Heathrow and Burnham

Our Course for the next 4 days

The Club House

Captain Nuge

A typical view

McGuire had managed his sleep with a combination of red wine and zoplicone. When he awoke he had significant psycho motor retardation. Fortunately he remembered all his stuff and being near the front of the airplane we were early to disembark. The lines moved smoothly and we made our way through the tunnel to pick up our bus to Bristol. A short 2 hours later we were in the city of Bristol, very quaint, the 13^th largest city in the UK.It has a history of aircraft construction, including the Concord, and is where Rolls Royce aviation engines are constructed. It is clean and well kept. The taxi to Burnham was about 1 hour and between the driver’s deafness and McGuire’s mumbling  meant that the conversation was disjointed.

We checked into the St Aubyn’s Guest House. The staff was friendly but there was a Monty Python moment when we were told that there were only 2 rooms. We had originally understood that we had separate rooms, and the owners brought out multiple papers representing Nugent’s multiple changes! He obviously had a reputation regarding this issue. In any event we determined that Nugent was indeed staying elsewhere and McGuire was shown to the Papal Suite.

After a quick change and a short taxi ride we were at Burnham and Berrow Golf Club. John Nugent  welcomed us and we were immediately off the first tee.

The golf course was established in 1890, designed by Col. Taylor and is home to some of the UK top tournaments. It has been played by both Old and Young Tom Morris, as well as Bobby Jones. We played in under 3 hours, finishing before sunset.

We were able to store our clubs in the service room and made our way to local pub. Unfortunately the kitchen was closed and were referred to a fine Indian restaurant.

Today we were joined by Derrick Carter, a 5 handicap and  Nugent strategically was paired with him as the “ Burnham and Berrow” team, vs Point Grey. We were down early as Derrick went out in 35 with 3 birdies! A semi charge fell short, rematch is pending.

After 2 rounds at this course one understands that there was a brilliant design in 1890 which has endured. It requires imagination, the ability to run the ball and it is deceptively difficult to get close to the hole.

The weather forecast remains excellent, optimism undaunted, we play in the am.