Last week saw the culmination on Season 16 of the Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer golf society competitions. The finale is traditionally a Ryder Cup style competition between Europe and the Rest of the World. each team has 12 players and you qualify by submitting your qualifying scores for the year, together with any match play results and the best people in various divisions are selected to represent their team.
Europe is usually comprised of people from the United Kingdom, and Rest of the World is usually from the USA and South Africa although people from the Caribbean have qualified for the team previously. After last years trip to Las Vegas, Virgin Atlantic were keen for the final to be in the UK and to publicise their Manchester hub. Consequently the North West golf coast was selected as the venue with Southport & Ainsdale and Royal Birkdale the host courses.
The warm up event was held at Ghetto Golf in Liverpool which is a crazy golf course in the old Cains brewery. the first hole is played in a caravan and then various holes celebrate the art of brewing. The Rest of the World triumphed after a captains play-off to set the tone for the week,
Day one at S & A was a foursomes competition which Europe won 4-2, then the team decamped to Royal Birkdale for fourball contests which were won 3.5 to 2.5 by Europe. Although i did not make the team myself, I was fortunate to have a guest invitation and played the course before the contestants, my second visit of the year. Dinner that night was in the Art House, one of Liverpools best restaurants and after a good sleep, the teams contested 12 singles matches again at S & A. There were some mighty battles throughout the day before Europe triumphed by 14-10 and retained the Pedlar Trophy.
The final dinner was in Fazenda, an Argentine steak house again in Liverpool, and after due celebration the teams adjourned to The Cavern Club for a bit of Liverpudlian Beatles music.
So a tremendous four days of golf and high jinks and here's hoping that Virgin Atlantic appreciate the brand value this golf society has, and renews for season 17. I for one will be trying my hardest to qualify for it.
Monday 14 October 2019
Thursday 10 October 2019
King of the Castle
So on to BMW and their tournament. It was in 2010 that I last qualified for the UK final at Turnberry, and I was unable to go to the World final as I was only an associate member of the BMW family. This timeeverybody was playing on a level playing field and the prize was a trip to Fancourt Golf Club in South Africa. Now I say level playing field but the Castle course on which we were competing was anything but. It is the newest course in the St Andrew's estate and because of the tricked up greens the locals will not play it. That leaves it to the Corporate golfers to try to find their way to a decent score. 41 points won by a 21 handicapper which is hard to swallow.
The layout of the course and the setting are first rate it is just a pity the greens have to be so difficult as to ruin the experience really.
Nick Dougherty , the Sky presenter and ex-golfer, was the guest speaker and he was very good. We stayed in the Old Course hotel and were treated as we always are by NGL and their staff. as is traditional, we had a beer or two in the Jigger pub and fish and chips in the town. All in all it was a great few days with a few new friends made.
Our travels were not finished then though. We had a very enjoyable night in Edinburgh before moving on to Gleneagles for a couple of nights to look at their shared ownership properties. Unfortunately the weather was finally against us, so I only got 12 holes of golf in on the Queens course, but SWMBO had two fantastic spa treatments and we had a very pleasant meal on the hotel in their Strathern restaurant. Everything from the bread to the cheese was plated at the table and all we covered was a very good bottle of red.
The journey home was great and I got to play at Royal Birkdale yesterday, but more about that in a subsequent missive.
The layout of the course and the setting are first rate it is just a pity the greens have to be so difficult as to ruin the experience really.
Nick Dougherty , the Sky presenter and ex-golfer, was the guest speaker and he was very good. We stayed in the Old Course hotel and were treated as we always are by NGL and their staff. as is traditional, we had a beer or two in the Jigger pub and fish and chips in the town. All in all it was a great few days with a few new friends made.
Our travels were not finished then though. We had a very enjoyable night in Edinburgh before moving on to Gleneagles for a couple of nights to look at their shared ownership properties. Unfortunately the weather was finally against us, so I only got 12 holes of golf in on the Queens course, but SWMBO had two fantastic spa treatments and we had a very pleasant meal on the hotel in their Strathern restaurant. Everything from the bread to the cheese was plated at the table and all we covered was a very good bottle of red.
