It was a pleasure as always to play with James yesterday at Cavendish, the obvious venue for our match as it is equidistant between our respective homes.
On a dreich day which felt more like November than July the course didn't shine at its very best, but our game was always close with never more than a couple of holes in it. It was the five par 3's that made the difference, four of which I managed to win with the other halved. Local knowledge?
James's disgust was palpable when I shamelessly pulled out my driver on the 180 yard uphill 13th and proceeded to dink my ball to the heart of the green, making par to go 2 up. I turned 60 a few weeks ago and am enthusiastically embracing the art of "old man's golf!"
Birdies at 14 and 16 brought James back to all square and the momentum was definitely with him, particularly after he hit a glorious 6-iron apparently right on the pin at the deceptively long par 3 17th. My 4-iron was hit sweetly too, albeit slightly right. On getting to the green however, it turned out that James was 15 ft short while I was pin high with a 6 footer which I managed to drain for the hole! I do seem to have this knack of delivering a stiletto between James's shoulder blades at critical moments...
My double bogey (with a shot) was enough to halve the magnificent 18th and take the match.
Hard luck James, and hopefully you'll be back at Cavendish very soon in dryer conditions!