctor who managed to shoot 40 points, Rob Newton who shot 35 points and Burgerbudge and myself who managed to shoot 32 points and 33 points respectively. Again I must stress that this is a tough course and these were very respectable scores so well done to everyone once again.
You can get an overview of the PGA National course at the link below, so you can see what we were playing - http://www.thebelfry.co.uk/golf/pga_national.php?h=1
With all the golf over and done with we convened on the terrace one last time to enjoy a swift pint, a sandwich, and do the final results and medal presentations. The final results in the Singles Stableford competition were as follows,
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Place – Andy Burgess (Burgerbudge) – 34 + 32 = 66 points.
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Place – Rob Newton – 29 + 35 = 64 points.
3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Place – Glenn Smith (The Doctor) – 22 + 40 = 62 points
4[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Chris Bullock (Mav281) – 23 + 33 = 56 points.
5[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Stuart Lennon (El Bandito) – 23 + 30 – 53 points.
6[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – David Liversedge (David L) – 22 + 30 = 52 Points.
Joint 7[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Andy Bullock (Bully) – 21 + 30 = 51 Points.
Joint 7[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Martin Newton – 25 + 26 = 51 Points.
9[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – David Balbi (Crag Rat) – 23 + 26 = 49 Points.
10[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Sam Guest – 24 + 23 = 47 Points.
Joint 11[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – John Williams (El Jefe) – 18 + 21 = 39 Points.
Joint 11[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Neville Smith (Dirk St Moritz) – 13 + 26 = 39 Points.
13[SUP]th[/SUP] Place - Tom Simonsen (Carlsberg Boy) – 16 + 21 = 37 Points.
Huge congratulations for our new champion and now current holder of the THP UK Hackers Cup – Andy Burgess. Andy is now entitled to hold on to our cup until the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] outing of the year which will be held around August/September/October time. Andy make sure you update your home insurance policy to include that trophy as it’s clearly monumentally expensive and of course priceless in terms of sentimental value to the THP UK Hackers Group
During the play today I also arranged for longest drive and nearest the pin competitions to go out onto the course which the Belfry were happy to accommodate us with.
The longest drive of the day was hit down the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] by Mr David Liversedge (David L). David beat out some very close competition and I am told there was little more than a yard or so in it between David L and Bully’s ball, so well done David.
The nearest the pin prize was won by none other than myself on the par 3 15th. It would appear the e6 is capable of stopping without rolling off every single green which I was most pleased to see!
My final comments before closing and leaving you with the small selection of pictures I took (loads more coming I can promise you), will simply be of thanks to everyone who came along and made the event what it was. I had a fantastic time personally, enjoying the golf, the ambiance of such a quality location and the friendship of a superb group of individuals. I very much look forward to our next trip and hope we can get an even bigger group together for that one, perhaps mixing some new faces in with the current ugly mob J
Mav out!
P.S Don’t forget guys – as we discussed last night please don’t forget to sign up the Albatross club and give your support to the forum. It’s of benefit to everyone and shows our support to the folks in the US that make this happen for all of us.
Some 10 or 12 weeks ago the UK THP crew, which on this occasion grew to 13 members, arranged and confirmed their second outing of 2013 which was dubbed the Spring Cup. Different locations and costs were tentatively discussed but in the end we opted to frequent one of the UK’s most prestigious and time honored locations – The Belfry Golf club in Warwickshire.
The advanced deal that we secured gave us the opportunity to play the Derby and PGA National Courses, take in the Belfry’s on site facilities and enjoy some food and accommodation as part of the very reasonably priced “all in package”. There was some disappointment from various members of the group that we would not get the chance to play the premium course at The Belfry, the 2002 Ryder Cup course we all know and love the Brabazon – but it was decided that the cost of the upgrade was unfortunately to steep.
WELL – I am pleased to report that thanks to some groveling from myself and tactical humor/playful threats from El Bandito we managed to convince the staff in the pro shop at The Belfry to allow us to pay a nominal much more acceptable fee to upgrade to the Brabazon course – WOOT great start!
