Who on earth thought that three days golfing on the Welsh Wales coast, in mid-October, would be a sensible idea, especially with Hurricane Joaquin charging across the Atlantic to make the whole experience wet and miserable – why on earth were we not going to Portugal, or France, or Telford…?
Anyway, Wales was the chosen venue and 20 assorted WHVGSers, of various pedigrees and golf abilities were to make their way to Porthmadog for an extravaganza of links golf – It was to be the largest ever AA and WHV Open.
The advanced-advance party arrived in Porthmadog on Thursday Oct 8th, comprising: Pedro, The Aust, The TD, Butters and Nozza, and they settled into the local refreshments at about 19.30, to be followed in short order by Ads, the Pres and Bruce – it was the Bruce’s 40th Birthday and he had flown in from Zurich to celebrate in style… Birmingham Airport’s baggage handlers were up to their normal tricks and despite Bruce’s flight landing early, he didn’t actually arrive at Chez Baxter until 19.30 (about an hour late). Three hours later, after a windy, cross country, sheep infested drive around the lanes of mid-Wales the delayed advanced party arrived and we immediately headed to the kebab shop for Bruce’s 40th Birthday meal, which we ate standing up – with our fingers.
It was then off to the Red Lion. The only people in the Red Lion were; Pedro, The Aust, The TD, Butters, Nozza, the Barman and his misses. We ordered a few pints and barman looked at his watch and tutted, we ordered some more – more tutting, when consumed we headed back to the Sportsman’s for a couple of night caps. The TD was offering WHVGS Tankards for any price between £nothing and a £tenner. He refused to sell me one for a tenner, but a very pleasant evening was had by all.
Next morning, the combined advanced party, were all refreshed and raring to go – we met up for our first experience of the Sportsman’s excellent breakfast, Noz looked a bit rough and rapidly started to go downhill. He retired for a lie down – he was dog rough, and it wasn’t the food. We heard news of people arriving at Porthmadog golf club – so we headed over, via a distinctly vacant / overgrown driving range facility on route. There was a flurry of activity in the practice area and newby Paul Kerr was looking like a “proper bandit”… but we were all very clear as to who the introducing member was.
Similar to a number of the WHVGS society members the course at Porthmadog Golf Club has a split personality. The front nine is an okay, parkland course, but when you cross the road to start the back nine a lunar landscape appears from nowhere – when you stand on the 10th tee quite frankly you hit into the dunes and hope, it is the first shot of many where the undulations of the course obscure your view of the landing area. Following the 10th, the journey around the Bay is magnificent you puzzle over how to play the par four 12th and then climb up to the 13th tee take in the views across to the castles of Harlech and Criccieth. Again, on the par 3 13th, it is a hit and hope – our group all hitting the green, Paul Kerr playing a beauty. On the 14th tee you face the ‘Himalayas’… two huge mounds that you must drive over for a tight par 4 index 1 – a tricky golf hole, I put mine straight in the knee deep sh1t3, resulting in a blob… On the 17th tee – we met a chatty local fellah, who plays off 2, he didn’t rate Nefyn much (the Saturday round) – It’s overrated, I can’t understand why you are not playing Abersoch… I will leave the winner of the CJ to give his views on the Weekend courses…
I was victorious, my first 18 hole Stapleforth win ever, having only used my driver on three holes – perhaps I should leave it in the hotel for the weekend. To be honest, all in all the scoring was tight, if you remove the winner and the bottom 4, there were 13 players (2nd to 14th) all within 7 shots… However, my 38 points meant a 2 shot cut (4 over the whole of the CJ) and due to the Handicap mechanic Jimenez got 5 shots back… 10 over the whole of CJ… I wonder if this is going to be significant.
Everyone headed back to the Sportsman’s to settle in for the night. For some reason we stood outside for a while, because Pete didn’t like the locals in the Bar and we were joined by a Gingerbread Man, wearing lederhosen. The lederhosen element was fine, it was a fine – the Gingerbread man morphsuit element, was personal choice. The hotel provided some good quality nosebag and the Captain dished out the fines in good humour – Mike had a Spitfire on order so everyone was fine, with the fines. The Gingerbread man, did two gymnastics displays and we played some carpet bowls…. There were no incidents, happy days….
Yours, a very pleased President – The Amy Austin Trophy is pride of place, in the Kitchen : )
Amy Austin Results Sheet 2015
Rank Player Round 1 RPs Cash
1 Dougal Baxter 38 36 £ 15.00
2 Andrew Austin 34 27 £ 10.00
3 Steve Harding 33 20
4 Paul Milmore 32 15
4 Arran Brown 32 11
6 Paul Kerr 31 9
6 Richard Ash 31 9
8 Will Spittle 30 9
8 Tom Smith 30 9
10 Michael Allsopp 29 9
10 Simon Harrison 29 9
12 Bruce Hopkin 28 9
12 Adam Hogarth 28 9
12 Paul Woolly 28 9
15 Rob Hall 27 9
16 Hugh Bennett 26 9
17 Neil Kelford 24 9
17 Chris Gregory 24 9
Player Prize
Shark Ron £ 5.00
Dog Tom £ 5.00
