Morning all,
Apart from being a nutcase Arsenal supporter, I’m also a keen Golfer and recently I was invited to play in a team game of four in a club competition we call Texas Scramble.
Close to 30 teams had entered and looking at our team of four I fancied our chances…
The Texas Scramble’s basic format is simple and straight forward:
Each player hits a tee shot on. The best ball, as determined by the captain, is selected for the second shot. Each member of the team hits his or her shot from that spot. This process continues until the hole is played out – there are many alternative rules relating to how many tee shots each player has to take but at my club, it’s four.
On the day in question one of our players never showed up, so after hunting round the clubhouse we found a golfer that hadn’t been included and he agreed to make our team up.
The four players we had put together before the start looked a good team but now the balance of having some one new in the team had thrown that all out but we would work with what we had.
We all took our tee shots and from the outset I noticed we had a possible weak link but the way the game works, the other three could carry the weak link, so we continued on up the fairway and around the course.
I took three tee shots fairly early but wanted to save what I could for later, so we picked some of the other drives and brought the others up to the same.
Sadly for us, our weak link had only hit one decent tee shot and with two holes to go, they had two left to play from the tee.
To cut a long story short, we had used up all our spares and were looking in to be in the mire!
On the seventeenth hole our weak link stood on his own on the tee, he knew he had to hit a good shot but spannered it straight into deep rough. It looked bad so I suggested he play a provisional ball which he duly hit straight into a bush never to be seen again!!
We had to find the first one or we were out of the competition, the poor guys was full of apologies and we tried to hide our disappointment, telling him its only a game it’s not life and death!
All four of us were in that rough searching for all we were worth and just as we approached five minutes of looking we found it, a huge cloud lifted and we managed to get away with a bogey on the hole! All was not so bad and still in with a chance of winning the competition.
Onto the 18th and final hole, again the weak link standing alone on the tee – I could barely watch!
You could feel the pressure he was under, sweat running down his brow knowing that we are all standing watching and hoping. Words of encouragement were spoken but I think that made it even worse for him. I’m sure he had a little prayer just before he stepped up to take his swing. 😉
Our so-called weak link hit his first peach of the day which split the fairway right down the middle – awesome!
The pressure was off and smiles become abundant, he hit his second shot to the green and put it to within eight feet of the pin, we couldn’t better it and we made the putt.
We finished seven under par and were quite happy, that was until we entered the clubhouse and found out a team had shot fourteen under par!
The moral of this little story is that teams that have a weak link can cover for a little while but in the end it comes to the fore.
Any weakness needs to be addressed early and so pressure is eased on the others.
We have new players in the Arsenal set up this season, we have played 3 games, just 1 point and we can’t afford weak links. If it becomes clear we have one Arsene Wenger must rectify it immediately and make a change for us to be a strong unit.
Get the points we need and march forward and hopefully we will do better than my seven under par.
Just to top it off, would you believe that weak link was a Manchester Utd supporter!
How typical that he came up smelling of roses at the end….. 😉
Written by Steve Palmer
Morning all,
Nice Post Steve, i always enjoyed the 19th hole when playing golf 😉
Reminds of a round i had once, a chap in front was way out in the rough searching around, i was getting fed up but he wouldn’t let my group through, you know men seldom let the ladies through… After about 5/6 mins, he suddenly shouted ‘ found it’ – expecting him to pick his ball up i was quite surprised to see it was his driver club he’d found… 😉
Bad shot I guess….
Morning all, top post Steve.. 3 games one point sorry but thats relegation form. Barca bragging how they ripped us off Cesc. Nothing to smile about
Interesting to read Walcott says all is fine at the club and the new signings should everyone a lift, he says he can’t wait to get back for training on wednesday and get going again….
what is it about Walcott, he always seens to have something to tell the newspapers…..
Howdy Erick
Ignore Barca, we all know they ripped us off, that’s why we hoped Wenger would sell him in the open market but our club wouldn’t do that and Cesc wouldn’t sign for another club…
We need to move on from what has been, after the Swansea game we have evryone back bar Jack and Diaby and with the new players in, everything should start to fall into place and we get on a good run….