The journey home was great and I got to play at Royal Birkdale yesterday, but more about that in a subsequent missive.
In the night garden
It is not often we venture into the neighbouring kingdoms of Great Britain, however, so rather fortunate golf shots in August made me eligible for the BMW International Cup UK final in St Andrew's, reputedly the home of golf. It was mostly funded by BMW but the final itself was to be contested on the greens of the Castle course just outside the town. Consequently I decided I would travel up early with SWMBO and try to get to play the Old course, an Open Championship venue.
Now I am happy to admit the course always looks pretty ordinary on the TV and would not drag me up to Scotland to play it on it's own, but as an opportunity has arisen then it was reasonable to take advantage of it. Now people who do not follow golf may not realise the mission that is involved when trying to get a tee time. Some tee times are reserved early for the residents and students of St Andrews, there are some times purchased by commercial organisations and then there are the rest! 2,3 and 4 ball applicants go into a tee time ballot and are allocated times by a random draw. There is no guarantee an application will be successful, so, for example, on the Saturday we were there the ballot was over subscribed by 103 people. That is the equivalent of 26 tee times over 4 hours. The only way for those people to get a game or for single players like me is to arrive at the tee and hope for a gap in the field or a no-show.
Now this 'arrive at the tee' bit is not as easy as it looks either! The office does not open until 07:30 in October with the first tee at 08:00. The residents and students are not obliged to fill their spare slots from the waiting queue, so the earlier you get there the more change you have of getting a slot. I arrived at 06:10 and I was number 13 in the queue. The first people had been there since mid-night, no kidding!! I was worried 13 might be unlucky but I was informed I was actually 14 as one chap had given up at 04:30 and gone back to bed.So in true style we formed a line as the office opened. We were told 21 of 33 people had got a slot yesterday so hopes raised. By 10:00 two people had found slots and the rugby was on the TV. Then, miracle, two 4 balls failed to arrive, and I was on, 11:00 tee off. I was with two Canadians and an American, we had four caddies and it was rock and roll. I played pretty well, hitting my first tee shot OK and got a par at a few holes including 15 and 16. My initial views were confirmed though that it really only had two good holes. I arrived at one of those needing a par and a bogey to score 36 points which is a level par score after handicap.
17 is the iconic road hole. In the day you drove over railway sheds to the fairway. The sheds have gone but the hotel which replaced them has kept the architecture such that you still have the same brick wall facing you.when we were on the tee the Polish navvies were dismantling the grandstands used the previous week for the Dunhill Classic. It was very distracting. So, I strolled forward and in my best Polish told them please to be quiet. They were shocked into silence as I and my three partners bashed perfect drives over the sheds to the centre of the fairway. The caddies were more impressed with my Polish that the golf though!
It is called the road hole because the green is about six feet from the road at the back of the course and is protected by a large , deep bunker. No problem for me though as I knocked the ball on and two putts gave me my third par in a row. Just 18 to go!! well, what an anticlimax that was as a twonked by ball into the Swilken Burn about ten yards in front of the tee. I did not get my bogey so ended up with 34 points and a nett score of 77. Pretty good I thought.
Would I rush to play it again? No probably not but the experience of getting onto the course, having a caddie and getting par on the road hole was something to remember and add to my great golf story play book.
Now I am happy to admit the course always looks pretty ordinary on the TV and would not drag me up to Scotland to play it on it's own, but as an opportunity has arisen then it was reasonable to take advantage of it. Now people who do not follow golf may not realise the mission that is involved when trying to get a tee time. Some tee times are reserved early for the residents and students of St Andrews, there are some times purchased by commercial organisations and then there are the rest! 2,3 and 4 ball applicants go into a tee time ballot and are allocated times by a random draw. There is no guarantee an application will be successful, so, for example, on the Saturday we were there the ballot was over subscribed by 103 people. That is the equivalent of 26 tee times over 4 hours. The only way for those people to get a game or for single players like me is to arrive at the tee and hope for a gap in the field or a no-show.
