Tony
Ah.
Nick Leefe, the club's first official historian and a veteran BUDA participant, has agreed to participate and say a few words at dinner. Additionally, he has invited a few club grandees to our friendly tournament.
Brent, you are missing the forest for the trees. Comfort in the UK is not a function so much of temperature as: comfort = -1*(wind^2 + rain^4). Got it?
Mark
PS As an absolutely arcane and possibly counter-to-the-spirit-of-the-competition aside, (for the captains to digest?) some months ago I wrote the American (who else?) Dean Knuth, aka the "Pope of Slope," inquiring as to equitable means of competition between Americans and English.
(I confess this contact was inspired in part by the echoing comments of GMBF, who was heard to say, "I can't believe we traveled three thousand miles just to get beat!")
Despite a volley of email, Knuth's position remained consistent: impossible! This admirable if spirit-sapping display of papal infallibility ("Big Slope Papi?") despite my spirited defense of the "10 percent rule," which I had no understanding of beyond it had the support of Rich Goodale at last year's Cup. There's a lesson in there about either received wisdom, the Oracle of Farnie, or received wisdom from the Oracle of Farnie. But I digress.
Obviously this is a friendly competition, and I suppose the 10 Percent Rule again shall be pressed to play the role of the lamppost to the drunk who lost his keys. (Best to look where the lighting is good...) But it would be nice to find some better means, despite the intransigence of His Holiness on the issue, providing it does not require a wholesale recalculation of English handicaps, plus a slope rating of the courses involved.
Anyone anyone?
Oh, a long-term solution is to hold the Cup in Scotland, for Le Pape has sloped and rated the Auld Sod! (Although that still doesn't solve the issue of converting scores to 'caps...)