Another 'almost' round, wanton vadalism, and a milestone

Saturday was the final round in the club Millennium Medal, where you take the best three of five medal rounds. After four rounds I was lying sixth with 238, so I wanted a solid round, ideally a couple under, just to cement that position and hold off any challengers. I would have needed a great round to move up the leaderboard, so just wanted level or a couple under so someone else would have to have a great round to knock me off. And it oh so nearly was. TWO over GROSS for the front nine......................apart from the 7th, where I had an 8! In the hedge and lost, followed by in the hedge and unplayable. Although I parred the 8th and 9th, my mojo had gone at that point - 45 on the back nine wasn't too bad - two pars and two double bogeys, but 86 for a net 72 not as good as it should have been.

One really disappointing thing was the vandalism that again we have had on the course. The course is bounded on two sides by housing, with a school, cricket field and roads on the other two, and we do have trouble from time to time with teenagers coming on the course. They run out and steal balls etc and very occasionally it goes a bit further. Not usually a big deal - kids etc flexing their muscles a bit. The last couple of weeks have been something else though - tee boards have been smashed up, some benches have been smashed, 150 yard posts stolen and a couple stuck into one of the greens. Some of the lady members verbally abused. Friday night, things really went bad, with about 25% of the third green completely dug up and the pieces thrown into one of the bunkers. A right mess. Completely unplayable. We had to play on a temporary green, which we very very rarely have to do. I don't know what the police plan to do, or how they will try and catch the people responsible. A golf course is inevitably very vulnerable, and if people are determined to cause trouble there's not much we can do, short of standing in the undergrowth with a baseball bat ;). If it was youngsters, it just makes you despair. Mischief is one thing, but destruction is another entirely. I blame the parents.

Anyway, played with Julie on Sunday, and she hit a new milestone - her first birdie! Very nearly an eagle, actually, the ball bounced into the hole on her approach to the 5th and out again. We agreed that a birdie is worth more than an eagle, because a birdie is skill, an eagle is usually just a fluke! She was naturally delighted.