I can’t wait for the game against Swansea, it will tell us where the team is, Ramsey has been dissapointing..too slow
Me neither Erick, hopefully a good home game, three points and get out season on track…
I think the problem with Ramsey is felt the world on his shoulders with the departures of Cec and Nasri – now we have added, he might relax a bit and play as we all know he can….
May be Rico, he has been over doing it..hope Arteta can share the burden and boy do we need those three points
I didn’t see the Wales game but he grabbed himself a goal so at least he’s found his shooting boots 😉
hi all, wozzup?
Hi rico, is it possible for me, to upload a picture here for others to see?
Hi Osi, not a lot, another quiet old day…
gutted about Wilshere injury rico. That little boy is a real man; a fighter that never gives up. We needed him at the ManU game. You know some pundits, who like to belittle Arsene’s achievements, said that United young players were miles better than Arsenal youngesters and that the average age was only 23 for ManU less than Arsenal average by 6 months. laughable. But they forget few things:
1) that we missed jack (19), Song (23), Frimp (19), Gibs (20), Gervinho (24)
2) put those young lads instead of Traore, AA, Rosicky, Ramsey and we could have younger team and better one.
We missed buckets loads against manure, the result highlighted that big time but still think we should have done better with who we had…
imho we played into their hands,….
rico did Arteta play in any of the Everton last few games? I think Benayoun is in good shape and can start against Swansea and so is Park. I don’t know about Santos and Arteta.
I’m not sure Osi, i’ll go check..
“Take Man City for example. This is a team financed by another country’s sovereign wealth fund. Think about it – this isn’t an egocentric billionaire who wants a train set of a football team to brag about. This is a club being financed by the oil and gas wealth of a Gulf state. How do you compete with a country.”
from Stone Cold Arsenal.
It’s true and it’s really crazy world. £400ml sponsorship deal, kiss my ass!! these guys don’t give a shit about corporate responsibility and stuff like; you tell them ‘this is a case of corruption because your own companies are signing hypergenerous sponsorship deals’, they would say ‘No, you’re wrong sir this is our money and we’re free to use it as we see it, anyway, we’re not wasting your money’
he played on the 27th Aug against B’burn in a 1-0 victory…
It is a crazy world in football now but as long as the people at the top allow it, it will remain….
Morning.
Not convinced about the weakest link logic. I think football is more dependent on strongest links than on weakest links. Strong players can pick a team up on their shoulders and carry them in spite of weakest links existing. This is not 4x100m relays or 4-ball golf, so one analogy doesn’t lead to the other.
My real question is: what is our strongest link? In the past we channelled everything through Fab, and we’re all agreed that Arteta is not the new Cesc, so where will our goals come from? I think Gervinho is the key and whoever can read his runs (giving to him, and taking from him).
Hi rico is it possible for me, to upload a picture here for others to see?
Hi all.good read steve although i must admit i know nuff all about golf 😉
Also cesc should just zip it.no matter how much he speaks about us it doesn’t change the fact he behaved like a spoilt brat when he refused to train and he was part of the reason why we got ripped off.Great player but he should move on and leave us in peace.
Cesc is quoted to have said that Arsene was the one who ask the owners to lower his prices and let him go. Strange. If that’s true do we blame Wenger? does that mean he wanted to the saga to be finished earlier so that he can look for replacement, but the club refused, wanted more and failed?
Savage – i also think playing everything through Cesc has been our weakness – we bacme too reliant on him, which showed when he didn’t play…
now we need a different game plan which involves every player rather than focusing on just one…
Hi Kt, ADK
Not sure on the photo, i only know how to put one in the post 🙁
Hmm… Do you think I could e mail you the photo? Then you could decide whether you want to post it tomorrow, or some other time? One of my girlfriends has made me a cake, and I think it’s quite the art 😉
Osi it is difficult to tell who is to blame right now as there is much we don’t know about the transfer.what am sure is cesc screwed us proper when he stated he would only leave us for barça.also he behaved like a petulant child when he refused to train.this may have forced our hand and its disrespectful how cesc dealt with the matter.now he is gone i want him to shut it.
