It’s funny really, last year whilst travelling around Britain for the PGA competitions so many extraordinary moments happened which I thought ‘wow that would make a great book’ and guess what the first PGA comp of the year was last week and it happened again. So I’m dedicating some blog posts to the 48 hours of what happens before, during and after the competition round.
What everyone normally sees within the competition is the scorecard post at the end of the round and yes that certainly can tell a thousand words, but it’s the journey of events that actually make up that scorecard and believe me it can be ... hilarious.
I’m lucky enough to have my Dad travel with me and caddy for me throughout my PGA competitions. So father daughter relationship and it’s all simple and easy, get to the tournament, play, travel home, right? ... No no no! This is so far from it.
Just a few examples I’ve experienced with my Dad are ...
Falling down a massive hill because ‘apparently’ it was a short cut.
Watching Dad fall into a ditch during a competition whilst accidentally kicking my ball along the way (numerous shot penalties were applied!)
Oh and let’s not forget the ice cream in the sock - yeah don’t even ask.
Anyway, this time our first competition was at little Aston Golf Club in Birmingham. Leaving nice and early the day before the competition we got there in good time to have a few practise holes in what felt like freezing conditions. All is well up to now. Called Mum and told her we are all here safe and everything is going accordingly. Of course it wouldn’t be a road trip with Dad if something didn’t happen. Later that evening after a nice meal out we got to bed early ready for the next day. But we couldn’t sleep. Time went on and midnight apperared. I called across to Dad to ask if he was awake. Funnily enough he was now. I said “Dad can you hear that really loud noise?” We didn’t know what it was. So Dad got up walked up and down the corridor (in just his Pjs I may add) to find out what it was. It sounded like a television but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. After he came back in Dad shouted “TURN IT DOWN” to see if that would work - you can feel the embarrassment from me as he shouts this so loud in the middle of the night. Sure enough it was still on, so off he went again climbing the floor above. He comes back in with a smerk on his face and said I found the room and I’ve told reception. Bearing in mind reception was 200 yards away in a separate building.
So this is the funny part - 10 minutes later the receptionist knocks on our door and said,
“all sorted the television is off. The gentleman was flat asleep so I just walked in and turned it off”. We both looked at each other and started laughing whilst kind of half thinking I’m going to sleep with one eye open tonight.
Sure enough at 6am in the morning the television was back on, I mean, he could of turned it down then turned it off?!
After little sleep and a good adventure for Dad that night we travelled to little Aston to start the round. It was a smooth round and I carried on to shoot under par which was a great feeling.
We didn’t get back until midnight that day and sure enough back into work coaching nice and early the following morning. Being as we are all working professionals at these competitions we probably don’t allow the most amounts of time. But they are certainly an adventure and definitely worth playing in ... even if it is just for the memories.
Let’s see what happens next time...