After the friendly match against
Brancepeth four of us went down to Woodhall Spa, the home of “England Golf”
(the new name of the English Golf Union) and one of the top 50 courses in the
world, The Hotchkin Course.
The main objective was to play
golf while staying dry, but we also thought we’d speak to the Club Services man
at England Golf to benefit from his experience regarding our re-write of the
rules and our fundraising for the clubhouse development. Unfortunately he’d been
called away “unexpectedly”. I’m sure it’s nothing personal, and we can speak to
them by phone, but it’s a shame not to have got inside the inner sanctum.
On the golf course, our objective
was a bit harder: rain swept across the country for the two days we were there.
The good news was that everyone else stayed away from golf on the Monday, which
meant we had a world top 50 golf course to ourselves. The bad news was that we
got wet. But not too wet.
There was also some compensation
for Mike Robinson and I as we were heavily beaten by John Southern and Keith
Whitfield: a chance to see why Harry Vardon was such a good player. Keith had
absorbed pictures of Vardon’s putting in a history of the course, and decided
to putt in that manner. It worked: pretty much everything sank.
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As golf club members we get a discounted rate to play the course; it's a long way to Woodhall Spa but it's an enjoyable place to visit.
Another benefit of the course was the opportunity to admire their heather reclamation work, in some cases at very close quarters, and also the scale of some of their gorse: some had become so large but straggly that you could walk around underneath their canopy. Why would you? Looking for balls of course. This is important: I was told a couple of weeks ago that the trouble with committee members is that they lose their balls when they join the committee. I'm pleased to say I found five in one lot of gorse bushes, and three in the adjacent heather.
Another benefit of the course was the opportunity to admire their heather reclamation work, in some cases at very close quarters, and also the scale of some of their gorse: some had become so large but straggly that you could walk around underneath their canopy. Why would you? Looking for balls of course. This is important: I was told a couple of weeks ago that the trouble with committee members is that they lose their balls when they join the committee. I'm pleased to say I found five in one lot of gorse bushes, and three in the adjacent heather.
A Vardon quote: "A great deal
of unnecessarily bad golf is played in this world."
And a link to HistoryRepeating, a great song performed by Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads.
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