If that ankle surgery that diaby has undergone goes according to plan i hope he finally fulfills his potential.when he has had a run of games he has shown how immense he can be.its players like him that may prove to be the x factor of our season that no one will see coming…off to take my meds now 😉 to plan i hope he finally fulfills his potential.when he has had a run of games he has shown how immense he can be.its players like him that may prove to be the x factor of our season that no one will see coming…off to take my meds now 😉
For sure ADK, is it your birthday??
great! how can I get your e mail adress rico? No it is not, it was the 26th of August, but the cake was worth waiting for, so i thought I would share it with my fellow gooners!
highbury.house14@gmail.com
k-tr7 agree about Cesc behaving like a petulant child. When I read that Nasri with a year left in his contract brought us +£23, and Cesc with four years left £24.5 plus add-ons, I feel that we were humiliated and humbled by those BArca bastards. and then some people praise cesc for being a good boy!!!!! Had he only stated that he would be ok with whatever decision his club Arsenal takes we would have negotiated from a strong position and get what we deserved. We brought up to be the player he is now, and we were patient to see him grow in his role, we sacrifised a lot and now we got nothing from him.
Osi – i think the final transfer amout was just under £40M…
We should severe all our ties with barça.we keep our players and they keep theirs.
No rico it wasn’t. It was just under 40m Euros not pounds but that includes add-ons [some add-ons depend on winning CL, La liga, and appearance over 4 years]nd some, it also includes loyalty bonus or whatever we had to pay Cesc. So that money is our money = 4.5m euros. What Loyalty? He wanted this transfer and he asked all his friends and relatives to give interviews claiming that he’s desparate to join Barca. They only money we got is =£24.5ml and maybe we’d get about 5 more in 2 years time. That’s the way every news website had reported it.
You know wenger won’t do that Kt, he’s probably already lining up some 14 year old of theirs 😉
totally agree K-TR7 we should never deal with those scums.
Arsene should forget about Barca academy, we won’t accept to be humiliated like this again. If he’s interested by spanish players technical then he should look at Bilbao, Atletico or other academies but not Barca or Real otherwise we’ll have those geneticists Eugenicists coming after us.
The problem now is that the barca kids know we will play them early as we did with cesc, they will learn in england, play regular and then when they get to an age that they know they are looking good, they will want to return home…
Our biggest downfall is offering them to much of a good deal before they have really earned it….
Perhaps if we stopped doing that, we could afford a higher wage structure for more experience and much better players….
Osi it seems we agree.we should never deal with them again…ever.we have been belittled and humiliated,to an extent they are now gloating.if we want youth talent so much Germany is the place to scout.i don’t anymore spanish players in our squad.littled and humiliated,to an extent they are now gloating.if we want youth talent so much Germany is the place to scout.i don’t anymore spanish players in our squad.
Our match versus Stoke is moving up.
Why do we have always so many injuries?
I’m not sure our squad is regular now… miss one player on the midfield in my opinion
We attract so many youth mercenaries.when they begin to make it big they leave us the same way they left their parent clubs.we are the mancity of young players. they leave us the same way they left their parent clubs.we are the mancity of young players.
I’m sure Barca still owe us for Henry and Helb.
JM, we only have three injured, Jack, Gibbs and Diaby and the latter two could soon be back…
Agree though about we should have got just one more midfielder, i hoped for one more CH too….
ESP, and don’t Juve still owe us money too?
More than likely Rico, Money straight up from now on I hope. Sick of Barca and all their crap, never should have allowed them to train before the CL final.
k-tr7 Germany scouting is very interesting. They have really good youth academies. we need a mix of flare and hardwork players. Germany are know for their machine-like efficiency and French, Brazilian, spanish and Dutch known for their flare therefore we need a mix of those plus our own English players. Forget about Barca.
Santos asked arsenal fans on twitter to help him learn English.his first 3 words were…drumroll…I HATE TOTTENHAM 😀 i love this guy already!
At least with German scouting Osi we can also get players from Poland,Serbia,montenegro…most players from those countries plie their trade in the Bundesliga.
There are lots of Turkish players too in the Bundesliga.
Arsene plz scout any country in the world but not the Barca academy. We even had Toure straight from Africa and gave us energy, enthusiasm, driving forward and unbeaten season. That was how good we were at scouting.
I hope so too ESP, i never quite understand the way we do sales sometimes, not when the club profess to be looking after their coffers….
