Away Match v Bourn - 26th July 2018

Another bright warm sun-kissed Thursday morning with predictions of possible heavy rain later saw the JoG Seniors' team at Bourn GC hopeful of revenge for the home defeat earlier this year.

Captain Jim was his usual combative self (quote “we really need to beat these guys”) was his discrete brief to yours truly on the first tee.  In the event, the sun shone down all day onto rather parched fairways and greens that were true, fast and very green.

However, true to recent form we lost 6 games to 2. So the Sacred Scroll was retained by Bourn GC and to add insult to injury our revered Captain was awarded the Sombrero for the most golf. Attributed to his 7 iron approach to the 18^th which was lying perfectly, but nevertheless finished closer to the clubhouse bar than the hole. I think thirst got the better of him.  

 Bill Walker

Footnote:  Before the match JoG Team Members were asked to fill in their scorecards in detail for all 4 players in their group for the entire round in order that some post match analysis could be undertaken to see how all players performed  in relation to their handicaps. The results of the analysis showed the following:

1.     Only 6 cards were returned.  Observation:  Some team members have very short memories.

2.     Three of the 6 cards handed in stopped scoring after the hole that the match ended. Observation:  Some players don’t listen fully to the brief.

3.     Two cards recorded team scores rather than individual scores. Observation: as above.

4.     Of the 2 cards that were completed in accordance with the brief. One team won where our team member scored 5 under his handicap. Well done Steve Cooper! And one was lost where their Team Captain scored 8 under his handicap.

So all in all the analysis was inconclusive largely due to players not sticking to the brief. However, I think it does show that in many matches someone will have an outstanding round and shoot well below their handicap. This is always the round that gets reported while the others tend to go unmentioned. Therefore, we should not draw too many conclusions about unrealistic handicaps based on exceptions rather than the majority.