long time no blog...

What a poor effort......I put it down to playing too much golf!!!!!!

Anyway apologies for that. Its been a busy summer of golf and let me tell you where I've played over the last couple of months.....

Played at Piperdam in Scotland before the Open Championship at Carnoustie. It was an invitational day from the Andalucian Tourist board. It P**sed it down wth rain, but I persisted and came in 2nd (and ahead of my scumbag brother!!!) so it was worth it....

Had a good day playing with Ricardo from Almenara Golf Resort and also Salva from the hidden gem that is Santana.

Caroustie was fantastic and it was so brilliant to see Padraig win. I'm good mates with Padraig'sagent from IMG and he was delighted and partied hard for a few days. hopefully this result will mean more European players can "do the job" on the final day.

In August I played the Oulton Hall Golf Day on the Euro Pro Tour Pro Am. Great day. Good hotel and quite a nice course although it was a little tight in places, but generally well kept.....didn't play too well but enjoyed some of Richard Barker's hospitality.


Looking forward to the Rugby world cup starting this week.....come on Ireland

Marriott Worsley Park Pro Am

As earlier reported, I took my place at the Oceanico Group Pro Am event at Worsley Park last week. What a fantastic time I had. The weather wasn't great, but I was pleasantly surprised with the course, a couple of cracking holes, including the 7th, 12th and 13th my favourites.

What was great was that I played with a good Pro (Denny Lucas) and also Steve Davis (World Snooker God). I've got to say the banter was excellent and we finished the 10 holes in 11 under par to tie for first place, Steve was great company and a total legend!!!!

The Marriott Hotel at Worsley Park was very good, nice hotel and certainly one of the better properties in the North West

Hanbury Manor

I receive numerous invites to play different courses, most which I kindly decline (so that I actually do some work for most of the week. However when an invite for a corporate golf day at Hanbury Manor dropped on my desk, I immediately accepted.



I've played Hanbury three times now. I absolutely love the course. It is always really well kept and can pride itself on very good greens.



The front and the back nine are very different.



The first is a driveable par 4 with a huge hollow protecting a raised and undulating green which is a real 3 putter. The second is a short and tempting Par5 but a shallow green is protected by a lake so gives a real risk reward.



the Par 4 8th is stroke index 1. A long sweeping par 4 with a pond protecting a tilted green.



The back nine is good, two short but tricky par 3's and with par 4's using the water cleverly it has some great features.



My favourite is another shortish Par 5 narrowing to an approach shot over water to a 2 tiered green. I won longest drive there on the day (over 300 yards - very good for me!!!!).







Hanbury's hotel by Marriott is a good 5 star and the whole complex is a very good and different offering to the Grove.