I used to place little importance on whether playing at home or away when it came to interclub competition matches.

If my team was beaten at an away course, I always thought it was a poor excuse it was in part because we were playing at the opposition’s home course.

My argument was that we all teed from the same position and we were all hitting to the same hole. If I hit my ball into the trees that was clearly my fault, not the opposition’s. It was obvious the trees were there.

If my opposition hit his ball into the water, that was his fault. It was obvious the water was there.

The home team does not have thousands of fans cheering them on. The only spectators, at my level of competition, are the other three people in my group.

In my grade of interclub competition we have 10 members per team. We play singles and doubles at the same time. There are 10 points up for grabs in the singles’ events and five points up for grabs in the doubles’ matches. That makes for a total of 15 points.

In years gone by if we got a total of six of seven points in an away game, my fellow team members would often tell me that was a good result. I used to say that six or seven points represents a loss and that isn’t good result.

But after nine of our 10 games in this year’s interclub competition, at the time of writing, I am now having second thoughts about the advantages of playing at home and the disadvantages of playing away.

At the time of writing, my team is leading our grade by the very narrow margin of half a point. A total of 2-1/2 points separates the top three teams and all three were to be playing away in our final games. In other words, who would win the grade was on a knife edge.

We have only once won away and that was a very moderate victory of 8-1/2 to 6-1/2. The second-placed team, at time of writing, had had one narrow win (8-7) away and one narrow loss at home (6-1/2 to 8-1/2). The third-placed team, at time of writing, had never won away and always won handsomely when at home.

One of the teams in our grade, from a nine-hole golf course, had gained no more that 2-1/2 points when playing away and not scored less than 10 points when playing at home. They are startling statistics when it comes to home and away matches.

I understand when you are playing at home you know the nuances of the course and you know where to aim or, perhaps more accurately, you know where to avoid.

I also understand that playing at home you understand the speed of the greens better than a visitor.

But I still see the golf course as an even playing field although the statistics from my interclub grade this year are giving me second thoughts.

For your information out final round of competition is today!