The 2nd Spencer Golf Day proved yet again (as if proof was needed) that long-stick players rule, winning by three strokes – now that’s a bigger margin than Tiger at this year’s Open!

Played at the Abbey Hill public course in leafy Milton Keynes (40 mins North of London) a freak thunderstorm haltered play at the 3rd and was cause for Rob’s tee shot drifting left into oblivion. The two hour rain delay allowed for more beers to be sunk before we headed back out to tame the undulating healthland course.

With an equal number of long-stick and short-stick lacrosse players, the competition was obvious – defence vs attack. We paired up to play “best ball” format which allowed the hackers amongst us to get the most from the day.

Rob “Slice” Gooch

Some horribly sliced tee shots negated some nice iron play. Local knowledge did not help much either, pointing out the trouble to his playing partner Alan, before finding it with his own shots.

Alan “Air” Keeley

Not a reference to well flighted shots onto the green but instead the number of air shots over his 18 holes. His record was seven for an approach to the 11th green. However good putting brought home the bacon.

Craig “The Power” Simkin

The words “control” and “touch” do not apply to Mr Simkin who unleashed hell on every shot, not matter what club was in hand and how far to go. However by some miracle, he did not lose a ball until the 17th when it found a pond 30 yards from the tee.

Matt “Steady” Blom

Matt kept his woods locked up for the day and proved a perfect foil for Craig’s aggressive play. Steady irons kept it on the trimmed stuff and out of big trouble.
The losing short-sticks were:

Stephen “Unorthodox” Greszczyszyn

With a unique upright stance and only five clubs in his bag, Stephen was certainly unorthodox. However he played solid stuff and contributed two birdies to his round with Colin. When the storm hit, he feared a tornado, but we convinced him we don’t get them in Britain. Instead we just got very very wet.

He could of got away with carrying only three clubs, a putter, wedge and his trusty 5 iron. Opened with the best shot off the 1st tee gripping his old faithful. He closed with a Cinderella story chip from all sorts of trouble to get within a few feet of the hole.

Laughing Boy and Chuckles (aka Will Stern and Peter Sayia)

A potentially dynamite all American left/right pairing. However unlike Mickelson and Woods in the Ryder Cup, their snaking up the 18th fairway, hitting from bush to bush was a symptom of too many beers rather than anything more sinister.
With the golf, booze, thunderstorms and Cinderalla story shots on the 18th, we just needed some gophers, a swimming pool and a female admirer to recreate most of the scenes from “Caddyshack”!

Next golf outing to be scheduled but we’ll look to do it all again before the summer ends.