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Sports

A Golfer’s Dream Andy Picken , Derbyshire Branch Wandering around the Royal Lytham Golf Club with my son Alex, I remembered fondly our last visit as spectators at the Women’s Open in 2018. We enjoyed access to the hospitality suites and had a wonderful time, but I made it a bucket list item to return and play there myself. I was recently able to tick that one off my list.

I am a very average golfer , so playing at Royal Lytham is the equivalent of an amateur playing football at Wembley, or cricket at Lords; all of which are highly unlikely. However, fate sometimes lends a hand, and I discovered that I could enter the Mizuno Golf Pairs Tour. These are amateur golf events run on professional lines, with live scoring, and all the trappings usually associated with a professional televised tournament. They visit prime golfing venues, and attract some of the best amateur golfers from across the UK. My sense of wonder for this place returned as I walked towards the main entrance, with its amazing entrance steps. They are literally worn away with the passage of time, and the footsteps of thousands of golfers who had trod upon the granite. I couldn’t help think about those who had won major honours at this venue’s two Ryder Cups and eleven Open Championships. It needed three separate Honours Boards in the vestibule to list all the major golfing events held here. Wandering along the corridor towards the locker room, I saw photographic montages illustrating the modern history of golf throughout the last century. Each major winner had a series of pictures going back to Bobby Jones of Masters fame, who won here in 1926. These images provide a pictorial archive of the best golfers in the world over the last 100 years. Seve Ballesteros playing his shot from the car park to win. Gary Player hitting a shot from the side of the clubhouse backhanded, and telling excited members above him to be quiet. Tony Jacklin the local lad, bringing British golf back to world attention with his win in 1969. Ernie Els, the last champion golfer in 2012. All had trod on the steps that I had just photographed.

when he was similarly ambushed by USA players using champagne to return the compliment. I was genuinely terrified, yet also ridiculously excited, at the prospect of playing on this course, so reached out to Peter via Twitter. I needed his calm advice about dealing with nerves, and I also wanted to tap into his knowledge of the course. He responded immediately as I stood on the practice range trying to find my swing that had run away and hidden overnight. His great technical advice worked a dream. If you would like to know more about the round itself, please check out the report I compiled for Golfshake about the experience. It’s a digital golf magazine with over 400,000 subscribers. Simply check out www.golfshake.com and write Andrew Picken in the search field. This will provide links to a number of my past post retirement adventures. Peters book Now for the Back Nine is not only a coaching manual but contains many anedoctes and stories. If purchased through Golfshake; donations to Prostate Cancer UK are made from the proceeds.

Through my work with the Golfshake website, I have been blessed with many golfing opportunities, one of which was becoming a student of PGA Master Professional Peter Dawson. I had reviewed his book Now for the Back Nine, which was written with the senior golfer in mind. We met for an interview and created a video instruction series, with him guiding me towards improving my game. As the oldest in the Golfshake team, I was a logical candidate to go back to school. It was a wonderful experience, with thousands watching and commenting on it through various social media channels. Peter played in the 1977 Ryder Cup at Royal Lytham, and hit the opening shot of the morning Foursomes competition with Neil Coles. This was the last event between the USA and GB & Ireland, as Jack Nicklaus later extended the competition to include Europe. Peter had lost his match and sat in his Liverpool hotel room with several soda syphons, which he was using to settle a stomach problem. From his high balcony he could hear the raucous celebrations of the American team below. He calculated angles and wind direction, concluding that with good timing he could make jets of soda cascade onto the American’s balcony, dampen their ardour and passion. A call was made to the American team room and it was suggested that they go outside to see something interesting; a fly past, or fireworks perhaps? The balcony door opened and the first player emerged. Peter using all his skills, let fly and arcs of soda water poured onto the balcony, soaking the first US team member. Peter described how the moment seemed to run in slow motion and his immediate regret, when he realised that the first player onto the balcony was the legendary Jack Nicklaus. Peter suffered retribution later

POLICE WORLD Vol 65 No.4, 2020

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