Goofy Golfer

On Monday I played 9 at the Domburgsche Golf Club in Domburg , the Netherlands, a 9 hole Links course at about 1u15 car drive from home. The course requires a 30 HCP if you want to play there in the weekend or during July or August .. but a 36 will do for the other days.

And unlike most other foreign course they actually did ask for a handicap proof.

Although a 9 hole course you have to pay a Day ticket which allows you to play for the day , having only time for 9 makes it kind of expensive but still worth the money. Note, that they only accept Dutch bankcards and no Credit Carts when I played there.. so I was happy to have enough cash on me.

So up to the first tee .. an elevated tee with a great view over the rest of the course. Not having played for over 2 weeks, not having warmed up, the only reasonable thing to do is to hit a practice ball into the fairway to see if you still know how to swing, some people call it a mulligan, I just call it a practice ball.
Standing up there the fairway seemed extremely tiny, was I really aiming for something that looked like it was 10 meters wide (and in reality probably just 15 at some places ) .My Iron 4 teeshot found the middle of the fairway about midway beyond 150 and 100 meters marker, an easy Iron 8 up the hill reached the green. Green in regulation at the first hole of a new course, I think i can count the number of times that happened so far on 1 finger :)
If it wouldn't have been for the extremely fast greens I could have made par .. but my first put was way to far.

I took a glimpse at the second fairway during my climb up to the 2nd tee. From the teebox the fairway let alone the green were nowhere to be seen. The only guide for direction you have is a largish pin on top of the dune that points in the general direction of the fairway. This time a my teeshot was bit to the left on the fairway but again a reachable green, I however missed it by 3 meters, a chip and a 2 put further I had my 2nd 5 on the card.

At hole 3 the danger starts, the danger being the holes being a little bit to close to eachother, yes they have placed priority signs on which hole has priority over which one, but being a first time it's not really easy to figure out which tee belongs to which hole. Hole 3 is a 140 meter par 3 , however depending on the wind direction your clubselection will differ. I took mine a bit short, and missed my bogey put.

Hole 4 is the SI 1 hole of the course , a longer par 5 , some local players were still looking for their balls and waved me trough, my 3rd shot was still on the fairway, but I still has 70 meters to go till the green. Usually 3 good shots with my 4 bring me far enough , the seaside wind decided against that.

There was a queue on the par 3 5th, again a group of locals that suggested I'd tee of with them and then continue ahead. The 3 of them hit their woods to the left and let the wind bring their balls back on the fairway .. having a slight error to the right I opted for the same approach only to hit the straightest shot ever, straight on to the nearby road , even hearing the ball bounce there before it disappeared. The locals told me that I really wasn't the first to do such a thing and that years earlier someone had hit a similar shot into a car driving by. It however was the car of one of the dutch ministers and the sound of the ball hitting the car made them think it was a terrorist attack.
Luckily for me , there was no car in sight . My second ball was better :)

I missed my teeshot on the 6 thole.. to the right just in the rough .. could correct it however .. I however managed to hit my final green approach in the pothole next to the green, took me 2 shots to get out of it.

When teeing up at the 7th you have to make sure you don't hit the people putting on the 6th, no danger on the 8th, but more danger on the 8th green when people are teeing of from the 9th tee. I had seen people tee up on the 8th with heavy woods not reaching the green. So I was a bit in doubt ..I opted for the Iron 6 , almost over hitting the green, but with a chip and a put my par was in.

The flight on the 9th was still looking for their ball and again waved me trough.
The 9th tee again is a blind shot where I missed the fairway .. my 3rd shot ended up in the pothole bunker next to the green. First time I was in a pothole bunker that size.. I could barely see the flag, but I managed to get out in 1 shot.. and even put it close enough to the hole for one bogey put.

Sadly I had no time for 9 more .. , maybe till next time.
But 20 points Stableford over 9 holes with a fresh handicap on a coourse I never played .. I can't complain..

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