Turkey Trot Blues

Now the Turkey Trot is over half way through it’s a good time to reflect on the results to date.

As with so much to do with golf, the weather has had a big impact – but unlike the rest of the year it’s been positive with most weekends having been calm and dry. This has meant the number of people playing is up on last year, and the number of rounds is about 20% higher. Strangely, though, the average scoring is low, at least until the recent efforts by Hugh Adair which have seen his handicap come down by 6 over two weeks.

Despite the better weather, the average scores have been about 5% lower than last year.

Are we all not as good as last year? Do we need Christmas presents of better equipment? Are the extra rounds being played by worse players ie the good scorers play in all conditions? Perhaps the greens, with the late treatment this year, mean we are putting more? Or maybe we are used to windy conditions so calm weather means we play less well. Who knows? Something to speculate on during the backswing.

This year’s competition has been my first chance to become involved in running a competition and checking cards etc. As a result I’m even more grateful to the people who do this each week during summer. It’s not as easy as it seems particularly as each week people seem to confuse the dates of Saturday or Sunday, forget to put their names on the sheet or on the money envelopes or to put their cards in: there’s always a discrepancy. It is a pain – although I can hardly grumble since the only time I (almost) won a competition in 2012 was the time I forgot both to sign in and sign my card.