Day 141 - The Grove

Every year, I have a golf game arranged with three former Shell Trading colleagues. We each take turns to arrange and host the fixture and this year it was Mike's turn. He is the only one still working at Shell (and is very important nowadays!) and he took us today to The Grove, just near Watford.  This is a corporate golf location par excellence.

Not really a members' Club (at least from my impression) it is very slickly run and has a lot to offer the business golfer: great course, with tees to suit everyone, a bit of history (2006 WGC with Tiger Woods), lots of hotel rooms and restaurants, and today at least, an incident-free route via the M25 and some grand weather as well!

This date is always one of my favourite ones in the diary: the golf is played in good spirits, the banter flows and its great to catch up with what everyone else is up to.  The format is pretty much fixed: 6-6-6, where we play better ball with a different partner for six holes, Putting Olympics, Skins and the Zoo game. 

The latter can be particularly expensive (see my experience in 2007 at Wentworth...) and involves a 25p "fine" for each animal collected (Snake=3 putt, Camel=Bunker, Frog=Water, Monkey=Tree, Gorilla=Out of Bounds and Armadillo=Cart Path) - and the player who holds the animal at the end of the 9th and 18th holes gets to pay everybody else for his sins...

This year, everything pretty much balanced itself out: especially after the net winner, Duncan, had used his winnings to pay for the final round of drinks... 

Roll on 2016: Hankley Common here we come!

Day 140 - Jubilee II

Another Monday, another sunny day, another day without having to face neither the M25 nor South West Trains: life is good....!

Today was the day for our second match in the Jubilee Goblets: with the Lady Captain as my partner, we have challenged each of the six best pairs from the original tournament to a foursomes matchplay game. 

This was the second such match and I am afraid to report that we lost again: both Helen and Jonny were too strong for us. Their recipe for success: hitting it down the middle of the course and making few mistakes... not a bad strategy!

It was a fun match, played in excellent spirits with nobody else in sight on the course, and we managed to make it until the 16th hole but then it was curtains.  And the few raindrops that we felt all day were only as we were packing up our clubs, so no complaints there.

Home in time to watch Andy Murray play against the 6'11" Ivo Karlovic in the last 16 of this year's Wimbledon Championships. It looked hard going the whole match through and the relief on the Scot's face when he managed to clinch the 4th set was palpable.

There can surely be few such imposing opponents in the game of tennis...

Day 139 - The Buckinghamshire

After yesterday's exertions, my wrist decided that it needed a rest. This meant that I wasn't able to play in the Men's match versus Remedy Oak, but sent Lawrence Junior in my place. He was delighted to play - and almost certainly acquitted himself better than his father would have done.

So, instead of playing golf, Kathryn and I decided we would go and watch some. Our Head Pro had kindly made available some tickets for the European Ladies Masters, being played at The Buckinghamshire. Today was the last day and we decided to head over there.

Traffic on the M25 was surprisingly busy for midday on a Sunday, but at least this gave me a chance to test out one of the Tesla's more interesting features: the intelligent cruise control. This works a dream, slowing the car down automatically (even to a full stop if required) in traffic whilst also accelerating to the speed set and keeping the programmed distance from the car in front. Memo to self: must be careful not to become too reliant on this!

It was fun walking around the course at The Buckinghamshire, not least because I had actually played the course myself and could just about recall what I had scored on each hole.  We started off watching the group with Charley Hull, but they were desperately slow and so decided instead to move forwards and watch the three ball with Laura Davis in it.

She was anything but slow! Marching ahead of the other players after every shot and displaying a no-nonsense approach throughout. Others took drivers or woods off the tee, but she mostly stuck with her 3 iron, sending it an impressive distance down the fairway. Also noteworthy was her short game: we saw two up-and-downs out of greenside bunkers that any pro, anywhere, would have been proud of. Just before we joined her, she had even managed a hole in one but, despite this, still ended up some 5 holes back: too little, too late!

It was a fun afternoon out though: so much more useful for we amateurs to see the splendid timing and rhythm of these lady golfers than trying to learn anything from most modern male golf pros, who can hit the ball so much harder than we shall ever manage...

Day 138 - Thanksgiving

For many months, we had debated whether or not the Mixed Event at Burhill should be followed by a Ball in the evening. I think it is fair to say that the Club were in favour of the idea, the members less so. And is things turned out, there was no marquee anyway...  What all were keen on though was to find a way of recognising the fact that today was the 4th July, without over-emphasing the fact given that relatively few at the Club actually have US passports...

Out of all those thoughts came the Mixed Event that we played today: a Red, White and Blue themed competition followed by an excellent BBQ of beef brisket (many thanks, Kevin!), washed down with Pimms and with a steel band in the background for atmosphere.  And a great day it was! 

