Simon
That's a very nice post. Couldn't agree more about Ben, it was almost a pleasure to get knocked out in the semi's at the Renaissance Cup by you and Ben. My partner David Nelson is a handy player as are you, and Tom Doak's partner CJ was also very good but Ben was easily the best player that we played that week. As you say, a lovely easy swing and a hell of a nice guy. I recall you saying before we went out that we were going to have a good fun game and so it proved.
If you remember we finished the game at the 7th(?) and spent a fair bit of time afterwards chipping round the green using my 7 iron hybrid (ie. Ping Eye 2 head and Calloway graphite shaft). Also great fun but as I watched Ben play it did occur to me that the club was probably older than he was !
Ryan
The point Bill was making, as I suspect you well know as you sidestepped his question, is whether you have first hand experience of the Presidents Putter or whether your hatred of it is based on prejudice. If it's prejudice then thats fine, we all have them, me probably more than most, but at least hold up your hands to it.
As for your jibe at Simon regarding playing George McGregor the R&A captain, two points, it wasn't George McGregor who pointed out to Simon he was captain of the R&A, it was someone else. Secondly, the point Simon was making was it was quite daunting to be playing against a former Walker Cup player, and I'm sure that would have been the case irrespective of whether he was an Oxbridge graduate or an early leaver from a state school.
Niall