Now this 'arrive at the tee' bit is not as easy as it looks either! The office does not open until 07:30 in October with the first tee at 08:00. The residents and students are not obliged to fill their spare slots from the waiting queue, so the earlier you get there the more change you have of getting a slot. I arrived at 06:10 and I was number 13 in the queue. The first people had been there since mid-night, no kidding!! I was worried 13 might be unlucky but I was informed I was actually 14 as one chap had given up at 04:30 and gone back to bed.So in true style we formed a line as the office opened. We were told 21 of 33 people had got a slot yesterday so hopes raised. By 10:00 two people had found slots and the rugby was on the TV. Then, miracle, two 4 balls failed to arrive, and I was on, 11:00 tee off. I was with two Canadians and an American, we had four caddies and it was rock and roll. I played pretty well, hitting my first tee shot OK and got a par at a few holes including 15 and 16. My initial views were confirmed though that it really only had two good holes. I arrived at one of those needing a par and a bogey to score 36 points which is a level par score after handicap.
17 is the iconic road hole. In the day you drove over railway sheds to the fairway. The sheds have gone but the hotel which replaced them has kept the architecture such that you still have the same brick wall facing you.when we were on the tee the Polish navvies were dismantling the grandstands used the previous week for the Dunhill Classic. It was very distracting. So, I strolled forward and in my best Polish told them please to be quiet. They were shocked into silence as I and my three partners bashed perfect drives over the sheds to the centre of the fairway. The caddies were more impressed with my Polish that the golf though!
It is called the road hole because the green is about six feet from the road at the back of the course and is protected by a large , deep bunker. No problem for me though as I knocked the ball on and two putts gave me my third par in a row. Just 18 to go!! well, what an anticlimax that was as a twonked by ball into the Swilken Burn about ten yards in front of the tee. I did not get my bogey so ended up with 34 points and a nett score of 77. Pretty good I thought.
Would I rush to play it again? No probably not but the experience of getting onto the course, having a caddie and getting par on the road hole was something to remember and add to my great golf story play book.
Kingfisher
We have been hugely busy these last two weeks so some catchup blogging is in order. Our first trip was divided into two parts. SWMBO dived down to London to meet some friends and then stay over with sister Michelle, then I drove down to Swindon to pick her up and transport her on to 'off the record' Dick and Gill's new place in Nether Wallop, or one of the other Wallops!!
They have got a lovely house which is in two parts. The old cottage is thatched and a 'mind the beam' kind of place onto which is built a new home by way of an extension. This part looks down the garden to a pond and vegetable area, with mini follies scattered throughout.
The home benefits from a home automation and entertainment network which must be seen to be believed. The wiring is extreme, nothing is labelled and poor old Dick has not got a clue where to start sorting it out. Luckily the critical services work but there is a feeling that there are many more features which could be utilised.
We were there in the
company of their son John and Stuart and Delia, our good friends from
Marlow, and the boy scout in Stuart certainly came to the fore as Dick
wanted help to build a hide so that he could capture some shots of the
kingfisher which had recently come to visit the garden. It can't have
been after the fish, as the heron had probably wiped them out some
while ago. The hide was a glorious success and the little fella had no
problems posing for this shot.
The Saturday evening gave Dick and Gill an opportunity to invite some of the neighbours over for drinks as a sort of house warming event. There were some very interesting people there including a couple who lived in Teddington and were weekenders, a lady who was the ex- commercial director for Coca Cola in Atlanta and a peliphera of fishing and hunting people who enjoyed the facilities of the local River Test and surrounding grounds.The local farmer also turned up and he was clearly the centrepoint of village gossip. It was a good craic and as with village folk, they left fairly promptly allowing us to all do a bit of minesweeping later.
Gill then produced an excellent Sunday lunch and we all walked it off with a trip to Stockbridge which nestles on the Test and is very much a London prices sort of place so I am very confident Dick and Gill will be happy there
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