Playing off the Red, White and Blue tees proved to be a welcome distraction from the norm - tough for the Ladies as some of the White tees were quite a challenge and, if you look at the scoring, tough for the Gents too who seemed to struggle to choose which club to tee off with on the holes played off the Red and/or Blue tees.

Everyone (or rather, nearly everyone...Andrew...) got into the spirit of the event by dressing up in some combination of red, white and blue. As a first, this meant that we even had people on the course in red and blue socks (I hope nobody turned in their grave at the thought!) - but it was fun to see how everyone had interpreted the theme.

The weather was fantastic - which meant that for the first time this year, we had players taking refuge inside from the hot sun on the terrace... who would'a thunk it in those cold spring months we had?!

Lastly, an explanation: why the title of today's blog? Nothing to do with giving thanks for the weather, the food or the camaraderie (all good causes though!), but rather a reference to my time at UCLA. When a student, I spent two years living in California in the early 80s. Surprisingly often in late November, I would be asked "do you guys celebrate Thanksgiving in England? ".  Eventually, I decided that the best response was "yes, but on the 4th of July", which usually produced a rather puzzled look...

P.S. Many thanks for the concern expressed today about my injured hand/wrist. It is definitely improving though I shall continue to take it easy until it's completely healed.

Day 137 - Range Anxiety

Decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and give the new car a drive to Lavenham in Suffolk.  According to the on-board computer, I could just about get there and back (104 miles each way) and should return with 12% still in the battery.  The M25 was behaving and I made excellent time.

Time enough to take my mother out to lunch at the local bistro. Sitting outside in the sunshine was wonderful and the prices were at Suffolk rather than Surrey levels. We had a delicious gazpacho, with a sea bream special to follow.  And all through lunch, the car was charging off a 13amp plug in the garage, adding enough miles to make me confident about the return journey to Cobham.

Back for a cup of tea before starting the return journey. Again, all the traffic problems were in the opposite direction - until I reached my exit at  junction 9, when everything looked dire again...

I must say I was very impressed with the battery prediction software: on both journeys, it was correct to the percentage, despite the fact that I had the AC on. This will give me more confidence in running the battery nearer to the limit. Range Anxiety? Moi?

Day 136 - Couch Sports Potato

Not as warm as it was yesterday, and we even had some rain this morning.  Neither though really mattered as today was another day off the course: am pleased to say there are definitely signs of progress with the injured hand though and I remain hopeful that the weekend will see me swinging a club again.

All of which meant that today was an excellent day for doing not a lot!  Instead, started the morning off by watching some of the French Open in Paris. A couple of years ago, Kathryn and I had spent a very pleasant weekend traipsing around the course as guests of sponsor Alstom so it was nice to see the venue again - and remember it is to be the host of the 2018 Ryder Cup.

Then, around lunch time, we switched sports to spend some time watching the tennis from Wimbledon.  The Ward/Vesely match proved to be a lot more exciting than Murray/Haase, but both of these two were nothing like as fun as the Brown/Nadal game.  The tall Jamaican German gave his all and simply blew away the out-of-form Spanish champion.  Great stuff!

And now we get to watch some of the PGA golf as well: good to see three Brits going well and close to the top after the first day.  It would be great if Paul Casey could go one better than last week...

Day 135 - Pearson Final

Phew What a Scorcher! It was hot today... the warmest day ever at Wimbledon, if I understood the news properly. And it was decidedly steamy as I took the car down to Bramley Golf Club to support the Burhill Pearson team.  In the morning, they played their semi-final match against Farnham, interspersed between the other game which saw Wisley paired against Camberley Heath.

I was unable to stay until the end as I had a doctor's appointment, but when I received the text from Gabi telling me that our Ladies had been victorious (by the thinnest of margins, 4 to 3), I knew I had to return to watch the final.

But first I had a necessary, if emotionally painful, task to perform: the combination of the heat and my swollen left hand meant that my wedding ring was far too tight and needed removing. Of course I have taken it off since my wedding 30+ years ago, but I have certainly never been without it on my hand for more than a couple of hours... it does feel weird not have it on!

Then to the final: Burhill Ladies versus The Wisley.  For a while all looked plain sailing with the early matches very much going our way. As the afternoon, then early evening, wore on everything began to look a lot closer, with 3 of the 7 matches finishing their 18 holes all square and having to go back to the 1st for an extra hole and more. 

As things turned out, everything depended on the final match as the scores were tied 3:3.  Gripping stuff.... The final Burhill player, Linda, did a great job to haul things back to be yet another player who squared the match on the final hole.  Unfortunately, it wasn't to be though, as her Wisley opponent played the 19th hole very tidily and managed to hole the crucial putt to give her side victory by 4 to 3.

After the conclusion of the match, everyone looked shattered: playing 36 holes in temperatures approaching 40 degrees, combined with the tension that the match brings, clearly asks a lot. I hope that everyone sleeps well tonight: the whole team can be proud of their achievement. So close....