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!

The road to Augusta

 So after more than two years of trying, Cookie and I are in Atlanta ready for the golfing adventure of a lifetime.

Goodness me though it was still a nightmare!!

Firstly hurdle was the lateral flow test to be taken within a day of travel and needed to be observed. The lady operative was great but Zoom went down or froze during the test sending me into a panic! We got there in the end and my six day isolation justice as I was negative. It was the most stressful thing I had experienced since leaving work

So off to the airport  where the first senior moment kicked in. It was 10:15 and the board showed the Atlanta flight gate had already closed. More panic until the Virgin girl pointed out I was going to New York and onward from their!!

Second senior moment as Cookie rang to say he had got to the airport and forgotten his tickets passport and vouchers and was now going back to meet his wife half way with said items. Would he make it back in time?

Next challenge was that my ticket would not let the check-in desk allocate me luggage. That got sorted as apparently we were booked on three NY to Atlanta flights later that day.

Cooke arrived in time and we settled into the flight. After two hours there was a medical emergency but luckily we were too far out to turn back but more pleasing was that the passenger did not need resuss.

We landed fine. She was taken off by medics and we gigot to homeland security. I get the red light so get whisked off to the naughty boys step for a 45 minute watch and wait. Still don't know why but given we had a 6 hour stop over it killed some time!!

So after that all the other delays were routine, and 20 hours later we got to the hotel. So let's see how the golf goes today!!

The Birkdale Divot

Golf party's continued over the last few weeks, with the Royal Birkdale dinner on Friday. Some clubs have traditions which they continue to uphold at these events. Woolton for example always serve pheasant at their St Andrews dinner, and Formby always have the first cut of the local asparagus crop at their dinner in May.

As far as Birkdale are concerned, there always have the Birkdale Divot on the menu. In the past this has been a stuffed mushroom about the size of a child's hand, but this year it was served as a canapé  in the pre-dinner drinks reception.

At dinner I sat next to the ex-Captain who presented Mark O'Meara with the Claret Jug at Birkdale in 2000, and a gentleman who imported fruit into the uK. While he is long retired, his son still runs the business. One of the speakers at the dinner was the Lady Mayoress of Sefton. She was short and sweet, as was her speech. The new Birkdale Captain spoke well, and then it was left to the Captain of the R & A to say a few words. The poor man is a farmer from Fife, and not a natural when it comes to public speaking. May he be like a good wine and improve with age.

Next week is the final formal away day as it is the Leasowe dinner, then follows my farewell event on the Saturday.  The year group have a gathering at Royal Liverpool on 18th March and my final day in office finished on 19th at about 4pm. Two long but very enjoyable years then come to an end and normal service can be resumed!!

I managed to fit a birthday into the last week somewhere and have recollection of happy birthday being sung a few times. Tempus Fugit.