Breakthrough

I always felt good playing the East Course of GC Stolper Heide. Somehow this course suited me and my game. So yesterday it was time to put the money where the mouth is as I played my first tournament there.

The title of the tournament was “Schnitzel-Cup” as the organiser is the owner of a Schnitzel restaurant here in Berlin. At least you didn’t have to worry about a decent halfway catering.

The tournament was played with a simultaneous start (is there a word for “Kanonenstart” in english?), and we started at the third tee, a 156m par three that was also venue for the mens “Nearest to the Pin”-valuation. I was joined by Manek and Dirk and as a threesome we made us on the way.

And I started with the best result ever in a tournament. My six iron landed within two meters of the flag, and so my first shot of the tournament won me the “Nearest to the Pin”. A two-putt secured par.

But my euphoria was cooled down on the next hole, as my fourth shot on the par five was one meter short and landed in the water. So I dropped a ball in front of the water hazard and had some eight meters to the flag. And *splush*, the next shot landed in water too. Can you friggin believe this? The third shot made it over, but then I picked up my ball with a nine and discarded the hole (same thing as here).

But my game stabilised after that, almost all tee shots found the fairway (I played irons only again), and my short game was stable too. But one phenomenon persisted: so many putts stopped millimeters in front of the hole or lipped out. That cost me seven or eigth strokes, but this may be the next level from double-bogey to bogey-player. Speaking of which, I played one par, six bogeys, seven double-bogeys, two triple-bogeys and two holes were discarded. So all this added up to 41 stableford points. And reduced my handicap to a 31.8. And won me second place in the tournament in my handicap class:

Nice trophies….

My scorecard

One word about my fabulous flight partner Manek, he has handicap 23.8 and played 36 points yesterday. At age 71!!!! He was a wonder of consistency, in his words “short and sweet”. Really impressive was his touch with the putter, that he often used as ‘texas wedge’. With the precision of a surgeon the balls rolled towards the flag with the exact length needed. And he still plays the very first putter he bought some 35 years ago in Bombay. I am seriously impressed. We young guns tear the fairway apart with our drives and then he comes from behind and walks off with a bogey and a happy smile in his face. Loved it.

The planned Matchplay with Daniel had to be postponed, as we didn’t play in the same flight. Probably good for him, as he didn’t have his best day yesterday playing 19 points. Comparing our scorecards I should have won 6 & 4 (ok, enpugh bragging). So we’ll have to reschedule the semi-final.