And so the double-headed feast of golf featuring the long delayed Muldoon v Hiseman and Uttley v Krume matches descended upon the lush meadows of Woburn Golf Club. The car park was full to capacity, leading us to expect a healthy gallery for our eagerly awaited games. Strangely, there was nobody there as we arrived at the 1st tee of the Duchess Course. I guess they were expecting us to be playing the Marquess.
No matter, we teed off and immediately familiarised ourselves with the sonerous tone of golf ball meeting distant tree trunk. I think it was an F flat. Tree huggers love the Duchess Course, as you're rarely more than a bangled arms length from one (or several thousand). Over the course of 4 hours there were more ricochets than in the Dublin phone book.
The Hiseman/ Muldoon match was a closely fought contest, with never more than 2 holes in it. Four of Tony's five shots came in a tight six hole sequence between the 9th and 14th and he used these to good effect to peg back my 2-hole lead. It was a pretty scrappy affair to be honest, with more holes won through opponent errors than sparkling play. But, credit where it is due, Tony played the demanding 18th hole like a pro to tie the match and when I missed a short putt for a 3 on the first extra hole, the axe fell, sadly not on the ridiculous tree that blights the 17th hole.
The Uttley / Krume encounter was somewhat less of a contest, with Adam making full use of home advantage to hand Sam what I believe was a dog licence, which is poetic irony given that Sam is a professional dog groomer. Let's hope he doesn't take it out on the next pooch to face his shears.
I don't think any of us took photos, but all you need to know is that the course is heavily tree-lined...everywhere. It is undoubtedly very pretty and was in fantastic condition. There are several very interesting, multi-level green surfaces, which lead to some testing putts from above the hole. I liked the 1st immediately, which on reflection is probably the most attractive hole. I struggle to pick out individual holes thereafter, but apart from a couple of bland par 3's it was an engaging course, if not wholly memorable. The par 5's were strong, with well-placed bunkers challenging the green approaches from afar.
Adam and Tony head off to round 2, Sam to take out his frustration on innocent dogs and myself to deal with nightmares of Craig Stadler on the 18th green at The Belfry.