Carding a 67 yesterday should have made me happy as it's my lifetime personal best in nearly 17yrs as a golfer but I feel like I left 5 or more shots on the course! How mad is that?!!

7 birdies in the round... and 3 bogies. It's not often you'd card a 67 with 3 bogies. 14 greens in regulation and 29 putts. A missed eagle chance, a couple of missed up-and-downs, a 3 footer that lipped out and a couple of good birdie chances (12 foot & 15 foot) in the closing holes and I'm already counting what 'could' have been.

The friend I played with was suitably impressed that he took it upon himself to write a hole by hole summary of the round on another forum, I won't attempt to rewrite it.. copy and paste will suffice!

....................

Ok, I've played with Jamie a few times round Copthorne, now.

For those of you that have never played it, it is a well established course cut into woodland, 8 holes were created in the early 20th century, with the final 10 added in the 1970s. AND they are planting more fecking trees coz there aren't enough around the place already.

It's 6400 yards off the back tees, and it's tough - miss the fairway, and you're in the trees, and you have to take your medicine once you are there.

I've never before seen Jamie play really well there because he likes to hit the ball hard and far, and not worry too much about the consequences. Played like that, this course WILL bite your bum sooner or later.

He says he didn't play that well today. Borrox ! That's only because he doesn't understand that round Copthorne ( unlike, say East Sussex National ) avoiding trouble is more important that just hitting 300 yard drives all over the place. Although he managed that as well, the knob.

It was the best round I've EVER seen live, and he did it because he made very few mistakes, and putted very well with that rediculous new grip he uses nowadays.

His new GPS made a huge difference to the conviction that we both had with our approach shots.

I'm now going to bore you with the hole by hole bit, so you might want to ignore this bit, and just go to the next thread, but if you have trouble sleeping, read on.....

1 Brooklands 361 yards. Quite a wide fairway, but the green is protected by a brook directly in front of it. Jamie hit a little 5 wood, with a gentle wedge to 2 feet. Tapped in for birdie number 1. Score -1

2 Jack Horner 391 yards. A slight dogleft left. Positioning of the drive is all important. A slightly pushed drive into the trees left our hero facing his first dropped shot. Until he spotted a route through the trees, and he played a high risk low punchy shot under the branches, that forced it's way onto the green, for a nice safe two putt par. Score -1

3 Bowl 192 yards. A relatively straightforward hole if you hit your iron tee shot to 7 feet. Even better once you sink the putt for birdie number 2. Score -2

4 Old Well 326 yards. Another slight dogleg, this time to the right. Driver isn't usually the shot, but it seemed the lowest risk option today. It left a flick to the green, and the birdie attempt lipped out for a tap in par. Score -2

5 Round the Bend 397 yards. Tough tough dogleg left hole, with the toughest green on the course waiting for you when you finally reach it. The 5 wood teeshot was either oversafe, or a slight push, depending on who you ask. It basically ended up in the trees with no magic escape option. A nice chip out left a wedge on, but the sloping green took the ball all the way down and off into the fringe. The next shot was a fraction light and it nearly rolled back off the green, but James sunk a very brave 10 footer to only drop one shot. Score -1

6 Broken Beech 483 yards First par 5. A 301 drive down the centre right of a pretty damn tight faiway left a 8 iron approach to a forward pin position. Another safe 2 putt for a simple birdie, on a hole that often claims a shot or two back from you. Score -2

7 Hollow Glade 187 yards The back pin position left a shot to the pin of 190 yards, but at the narrowest part of the green. After much discussion our hero decided to do as he was told, and play the safer 6 iron shot to the centre of the green to leave a difficult birdie chance, but a safe par. Score -2

8 Risk 'n' Hope 484 yards The encroaching trees make this straightaway par 5 play like another slight dogleg. The brook 100 yards short of the green is in a dip that collects far too many second shots. The tough, sloping green is protected by two large bunkers if anyone is tempted to attck the green in two. Jamie hit a big enough drive to leave another short iron approach. A sweet swing to 10 feet left a dangerous downhill, cross green eagle putt which was so fast that any attempt to race the putt could have left a longer putt back. A finessed putt to the edge of the hole left another tap in birdie. Score -3

9 Braids Best 438 yards SI one. There is a ditch crossing the fairway 250 yards from the tee. Make it a dogleft right, let the trees encroach, and you have another tough hole. 4 wood under the trees, 4 iron to keep the ball down, and a couple of putts from 25 yards make the hole look reasonably easy. Score -3

