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I had half an hour's coaching with our head pro yesterday to see if he could help my worse than dismal iron-play.

Lo and behold! I shot 83 off the whites today garnering a rather pleasing 39 stabbos which came as a very pleasant surprise as my last few have been in the high 20's. I did chip and putt a lot better as well but my ball-striking was noticeably better, especially on the front nine where I 3-putted from about 20 feet on the ninth to be out in 40/22pts. A welcome upturn in form with the big match  v "the lads" upcoming on Monday. 

played my first competition of the year, lanark 4-ball seniors. Our playing partners were from eck's club alloa and did pretty well, might have got a prize. The course was pretty tough - my index is 27.4, the course handicap was 32!  The weather forecast was for it to be cool and breezy but it turned out to be a marvellous spring day.

A little.

I'm not saying rivalry isn't important-it is. But perspective is also important.

I love my Club. Always have. Always will. Like any true fan, the "like" bit can be a bit strained sometimes. But never the Love. Which is far, far more fundamental than the Dislike I have for Arsenal.

I was lucky enough that, when I was young, my Mum worked for the Arsenal for a while. And the Director who was her boss was a lovely man who understood where the right line is on tribalism.

It has always been a slight disappointment to me that, by and large, Arsenal fans are thoroughly nice people. On that subject, so are West Ham fans. Spurs have always liked West Ham, although the feelings have never been mutual. Surprising that they never mention single-handedly winning the World Cup 60 years ago

Won't you feel a bit dirty rooting for us on Sunday Phil?

Great result at Villa Park last weekend btw, Di Zerbi seems to have had quite an effect.

Great shooting Eck. Our course condition is very good and improving each day.

Shot 94 today in the seniors competition but unfortunately had x4 3 putts.

Booked a series of lessons starting next week and going to upgrade my 22 year old golf clubs.

Know the feeling.

In the past, you have been more Spurs-y than us, regularly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is faintly ridiculous that a Club of your size and ability has never won the Champions League, or the Premier League for the last 22 seasons.

22 years ago was, of course, your "Invincibles" season. A look at the current Portuguese Table amuses me. Too much is made about how supposedly uncompetitive other Leagues are, but not in Portugal.

Mourinho is only 2 games away from having an Invincibles season (P32, W20, D 10). But Benfica cannot win the title, as Porto are 9 Points ahead. And Sporting Lisbon are level on Points with Benfica.

The Top 3 in Portugal have this record:- P96 W72 D21 L3. All the more remarkable when you factor in that 12 of those results involve those 3 playing one another

Think you will win the League. You'll probably be 2nd Favourites in the Champions League, but plenty of worse teams have defied much bigger odds in that Final

I'm sure you and Tony won't mind that this Spurs fan won't be wishing you luck in the CL Final. But please feel free to "hammer" Wet Spam

As Terry Griffiths once famously almost said "We're in the final now".

It's been a pretty decent week after a few testing ones but I am wary of getting too carried away..

Played quite a bit lately, had about 5 rounds last week. Got 4th place in my clubs senior open last Monday. Hopefully a good day for the club was a full tee sheet. Usual story 18th blew it out the park got a 5 for an 80 but got me a prize.

Saturday medal wasn't good had no idea where any club face was, putter the lot had an 85.

Sunday was a 2 man scramble played with an old school friend who plays of 24 so didn't expect much other than a good catch up especially after we doubled the first. I blew it OB and thankfully he got it in play but we made a right mess of it. It got better parring the rest till we birdied the 9th which is the toughest hole on the course. Checked the leaderboard and net 63 was winning (par 71) but we got off to a bad start on the back 9 bogeying 2 of the first 4 so thought it was kinda game over and was really encouraging the other pair who were doing a bit better than we were. They were both off about 11 and were getting 7 strokes we were getting 8  Anyway we birdied 3 of the last 5 including a lovely chip in at the last (bogeyed tough par 3 15) for a gross 72 and net 64 which got us 5th and another £50 each. Driver worked great and think it helped having a partner as i was basically telling him (and me) what I was trying to do on a lot of shots and it seemed to focus the mind a lot.

Played this morning and had a 79 which was quite surprising when the guy with the app told me I was on 74 on the 18th but usual hit it into an unplayable and took a drop (my 3rd of the day) and got a 5. Off to Canmore again on Thursday for the senior 4bb. Played there for the first time a couple of weeks ago for the first time. Short course no par 5's five par 3's but holes aren't short and all par 3's on back 9 are 180+ yds and very fast greens. So fancied another go now i know where i'm going so off with another guy at first tee time 7.30 (its in Dunfermline about 30 minutes away) I am meant to be working but should get round well under 3 hours hopefully 

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the weather, our course has dried out lovely and greens are getting into great nick. A month ago everything was sodden but its looking really nice now so just want to get out there most days unfortunately there is other nonsense like life and work 

 

You're doing well Doobs. I haven't heard one for about 15 years.

Pretty sure I didn't hear one last year, I am guessing my last one was 2 or 3 years ago.  It was in a fairly local nature reserve, but I didn't see it.

We have had a couple of neighbours building in their back gardens.  I was quite surprised how it affected the birds in my garden, but they seem to be recovering after no work for 3 weeks or so.  

though if they fall for that they deserve all the bad luck they get. 

One theory

There is a question as to why the majority of the hosts of brood parasites care for the nestlings of their parasites. Not only do these brood parasites usually differ significantly in size and appearance, but it is also highly probable that they reduce the reproductive success of their hosts. The "mafia hypothesis" proposes that when a brood parasite discovers that its egg has been rejected, it destroys the host's nest and injures or kills the nestlings. The threat of such a response may encourage compliant behavior from the host.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_parasitism