At first, I didn't quite get it when my friend told me about the new hazard that has come up on the 14th hole at the TNGF-Cosmo Golf course. He told me it was a 'crow hazard' and my first thought was that he was having a dig at my new found ornithology mania. Almost immediately I knew he wasn't pulling my leg, that this was slightly more serious. I remembered Kapil Dev killing a seagull that wasn't quick enough to get out the way of a ferocious drive, in Adelaide, if I'm right. That had to be it, maybe there's a murder of crows out there, with murder being both a collective noun and a verb.It wasn't as bad as that, I'm assured. It is merely that the crows on the 14th and 15th holes have been particularly hungry or something and have been flying down to pick up the ball before the player walks to the fairway from the teeing area. Apparently it is more common than I first thought - googling for crow golf ball will give you a lot of stories about this happening all over the world.Maybe you need to keep a really close eye on the ball!
While waiting to tee off at the 14th hole of the TNGF-Cosmopolitan Club golf course last week, I noticed that the tops of the walls had a new glint to them. Okay, I haven't been on the course for a while, but the wall-tops aren't that old, anyway. This 'architechtural' feature used to be very widespread, but seems to have dropped out of favour, at least in some of the larger residential /commercial building complexes. As kids playing cricket, the rule around such glass-topped walls was simple: if the batsman hit the ball over it, not only would he have to run a long way around to bring the ball back, but he would also be out. Superstition was that taking a hard look at the jagged shards (and maybe some muttered incantations) before bowling would induce the batsman to hit the ball over them - and fetch a wicket for the bowler.Some vague memory of that came back and not only did I take a long, hard look, but also pulled out my camera and took this photo. (If you know your Chennai, that's Panagal Buildings in the background, right behind the green neck). Sure enough, some luck came my way - made par (4) on the 14th and, for the first time in 9 months of playing golf, made a birdie on the par-5 16th - yay!
