Bury St Edmunds Golf Club<\/a> on Saturday for my 12pm tee time – 90 of the best amateur golfers from Suffolk teeing it up (well, 89 of the best and me) with the top 30 and ties making it through to the second and third rounds on Sunday – a feat which was a goal, but also realistically going to be a big ask – especially given my mental state after Thursday\u2019s debacle.\u00a0<\/p>\n\tBut then golf did golf, didn\u2019t it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tIt was a weird round in the sense that, for the first time in a while, I hit my irons really well. My short game was good, too. I dropped my first shot on the par 5 third, was actually greenside in two after hitting – what I thought – was a great 8-iron in. But having only played this course once before I didn’t realise the flag was tucked on the left-hand side of the green – with half the world to aim at right of the flag, I didn\u2019t go hunting, wasn\u2019t being greedy, just a lack of knowledge. So I left myself a horrid chip off a bare lie, which wasn\u2019t bad, but it ran away all the way to the other side of the green and I ended up three-putting from there for a bogey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tI made sure to keep my composure, especially after the next tee shot leaked right into the trees, punched it out, got up and down from 60 yards to save par.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tBut then, unexpectedly, over the next four holes – which are all relatively short par 4s, I topped my 5-wood and mini driver twice each off the tee, one of the four of which I still managed to make my par after, but the other three led to drops.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tAt the turn I was only four over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tBy the time I had got to the 18th tee – a par 5 to finish – I was eight over and knew I wasn\u2019t going to make the Sunday rounds. But I still felt incredibly pleased with how I had played and proud with how I carried myself. For the first time in a long time there was the prospect of a round without any double bogeys around a course I didn\u2019t know that well and was set up excellently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tGolf had other ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tLeaked tee shot, punched back into the fairway, 7-iron into the front bunker (the first bunker visit of the day) and three putts later, the dreaded double bogey and that was that. Love. Golf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tRemember It’s Not Just You Who Struggles on The Course<\/p>\n
\t![\"Bury](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/28718_fx0by1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\tI think it’s good for me to get into these types of events. I was playing with one guy – Craig – who is a +2 golfer from the same course. He had a run from 10-12 where he went birdie, birdie, eagle and that was swiftly followed by a double on a fairly straightforward par 3 13th – so in a weird kind of way, it’s good to know this kind of thing happens to even better golfers. It\u2019s not just me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tAlso – I did want to say a huge congratulations to Bury St Edmunds Golf Club for the excellent condition of their course, as you know, I get around a bit playing this silly game and the greens were some of the best I have putted on all year. I was really impressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tSo, that\u2019s me for last week, lesson this week where I am sure I will talk Sam through Saturday shot for shot and dissect everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tJust a heads up, next week I am away in Ireland – whilst that will feature heavily in the following weekly column in two weeks, I am not sure when I will get a chance to pen next week\u2019s – but will do my best to keep my fans happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tHave a good one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matt Holbrook<\/a> is a long-serving Golfshake ambassador known for his course features, opinion pieces, and product reviews. A dedicated golfer from Suffolk, he is an active member of Stowmarket and Felixstowe Ferry Golf Clubs and frequently travels to play in open competitions. With hundreds of rounds logged through Golfshake, Matt is committed to continuous improvement and enjoys sharing insights from his experiences on and off the course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We’re now halfway through the year – 26th weekly column, thanks to those that have stuck with it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-664782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Suffolk](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Suffolk_Amateur_gpguxm.jpg\")
<\/p>\n