Rory, Rachael and Rhododendrons...

Kim and I spent yesterday at the PGA Golf Championship at Wentworth, with our friend, David. Rachael had very kindly arranged everything for us, and was a real star looking after us all throughout the day - many thanks Rach!

Watching golf was a first for Kim and I. During my youth in Essex, I came to associate golf with elitism and the nobby echelons of society that I deplored then and still do today. Yes, I know that sailing often attracts similar types - I’ve generally managed to navigate around that stuff in my boating career, but not always!!

Anyway, joining the Flippance family, when Kim and I got together, did a lot to cure me of that deep-seated prejudice against golf and golfers. I was warmly welcomed into a lovely blokey culture of sportsmanship and all that goes with it. It was assumed that I was an accomplished golfer, cricketer, footballer, rugby player, and similarly adept with racquet sports, darts and drinking beer. I think I passed on the last point, but it rapidly became clear that sport had not been the central pathway through my life!

I think I was first rumbled when invited to play in a family round of golf all those years ago now. I didn’t have a Scoobee...... I managed to get round the course, with a great deal of help, and eventually limped home to the clubhouse for my next test at the bar (at which I certainly did better than on the green, though soon realised that I was a miserable amateur in that department too, in relation to my new and wonderful ‘in-laws’, and still am today). My profound lack of sporting knowledge shone through brightly. There really should be a Flippance encyclopaedia of sport! 

So, anyway, Kim and I found ourselves at Wentworth, with David, watching the golf tournament yesterday. We had a real cracking day out, and thoroughly enjoyed it all. We got to see at close hand the marvellous skill of some of the real top names on today’s golfing circuit. We also got to savour the delightful sweeping parkland of the Wentworth estate - at its very best with ‘Rhodies’ in full bloom.