Lenzie GC - course no 351

This is another of the good parkland courses to the north of Glasgow. I played the Lenzie course on 14 September 2010 in the club's Senior Open. There had been torrential rain in the Glasgow area on the previous day, but the course had stood up well and the fairways and greens were still pretty firm, aided by a gale force wind which made scoring extremely difficult. The weather forecast was for heavy blustery showers and sure enough, I teed off in one of those downpours. Thankfully the 307 yard par 4 1st hole was downwind and I'd only a short lob wedge to the green. A couple of putts and I was off and running, but the wind was a constant problem. I managed a good par 4 at the 350 yard par 4 4th, played directly into the gale. That's my ball to the left of the green, as shown here, so a rare single putt! The toughest hole on the front 9 is the 5th, a steeply uphill 343 yard par 4. The wind was howling from right to left, narrowing the fairway and with trees and OOB on the left, the drive was particularly tricky. I hit a good drive, but the second shot is blind with OOB on the left of the plateau green. I found the green in 3 but nearly went through the back onto the 6th tee. The exposed green is also far from flat, as shown here, so a 6 was just about acceptable. The short 140 yard par 3 6th should have been a chance to get the score back on track, but clubbing was almost impossible, given the windy conditions. I tried a 6 iron, but my ball went through the green, ending up barely inside an OOB fence, so another double bogey went on the card, followed by a triple bogey at the tricky 7th, where the wind again played havoc with the ball.

I was out in 45 and had an easy par at the downwind 10th, a 500 yard par 5 playing much shorter than its yardage. However, the back 9 is 440 yards longer than the front 9, making the par 4's in particular a real test in the windy conditions and a bad run of 6,6,8 on holes 11-13 (all long par 4's) left me struggling to break 90. This is the excellent view down the last, a 372 yard par with OOB on the left and a couple of water hazards to be avoided. I missed the first water hazard OK, but found the second, just in front of the green, and ended up with a 7, just as the skies opened. It's a long walk from the 18th to the car park and by the time I got there I was soaked. I'd gone round in 94, net 84. Disappointing in a way but I suspect that there would be many worse scores than that, given the conditions. I'd happily play Lenzie again, hopefully in less extreme weather!