The interminably long winter of 2012/13, plus the rank tardiness of spring's appearance, has left me decidedly bereft of any golfing action for quite some time. I thought I had got lucky a couple of weeks back, squeezing an unexpected round in but even this was defeated by torrential rain after just 9 holes. So, with little golf to look forward to in the immediate future, my thoughts are turning to what golfing exploits I have planned for the rest of 2013.
April
The month that, for many, marks the true beginning of the golfing season (if such a thing exists anymore?) with the manicured marvel that is Augusta and the Masters. The event that, Ryder Cups notwithstanding, brings the golfing fraternity back into serious competitive mode after nearly eight months since the last major of 2012 (bet that particular W seems a lifetime ago for R.McIlroy Esq, but I digress) and generally whets the appetite for hauling the bats out of the shed, cleaning the autumn muck off the shoes and getting back out on the course.
You may have noticed this since about November, of course, but seemingly for anyone living north of the tropic of cancer, the weather has been, well, a bit dodgy and not exactly conducive to playing golf. In the UK, many parts of the country are still under a decent dusting of snow, whilst the dear pampered pros on the PGA Tour have spent as much time avoiding tornadoes and lightning as they have sinking putts.
To cut short a long (and somewhat rambling) train of thought, I'm staring down the barrel of one round of golf towards the end of the month with Mark (my playing partner for the Men's Invitational at Royal Birkdale in June) et al at a venue to be confirmed.
May
Now, this is where things start to get a bit more interesting - hopefully, you've stayed with me through April's dirge. The extended family are heading up to Anglesey for a break before the spring bank holiday and it's my intention to get at least two games in during this trip. Staying at the Henllys Hall complex, we are blessed with Henllys GC on site, a course I played the last time we visited in 2010 and with whose layout I was impressed. The convenience of having an 18-hole course (almost literally) on your doorstep can't really be overstated. Oh, and it's £37pp for a week of unlimited golf - thanks very much, don't mind if I do.
I'm also fully intending to spread the wings a little further afield and the plan is to take the opportunity to play Nefyn & District GC, the bastion of windswept golfing perfection on a north Wales headland. I have heard & read many great reports about this course, including those from participants in the 2009 Harey Cup, one leg of which was played over this fine course. I am very much looking forward to experiencing it myself, as well as reporting back afterwards.
June
As mentioned earlier, the focal point for June's golfing activities is the Men's Invitational competition at Royal Birkdale on the 15th. This is a great day out and something in which I've been fortunate enough to play on a number of occasions, all with Mark (the holder of the all-important membership) as my playing partner. Our roll of honour high point for this 4BBB Stableford comp was, without doubt, finishing third in 2004; the corresponding low point would have to be the DQ in 2011, due in no small part to my partner's catastrophic attempt to mark the scorecard. Needless to say, he will be relieved of that duty this time around, member or not.
The cherry atop the icing on the cake for this short trip is, I discovered over the weekend, a warm-up round the preceding day at Southport & Ainsdale GC, another of the fine courses on Lancashire's Golf Coast. This track, the layout of which I know very little, plays regular host to Final Qualifying for the Open Championship, as well as having hosted the 4th & 6th Ryder Cup matches back in the 1930s. A true gem and I am extremely lucky to know some fabulous(ly connected) people to enable us to play here.
August
Since taking part in the inaugural Tweet Golf Cup, held at Dundonald Links in August 2012, I have been eagerly awaiting news of what lay in store for the 2013 event. Mutterings came and went from the organising committee regarding dates & venues, with nothing concrete in terms of arrangements following. Under mounting pressure from my Never Up Never In teammates, who needed to secure the necessary pink paperwork from their better halves before other ideas took hold, I decided to organise a golf tour of our own and take the risk that the TGC doesn't happen this year. Now, as much as we enjoyed our trundle up to Ayrshire last year, the travelling back was, for the driver anyway, a bit of a bastard so there was a certain amount of desire to make some arrangements slightly closer to home.
Somewhere I have always wanted to play is Woodhall Spa, home of the National Golf Centre and, in the Hotchkin course, the top ranked inland course in the UK. With another, hardly shabby, course (the Bracken) on site plus a myriad hotels to choose from, it is the ideal location for our little trip. An added bonus is our booked dates are immediately following a national championship finals weekend, so the Hotchkin course will be immaculate. As well as playing the Bracken on the last day before heading home, we're aiming to play Stoke Rochford GC on our way up to Lincolnshire, so all in all it's looking like a great few days of golf.
November
Reference to the Harey Cup was made earlier in this piece - I took part in the very first of these annual golf trips, held in Portugal back in 2008. Subsequently, the arrival of kids and the departure of money has scuppered any notions of taking part since then - I have endured plenty of comments from the hardy perennials of what I missed in Wales (2009), Spain (2010), France (2011) and Portugal (2012) so, this time around, I was determined to get involved again.
At the time of 'going to press' the final location hasn't been chosen by the organising committee (or Richie, as he's known colloquially) but I have been making repeated and, most likely, irritating, representations for a return to Spanish soil to play the marvellous resort of La Cala. I've been lucky enough to play the three courses here a couple of times over the last ten years but, with six years since the last visit to that neck of the woods, I felt this was too good an opportunity to miss. I am confident that our Richie will make the right choice (!) and I know he & the rest of the Harey Cup crew would not be disappointed with La Cala as the venue.
And that is pretty much that, as far as plans for 2013 go. Reasonably comprehensive, I think and more than enough in the way of landmark events across the year. I have deliberately avoided documenting any sort of ambitions or goals for this year and, to be honest, I'll be very satisfied with ticking all the above by the time winter sets in.
Have a good 2013 golfing yourselves, whatever it brings you.
I am the Part-Time Golfer
No comments:
Post a Comment