Day 360 - A Casa

I forgot to mention yesterday that one of the things that I did whist in Lavenham was to help my mother with online applications for a new driving licence and a passport. It's somewhat ironic as these two processes (along with renewing your car's road tax) are some of the slickest and best applications on the web: as such they are ideally suited to the older generation who need them but yet at the same time are more cautious about using them...

We managed to get a group of 8 out today on the New Course: at the start of play, there was still some signs of frost on the ground and everyone was complaining about the cold, but only 2 holes in the sun came out and we were treated to a fantastic day. No wind (!) and warm sunshine made it appear as if we were in early Spring rather than February...no wonder all the flowers are so confused this year!

The golf itself was a mixed bag: two of my 4-ball played excellent golf, whilst I didn't.. it was though enough to win the few pennies available for the winners. Not that I hung around for long though as Steve and I had a 3 pm meeting with Burhill management.

We sat down for about an hour and a half with Colin, Guy and Matthew, reviewing a bit how the past year has gone and also looking forward to the future (party to ensure that everyone was prepped for any questions that might come up at Sunday's AGM!).  It was interesting to hear Colin's perspectives on the state of golf in the UK from his conversations with other proprietary club owners, as well as England Golf. It would appear that overall golf is still on a downwards trend, though underneath the raw data there is a clear split between the high and low quality operations, with the former prospering and the latter not: expect to see a number of newer course return to farmland use with the better return available on fresh food.

In the evening, I went out for dinner with my son and daughter: we were testing out a new Italian opposite the Shell garage on the Portsmouth Road in Cobham - it's recently transferred ownership and name and is now called A Casa.  The menu was reassuringly brief: a choice of 4 main dishes all freshly cooked. We took a selection of three and they were all good. And the tiramisu afterwards was delicious...