The Highs and Lows

That sum's golf up pretty well really. There are days when everything goes your way and times when it doesn't and the last few weeks have certainly been like that. We are entering the knock-out match period of the season, and I have been dashed a few times on the 18th green. Sometimes you think you have been beaten, which is fine, other time you think you have lost which is a very frustrating feeling. I also entered an English Golf Captains event at THE Wilmslow and did not play very well. I am not a great fan of the Wilmslow course and I am unsure why they have added the THE to the front of their name. Wilmslow is part of the Viagra triangle in the Eastern part of Cheshire, the other two towns being Alderley Edge and Knutsford, so maybe it is a supplemental boost to their perceived status in that part of the County. All very strange though.

SWMBO and I were delighted to be able to host the ex-Captains, the Council members and their partners together with some ex-Captains widows in our garden as an opportunity for them all to get together. The ladies in particular had probably not seen each other for 18 months or so. It was a very convivial gathering which I think everybody enjoyed. The Club then hosted an array of Captains from the Cheshire and Lancashire clubs for a match and some refreshment afterwards. I was able to make a short speech and enjoy a few beers with the locals.

I was disappointed that an opportunity to play at St Andrew's in the Old Tom Morris 200th birthday celebrations  passed me by, but a further Salver Day at Wallasey in the middle of June  focused my mind and that earlier disappointment was washed away when yesterday I was able to help our 1997 ex-Captain win his Salver Day for the first time after 24 years of trying.

So the highs and the lows of the game have been encapsulated into the month of June, I await with interest what July will have in store.   

This caps it all

I trawl through E-bay every now and then. it's a great insomnia cure. Generally I am looking for something to do with the house genealogy, works of art which have been incorrectly attributed  or Twickenham RFC memorabilia. In the last few weeks I have had a couple of good results.

Firstly I picked up a little limited edition sketch book by Northern artist Harry Riley.  Riley was a contemporary of L S Lowry and they knew each other well. Where as Lowry was renowned for his matchstick me, Riley was, and still is, a unique golf scene painter and commentator. The book I brought tracked Jack Nicklaus through his final two rounds at the Open championship at St Andrews. The commentary charts Jack's  thinking as he decided that missing the cut at his final Open was the best thing to do as he could not face two more days of high drama and emotion, nor did he want to deflect from the actual winner and the reception he should get. Typical Jack Nicklaus to the end, every bit the gentleman.

That's two of Harold Rileys sketch books I now own.

Things then got a whole lot better when I noticed what looked like a Twickenham RFC honours cap from 1926 in the rugby memorabilia section. I did a bit of checking and found that indeed it was a genuine article. I contacted the lady to see if she would sell outside the auction, but she was keen to let it run. I contacted the club treasurer to see what price he would fund up to and then played a waiting game. I won it at about ten percent of the price it could have fetched and it is now in the clubhouse collection with its fellow cap's.

Two were awarded each year to first XV players who had an outstanding season, and that tradition still goes to this very day albeit the designs are slightly different. One such cap is the oldest relic the club has dated as 1897-98

The cap I obtained had the name Bishop inked in the label and a study of the team photograph for that year shows a gentleman of that name sitting in the front row. I love it when a plan comes together.

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. 

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.

Don't just book it...

So disappointed to see the demise of Thomas Cook, a travel firm we have used on numerous occasions for holidays, flights and corporate hospitality. We have been in Mauritius when a holiday firm has gone bust and we saw first hand the stress it put their clients under, both from the point of view of their holidays being cut short, how they would get home, and the actions the hotel owner took to protect his outstanding payment schedule.

None of that is pleasant, and it was only by chance that we had not booked a pre-Christmas mega group to take the ankle biters to Lapland for a special trip. Thomas Cook were favourites to be our carrier, but we were still trying to sort out dates with the four families involved.

Instead we have booked everybody to go to Geneva to see number 1 son and family so EasyJet just got 15 return flights they might not have been expecting. Geneva is great from Liverpool as there are flights most days in the Summer with extra ones during the main skiing season.

We have a few other sorties planned with a first trip to 'off the record Dick's new abode in Middle , Little, Upper or Lower Wallop near Andover shortly then a major BMW golf event in St Andrews followed by golf and spa in Gleneagles. We will return home yearning for sunnier climes I suspect but they might have to wait until next year as our property sales process has stalled once more so funds need to be rationed.

That said, we are geared up for the mega Euro Lottery tomorrow. What would I do with €200m

George Stephenson

I have had a very difficult year of golf so far. I have had some niggly injuries, some runs of bad luck and an inconsistent swing which is so frustrating as to make me almost give the game up for a while. That last emotion has, however, been balanced by my ability to find some form in a few team competitions.

I have been fortunate to come second in the Wallasey Invitational event and win some money, John Porter, a major player when New Brighton were a formidable rugby team, and I came second in the Old Padeswood senior open where we won money and golf balls,  and my team ,"Shoeless Joe's", managed to win the Wallasey4Wirral charity golf day where we won £100 each,together with wine and meal vouchers in the raffle. A very well done to Neil Bennett and his son who continue to run an excellent day and raised over £6000 for various cancer related charities

All of the above were very welcome, but none so much as the round which allowed me to qualify for the BMW Golf Cup International UK final to be played on the Castle course at St Andrews. I played in the BMW owners golf events for many years until BMW pulled the plug on them, and this is the second year I have been able to try to qualify for the finals as an independent. I had it won with four holes to play at Woburn  last year but grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. This year at Hillside I was able to keep my composure and finish in second place. That gets me an all inclusive stay at the Old Course Hotel for a long weekend, and I will hope to get a chance to play the Old Course while I am up there.

The only down side is that it clashes with the Twickenham Rugby weekend away which this year includes three rounds at Minehead GC and three nights at a tribute band extravaganza at Butlins!! Another year perhaps!

So why the heading for this particular post? Well, when I first joined Wallasey GC as a soft Southerner who knew nobody, George took me under his wing, and week on week we have played together every Saturday for nearly ten years. George extended similar comradeship to Peter Ellerington and Phil Gedman. George is now 86 and only two weeks ago went round the golf course in 82 shots. To beat your age is a target every golfer aims for. The pro golfers look to do it in their early 60's, good amateurs in their 70's and people like me hope to live until the y are 90 and are still playing golf!!

As a thankyou and a late 85th birthday present, we took George this week to play at Royal Birkdale, rated as the top course in England. It did not disappoint. The welcome was first class and the course was laid out in excellent condition. We played variable golf, but George was so focused that he and I managed to beat Phil and Peter after I had put us into an early lead and they had pegged us back on the back nine. SO, whenever I go through the emotions outlined at the beginning of the article, I just think of George and his single mindedness, never mind that he is giving me 20 years and three shots. He is a legend and I value him as a friend, long may we share the fairways.