Wednesday 1 July 2015

What have you been doing?

At the risk of being repetitive, I am extremely conscious of the paucity of content that I actually take/find the time to create & upload to this site, to the extent that I can't really count myself as a blogger. That self-flagellation aside, my 2015 has, thus far, yielded more golf experiences than I had expected and that's certainly been the silver lining to what was a 'testing' start to the year from an employment perspective. There has been a knock-on effect to golfing plans, the details of which are outlined here alongside a glimpse into what has gone before, plus what's to come in the second half of the year.


As alluded to earlier, the end of 2014 was somewhat turbulent. An unexpected end to one job, only a couple of weeks after returning from the Harey Cup trip to Spain (the Miracle of Marbella - still smarting from that one, tbh) was relatively swiftly followed by a contract role which allowed me the flexibility to play a fair chunk of winter golf. I am now a couple of months into a new permanent role, so the midweek golf is limited to summertime evenings, but this role has allowed me one particular experience for which I hadn't planned (or budgeted).

As part of my induction, I was flown to the US for a couple of weeks, meeting a multitude of people in various roles across different office locations. The trip provided me with a spare weekend in Florida and, as you might expect, I dragged the bats with me with the intention of getting out to play somewhere. Regular readers (does such a person exist?!) will recall that I have previous for taking advantage of business trips to experience some of the finer golf clubs around the world (Bethpage Black in 2012; Pebble Beach in 2014), so the realisation that I would be spending the weekend less than an hour's drive from Doral got me thinking...


Give him his due - Trump knows how to do good clubhouse

Naturally, it would have been churlish not to play it off the tips (a tad under 7500yds that day) and the resultant 95 was not too shabby, especially given the Tiger-esque accuracy of my driving.

307yds to clear the water on the left - that'll be a lay up in the cabbage then..
OK, so I had the full Doral Blue Monster experience - I managed to get the green fee for a little less than initially advertised (3pm was the threshold for twilight rates), which meant it took the cost out of the Pebble Beach/Spyglass Hill bracket. Frankly, I would have been pretty disappointed to have paid the guts of $500 - as nice a track as it is, it is light years away from Pebble as an experience and I think it's bullish to be charging, as much as makes a difference, the same price. That's Mr Trump for you, I guess.

The only other highlight that occurred after the Doral venture was the regular pilgrimage to Royal Birkdale and the participation in the annual Invitation competition. Beautifully sunny weekend; wind was absolutely brutal - blowing at 50mph pretty much constantly. I played like a dick. That is all.


So, what happens next?


As mentioned earlier, the employment uncertainty around the turn of the year meant I couldn't realistically commit to the annual Harey Cup trip this year. This year, it's the turn of PGA Catalunya north of Barcelona to be tarnished by the presence of this auspicious event - I'm gutted to be missing it this year but it's absolutely my intention to be back on it for 2016.


On a more positive note, I am extremely glad that the regular UK tour in August - Dale Hill/Chart Hills in 2014, Woodhall Spa in 2013 - has undergone a bit of a transformation for 2015. We have, for the first time, an even number of participants, so the format will take on a Ryder Cup-style competition alongside the traditional individual Stableford event. I also decided that the time was right, in true PR style, to give the event an element of a brand; a label to which we could refer and that would accurately reflect the quality of golf on offer from the protagonists. To that end, I give you 'From The Cabbage 2015' - this event will be taking place in the golfing paradise of the south-west, based at China Fleet Country Club in Saltash & prefaced by a post-carvery Sunday afternoon stroll around Okehampton GC. Further updates & details of this phenomenal event will be posted in due course.


And there we are - a little window into what the rest of 2015 has in store for me, undoubtedly interspersed by other, as yet unknown, golfing exploits - I am always trying to add new courses to the Course-ography, whilst on the lookout for future 'From The Cabbage' venues. Any suggestions are extremely welcome.



I am The Part-Time Golfer


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