Out in 33 shots

10 Crooked Brook 350 yards Short hole with placement off the tee being all important. The slightest overhit snuggles under the branches to complicate Jamie's second shot. This is another green protected by the brook, and it proved impossible to keep the ball under the branches, carry the brook, pitch onto and hold the green. The ball bounded through and ended up in some clumpy rough behind the green. A beatifully perfect chip out ended up pin high with a very makeable putt for par. The first sign of human frailty meant the 6 foot putt was missed, and another bogey reared it's head. Score -2

11 Goose Neck 392 yards. Dogleg right, with the fairway falling away to the left. A drive over the dogleg unfeasably pitched left into the rough. A wedge left a another makeable 12 foot putt for par. But would our hero collapse after missed a putt on the last green? No hope. The ball was perfect pace to drop in the side door of the hole. Score -3

12 Atop the Bank 156 yards. Oooops. The first truly bad shot of the day. A topped shot left the ball short of the green. A chip to 8 feet, and a brave, wellstruck putt saw the ball charge into the hole for a dramatic parsaver. Score -3

13 Lakeside 482 yards. Slightly overdrawn teeshot into the trees. A strange 5 iron emerged with enough topspin to bound down the fairway. The chip was a fraction heavy leaving a long birdie putt. Which was dead centre of the cup all the way. Score -4

14 Rowfants Edge 396 yards. SI 2. A draw is needed off the tee. James hit a 5 wood to leave a full wedge in. It crawled just left of the geen to leave a reasonable chip and putt. The chip checked on it's second bounce, but drifted on a little more than was anticipated, leaving a longer putt back than was comfortable. Unfortunately it didn't drop, and another shot was gone. Score -3

15 Sandy Oaks 180 yards. A 7 iron to the heart of the green left an outside birdie chance. The put was long, and slightly overhit. But dead straight! The ball thumped into the back of the cup, jumped 10 inches into the air, and dived back into the cup, like a rabbit seeing Elmur Fudd on the horizon. Score -4

16 Twister 465 yards. This used to be a double dogleg par 5 apparantly, but has been slight shortened to make it a par 4, so the course par is now the same as the SSS. Another tough, tough hole - vitually impossible to us mortals. I walked off with a damn good 6 having played ping pong off the trees, James hit yet another great drive, which again settled just under a tree, leaving overhanging branches causing yet more concern. The only shot on was a huge draw around the branches. It came off, the ball bounced off the back of the bunker to leave a 15' birdie attempt. Perfect weight, but 2 inches off line. Another par. Score -4

17 Ridge 332 yards. 4 Wood down the right side left the perfect yardage for another wedge to the green. The expected check spin didn't materialise, and the ball drifted away to 12 feet or so. A good birdie attempt unfortunately failed, but another unmissable par was in the bag. Score -4

18 Fir Finish 389 yards Uphill, and into the wind. A slightly imperfect drive still ploughed through the wind to leave a tricky short iron to the green. It came up short and right into the fringe. A cross green putt with plenty of right to left turn, left a tricky 3 footer for a 67. It was never going to miss. Score -4

Back in 34 shots

Total 67 shots !!

This round was so special because
â– There was only one miracle shot that is unlikely to come off more often than not.
â– It was ALWAYS under par from the first to the 18th.
â– The course was playing tough, and wasn't giving any shots away


Congrats to Jamie on a fantastic round

..............................



Not bad considering I've only spent 3 hours on the practice ground this year and have less than a dozen rounds under my belt for the past 3 months!

I'd like to thank Clive for taking the time to write his account of the round... 1) I didn't realise he was paying so much attention 2) I feel humbled that he took the time to write it.

Fantastic round of golf



How do you grip the putter then ?

Slingshot

I've switched to a Robert Allenby style 'pencil grip' for all my short putts.

I only use it on putts that I feel I should definitely make (which generally won't be anything over 6 foot), more than that and I default to a standard grip. It's working well so far but you can never expect to hole everything. The tour pros only make about 60% of putts from 10 feet, on perfect greens.

Ok, that's interesting - changing grip for different lengths of putt. I'd never thought about that, although to be honest I've not made a change to my putter grip other than stopping placing my right forefinger down the handle - something I was taught very early on and which my club pro recently advised me to stop.

Have you ever tried the longer putters at all ? I haven;t and I'm not tempted as such, but wondered if you've had a go.

Slingshot

I've not tried a broom handle putter at all, it looks too hard to consistently control the head and I've seen so many pros on TV missing putts that it doesn't look much better than conventional.

The reason I use 2 different putting strokes is that my normal grip gives me a good feel for pace (on lag putts and longer putts) whereas the pencil grip gives me a better 'back and through' swing for shorter putts. It seems to be working.... at the moment