On a recent golfing holiday the club I was playing at held a fun stableford competition that ran throughout the day. You know the sort of thing, a token amount of money to get a competition score card, then play at whatever time of day best suits.

That particular day was cold, wet and windy and so I was pleased to score 37 stableford points. Given the conditions I felt I maight be in with a shout. The next day I asked the pro what the results were. He said that I had come second. On asking what score won it he sheepishly replied that a woman had won it with a stableford score of 56!!!!!!!

Two ladies, both with 36 handicaps played together. One of the ladies, the eventual winner, was new to the game. What we think happened was this.

If the lady scored a 6 at the first par 4, her partner would say "very good. You get two shots on this and every hole", and put a 4 on the card. This was the way it was scored on every hole. When they returned to the clubhouse, not being sure of how to score stableford points, they asked a man in the 19th to help them.

"Very good", he said. "A 4 on the first, which for you is a net 2. Thats 4 points"!!!! etc. etc.

Effectively she started with 36 points before she hit the first ball, and then scored 20 points on the round.

The pro said they had felt obliged to pay her the money, however unlikely the score, as the card was marked properly as far as they could judge, signed by player and marker and the stableford points tallied with the marked scores.

Just my luck I guess, but I am still crying into my beer.