Sunday therefore got started with a slightly longer and more sociable welcome/introductions session than usual as we had to accept tee times that were some 3 hours later than the original ones I had booked. Many of the lads took the opportunity to tour the grounds, get some pictures of the courses and take in the general ambiance of the venue whilst others opted to hit the range and try and work out those last minute swing issues. I must admit, The Belfry does have a special feeling about it and it’s difficult not to get excited just standing out on the terrace watching groups of golfers arrive at the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] tee and all try to hit the green in one. For those of you who don’t know what the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] tee is all about on the Brabazon, try this clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEZMa1PNHg8
Eventually our tee times rolled round and we set out in our pre-selected groups which my lovely wife had randomly selected earlier in the week. The reason for these groupings was so we could play our Yellow Ball competition which basically entails each group playing a yellow ball between them across the 18 holes and the yellow ball stableford score being totted up at the end to give us a winning team. Each team was again given two yellow balls and told if they lost their first one they could “buy” the second ball for 10 Stableford points.
Now before I go any further I think I speak for all concerned when I say the Brabazon was perhaps not the easiest of courses to be playing a team game like this and this was heavily backed up by the fact that of the 8 balls I issued to the four teams I got ONE back! What’s funny is that the team that returned that yellow ball very honestly explained to everyone that this wasn’t even their yellow ball and they had found it two or three holes back! Suffice to say the Yellow Ball scores were on the lower side compared to the Winter Cup and were as follows,
-6 Points - Team Dicks: Sam Guest, David Liversedge, David Balbi (Crag Rat) and Tom Simonsen.
-3 Points – Team Seve: Stuart Lennon (El Bandito), Chris Bullock (Mav281) and Glenn Smith (The Doctor)
5 Points – Team Rose: Andy Bullock (Bully), Any Burgess (Burgrbudge) and Martin Newton.
12 Points – Team Faldo: Neville Smith, John Williams, Rob Newton
Congratulations therefore go to the members of Team Faldo who were able to hang on to their yellow balls for more holes than anyone else. Well done lads!
The second part of the golf on the first day is of course individual Stableford scores which would be added to the Stableford scores from the second days golf to give us an eventually Winner and Runner up. The overnight leader in the club house having played the Brabazon was Andy Burgess with an impressive 34 points, second was Rob Newton with 29 points and 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] was Martin Newton with 25 points.
Whilst I appreciate those scores do not sound particularly amazing (and the lads know I mean no disrespect saying that), anyone that has played the Brabazon at The Belfry will be able to tell you what a monster of a course it is, and man is it hard work. I have to say though it is beautifully maintained and well-kept and was an absolute joy to play – it’s certainly a course I am very keen to have another go at in the not too distant future. The link below will give you a look at the course guide which should give you some idea of what it’s like to play.
http://www.thebelfry.co.uk/golf/the_brabazon.php?h=1
And yes we all had a go at driving the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] green. We decided in the spirit of good fun to give everyone a single mulligan if they wanted it so they could have a go at hitting the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] green. Only one of us was able to achieve that and even managed to sink the putt for a birdie so well done Rob Newton for that one!
By the time we were done with golf on Sunday and everyone was back in the club house it was gone 8.30pm and our dinner reservation was rapidly approaching. We therefore retired to rooms for showers and a change of clothes before taking in dinner at the Atrium restaurant which was very enjoyable.
Once dinner was done with El Bandito graced our table with a rather expensive bottle of Sambuca and promptly started to “fine” people for losing yellow balls, scoring too may points, not scoring enough points etc etc. Suffice to say the £100 bottle of Sambuca lasted less than 10 minutes so we retired to the lounge to continue drinking and generally enjoying one another’s company. All in all a fantastic first day.