Don’t you just love Balotelli,apparently he had his ipad with him on italy’s bench when they played Faroe Islands last week 😀 italy’s bench when they played Faroe Islands last week 😀
He must have the biggest ego’s in football these days Kt….
The only thing i know about golf is you should always wear two pairs of trousers just in case you get a hole in one !……………..taxi.
Tell me about it micko.i’ve heard there is a bloke known as Tiger woods that is supposed to be quite good 😉
😆 Micko, cracker …..
It’s not the golf, it’s about the weak link – rely on a weak link and it all goes pear shaped, i took SP’s post to mean that Wenger needs to be more ruthless, if AA is cack, drop him, same for Rosicky etc etc…
We can’t afford to carry passengers, we have had too many seasons of doing that with Denilson, Diaby, Rosicky, Nik etc etc etc..
TR7, I also heard that tiger was quite good at playing-a-round !
Can you see what this international break is doing to me.
You been for a pub lunch Micko 😉
I’m off for a bit, back later….
hi guys…good post..
wenger has to serve the two match ban….
Turns out pat rice was our weakest link against Udinese.
Fish out of water.
yes,”UEFA have rejected Arsenal’s appeal against a two-match touchline ban handed to Arsene Wenger”
Was Wenger told by UEFA that he could communicate to the bench via a third party or not?
Evening all,
Quiet day on the blogasphere then, Wenger has to serve his 2 match ban then, i would have put money on that.
I have started to think that we will not be able to field our strongest team for some while yet, what with suspensions and injuries, now the next round of The Champions league both legs without our manager on the bench, I think they don’t want us in this competition or is it just me.
Steve, it’s just you, we’ve only got ourselves to blame for finishing 4th last season.
ESP, dunno, wenger would have been better off sitting in one of the executive boxes for the Udinese game, however he couldn’t have known that the sky camera’s would spend most of the game watching him and not the match itself, it didn’t help with pat rice playing charades on the touchline either.
Perhaps your right Micko, but fourth place or not, we still would have had our manager and two players sitting it out, now its going to be three games for Wenger.
Pat Rice was pretty embarrassing watching him staring into the stands like a lost child.
-Steve, I don’t think UEFA care who is in the competition as long as Barca win it.
Its pretty handy for Barca when they are put under siege they have the luxury of putting 11 mean and one origination behind the ball.
We could always enlist the help of a profesional Manager just for these matches , don’t think there is anything in the rules which says you can’t employ some one temporary
ESP, i reckon you have hit it on the head there, i did hear that EUFA is thinking of bringing in a new rule in, that anybody playing Barca has to start with ten men.as the players are getting grazes when they dive
-Steve
That sounds more than reasonable, why go through the emotion of having a player unjustifiably sent off when we can just start with ten.
Evening guys and gals 🙂
I’m sure agag has been taking a peep at the handsome new Number 8, I have 😛
Evening Rico, ban for Wenger then, when’s it going to end
Hi Steve – loved the post – that’s because I love golf and loved the fun side of the scramble 🙂 Beats handicap and stableford points any day 🙂
I think we knew he’d get the extended ban, he should have just stayed behind the scenes in all honesty but at least he was there for the away match that saw us through….
What I think should be learned from this is Pat Rice days as his assistant should be over, I wish he’d retired in the summer rather than see him look so lost during the home leg…
I really felt for him…..
I said at the time we needed a change, but Wenger talked him into one more year, Just as a matter of interest what does Pat do exactly.
I think most of us did Steve, I hoped for Bould or Keown to take over but I honestly believe Wenger wanted to keep his ‘yes man’ alongside him….
He’s one of the coaches but as far as matchday, he’s just an ear for wenger to whinge at – maybe thats the problem, the two of them together are stale..
Bit like a marriage, you know sometimes it’s over but you hang on in hope but eventually…..
She takes your house
Or he does ….
Everyone seems to have gone so I’m off too…
Nighty all, stay safe and catch up tomorrow….
yes, two games banned and the penalty for the club – 10 thousands..(!!!???)
Vermaelen again… 6 weeks out !!!!
So, it’s rumoured that Vermaelen is gonna be out for the next two months?
Well, that’s until the Arsenal medical team get hold of him.
Once they work their magic he’ll be out until March..!
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