Down In One Golf Society

Poland

The society’s eagerness to seek out new opportunities saw five of us going to Poland in the middle of June for a short walking holiday. Andrzej organised the trip, which included a three day rental on a house in Zakopane at the foot of the Tatras mountains.

On our arrival at Krakow airport Andrzej also skilfully negotiated our taxi ride to the house. It was only later that we found out that the taxi driver had made his fare look competitive by grossly overstating the cost of the bus fare to Zakopane.

The next morning, fortified by Hugh’s porridge and carrying our packed lunches, we set off for our first walk in the Tatras National Park. Hugh and David took the lead, which turned out to be a mistake as they missed the direction arrows and headed further up the mountain than was intended. Eventually they realised their error and rejoined Andrzej, Ian and Rob in time for the picnic lunch and our walk back to the house. 

The next day we took a bus to a different part of the National Park and joined hordes of locals, young and old, to walk up a long metalled road to a beautiful lake. We walked part of the way around this first lake to reach a rocky path up to second lake.

Andrzej returned home on the third day and left the rest of us to find our way by bus to Auschwitz. This was an interesting but harrowing day out.

South East Golf Tour

In August a short South East golf tour was organised by the Captain to celebrate the visit of his brother-in-law, Adrian. This tour was memorable for two reasons - David and Andrzej got to stay at Nina's pub in Lewes, and an inaugural visit was made to Hugh's Golf Club in the New Forest at Bramshaw.

At the magnificent East Sussex course, Andrzej did a "Rob" and fixed the results so that David won back his cockerel - the famous one, which David tried to get rid of when he cleared his garage.

Later in the restaurant we had a very enjoyable meal, suitably attired in hats and beards, much to the amusement of some of the other diners and our male Polish waiter.

Sunday’s competition for the Treasurer’s Trophy was held at Meyrick Park Golf Course. Like Queens Park this is on land open to the public and was made all the more interesting by the undulating fairways that hid any walkers from view. Remarkably no members of the general public were hit and Rob won the trophy with 35 stableford points. In a repeat of Saturday’s performance, Ian won Nearest The Pin and John the Longest Drive.

Hugh is overdressed

The evening meal, which was in a curry house close to our hotel, was followed by our 9th AGM. In the absence of any other sensible suggestions it was agreed that the make up of the committee should remain unchanged. But it was decided that, in future, members who are also club golfers should have their handicaps reset to their club handicaps at the start of each golf break. It was also decided that the next day’s competition should be played off scratch.

Canford Magna was the venue for the final days golf and the competition for the President’s Putter.