Monday morning started bright and early as we had pre-booked tee times from 9.30am onwards. Most people arrived reasonably early for breakfast, whilst some who didn’t go to bed until 3am (apparently the single malt was too good J) joined us a little later.
With check out done and dusted we ventured out onto the PGA National which is the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] of the official courses at The Belfry. The PGA National has played host to various European Seniors and Europro Tours. It’s also one of only 3 course courses in the British Isles that is PGA Branded. As such playing the PGA National isn’t exactly settling for second best especially when it’s only 100 yards or so shorted than the Brabazon.
With the above in mind I again think I speak for all concerned when I say the Monday was extremely hard work. The PGA is both mentally and physically challenging more so than the Brabazon in places and quite honestly I found the PGA National to be as much of a challenge as well.
The golf played on the PGA National today though produced some excellent scores from various members of the group and I think anyone that managed to score 30+ Stableford points today was again doing very well. Special shout outs for The Doctor who managed to shoot 40 points, Rob Newton who shot 35 points and Burgerbudge and myself who managed to shoot 32 points and 33 points respectively. Again I must stress that this is a tough course and these were very respectable scores so well done to everyone once again.
You can get an overview of the PGA National course at the link below, so you can see what we were playing - http://www.thebelfry.co.uk/golf/pga_national.php?h=1
With all the golf over and done with we convened on the terrace one last time to enjoy a swift pint, a sandwich, and do the final results and medal presentations. The final results in the Singles Stableford competition were as follows,
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Place – Andy Burgess (Burgerbudge) – 34 + 32 = 66 points.
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Place – Rob Newton – 29 + 35 = 64 points.
3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Place – Glenn Smith (The Doctor) – 22 + 40 = 62 points
4[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Chris Bullock (Mav281) – 23 + 33 = 56 points.
5[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Stuart Lennon (El Bandito) – 23 + 30 – 53 points.
6[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – David Liversedge (David L) – 22 + 30 = 52 Points.
Joint 7[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Andy Bullock (Bully) – 21 + 30 = 51 Points.
Joint 7[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Martin Newton – 25 + 26 = 51 Points.
9[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – David Balbi (Crag Rat) – 23 + 26 = 49 Points.
10[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Sam Guest – 24 + 23 = 47 Points.
Joint 11[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – John Williams (El Jefe) – 18 + 21 = 39 Points.
Joint 11[SUP]th[/SUP] Place – Neville Smith (Dirk St Moritz) – 13 + 26 = 39 Points.
13[SUP]th[/SUP] Place - Tom Simonsen (Carlsberg Boy) – 16 + 21 = 37 Points.
Huge congratulations for our new champion and now current holder of the THP UK Hackers Cup – Andy Burgess. Andy is now entitled to hold on to our cup until the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] outing of the year which will be held around August/September/October time. Andy make sure you update your home insurance policy to include that trophy as it’s clearly monumentally expensive and of course priceless in terms of sentimental value to the THP UK Hackers Group
During the play today I also arranged for longest drive and nearest the pin competitions to go out onto the course which the Belfry were happy to accommodate us with.
The longest drive of the day was hit down the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] by Mr David Liversedge (David L). David beat out some very close competition and I am told there was little more than a yard or so in it between David L and Bully’s ball, so well done David.
The nearest the pin prize was won by none other than myself on the par 3 15th. It would appear the e6 is capable of stopping without rolling off every single green which I was most pleased to see!
My final comments before closing and leaving you with the small selection of pictures I took (loads more coming I can promise you), will simply be of thanks to everyone who came along and made the event what it was. I had a fantastic time personally, enjoying the golf, the ambiance of such a quality location and the friendship of a superb group of individuals. I very much look forward to our next trip and hope we can get an even bigger group together for that one, perhaps mixing some new faces in with the current ugly mob J
Mav out!
P.S Don’t forget guys – as we discussed last night please don’t forget to sign up the Albatross club and give your support to the forum. It’s of benefit to everyone and shows our support to the folks in the US that make this happen for all of us.
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