I arrived at Burnham on Monday evening. After a meal and a beer I had an early night ready for everyone arriving on Tuesday lunchtime. I fell into an exhausted sleep at 8pm, but I was wide awake at 4am. Sadly, the previous occupant of the room above me, in the Dormy House, had not turned the shower off properly and the constant drip, drip, drip into the shower tray, directly above my head, was unbearable by 5am. So I needed to get out of the room.
By 8am, I had played all 18 holes of the Championship course, showered, shaved, changed and was in the dining room for breakfast. Although this was unplanned, it gave me an ideal opportunity to examine the rough which, given the exceptional growing season, is very thick. I therefore declared a local rule, for the tournament, that the rough would be treated as a lateral hazard and a lost ball could be replaced with a new one, dropped in the semi rough, under penalty of one shot.
On Tuesday afternoon the forecast was - very windy; the gauge in the clubhouse indicated that it had actually gusted to 38 mph! So play was from the Green (forward) tees. The wind tested many, but the low handicappers still played well. The best score of 88 came from Darron Henn’s team, which had a combined handicap of 16.4. This was helped enormously by Scott Evans who butchered the par-5 8th. His drive was easily the longest and his second to the green, with a gap-wedge, lipped the hole for a near albatross!
Although 88 was the best score on Tuesday, it actually came in second place. This is because I dreamt up a wicked ruse to add the best two individual scores, from the nine holes on Wednesday morning, to Tuesday’s total and the worst two to Wednesday afternoon’s total.
The bar was full on Tuesday night as many enjoyed the wonderful food on offer and watched the Italians book a place in Sunday night’s Euro final.
Wednesday morning on the nine hole course took on a hole new significance with the scores counting to both rounds on the Championship. Mark Boswell and Alan Hope were both in the top 5 with 22 and 18 points respectively. These two scores, added to their 84 on Tuesday, took the team to first place.
The wind had abated on Wednesday. A couple of ten-minute showers blew through but did not dampen the enjoyment of the course.
Although many set off straight after golf to get home for the match, there were about thirty of us in the bar, once again enjoying the food and elated to see England in the final on Sunday.
