Swedish chef

I was delighted that Henrik Stenson won is first major at Troon last weekend. He has been one of a number of top European golfers who have not quite stepped over the line to win one, so it was well deserved.
Henrik has had some bad luck off the course too, most notably losing a small fortune at the hands of the West Indian con man Allen Stanford. Some might say £10m was more than a small fortune, so the golfing world was delighted when Stenson won the FedEx cup and 'road to Dubai' in the same year some while later to claim a cool £20m in prize money. The Open championship claret jug will be as equally important to him as his financial rebuilding process.

The Open was, of course, at Troon in Scotland.  It was ironic that on the Saturday of the tournament I visited my mate Figs after his recent stroke. He can get out of bed now, and is recovering some use in his left arm, but he is still not too good. The NHS physio sessions seem to have dried up as they clearly see no long term benefit in continuing them. It was to Troon that Figs, myself and others travelled in May 1989 for our Scotflog tour. We played Turnberry, Prestwick, Largs, Kilmarnock Barassie and Troon in a week, doing 36 holes each day!

Troon was the least memorable of the courses as it is a boring slog up and back down the side of the Clyde. It's a bit like Royal Liverpool in as much as it is memorable for it's lack of variety and apart from the Postage Stamp hole and the 11th it has no real stand-out holes. Quite why it is on the rosta I am not too sure.

I am also not sure who won on the day we played although I do know I hit the Postage Stamp in one and then four putted!

The trip to London to see Figs also allowed us to take senior scouse grandchild to tie up with senior London grandchild and they had a right old time together and managed to manufacture a sleepover at the hotel. It was the first time Sofia had spent the night away from her parents so that was a milestone she should now be able to capitalise on in the future.

We have also received good feedback from our Airbnb visitors so it would be good to get a few more bookings before the Summer is over and then build up a bit more next year. One of the local hotels has been brought recently so it will be interesting to see how that affects the area.

I feel like I have just played in the Open myself having played four rounds in four days this week. As a means of recovery I had a run ashore with some old work colleagues in Lytham yesterday. I really should have passed on the Limoncello, especially as it was the 100% vodka variety as favoured by James Martin, BBC chef and raconteur!