AMAZING MATTHEW

Last night I invited 6 year old Matthew Sime to play his first ever 18 holes on the Ranneleroch Course to see if he was ready to move up from Leitfie and could manage to play 18. We teed off using the Gents White Medal tees at 6.30pm and Matthew hit his first drive straight up the middle carrying it onto the fairway and using my GPS I measured it as 146yds, he then proceeded to hit 3 x 3 woods to be 5yds short of the green, he then pitched on and 2 putted to record an opening 7. Before we teed off I had told Matthew we would use the par +3 which if he was to play level with, would mean he could get the maximum Congu Junior Club handicap of 54. So after the first hole using the par 5+3 Matthews 7 was 1 under. Hitting the 2nd green in 3 he 3 putted for a six to go 2 under. And after 4 holes was 4 under. Clearing the pond Matthew was unlucky to catch the rough along the fence with his second shot but managed to get the ball back into play and despite taking a 10 was still 2 under. A 5 iron short of the 6th green and a pitch to 3ft and a single putt led to Matthews first ever par on the Rannaleroch and got him back to 5 under. A putt from off the green for a 6 at the 9th gave him a front nine of 58 and kept him at 5 under.

Kirsty and Kate Brodie came out to give Matthew some encouragement on the 10th tee where he again hit an excellent drive down the middle (151yds) only to bunker his approach shot, unfazed Matthew hit his bunker shot to within 1ft to secure his second par and go to 8 under. This led to a very steady run where after 16 holes Matthew was 15 under. On the 17th a drive and an 8 iron and a 12ft single putt led to the third par of the round and going to the 18th tee 18 under I realised Matthew had only hit 42 shots on the back nine and on being just off the front of the 18th green in 6 overhit his pitch and took a 10 for a back nine of 52. Our round took just under 3 hours and Matthew proved to me that not only was he able to play 18 but to an fantastic standard remembering he is still only 6 !!!!

Matthews Card

7-6-6-5-10-3-7-8-6=58 4-6-7-4-6-5-7-3-10=52 58+52=110

Putts

2-3-2-2-3-1-2-3-0=18 1-2-1-2-1-1-3-1-3=15 18+15=33

Matthew would be allocated a CONGU Junior Club Handicap of 33 (110-71-6) (see clause1.2 below) on this card requiring to lose only 5 further shots to be allocated a full CONHU Handicap. AMAZING

Clause 1.2 Any score more than 2 over par at any hole shall be amended to 2 over par. (The maximum reduction under this clause shall be 6 strokes per round.)