Not a leg to stand on

 Our second practise day at Augusta was cut short today as a storm hit Georgia and the Carolina's The hooter went off at about 11:30 so limiting play. We had anticipated the problem and booked out of our hotel in Columbia this morning. 

Talking of Hooters, John Daly was in residence in the Augusta branch for the week. For those unaware of the brand, Hooters is a slang word for ladies decolletage and the  waitresses have fine examples. The brand is a bit seedy these days but interestingly they have recently been given permission to open their second UK branch in Liverpool.

There is also a 2700 yard restriction on ticket touts, or scalpers, as they are called in the States from the golf course. Hooters was just outside the limit.

We are now in downtown Athens which is much better positioned for our final golf by experience tomorrow. To get here though we drove through the heart of the storm which was pretty severe.

In our limited time on the course we saw most of the box office names on the driving range including McIlroy, Tiger Woods , Westwood, Justin Thomas and Fitzpatrick. I also got to chat to Justin Rose,s caddie, David Clarke and hear all was good in his world. 

Tiger seemed to be hitting it pretty well so we will see if he gets to play as it will be walking which wil be tough for him for the four days.

A visit to The Blind Pig in Athens has finished off the day.

Out of the Woods

 A very early start got us to Augusta National golf club at about 8:30 in the morning. The first priority then being to empty my wallet in the merchandise shop. 

A fishing chair (no arms allowed) was the first priority. Then with the weather forecast tomorrow, a brolly would come in useful. After that it was bits and bobs for people who asked and a half zip to for me. Masters green of course.

Then it was to the course where we set up our chairs on 13 before walking up 18 to see where Sandy Lyle made his miracle bunker shot to win in 1988. Next we hit the practise green and driving range where most of the big names were honing their game. David Clarke was on the bag of Justin Rose. David and I used to play 3rd and 4th team for Twickenham RFC in the day.

We then met Derek Lawrenson , the Daily Mail golf correspondent, and Wallasey member who warned us Tiger would be on the course at about 2pm. We dropped in to the 16th where it is traditional for players to try to skim their ball across the lake onto the green. Bit of a mixed bag but lots of crowd participation. Interestingly John Rahm got a hole in one with his skim last year.

After seeing a few Europeans including Rory McIlroy, we avoided the Tiger Woods show to return back to the hotel.

So what to make of it? Well it is a huge money making operation for Augusta National. Everything is geared to making it easy to part with your money quickly. The course and the general real estate is immaculate but the layout of the course makes it difficult to follow players around it.

Couple that with the fact there were very few players out there to watch  then day 1 was a bit disappointing. The weather forecast tomorrow is not good but we will see how things are in the morning.

In the meantime there is some Southern fried cooking to enjoy. Grits anybody?

Reserve Course

 I am well used to taking the number 12 shirt on golf tours so I thought the Reserve Club in Aitken would be right up my street. Sadly that was not the case s I suffered my third defeat out of three.

The course was well set up with lightening fast greens and the fairways were bordered by houses and condo's for the most part. My poor golf was consistent with my poor days at home and the frustration is becoming a bit of a problem for me. Hey ho, there is now time to focus on the Masters for a couple of days before my last chance of victory on Wednesday.

Tex Mex was the order of the day food wise where I was faced with a steiner of beer to go with my chimichanga.

All was good and thanks to the hotel shuttle for the return trip. Still not found any new golf shoes so the money can go on a bit of Augusta memorabilia tomorrow.

Kermit

 The second round of golf was played at The Frog, a Tom Fazio course on the outskirts of Atlanta. His signature designs include large bunkers and small greens. The Frog was classic in that respect. It is also a public course.

While the condition was never going to match the Athletic Club the layout was very good and Cookie and I had a good match which I sadly lost 2 & 1. We were joined by Brandon and his partner Cheyenne. They were at Augusta today for the ladies amateur competition.

The evening saw me drag Cookie round Blockhead again looking for haunts from 1996 and earlier. The 5 Paces Inn is still going strong and is still home to Old Whites RFC, our first opponents in our 1992 tour. Twickenham also played the Georgia State team as well as Hilton Head, Savannah and Charleston.

Buckhead is much changed but it was good to visit the old haunts, as the newer restaurants like The Iberian Pig were full to bursting.

Today we visited Stone Mountain before travelling to Columbia where we are based now for our trip to The Masters on Monday and Tuesday. The weather is set fair so my legs might get an airing at golf tomorrow. I will need to buck my ideas up though or I will be whitewashed!!

Atlanta Athletic Club

 First day of the tour and we arrived at the Athletic Club, Goodness me what a place. You could fit Wallasey golf club footprint into it maybe several times. The place is hugely busy socially with the golf course ticking over.

The course has played host to the US PGA several times and is a shrine to Bobby Jones. It is that which gave us the introduction. The memorabilia is stunning and it was a delight to play there. Unfortunately the polo shirt price blew my budget so will have to sort that on my return

After a very enjoyable drink with our hosts Ian and Jim we made tracks back to Buckhead and the Irish bar, Fado. I had not been in there since 1996 when SWMBO and I watched Mohammed Ali unveiled as the torch lighter for the Olympic Games in Atlanta. SWMBO and I were both volunteers for the event and this was the first time back since then.

Tomorrow Cookie and I will be visiting the Five Paces Inn which I was last in in 1994 when we played Old Whites at rugby. It really is turrning into a bit  of a homage trip!