ROUND TWO 2015 – GAMS /WERDENBERG

Brought to you in association with the LOST BALL SOCIETY

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A new course for us to play this year for the second of the seven Golf4Fun tournaments 2015 .

Set in the shadow of the Liechtenstein peaks, a course designed by the renowned architect Peter Kessler, 6039 meters peppered with natural obstacles and a fair sprinkling of water features.

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The course had been chosen, not by a FIFA committee, as an alternative to Emmental, as it geographically opened up some opportunities for new players to come along , and for the fact that the carrying of oxygen would not be required.

A few of the competitors had played a friendly round here last year. However, there was one significant difference between Summer 2014 and Spring 2015 and that was the introduction of the elephant grass and boy you could have hidden a whole herd in there and not found them, so the chances of finding your Callaway or Titleist ranked somewhere near winning the hole-in-one prize.

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From this player`s experience the day began badly with a bout of sleep deprivation, primarily caused by an over indulgence in Spanish red and aggravated by watching Britain’s got Talent the night before, inducing a restless state, further compounded by losing my golf clubs on the Paris metro system before I awoke suddenly at 5.00 am .

Determined not to let Simon Cowell ruin my day and safe in the knowledge that my clubs were not circulating the Rue Pèriphèrique, ( for all you French speakers out there…yes, yes one of the accents here is wrong but my keyboard didn`t allow correction) I set about preparing everything methodically for the day, before taking Dawn her pre 9.00 am medication — two mugs of Tetley — ( that’s tea, Jay !!!)

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The drive down was a good one and we arrived in plenty of time, allowing me to take my new Mizuno JPX850 5 wood (recently purchased at Golf Point Urdorf at a demo day) down to the range and warm up (5 CHF for 40 balls —now that’s value ).

10.05 am, first stop at the Secretariat where Dawn was handing out the goodies supplied by our sponsors Stamford, TCL and Focus Water, and then it was down to the first tee to receive instruction from Nora on the local rules, including that under no circumstances were we to enter anything that was designated as bio-tope. Personally, I think it would have been a waste of time to have done so, unless you were looking to become a donor to the blood- sucking wildlife community , or to play Russian roulette with a possible dose of Lyme’s disease.

Anyway, point taken, group photo and we were off.

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Lost ball number one took around 2 minutes to be knocked out of play , courtesy of one hapless fellow golfer in my group who sadly, like many others, were to end the day as honourary members of the lost ball society .

The front nine for me was one of those epiphany moments, where putts went in and my trusty 5 wood was helping the score in cartloads, keeping me straight and out of the thick stuff. Celebrations were to happen on the nearest the pin 7th where I putted in for birdie albeit 50cm outside Ron`s great effort that would go on to win this accolade. Thankfully, I had managed to acquire a hip flask and single malt was distributed around.

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Finishing the ninth, there was as short walk back to the secretariat where we could tuck into the mouth- watering rolls kindly supplied by Evelyn. The bacon and egg ones were going down a storm, whilst I was equally happy with my choice of salami, cheese and tomato. A brief time to recover with the help of Recovery, the new sports drink sponsor

So, refueled and off to the 10th for a further 3 points for yours truly. This was the point where it all started to unravel — I should have left the big stick at home, but somehow I believed that today I could do no wrong, and this was to prove my downfall. Over the next 8 holes there were to be 3 blobs, ensuring that the final score was not the one I had envisaged when I stood on the tee at the 11th.

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As we finished the 18TH, I reflected on what might have been, but was happy for a fine day`s golf spent on a great course in very pleasant company.

Showered and changed it was not a long wait until all 57 competitors were in and it was Apèro time (another fine time keeping effort by the Golf4Fun’ers).

Results announced, prizes presented, wine, punch and excellent buffet consumed it was off home and the end of another memorable tournament.

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Just to finish on a couple of footnotes:

Firstly, congrats to SIGI !!!! on becoming a single figure handicapper.

A big thank you to all the helpers and the club for putting on such a successful event and to the sponsors for all their contributions.

And last but not least to Nora, who makes it all possible even as far as organising the weather !!!

Peter Martin, ever hopeful Tiger

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