Saturday, September 18
Windmills of Fire: A Crazy Golf Odyssey
Well I have just got back from the first day of play at the British Open Mini Golf Championships in Stratford...and what a day it has been!
Forget the Ryder Cup - this is the golfing event of the year...
At the halfway point I stand joint thirteenth on three over par...THIRTEENTH! out of all the mini golfers in the country...and some Europeans! Therefore I have made the cut to the third and fourth rounds tomorrow.
I am third in the novices competition (£50 prize), so this title is my aim tomorrow, in my first ever professional mini golf event!
I got a score of forty in the first round...but in the second, spurred on by being paired with a nine year old, I struck form and scored a 35 (the fourth best second round score out of everyone!) - including four holes in one. Now the child in question, 9 year old crazy golf prodigy Rocky Bullen gave me a lot of tips and then I beat him...but at least he can rest in the knowledge that in a couple of years he will probably be the number one player in Britain whilst I will be on the mini golf scrapheap...a burnt out broken man.
Tomorrow play begins at 9:30 as the Belgians have to catch a flight home. It looks like I may well be paired with an Austrian (the Brazil of crazy golf), as I currently am level with him! Will I hold my nerve? - or will I crack like Jean Van Der Velde at the British Open a few years ago and end up in the water hazard - oh yes, there is a water hazard...but only if it rains!
Well I have just got back from the first day of play at the British Open Mini Golf Championships in Stratford...and what a day it has been!
Forget the Ryder Cup - this is the golfing event of the year...
At the halfway point I stand joint thirteenth on three over par...THIRTEENTH! out of all the mini golfers in the country...and some Europeans! Therefore I have made the cut to the third and fourth rounds tomorrow.
I am third in the novices competition (£50 prize), so this title is my aim tomorrow, in my first ever professional mini golf event!
I got a score of forty in the first round...but in the second, spurred on by being paired with a nine year old, I struck form and scored a 35 (the fourth best second round score out of everyone!) - including four holes in one. Now the child in question, 9 year old crazy golf prodigy Rocky Bullen gave me a lot of tips and then I beat him...but at least he can rest in the knowledge that in a couple of years he will probably be the number one player in Britain whilst I will be on the mini golf scrapheap...a burnt out broken man.
Tomorrow play begins at 9:30 as the Belgians have to catch a flight home. It looks like I may well be paired with an Austrian (the Brazil of crazy golf), as I currently am level with him! Will I hold my nerve? - or will I crack like Jean Van Der Velde at the British Open a few years ago and end up in the water hazard - oh yes, there is a water hazard...but only if it rains!
