Out on the Konopiste

Day two of the Czech golf festival saw us travel a little further to the Konopiste resort and spa. The facilities have two 18 hole courses, a nine holer and practise ground. The practise ground doubles as a ski slow during the Winter and has a lift to the top. There is a hotel and spa and additional dormey house accommodation for golfers.

Our welcome at the course was not as enthusiastic as that which we got yesterday. It is often a characteristic of golf hotels that they almost find golfers an unavoidable nuisance. Today seemed back that up.

Early on the course seemed a bit tired and tatty but it's conditional improved greatly after about three holes. The only other downside was the back nine which seemed have four holes of a similar design which have a certain tedium to them.

Cookie and I stormed back from 4 down against two dour Scotsmen and after pulling back to all square on the 17th we gained an honourable half on the last. In the Virgin Swingers league though Cookie beat me 2 & 1.

Last night we had our tour of Prague followed by typical Czech cuisine which was very enjoyable. We had a coach to the castle and then walked down to the Charles bridge and old town in the company of an English speaking guide. It showed us some fascinating architecture, buildings many centuries old standing beside those a few hundred years old, and those in between.

Prague has never been under siege or subjected to land or air bombardments which has allowed it to evolve in the way it has. The only sadness lies in the Jewish quarter where many beautiful synagogues stand as a monument to the atrocities of the Second World War. The Germans cleansed the City of the Jewish population and the Jews have never returned.

So to tomorrow which sees us battle for the Czech trophy. Must keep the ball the fairway and out of the water hazards otherwise Cookie will beat me again.

Czech us out

Myself and good mate Cookie are in Prague at the moment checking out the city and its surrounding golf courses. We flew in last night and avoided all the hen and stag parties going back the other way.

Today was the first round at the Loreta course about 35 minutes from the centre. It's a new layout from 2013 but was the ideal start for our tour. We played it as a warm-up round and hit some dreadful and hit a few birdies so all in all a good start.

Neither of us have been to Prague before and first impression was how clean a city it was. We have a two hour sightseeing tour this evening so that will give us a chance to see the old town, the Charles bridge and so on.

There are 21 of us on the tour and many are travel agents or tour operators seeing whether Prague golf could fill a place in the European holiday destination portfolio. Initial indications are that it could. Let's see what tomorrow brings.